Cold by Shire Brandon

Author:Shire, Brandon [Shire, Brandon]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: TPG Books
Published: 2013-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

The day was a disaster. Officer Jefferson was still upset when Lem left his detail and wouldn’t even look at him when he said he was heading back to the dorm for the day. He didn’t think Jefferson would actually go through with his threat to put him on a bus, but he could easily ask admin to reassign him to another detail, and that would suck.

He stared at the stack of worn magazines in his locker and thought of his brother Russell, and how happy he had been when Lem finally completed his last degree. They had been through hell together after his father died and had sacrificed much. But all through it, Russell had demanded Lem not give up on his dream just because he was raising his kid brother. But then…

Then life changed, Lem thought as he let his eyes wander away from the magazines. Life changed drastically and Russell had come to him with his own secret. A secret he entrusted only to Lem with the hope that Lem would understand. He hadn’t, not at all, but Lem did what was necessary.

He spread his hands out in front of him as he sat on his bunk, noting they were still tinged green from work. He saw Russell’s blood on his hands just like he did every day. It was a memory he would never forget. Despite what people thought, he mourned Russell’s death every single day. He sighed loudly, letting his hands fall limp between his legs as he glanced at the magazines again. They were about the only thing he had that could connect him with the life he had before prison and lately they were wearing him down more than picking him up. Was that surprising after almost twenty years though? he mused.

“You need some time, big man?” his roommate asked Lem when he suddenly appeared and leaned against the frame of the door.

“No, Walt, just thinking too much.” Walt was a lifer like Lem, but he’d been in prison almost a decade more and was never leaving. He killed two men during a robbery in his early twenties and had been tied in with a dozen other similar crimes. He expected to die inside these walls. Lem had known him since he transferred into the institution nearly six years ago and it was only by chance that they now bunked together.

“That thinking shit will kill you faster than any of these folks ‘round here,” Walt said. He was tall like Lem, but razor thin with dark skin and deep set brown eyes. Most people thought he was crazy, but Lem quickly figured out that Walt fostered the impression because he had grown tired of fighting with all the new kids coming into the system. He was actually one of the sanest men Lem had met since he’d been in prison, and one of the few that had done more time than him.

Walt sat opposite him on his own bunk and reached into his locker to pull out his cigarettes.

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