Helloooo XD
first of, this chap is dedicated to Kitsune96 for being the fastest reader ever. Read the whole thing in like, a day. which is seriously cool and impressive. "she also voted for every chapter," just saying. "whistle*
so be cool like her and read P.C. ofcoarse your comments would be appreciated as well and would boost me higher. so, do that too. lol.
Agyness Dayn's pic is on your right as Joanna Blake. it seemed fitting.
now injoy. Thanx heaps for reading, you know I love ya <3
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“So, summing up our session, you’re not strong if you get angry at everything, but you are strong if you held that anger and dissolve it.” Jack the Anger management instructor said at the end of the session.
“Hey, Kid.” Bid Aldo approached Joanna when they were ready to leave.
“Hi!” she said brightly, suddenly happy to talk to him. Aldo’s eyes warmed at her light mood.
“I wan to talk to you today.” He said.
“Yeah, sure. What’s up?” she said, her browse wrinkle in concern.
Aldo looked at the guard who was taking them back to the yard.
“Not here.” He said. “Join us at dinner tonight?” he asked, sounding hopeful.
Joanna thought about it for a moment. She could use a meal away from Julian’s practical jokes. “Yeah. Ok.” She nodded quickly.
“Good.” Aldo’s smile widened. She smiled back. She wanted to talk to him too. February was closing to an end, and she had to let him know about what’s waiting him outside.
When they reached the yard, Joanna and Aldo separated. She went to on of the wooden yard chairs and took out the book she was keeping inside her jumpsuit. She might be able to read a little before Julian interrupts her again. Although he was surprisingly less evil than he used to be. Ever since Isaac left, he’d been acting this way. That didn’t mean he wasn’t evil anymore, no way. He was the devil. But he wasn’t as mean as always.
A cold wind blow at her side and she accidently dropped the book she had in respond. It fell through the chair to the ground.
“Damn it!” she said as she walked around the chair to try to retrieve it from underneath it.
“Where the hell is that damn lackey?” Julian exclaimed childishly at Hank, who only looked at him oddly.
“All the session people had already came back, why isn’t he with them?” he told Hank. He was worried that Joan would be spending his time with that hulk of guard. And if he indeed was a girl, then Julian didn’t like this one bit.
“Look, there he is!” Hank said cheerfully as he spotted Joan standing behind one of the wooden chairs. He looked like he was looking for something.
“Well, it’s about damn time!” Julian exclaimed and strode to where Joan was. He felt Hank follow him.
Once he reached the chair, He hissed a breath at the sight in front of him and looked away immediately.
Joan was bending under the hair, obviously trying to reach something. His tiny little ass was wiggling as he tried to squeeze himself further underneath the chair.
Julian shut his eyes slowly to calm himself down, all the while telling himself, ‘Calm down dude, if this is a boy, then you are turned on by a boys cute ass! Shit!’.
“Have you ever heard about ‘never fling your ass up in prison’?” Julian decided to say.
“Ouch!” Joan moaned when he hit the back of his head against the chair on top of him as he jolted in surprise.
“Shit, Drake. A little warning would be nice. Damn.” He said as he rubbed the back of his head. “What do you want?”
“Well, since you asked,” Julian said in exasperation and Joan rolled his eyes. “There’s this tournament.”
“Tournament?” Joan arched a brow in question.
“Yeah, we have tournament in prison, you know.” Julian said and pointed at the group of men who were playing basket at the left side of the yard.
“Huh?” Joan said and folded his arms in front of him, apparently interested.
“I won’t do it if I were you, Uncle Sam is ‘hosting’ them. If you know what I mean.” Hank said from behind Julian and the later shot him a death glare.
“Hank!” Joan suddenly said in excitement. And Julian looked at Hank suspiciously.
“Do you have it?” Joan skipped away from Julian and walked to stand in front of Hank.
“Yup, right here.” Hank said, tapping his right side chest. “I can’t believe they have something like this in a prison library.”
“Awesome!” Joan said happily, almost jumping in excitement.
“Ummm, hello. I’m still here.” Julian said, waving his hands dramatically. He couldn’t get use to the idea that hank and Joan were becoming ‘besties’ more and more every day.
