Looking For Trouble

Chapter 4: Once more

CHAPTER 4

Carter Reynolds

The car came to a stop in front of the menacing wrought iron gates. The prison looked like a grey gash on an otherwise beautiful and vibrant canvas. A place of hate, of pain, and of broken men.

A strange sense of homecoming settled over me as I stepped out of the car to stand in front of the concrete behemoth that had the ability to make a man shed his humanity and recede into his most primal traits. A crater in the ground that caged the beasts and monsters within. Monsters like me..

I shook my head inwardly to dispel the hypnotic spell the prison always seemed to cast over me, convincing me that this was where I belonged.

"I'll be back to pick you up in half an hour. Tell the Don I said 'hi' and that I'll bring Elena and Sofia by next week for visitation."

I nodded to Valentino just as he sped out of the parking space. I turned back around and started making my way into the prison, an eerie calm settling in the pit of my stomach.

After the visitation protocol was concluded, I was escorted to the spacious hall lined with tables and chairs for visitors, the Meeting Room. This is where I had first met Arya at the start of her internship. This is where a lot of our sessions had taken place. This is where she had told me she had stolen my file.

I smiled unconsciously at the memory and sat at the very same table I had sat with her all those months ago, waiting for the Don to be escorted to the visitation area.

The second the Don came into view, I stood up and waited for the bull to unshackle him. I bent my head slightly out of respect before giving the Don a tight hug.

The Don clasped the back of my head with one hand, as we separated, in a fatherly manner and smiled at me. "How are you, my boy?"

"I'm okay, Sir."

I paused to allow us both time to sit back down before attempting to say what I was about to say.

"Sir, I don't know how to thank you...Everything you've done for me..I..I can't even begin to-"

He waved a hand good naturedly, cutting me off. "Ofcourse, Carter. Ofcourse."

And that was the end of that. The look in his eye and the tone of his voice suggested finality. His demeanor conveyed that him doing everything that he had done for me was a given. Ofcourse he would do all of this and more for me. And he didn't want to hear me thank him because that's what you do for famiglia. And I was famiglia.

I lowered my gaze, unable to fathom the profound generosity, kindness, and love the Don and his family had shown me.

"So, how are my girls doing?"

I looked back up at the Don, his question breaking my trance.

"Oh, uh they're good. Val said to tell you he'd bring Elena and Sofia for visitation next week."

"Good. How are you liking Sofia's kingdom, then?" The Don grinned at his own choice of words.

"She rules with a rod of iron. Can't imagine where she gets that from." I joked, laughing lightly.

The Don's eyes lit up in amusement and he scratched his beard, chuckling. "That's my girl."

"What has she nicknamed you?" He asked after a few seconds of silent reminiscing.

I gave him a sheepish grin. "Sandy.."

The Don let out an unexpectedly loud laugh that had the other inmates and their visitors turning to look at our table.