American Criminal (17 page)

    “Then I won’t feel bad about doing this,” Burnside said, kicking the fallen guard in the face so hard that his head rebounded from a nearby pipe. The groaning ceased.

Chapter 23

    “Remind me not to piss you off,” Reynolds said as the guard’s head rebounded from the pipe.

    Burnside glared down at the fallen officer.

    “I just realized something,” he said. “How am I going to explain the fact that Jake is dead to the
Skins
?”

    “Just say that I killed him,” Reynolds said. “That guard, Connors, won’t be able to contradict the story.” He pointed down at the prone officer. “I saw you take him out before Jake slammed my head into a pipe. Connors didn’t see what happened. For all he knows, I smashed Jake’s head into a pipe.”

    “But that would mean I wasn’t doing my job,” Burnside said. “I should have helped Jake take you down. The
Skins
will kill me for not protecting their lieutenant.”

    “That’s just a risk we have to take,” Reynolds said. “Listen, we have to wrap this up. Jones, I need you to-”

    “Hold up for a second,” Burnside interrupted. “What do you mean by risk WE have to take? I’m the only one taking the risk. The only story that is going to ring true to the
Skins
is that there were extra guards on Jones’ detail and they were ready for us because someone snitched.”

    “How’s that going to work?” Reynolds asked. “Our boy, Connor, there will contradict that story.”

    Burnside glared down at the unconscious guard with fury glinting in his eyes.

   
Then, that’s what it comes down to. It’s him or me.

  
“Then he has to go,” Burnside said, pointing to the guard.

    “What are you talking about?” Reynolds said, raising his voice. “He’s one of us. We can’t just kill him!”

    “You said he was with the
Skins
,” Burnside said, calmly.

    “Well, sure, he’s corrupt, but you can’t kill him for that,” Reynolds said. “Look we don’t have time to argue.”

    “That fucker is responsible for the deaths of two of my men,” Jones said, pointing down at Connors.

    “Now wait a second, Jones, you don’t have any proof of that,” Reynolds argued.

    “I have two dead men as proof. They were killed while supposedly being guarded by that scum-bag.”

    “That decides it,” Burnside said, pushing past Reynolds and stalking down the corridor to the supplies closet.

    He opened it up and stared down at Jake’s corpse. Grimacing with disgust, Ray reached down and pulled the shank from his throat. The shank slid out with an abhorrent sucking sound. He held the bloody tool in front of him.

   Is this a dagger I see before me? The handle toward my hand? Shakespeare aside, this is the only way.

    Burnside turned and stalked back to the body of the unconscious corrections officer.

    “I can’t let you do this,” Reynolds said, standing in front of Ray.

    “You stupid fuck! Don’t you realize that it’s him or me!” Burnside shouted at Reynolds as froth flew from his lips like a madman.

    A piece of flying spit struck Reynolds in the forehead and he wiped it off, scowling distastefully at his palm. Since being raped in the shower, Burnside’s survival instinct had kicked into permanent high-gear. He firmly believed that it was either him or the guard who must die. That meant it was the guard’s turn because Ray wasn’t giving up after the hell he had gone through in prison so far.

    “Killing him isn’t part of the Warden’s plan,” Reynolds said, shoving Burnside backwards.

    Burnside reacted by lashing out with a hard left to Reynolds’ face. The stunned officer took a step back into the blood puddle and slipped. He crashed to the floor beside the unconscious guard. Jones looked on with wide eyes as Burnside set his jaw and reached down for Connor’s head. He grabbed the guard by the hair and pulled his head back, exposing his neck.

    “Man, you are one crazy mother-fucker,” Jones said as his eyes widened.

    “Not until I got sent to this hellhole,” Burnside said, glaring at Jones while he plunged the shank into the guard’s neck.

    Blood spurted from the puncture wound, spraying Reynolds’ face. A sickening gurgling sound followed.

   “What the fuck!” Reynolds shouted from the floor, squinting his eyes and trying to hold back the deluge of blood with a raised hand.

    Burnside ignored Reynolds and stood above the corpse, glaring down at it.

   
I can’t believe I did it. I’ve been in plenty of fights before, but I never killed anyone before. I always hoped it would never come to this.

   “My man,” Jones said. “You are a certifiable bad-ass.”

    “It wasn’t rocket science,” Burnside said, feeling a sudden strong tug of guilt. “It was him or me. It was a harsh necessity.”

    Ray felt a spasm of pain in his gut.

   
Damn, this isn’t going to be as easy to rationalize as I thought.

    “Well, I can tell you one thing,” Jones said. “You just saved my gang a lot of trouble by taking him out.”

    Reynolds struggled to get to his feet and Burnside pushed him back down into the expanding blood pool.

    “What the hell!” Reynolds shouted as his face plunged into the thick red liquid.

