Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 17: Acceptable Progression

"Well, that's good to hear. I'm sorry you had to suffer as a child but it's refreshing to know that you no longer use it as an excuse to hate gays. I do wish more people would enlighten themselves the way you have." I looked at my watch and told him, "I should get going."

He stood up and said, "Thanks again for everything." He then extended his hand for me to shake.

I stared into his eyes for a moment and then shook his hand while telling him, "Stay on the right path, man."

After leaving the prison, I drove to the airport where Byron was waiting on me. We made our scheduled flight from Louisiana to D.C. During the flight, I sensed Byron wanted to talk to me about my visit to the prison but didn't want to talk about it the wrong way. He always tried to avoid having any arguments with me and while I always thought it was sweet, it did irritate me. Couples argue and that's just a fact of life.

"Byron, I know you want to talk about it," I said, finally breaking the silence between us. "What's on your mind, baby?"

"I just don't understand why you want to help him?"

"He's served a number of years in one of the roughest maximum-security penitentiaries in Louisiana. He's not committing violence anymore and has shown remorse for his actions. I know he tried to kill me and he took part in attacking Tommy, but he didn't kill Tommy. Karen killed Tommy. And after hearing what he'd been through..."

"What has he been through?"

"He was molested as a child, Byron. No, it doesn't excuse his participation in hurting Tommy but it does explain why some of the men joined the network in the first place. There are a lot of broken black men in this country."

"I agree but being broken gives no man the right to take another man's life. I understand people deal with trauma in different ways but taking innocent lives because one man molested you is wrong, no matter how you slice it."

"We need more mental healthcare in this damn country. That's one of my biggest takeaways from all of this. Why couldn't those fucking COWO people advocate for that instead of trying to brainwash people into accepting queer individuals using propaganda?"

"Because their ultimate goal is to have power just like Michele Whitlock and the men who were running Eradication." He placed his hand on top of mine and asked, "It's still bothering you that Francine Headley is on the run, doesn't it?"

"Byron, I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't worried about it. Headley and her minions will do anything to push their agenda forward. She was going to have me killed to keep Tommy on a string. His death saved my life. And no, I'm not feeling survivor's guilt right now. I want to stop that bitch just as bad as I want to stop Michele Whitlock and Quincy Atwood."

"Do you still believe Evan is holding back on what he knows about COWO?"

"I do but the only way I can get him to talk is by offering him an actual deal and I might have burned that bridge already."

"What do you mean?"

"Three months ago, when we set up that sting to find out who the mole at the FBI was, I told Evan I'd help him out with his trial if he helped with the sting. I told him he had my word."

"And then you betrayed him?"

"He stabbed me in that abandoned factory, Byron."

"Look, I'm not judging you, baby. However, sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils. If you really want to get intel on COWO, offer him something real and see if he'll tell you something important about the organization. I know you're pissed that he stabbed you; hell, I wanna beat his ass myself, but you can't let your anger sabotage all the hard work you've put into this case. Baby, we just spent the weekend with my family and it was a great time. Look at this past weekend as a fresh restart."