“I am not doing it Drake.” Joan said, turning his head to look at him over his tiny shoulders.
“Well, that’s the fun thing about being a lackey, you don’t really have a choice.” Julian said, stepping between Joan and Hank to stare down at the small guy.
“Come on, Lian. You’ve seen what happened to him when he got involved with Sam before.” Hank said as he walked around him to stand beside Joan.
“Yes, that’s because this idiot did it to save your ass.” Julian told Hank who looked away; obviously he was remembering that day.
“No, it’s because I chose to save his ass.” Joan said, folding his arms defending.
“Well, this time, you are in luck. Because Sammy can’t touch a hair on you as long as you are with me!” Julian said, smirking at Joan.
“How come?” Joan said, tilting his head to the side in interest.
“Let’s just say, I won a deal against that old geezer.”
“What? He never does deals directly against himself.”
“Yeah, well, he did. And I won.” Julian said, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking down at Joan. He fought not to laugh at the look of almost admiration in the kid’s eyes, which soon turned to doubt.
“Still won’t do it.” Joan said shaking his head.
“Oh, you two are so boring. Isaac would have done it with me.” Julian exclaimed. “You are not even tall enough to play this game. But I figured you’d be better than awkwardly over here.” Julian said pointing at Hank.
“I can play, you know. I can beat your ass.” Joan said daringly as he stepped closer to Julian.
“Oh, don’t sweat it, kid. I only want you there because it has to be at least two men team.” Julian said, liking how Joan’s interest was raising by the second.
“I’ll show you!” Joan said finally and strode toward the crowd of cheering men.
“Damn, Lian. You have a persuading gift, man.” Hank said, following a very smug Julian who was already walking behind a very excited Joan.
Julian chuckled at the way Joan eagerness to show him how good he is. It was too cute.
Too cute for him to be a man.
Joanna knew she will be in deep shit after this, but she couldn’t turn down a challenge. Especially if it meant she’d beat that jerk’s ass. Even though she’d be in the same team as him.
“Oh, look. It’s the little monster!” Uncle Sam greeted them once they emerged through the crowd.
“Hello, Sam. Me, and my little lackey here, want to join. But only for one game, you know how lazy I am.” Julian said and Joanna watched him carefully. He was pretty confidant and not the least bit scared of Uncle Sam’s power. He was either bluffing or he did have the upper hand here.
Joanna was shocked when she saw Sam look nervous for a bit before he said, “Yeah, sure, Drake.” He said before he turned quickly to one of his men to give him instructions.
“Would you close your mouth, you look retarded.” Julian told her as he pushed her hanging jaw up to close her mouth. She didn’t even notice that she was gawking at the odd scene that was in front of her.
“oh my god, you really have something on him.” Joanna exclaimed and he laughed at her, enjoying the way she acted.
“Believe it or not, kid, but I have a lot of power!” Julian said before he left her there and went inside to talk to some of the men. She stood there with Hank.
“you look really surprised.” Hank chuckled.
“Shut up Hank.” Joanna said, annoyed.
“He is something, isn’t he?” Hank said in admiration.
“Yeah.” Joanna couldn’t help but say. Julian looked really good right now.
“Can you really play?” Hank said, wrinkling his brows.
“Yep, I was in the streets for so long. I won’t say I’m number one, but I’m pretty good.” Joanna said, grinning at him.
“Good, it’ll be a tough one.”
“Why are you scaring him like that?” Julian suddenly said when he heard Hank.
“I’m not..” Hank started to say.
“Come on, we are next.” Julian said to Joanna, pushing her forward by the small of he back, he was looking at Hank though, scolding him with his gaze.
“So there’s a few things you should remember in this game.” He said when he turned his attention to her.
“why? Are the rules different than the one outside?” Joanna asked in confusion.
“No, the game is the same. The ethics of the game though, will, let’s just say, there are none.” Julian said and looked away quickly as he took his position in the small playing field.
“What?” Joanna halted.
“Just watch your back. People here take extreme measures to win.” He told her, and he sounded serious… and worried!
“GAME!” one of Sam’s men shouted to announce the start of the game, and Joanna jumped as one of the opposite player almost ran though her.
