Llew could only shake his head back and forth. They’d been looking at Moss’ body. Saw the marks and welts. “No. Deputy Jamison, sir, I promise. I didn’t rape anyone. Moss asked for that.”
Officer Jamison cocked his fist back and hit Llewellyn so hard in the mouth, he was sure that a few of his bottom teeth were knocked loose. Llew hit the ground, crying out again from falling with his hands tightly cuffed behind him. He rolled to his side, spitting out the blood that had built up in his mouth. His bottom lip had a deep gash in the middle, and the blood flowed from the cut, down his chin onto the floor. Llew looked around at the other officers, all of them with their backs turned like they hadn’t just witnessed him being assaulted.
“No one would ask for that, you sick bastard. But you just keep talking, asshole. That’s the more we can use against you in court,” Jamison snarled, tugging Llew back up.
Shit. Llew was led out of his home, and blinded by the camera flashes; his ears assaulted by curses, slurs, and gasps. Oh god, he needed his brother right now. This was getting realer by the minute. He squinted his eyes, and noticed that everyone was out of their homes watching him, and the ones that weren’t there were watching the one news channel they had in their town as they recorded his walk of shame.
Chapter Four
“Gardner!” The corrections officer yelled his name, startling him awake. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to fall asleep. His fight with Moss’ dad, the run through the woods to his house, the scared to death moment of his arrest, and finally the entire procedure of being fingerprinted and searched before having been thrown into a small cell, had left him unable to keep his eyes open another minute. He was just glad that there wasn’t anyone in the cell with him. Emporia didn’t have a high crime rate, so the small jail in Lyon County was for people awaiting trial, or going through the transition to another prison.
“You got a visitor.”
Llew looked at his wrist before he realized they’d taken his watch. It must be his brother here to get him. The guard motioned for him to put his hands through the bars. Once cuffed, the loud clanking sound of the metal locks to his cell disengaging made his eyes flinch. That wasn’t something he could get used to. He breathed a sigh of relief that he was finally getting out of there. As he walked through the dank corridor, he noticed through a small, high window that daybreak was approaching. When all this mess was cleared up, Llew vowed he’d never live a life of crime, because this was all too much. A man shouldn’t live like this, in a six by eight foot cage… it was inhumane.
The guard led Llew down another long hallway, and he tried not to make eye contact with the few inmates that were walking single-file down the opposite side. He didn’t need to, he was sure he didn’t know any of them. Impact with a hard shoulder that felt like he’d hit a tree trunk made him stumble backwards. He looked up into dark brown, angry eyes. “Rapist,” the man growled.
“Keep it moving!” the guard barked. The inmate glared at Llew for a few extra seconds before he kept walking in the direction he was headed.
“Jesus,” Llew whispered. The guard came to a stop at another set of doors, and grabbed his elbow. Llew turned and faced the way he was told, and when the doors opened, he saw his brother waiting there with a man who looked to be in his early thirties.
His brother stood and rushed to him when he walked in. They’d just barely embraced when the guard yelled at them not to touch. His brother stepped back quickly, looking over Llew’s shoulder at the guard before focusing back on him. He could only imagine how he looked right now with his cut eye and busted lip. But his brother looked in pretty bad shape too. Leslie looked like he’d been up all night. His face was heavily shadowed with whiskers, which perfectly matched the dark bags under his sad eyes. He had on the same clothes he’d left home wearing the day before. It was clear that his brother had been going nonstop for him. Emotions welled up inside of him and he turned his head to try to get himself under control.
“Its okay, Llew.” The roughness of his brother’s voice broke his heart. Tears flooded his eyes and poured over more quickly than he could stop them. His brother gripped his wrist but quickly pulled his hand away, remembering not to touch him. “Hey, look at me. We’re gonna get through this, Llew.”