A Shot at Us by Cameron Lowe

Author:Cameron Lowe [Lowe, Cameron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Nic fell to the ground outside the Montana State Prison and rolled onto his back, laughing and kicking his heels into the dirt like a child. He’d lost all his extra weight, and when he pushed himself back upright, it was without any sort of effort. He charged Malcolm and hugged him, hammering his back with his fists.

“My God, it’s good to see you, butt-ugly car and all,” Nic said.

It was the summer after Gwen’s fall, just a little under two years since Nic had gone to prison. Due to overpopulation, Nic was being released early and, so long as he stuck to the terms of his parole, was a free man. His parents were going to drive to Deer Lodge all the way from Minneapolis to pick him up and help him relocate back to the Flats, but when Malcolm volunteered, they demurred. It may have just been his imagination, but they seemed almost relieved by the offer.

Malcolm drove down to the state prison early in the morning. In a decade and change, Rankin Flats would have its own prison, but back then, Deer Lodge was the only state-run facility in Montana, a shocking fact considering the size and scope of Rankin Flats’ criminal activities alone. To say the prison was intimidating was an understatement. The older parts of the prison could have done well for themselves as a medieval fortress. It was all stone and turrets and walls that shouted, “Hey, don’t be a dumbass and wind up in here.”

The dumbass who wound up in there joined Malcolm in heading for the Grand National in the parking lot. “You love this car and you know it,” Malcolm said.

“I’m surprised no one’s jacked it yet, to be honest. Kinda expected at least some graffiti. A nice redneck hello written across the side. I think I’m just grumpy you didn’t show up in a black and white with cop shocks, cop brakes, and a cop engine.”

Malcolm laughed. “All right, what do you want? Burger or a burger? I saw signs for both back in town.”

They got in, and Nic glared at him. “We are not sticking around this podunk shithole one minute longer. I can wait until Helena. There’s a Chinese buffet there. I want to drown in sweet and sour sauce.”

Traffic anywhere outside of Rankin Flats in Montana was nonexistent, and they made the sixty-mile drive in just under fifty minutes. Nic was in high spirits, but he laid it out flat the first five miles.

“I don’t want to talk about in there. Someday maybe we’ll bullshit about it but for right now I just want to pretend we’re two real people doing real road tripping.”

“Fair enough. But, uh, Nic, about your bed and couch.”

“Yeah?”

“We still have it. I can’t pay you much for them, but-”

“No no no, keep ‘em. I’m the one responsible for you losing the house. Besides, the place they’re putting me up in has the basics.” He squinted at Malcolm. “I can’t believe you hung unto that crap.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.