“Yes, yes, yes,” I shouted into my silent house.
All the pain, all the disappointment, all the frustration, the endless waiting fell away. I’d been so worried I’d come and find she’d given her heart to another man. That I would be too late. That the magic would not be there for her.
But the world had spun around once again and this time it seemed to be working in my favor.
I felt as if I had grown wings. I laughed like a mad man as I paced the floor. If my prison mates could see me now. They would never believe it. Back there, I never cracked a smile. I hardly spoke. Not even in the Chow Hall. My look was one of cool intimidation. Grown men trembled when I looked at them. I was utterly, totally and completely left alone.
I took a couple of deep breaths, then seated myself back on my chair. Don’t fuck this up, Caleb. I cradled the phone and brought my thumbs to the keypad to begin typing out my response.
But just as I did, my phone vibrated at an incoming call. At first, I thought she was calling. Then I saw the number and my eyes narrowed. This was a relationship I’d thought had been completely severed in prison, but it seemed that it wasn’t going to be the case. It felt like a cold claw from the past had come to take back my joy, my excitement.
Yet, I couldn’t reject the call. I was never one to run away from my enemies. I always took them on head-on. I hit the accept button and lifted the phone to my ear.
“Caleb?” the familiar voice came through the receiver.
“Frank,” I answered, and the other Caleb, the cold, hard man came back.
“Hey! Wow. This is truly your phone number. I was wondering when you left how and if I was ever going to be in contact with you again.”
“How did you get this number?”
“Yikes,” he said. “Look, I know I’m reneging on our agreement. No contact beyond the wall, but we’re old friends, right?”
I walked over to the massive windows that overlooked the outdoor pool and garden beyond. “We’re not friends,” I corrected. “I protected you and in exchange you taught me, but even that was over a long time ago. We haven’t spoken in two years, or have you forgotten?”
Fraudster Frank’s laugh was forced and fake. “Man, I will never understand how you could hold a grudge for that long. Our cells were just across the corridor and yet you acted like I was dead to you.”
Frank was a textbook psychopath. A man devoid of morals. You couldn’t trust him as far as you could spit. “You sent someone to shank me in the boiler room, Frank.”
“I was jealous, man. C’mon, you’re human too… aren’t you?”
I almost laughed. See what I meant about him being a psychopath. They always accuse you of being or doing the things they are guilty of. It was him who needed some lessons on how to be a human being.
“C’mon man, how would you feel if you were in my shoes? I taught you everything about trading and you go and outperform me a hundred times over. Jenkins was going to completely shut me out… take away my privileges and crown you king. I didn’t even mind that… all I wanted was the crumbs from your table, but he wouldn’t even agree to it, the selfish bastard.”
I didn’t care to listen to his whiny bullshit any longer. “How the hell did you get this number?”
“Caleb, it doesn’t matter how I got it,” he said, his voice low and urgent. “What matters is I did.”
My brows furrowed. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
There was the sound of a man’s voice in the background and Frank saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” before he returned his attention back to me. “Fucking assholes. I just got on the call and already they’re telling me that I’ve got to finish up so I’ll have to make this quick. Remember Trilium?”
“Sure. You scammed them.”
“Whoa, that’s harsh. It was a misdemeanor. I just exaggerated the percentage of returns.”
“And they lost a hundred million.”
“Yeah, I paid for it. I’m here, incarcerated, locked up like a fucking animal, ain’t I?”
“Your time is running out, Frank,” I reminded.
“Okay, okay. Anyway, as you know, it was Mafia money, so I’ve been paying back over the years, but Jenkins shut down the trading hole here the moment you were released, so there’s no way I can try to pay them back from in here anymore. I need some help, man. I got some information. I can get it out to you.”
“I’m not front running, Frank,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I know,” he said. “I fucking know.”
“I just got out of prison, I have no intention of ever going back.”