Evan Arden 03 Otherwise Unharmed by Shay Savage Page B

get in a little target practice to get my mind really functioning again.
    I wondered if I’d ever see my Barrett again.
    It was most certainly taken in as evidence and very possibly lost to me at this point.  I could get another one, but that one had been with me for a long time—bought it outright when I was discharged.  It had taken most of the money I had at the time, but it was the only way I could stay focused.  I needed the feel of the cool metal in my hands as my finger pulled back on the trigger and the recoil pressed hard against my shoulder.  Watching rounds go into a target through the scope was the only time I felt at peace.
    Well, maybe peace wasn’t exactly the right word, but it stopped me from panicking.
    I sighed and brought myself back to the present long enough to consider who I knew in Greco’s organization well enough to approach them and convince them my loyalties were now up for grabs.  I couldn’t come up with any of the people who hadn’t had the barrel of my Beretta pointed at their faces during one intense encounter or another.  I’d also killed off the cousin of Greco’s mistress once upon a time, though he didn’t know it was me.
    The guard called to out to me —it was time to eat what they tried to pass off as food around here.  I wasn’t hungry and would have rather stayed in my cell and plotted in silence, but skipping meals wasn’t an option.  Despite the need to come up with a plan, I needed my resources in the outside world.
    Nothing could be done from here, so I was just going to have to wait.

Chapter 6—Intense Reconnection
    I couldn’t even pretend to be surprised when Masterson came to my cell and informed me that I had been let out on bond.  He’d only been told of an unscheduled hearing which went favorably for me, but I doubted the meeting had even taken place.  Trent’s resources were on the ball, no doubt about that.
    I was going to have to play all of this really, really carefully.
    First things first.
    “Can I make a call?”
    “It’s not my fucking decision,” Masterson grumbled as he led me out of the unit.  “You can ask the warden.”
    The unit supervisor let me call while my things were brought out of their storage area.  The phone only rang twice before I heard a familiar voice on the other end.
    “ Mark Duncan.”
    “Hello, it’s Evan Arden.  I need a favor.”
    “Of course, Evan—what do you need?”
    “You remember the girl who came here?”  I rolled my eyes at myself and shook m y head.  I was the deranged one; of course, he would remember.  “I was just hoping you had her contact information.  I don’t have my phone here.”
    “Yes, of course.”
    “Could you call her and ask her to come and get me?”
    “Get you?”  He paused before continuing.  “Evan, where are you?”
    I could practically see his face as he contemplated whether or not I had escaped and was now on the run.   I wondered if he was picking up his landline to call the cops on his escaped patient.
    “I’m still at the MCC,” I told him.  “I’m being released.”
    “Released?”
    “Yeah.”   I never understood people’s desire to repeat words like that, but I tried not to let it annoy me.  It was probably the last thing he was expecting to hear from me.  “Can you call her?”
    “Yes, I can,” he said.  “I just can’t believe no one contacted me.  When was this?”
    “Just a little while ago, special hearing or something.  I don’t know. I just know I want out.”
    “I can get you.”
    “No, really—if you could call her and have her come, that would be great.  I need to sleep, but I’ll come and see you soon.”
    I wasn’t going to, but he’d figure that out soon enough.
    With the phone handed back to some woman behind a desk, I was taken to a small room and left alone with a cardboard box containing everything I had on me when I was brought in.  I reached in and pulled out the Marine-issue fatigues.  I didn’t want