“Shit!” she muttered. She got it now, the well being of the opposite teams are not important at all.
She ran after the tow of them and tried to snatch the bouncing ball back but was distracted by tryong to protect herself from the hits that was directed toward her, and because both men were relatively larger than her, she was fully distracted. That was before one of them groaned with pain when Julian kicked him right behind the knees and stole the ball from him, running straight to the basket and throwing it right inside.
Joanna was breathing hard by that time and preparing for round two.
“Snap out of it, kid!” Julian said as he ran back when the opposite team got the ball. Joanna wasn’t going to stand there ofcoarse, so she rushed behind the men again.
She took advantage of her speed and sneaked the ball out of them. once she started bouncing the ball to the basket, both men surrounded her from the right and the left, and they wasn’t going to play it nice.
One of them sock her right behind her neck, which made her stumble a little, but she held her balance. The other one, though, wasn’t that nice, so he sent a blowing kick that was aimed to her stomach. She was too busy tapping the ball and worrying about his friend, but before his leg hit her, Julian Jumped in and struck the man right in his nose with his elbows, sending the man a few steps back before he fell on his ass and moaned loudly.
“Joan, NOW!” Julian yelled and she immediately jumped and threw the ball into the basket, hitting the target.
It took her a moment before she could realize the cheering sounds of the men around them. Apparently they’ve won.
“Wow, Joan, that was amazing!” Julian said as he grabbed Joanna by her neck and rubbed the top of her head. He was happy, it was the first time she saw him this genuinely happy.
“Yeah, ouch. Stop it!” she said between laughed, apparently she was having fun too.
“Wow! That was.. Intense!” Joanna said in excitement after they got out of the field, still grinning.
“Yeah!” Julian said brushing the hair back of his face. “It was something.”
“You two were great!” They both turned at the voice of Hank.
“So, was I good?” Joanna turned to face Julian placing her hands on her sides and tilting her head up.
“Surprisingly, yes.” Julian said to her, smiling. And Joanna fought not to drop her jaw at his honesty. It was incredible.
“t.. thanks.” She said.
“Now, I’m hungry.” Julian said, rubbing his stomach.
“Oh, actually…” Joanna started to say, not really wanting to ruin the only happy moment she got with Julian, “I have to eat with someone else today.” She said slowly before she looked at them.
“Who?” Julian smile turned into a frown. “don’t tell me it’s that guard!” he said suddenly and she felt her cheeks burning.
“w.. what guard?” damn it, she’d been so careless. Now he really suspect Kevin.
“Don’t play me, Cage..”
“Big Aldo!” she decided to say. That was safer than shutting up.
“Huh?” Julian said doubtingly.
“I swear!” she exclaimed at his look.
Hank was looking at both of them in confusion.
“Fine. But don’t think I am growing soft on you, lackey.” Julian finally said, and Joanna breathed in relieve.
The buzz then came and she started to walk. “Ok, see you later guys.” She said waving at both of them, Julian disapproving and Hank confused.
“Thanks for the game, Julian. I really had fun.” She yelled before running to the food hall. She had to talk to Aldo.
“If he really liked the game, we could make new games for him, you know.” Uncle Sam said to Julian when Joan left.
“No, thanks.” Julian said and nudged Hank to walk with him.
“You know that he could get us more money. I’ll give you half the money. Think about all the bits we can get from using him.” He said as he followed Julian.
“I said, No.” Julian told him without turning back to look at him.
“Come on, Drake. Loosen up a little.” Sam obviously can’t understand the word no, Julian thought. So he turned to face the old man and stepped closer to him, bending forward so their faces were only inches apart.
“Joan Cage is off limits. Got it, old man?” He said softly, spreading his manic smile at him.
“You don’t want me as an enemy, do ya, Sammy?” Julian breathed the words to the man before he straightened, turned and walked away with Hank, leaving a very red old geezer behind.
“What was that about?” hank asked, apparently worried about Joan. It pissed Julian a little that he care for Joan that much.
“Don’t worry, Hank. Cage is safe.” He decided to say, frowning when he heard Hank exhale with relieve.
“So, Fernando, how long have you known Aldo?” Joanna asked Aldo’s lap dog, who was sitting with her at the table waiting for Aldo to come.