    “Now it’s time for you and me to have a little chat,” Burnside said, turning toward Jones.

    “Oh fuck, what did I do?” Jones asked, widening his eyes and lifting his hands in a “surrender” gesture.

    “Nothing like that,” Burnside said, grinning. “I just need your help taking out the rest of the
Skins
.”

    “That’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing,” Jones said. “Like I always say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

    “The next time I go to the yard, I’m going to meet with the
Skins’
boss,” Burnside said. “If he doesn’t kill me right away, I’ll give him the bullshit story about the extra guards being here when we tried to make the hit on you. I’ll tell him someone must have snitched. An argument will ensue. When I see an opening, I’m going to shank him in the gut.”

    “What do you need me to do?” Jones asked.

    “You and your gang will be close by in the yard. Keep an eye on what’s happening and when you see me make my move, make yours.”

    “We can do that,” Jones said as his eyes gleamed with excitement.

    “After I take out the
Skin’s
leader, I’ll move on to the rest. I’ll improvise with whatever is at hand. It’s a weightlifting area, so I should be able to find items to use as weapons. While I’m doing my part, you and your guys take out the
Skins
on the periphery and work your way inward. We’ll meet in the middle.”

   “That has to be the most insane plan ever,” Jones said. “Count me in.”

    Burnside glanced down at Reynolds as he groaned painfully.

    “Burnside, you son-of-a-bitch, I’m going to kill you,” Reynolds said between groans.

    “Oh, what the hell,” Burnside said, reaching down and grabbing Reynolds by the shoulders. He pulled him roughly to his feet. Reynolds swayed unsteadily for a moment and had to place his hand on Burnside’s shoulder for balance.

    “Burnside, you fucking maniac. You just sent me to the unemployment line. How am I going to explain this to the Warden?” he asked, clutching his jaw where Burnside struck him.

   “We just have to get our stories straight,” Burnside said. “If we do that, we can all get out of this intact.”

    “Okay, genius, what’s your story?” Reynolds asked, steadying himself by leaning against a pipe in the wall.

    “We tell the story as it happened with one exception,” Burnside said, eyes glinting. “We’ll say Connors tried to interfere when I tried to stop Jake from stabbing Jones. We can tell the Warden that I stepped in to stop Jake from killing Jones – as per the plan. But when I disarmed Jake, we’ll say Connors grabbed me from behind. Jake was about to pummel me, so I instinctively reached back and put the shank through Connor’s throat to free myself. When I was free, I wrestled with Jake and put the shank through his throat.”

    Reynolds stood rubbing his jaw, contemplating. “That could work. If Connors was placing your life in danger by holding you back and allowing Jake to kill you and then kill Jones, then it was self-defense.”

    “That’s right,” Burnside said. “Self defense. Exactly.”

    “That works for me,” Jones said.

    Reynolds gave Jones a disdainful glance and Jones said, “Hey, if it wasn’t for this guy,” he said, nodding at Burnside. “I wouldn’t be standing here talking. I’d be dead. Those
Skins
had it out for me.”

    “That’s a mild understatement,” Burnside said.

    “So we got the story straight,” Reynolds said. “Now we really need to break up this little party and go our separate ways. Burnside, you need to backtrack the way you came to the end of the maintenance corridor. The
corrupt guards who brought you here are waiting for you. I know those guys, Rick Martin and Jim Cashman. They’ve been working for the
Skins
for years. They’re going to suspect that something went wrong because of all the extra time that has gone by. You need to confirm their suspicions by telling them the story about extra guards being assigned to the target who were ready for the ambush because someone snitched. Tell them you were able to kill the target, Jones, but one of the guards smashed Jake’s head in with his baton before you could stop him.”

    “That’s perfect,” Ray said.   

    “Now get the fuck out of here,” Reynolds said. “I’ll take Jones to the Warden’s office via the service elevator.”

    “Good enough. Let’s hope this works. If it doesn’t, at least my worries will be over,” Burnside said, turning and jogging down the corridor while Reynolds and Jones moved in the opposite direction.

    Burnside reached the end of the maintenance corridor and found the two guards who escorted him there pacing nervously.

    “Where the fuck have you been! Where’s Jake?” the older, balding guard, Rick, shouted at Ray.

    “Someone snitched,” Burnside said, scowling. “They were ready for us. You must have a mole in your organization.”

    “Where the fuck is Jake!” Rick repeated, shouting in Burnside’s face and grabbing him by the shoulders.”

    Ray brushed off the guard’s arms and took a step back. “Where do you think he is? He’s in the infirmary, moron! His head was caved in with a baton. I told you - they knew we were coming!”

    “This is fucking unbelievable,” the younger guard, a muscular twenty-five-year-old with a shaved head, Jim, said, pacing frantically.

