Cy hesitated, tempted to simply return to his cell. He didn’t owe this man shit, least of all his time. But something about the way he looked at Cy, like part of him still saw him as a dumb animal, as less than human, made him sit. Leaning forward, he crossed his arms on the table, wanting Dooley to see he wasn’t the scared teen from twenty years ago.
When it became clear to Dooley that Cy wasn’t going to be the one to speak first, he cleared his throat and said, “Rumor has it your do-gooder little brother has found a way to get you out of here after all this time. I thought you and I should have a talk about exactly what that means for you.”
“Excuse me?” Cy said, ignoring the obvious dig at Nicky.
He grinned, flashing yellowed teeth at Cy. “I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings.”
“No hard feelings?” Cy repeated dully. “For which part, exactly? Helping to frame me for a murder that cost me twenty years of my life? Putting Nicky in a cell with me, thinking I would kill him and end up in here for life, saving you the hassle of looking over your shoulder for the rest of yours?”
Dooley snickered. “Now, see, that’s what I’m talking about. I think your memory might be a little fuzzy. You’ve been in here a long time. It kind of muddles things up in your head. Makes you think things that never really happened.”
“Is that so?” Cy asked.
“Yeah. See, I didn’t set you up for anything. I wrongly believed my now deceased wife when she told me that you had murdered her husband in cold blood. There was no malice. I was just a man in love, doing my job to protect my woman. You can understand that. Can’t you?”
Cy couldn’t help the smile that split his face. “Wow. You do get that I know what Nicky knows, right? I know all about your little operation. I know everything. Nicky has agreed to keep it under wraps, and I’m going to do what he wants because he went through hell in here. But don’t come into my house and try to convince me that you weren’t an active participant in getting me put in here for half my life. I’m not stupid.”
Dooley’s face collapsed into a frown. “Now, listen here, boy. Nobody’s implying you’re stupid. I’m simply saying we can all live our lives in harmony on the outside. You and Nicky just keep your mouths shut and everything’s going to be just fine.”
“One, don’t ever call me ‘boy.’ Two, I was never coming after you when I got out. What’s done is done. I’ve already spent twenty years of my twenty-five year sentence in this place. Do you think I would risk going back to prison to take you out?”
“Well, after Nicky got here…”
Cy cut him off. “Man, you’ve never been more than an afterthought in my life. The only person I wanted dead was Phoebe. After what she did to Nicky all those years and then to my dad, she deserved anything that happened to her. From what I hear, you happened to her.”
Dooley glanced away and back again, his words hesitant. “So, Nicky never said anything about what happened…between us?”
Adrenaline shot through Cy’s whole body, leaving a metallic taste on his tongue as his words hit home. “What do you mean…between you?”
A look crossed Dooley’s face. It wasn’t there long, just for the briefest of seconds. Relief, then defiance. “What? Nothing. I just meant how contentious our relationship was. It’s not important.”
Rage throbbed through Cy, his mouth going dry, as he started to connect the dots. Nicky’s reaction the first time Cy had laid on top of him, the way he’d hesitantly blamed his fears on the boys at the group home. “Did you…did you do something to Nicky?”
Dooley scoffed. “Don’t be disgusting. All I did was try to be a father to that boy. He lacked discipline.”
Cy’s pulse slammed in his veins, his hands tightening into fists. But, somewhere in his head, Nicky’s voice told him not to take the bait, told him killing a cop would put him away forever. Forever away from Nicky, away from the life they could have. Death was too good for Dooley. He deserved a life in prison, branded as a pedophile.
“Discipline? He was six years old. Do you have any idea the ways she tortured him before my father and I