“Twenty five years.” He said. He was so discreet, Joanna noted. He was very tall, about 6’7’’. And his hair was mostly black, but there were a slight grey hair here and there. His eyes were hooded, making it feel like he had many secrets inside that head of his. He looked really strong with all those muscles that filled his suit.
“So you are like, fifty five or something?” Joanna said, narrowing her eyes at him as she tried to figure out his real age.
Fernando chuckled, it was a weird sound. “No. I’m only forty.” He said.
Joanna’s eyes narrowed more as she tried to work some math in her antic of a brain. “So, you were… fifteen when you started working with him?”
“Yes, around that.” He nodded.
“Wow!” was all she said.
“So, you don’t resent him at all for dragging you to prison with him?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“He didn’t ‘drag’ me here. I came by my own.” He said simply.
“Came on your own. How can you do that.”
“You do a felony, get caught on propose, ask your lawyer to refer you to this exact prison, and VUALLA! Here we are.” He told her nonchalantly.
“Oh my God! You did all that for him. He must give you real good money.” She said in disbelieve, and Fernando chuckled again.
“No, actually. All the years we spent here, I haven’t received a dime.” He told her.
“WOW.” She said, surprised at his loyalty.
“He is like my father.” He said before he stood up as his ‘father’ came and sat down.
“Why are you corrupting my men?” Aldo scowled to her.
“I am not! Besides, I could never drive this man away from you. He is clearly too attached to you.” She said in defense. Fernando now burst into laughter before he left them alone. Aldo also smiled. It looked like he was also fond of his subordinate.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Joanna asked, going straight to the point.
“I’m leaving in a week. It’s almost the end of February.” He started to say, and Joanna’s heart sank. He was going to get out. She had to tell him.
“And once I leave, I’m going to put a stop to all this chaos about you with the other families.” He said, referring to the mafia families’ ofcoarse. Joanna gulped. This man was obviously used to power and dominance. If only he knew.
“Then you can get out of here and into a women facility. It’s too dangerous for you here.” He said when she said nothing.
“Umm, Aldo.” She started to say and she felt bad for not speaking bout it earlier.
“About that,” she stopped suddenly, not knowing how to tell him.
“What is it, sweetie?” Aldo said, and her hank sank even more.
“Who do you trust?” she decided to ask first. “Who’s the one you trust the most?” Joanna cleared up. Aldo looked at her for a moment before he said, “Fernando.” Well, obviously, she thought.
“Why do you ask?” he said, frowning at her in confusion.
“You do know the reason I got in here. You know why the mafia are looking for me, right?”
“Yeah, because you beat Dominic’s ass, and they couldn’t just leave it alone.” He said, almost in question. “And there’s a rumor that you are holding a dear secret.” He said, almost piercing her with his gaze.
“That’s… true.” She said slowly. She kind had grown fond of her grandfather, but she knew he’d hate her now for keeping it from him all this time.
“What is it?” Aldo ordered.
“I’m not really sure of it, but what I heard was something about you.” She said before she looked up at him to see his reaction. His face was as it is, but his eyes were hard.
“He said, Dominic said to the other guy that the secret about you shouldn’t come out until you were released. I didn’t know then that you were in prison, but they said until February.” She blurted all that out in on breath.
“They are going to betray you, they have an agreement or something with the others, something against you. Maybe they want to get you out or .. or even kill you.”
BAM!
Aldo hit the table with his fist hard. He was pissed. Damn it.
“I’m sorry, I really should’ve told you this earlier.” She said quickly.
“No, Joan. It’s not your fault.” He said softly, despite the look in his eyes.
“So, I think that you pointing out that you have a granddaughter will only backfire at you.” She decided to add and looked away.
“So, I only have Fernando to trust then.” He said, mostly to himself, as he lay back at his chair.
“I’m sorry.” Joanna whispered, if possible she hated herself even more.
“I said, it’s not your fault. Damn it!” Aldo said fiercely and she flinched at his tone.
“Shit, sorry kid. I didn’t mean to yell.” He said.
“It’s ok.” She said.