    “It’s more than unbelievable,” the older guard said, resuming his pacing. “Price is going to blame us.”

    “Look, I’ll just have to tell him what happened,” Burnside said. “If the fuckers were waiting to ambush us, then there wasn’t anything I could do about it, right?”

    “Assuming you’re telling the truth. How do I know you didn’t kill Jake?” Rick asked, eyes narrowing.

    “Why would I kill Jake and also kill the nigger?” Burnside asked, improvising.

    “The nigger is dead?” Rick asked.

    “I shanked him myself,” Burnside said, poker-faced. “Jake went for the target first, but two extra guards, who weren’t supposed to be there, jumped him and one of them took the shank. The guard stabbed Jake in the throat and then came after me. I went berserk and started swinging. I beat up the guards and grabbed the shank. Another guard snuck up behind me and I stabbed him through the throat. Then, I stabbed the

nigger.”

    “You killed one of the guards!” Rick shouted, spit flying from his lips.

    “I’m not sure that he’s dead,” Burnside said, lying. “All I know is that he came up behind me and I went on instinct. I thought he was going to pound me over the head with his baton, so I shanked him first and asked questions later.”

    “That still doesn’t explain what took you so fucking long,” the older guard said.

    “I had the bad luck to slip in a blood puddle and crack my head on a pipe,” Ray said. “When I came to, I didn’t even know how long I was out or if you guys were still waiting for me.”

    “What about our man, Connors?” Jim asked.

    “Who’s Connors?” Burnside asked, playing dumb.

    “He wasn’t told about him,” Rick said to Jim and then turned to Ray. “One of the guards in the group was with us. His name was Connors Do you know what happened to him?”

    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Burnside said. “All I know is that Jake and I showed up to kick ass and found four guards with the target instead of two. We knocked out three of them and I ended up stabbing one, but I don’t know which one. For all I know it could be your guy, Connors.”

    “It better not be or Price will have your head,” the older guard said, scowling.

    “Well, maybe the boss should find out who the snitch is who set us up before he does anything stupid that he will regret,” Burnside said. “With Jake gone, you’re going to need all the enforcers you can get.”

    “I can’t argue with that,” Rick said. “But we’ve wasted too much time already. We have to get you back to your cell. Take off your clothes and put these on,” the guard said, handing Burnside a fresh prison jumpsuit.

    Ray glanced down at his blood stained prison uniform and realized he looked like an employee at an abattoir. He quickly stripped off the wrecked jumpsuit and put on the fresh one. Ray handed the old uniform to the older guard and the guard folded it up and placed it under his arm so the stain wasn’t visible.

    “Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” Jim said.

    Burnside hated to turn his back on the corrupt guards, but he didn’t see any alternative other than killing them. Killing one person was bad enough. He didn’t want their deaths on his conscience as well. A sharp pain knifed through his gut as he remembered stabbing Connors through the throat.

    They handcuffed him and led him away from the maintenance area toward the cellblocks. They passed one guard in the hallway, but he was intent on business and didn’t pay any attention to them. Finally, they reached the main cellblock. They brought him up to his cell, opened the door, took off the cuffs, pushed him in, and left without saying another word. Burnside thought they looked anxious as hell to get away from him as if he would contaminate them in some way.

    Ray found his cellmate, Frank, sitting in the corner with his face buried in another magazine. He looked up as Burnside entered.

    “How did it go, my man?” Frank asked, grinning.

    “Well, the good part is the nigger is dead,” Ray said, sitting in the bottom bunk and taking a deep breath. “The bad part is the guards were ready for us and set up an ambush. They killed Jake.”

    “No shit! That means somebody must have snitched!” Frank exclaimed.

    “There must be a mole in the
Skins
’ organization,” Burnside agreed.

    “Goddamn, I think you’re right. That’s some crazy shit. But the nigger is dead at least?”

    “I stabbed him myself,” Jake said with his usual poker-face.

    “There’s going to be a serious shake-up in the organization,” Frank said. “Price is going to be mad as hell.”

    “I’m sure he will be,” Burnside said. “But there’s nothing I can do about it. I did what I was told to do. I killed the nigger. How the fuck was I supposed to know there would be four guards instead of two? Someone set us up real good.”

    “Damn, I don’t envy you explaining what happened to the boss. He’s not known for taking bad news too well.”

    “Then fuck him,” Ray said, lying back on his bunk. “I’ll tell him what happened and if he doesn’t like it, he can feel free to try his damnedest to kill me. The only thing is I’ll take out a few of them with me before I go. Maybe I’ll even get him. But right now, I’m exhausted so I’m going to catch a few Z’s.”

    “You better get as much rest as you can, Cellie. We’re due to go out in the yard later and I wouldn’t want to be you when you meet the boss.” 

Chapter 25