“This is the only one,” Porter said. “Get up, Rogan. Slowly.”
Sean complied. He didn’t have a choice. He knew this was wrong, but the more he argued with the guard, the worse off he’d be.
Porter and the desk guard put shackles on his ankles and a belt around his waist, they cuffed his hands to a short chain.
Then to the desk guard, Porter said, “I have to get the prisoner’s belongings, can you watch him for five?”
The desk guard motioned for Sean to sit on a bench. “Don’t move,” he said, then went back to his desk.
Porter left.
“Sir,” Sean said.
“Don’t talk, either,” he said and went back to reading a file on his desk.
“There’s something wrong with this transfer. I’m being arraigned on Monday. I can’t go to Beaumont.”
“The paperwork says you can.”
“I can’t. My wife is a cop.”
That had the guy looking at him. “Here?”
“San Antonio.” He didn’t say FBI. Some local cops didn’t like the FBI.
“I’m sure no one here knows you’re married to one of us. So don’t go flapping your mouth to the inmates.” He looked back down.
“Sir, she’s going to be here for visiting hours. Can we postpone this? Until I talk to my lawyer and get this straightened out? Call the Houston police chief. She worked with the FBI to get me here, rather than county lock up, because there’s some people inside who would like to see me dead.”
“You’re full of stories, aren’t you?” he said with a half smile, not looking at Sean.
“Please, just call someone and verify the transfer.”
Sean must have sounded scared or serious or sincere, because finally the guard looked at him again, then typed on his computer. “The transfer was authorized by the warden, with a return Monday morning.”
“Are you sure?”
Now he’d lost the guard. The guy went back to his work and said, “Zip it, Rogan. You’re not the first prisoner who thinks the system is fucked, you won’t be the last.”
Porter returned. “Is the prisoner giving you a bad time, Joe?”
“Just chatty.”
Porter shook his head at Sean. “I see from your file you have no record, you’re going to have to learn real quick how to survive in here.”
Sean didn’t say a word.
Porter shook his head. “Get up.”
Sean complied. Arguing wasn’t going to do anything except piss off the guards.
They walked down two secured corridors to the garage. Two corrections officers with the Beaumont prison logo on their sleeves were drinking coffee and talking with the desk guard there, who was behind bulletproof shielding in a control room. A small bus labeled TEXAS PRISON AUTHORITY was parked in the wide space. Another prisoner—in his sixties with short, thick gray hair, shackled like Sean—sat on a bench against the wall.
Porter handed the paperwork and Sean’s belongings to one of the guards. He looked it over, signed something, and handed it back to Porter.
No one questioned the paperwork. Why would they? Transfers from the administrative jail happened all the time.
Don’t panic. Remain calm.
Sean didn’t do well in cuffs or behind bars. When Lucy got here, she’d figure it out. She’d talk to his lawyer; Felicity knew what she was doing. She would get him back here today. There had to be a mistake.
He had to believe it.
Forty-eight hours. You’ll be out of this mess in forty-eight hours.
Unless he wasn’t granted bail.
Unless he couldn’t prove he hadn’t killed Mona Hill. He didn’t have the same faith in the system that Lucy had. He knew that circumstantial evidence could sometimes convict innocent people. But this was worse—someone was framing him. The gun they found in his plane … it might as well have been smoking. Someone had planned this. And the only person could be Elise Hunt.
An eighteen-year-old psycho planned this?
No … there were others involved. Who had taken over for the Hunt family after their network was destroyed? Was Elise working with them? Why come after Sean and his friends? That said revenge.
But this was a lot of work for revenge when he would have been easy enough to kill. He took a lot of precautions with his security, but nothing was foolproof.
They don’t want you dead. If they did, you’d be dead.
They had a bigger plan. In the end it might mean killing him, but until then … what?
Lucy was in danger. His son. Who was with them? Who was protecting them? Nate? Who else, with Jack and Kane stuck south of the border? Would Duke come? JT? Kate?