Page 104 of Waste of Worth

Dino swallowed hard, knowing the agent had yet to speak even one lie.

He figured confidence was better than fear at the moment.

Even if it wasn’t real.

“My bet,” the agent said, turning to leave but looking over his shoulder at Dino as he spoke, “is that we’ll put you away for life.”

“I welcome your efforts,” Dino said, staring the man right in the eye.

“I doubt that, Dino. I believe you already know where you’re going in, due time.”

He did know, but that didn’t mean he had to show it.

“I’ve already been through hell. Trust me when I say, prison isn’t it. Not even a life sentence can compare to the hell I have already lived. Don’t try to scare me with that tactic, it’s a worthless effort.”

Much like his life, sadly.

The agent barely gave a reaction to that, instead, shaking his head with a profound understanding coloring his older features. “I have never fully understood the hold the mafia has on its members, or at least, those we couldn’t entice enough with a free, good life.”

“I don’t need you to give me anything,” Dino said, shrugging, “I can get the good life all on my own, thanks.”

“Take the deal—we’ll give you forty-eight hours to decide.”

His answer was still the same as it had been minutes before.

It wasn’t going to change.

“Fuck off.”

THOSE forty-eight hours passed by at a crawling snail’s pace. Forty-eight hours of being shuffled from one cell to another in the county jail, of looking new incomers in the eye, and avoiding the splatters of vomit when the drunks finally awoke from their stupors.

Forty-eight hours of asking for his lawyer.

Forty-eight hours of being denied phone calls.

Forty-eight hours of having his rights ignored.

Dino was sure there was some other shit at play with the police, the FBI agents, and even others that he couldn’t see, but that didn’t make it easier. Each time he approached the row of bars and called out to the guard that he again, wanted his lawyer, and again, wanted his phone calls, he only got a disinterested grunt for a response.

Those forty-eight hours ticked down like a fucking time bomb in the back of Dino’s brain. Prison wouldn’t be like jail, he knew. He’d have a cell mate, not a half a dozen drunks and a few male prostitutes shoved into the same barred quarters. There would be lights out and yard time, plus that three-meal-a-day guarantee.

It wasn’t any of that nonsense that gave Dino cause to pause.

No, it was being locked up that bothered him.

His freedom being taken away.

The inability to up and go when he wanted just because he could. The feeling of being caged crawling over his nervous system one minute, and the anxiety of knowing he couldn’t get out was slamming into him like a wrecking ball the next minute.

That was the shit that made him pause.

Made him … consider.

Still, he knew better; knew that taking any sort of deal to turn informant for the FBI or any officials would not end well for him, and so he stopped allowing himself to consider it at all. He didn’t sleep those forty-eight hours, not when doing so could mean he’d wake up in the midst of a nightmare and anyone within hearing distance would witness one of his many weaknesses in action.

He focused on staying awake, on planning, and a hell of a lot more about Karen.

Had his package arrived yet?