“I’m glad you told me now. I have to rearrange things. And you should definitely lay low. If they know about you, you’ll be their first target. And I have a bad feeling that they do know. The only thing left is to find you.” He told her before he flickered his fingers and in seconds, Fernando was by his side.
“What?” he said, bending forward so that Aldo could whisper something in his ears. Joanna watched as the loyal man’s eyes gotten wide.
“Shit!” he muttered.
“Now go.” Aldo ordered him. “Yes boss.” Fernando said before he strode away. Joanna watched in amazement as he got out of the hall, no guard stopping him.
“What did you ask him to do?” she couldn’t help her curiosity.
“Don’t worry about it, Joan. I just have to start my own plan.” He told her.
“You know that you can’t trust anyone.” She said to him seriously.
“I can survive with only me and Fernando. We’ve done it before. I only trusted him like this for twenty five years now.” He told her, obviously proud of his loyal man.
“It’s good to have friends.” She murmured and saw Aldo nod. Hank and Isaac and even Julian had someone to save their backs.
She never had anyone. She never deserved it.
“Joan!” Hank said when Joanna reached her cell after the nerve wrecking dinner with Aldo.
She smiled when she saw him; he was such a good guy.
“So, you want to see it?” he asked her and it took her a few moments to register what he meant.
“Oh, yeah, sure.” She said when she remembered that she asked him for book from the library.
“Here you go!” Hank handed the small book to her. Little Women, was the book’s name.
“It’s really a girl’s book. I don’t get why do they have it here.” Hank said when he gave to her.
she looked at the cover and traced her finger around the picture of the four girls. It was the same of the book she had in her fourteenth birthday. She never got to read it though. This year, she decided to read it. Just to remember her father.
“what’s this?” Julian said and snatched the book away from her.
“Hey! Give it back!” Joanna exclaimed.
“This is a girls’ book!” Julian scolded as the book. “what are you, cage. A gir?” he said and she felt her cheeks burn.
“Damn you, Drake!” she said and throw a punch at him, which he easily dodged. He smiled at her his usual lazy smile that promised evil before he turned to leave their cell, her book in his hand.
“P… please give it back.” She said, looking down. he could take any book, but not that one.
“Why should I…” Julian trailed off when he looked back at her. she knew her eyes were red now, threatening to pour tears. But she would be damned if she let that happen.
“Relax, I was only teasing you. I wouldn’t read this anyway.” Julian said as he dropped the book on the top of her head. She grabbed it, surprised by the sudden kindness. She looked up at him to see his eyes worried.
“You act like a weepy girl sometimes, Joan, you knew that?” Julian told him, oddly without the mocking tone and left them before the bars of the cells closed.
Joanna held the book firmly in her hand. She won’t lose it again.
“Are you ok?” Hank asked cautiously as he looked at her.
“I’m.. I’m fine.”
“you know he was only joking,” He told her.
“yeah, he’s weird lately.” She said and moved to her bed, hugging the book to her chest.
“Good night Hank.” She told him after the guards called at their names.
Outside of the ADX prison:
Isaac was sitting in the ICU, his eyes blank in horror. He turned to look at the woman who was lying in the bed beside him, every tube you can think of was attached to her body.
“Damn it, Rosalie.” He muttered as he stared at Julian’s mother, who was motionless in the bed.
“What should I tell Julian now?” he asked the woman in coma before he buried his face in his hands and breathed out in exasperation.
P.S. to readers:
Haaaaa! Sorry guys. couldn’t leave Isaac alone after all. LOL
I’m sorry if there’s a lot of mistakes in this chapter, I was so busy and couldn’t revise it before posting it, but I had to because it’s just so exciting ^..^ I promise I’ll get around to fix it later. Also, I was going to upload it earlier if my idiot of an internet was working properly. But it gave me time to add things, “like Isaac’s bit.” KYAAA.
Ok, moving on,
So first of all, what did you think of the little basketball tournament? Do you think Julian sudden niceness means that he seriously gave up on the idea of getting out by telling the mafia about Joan or does he seriously cares about Joanna now? What will Aldo do? And what would poor Isaac tell Julian?
Comment, vote so I can get excited to post the next chap *winks*
Love YA <3
Red.