Repentance (The Darkness Series Book 4) Read Free

space beyond his cell seemed to grow smaller, caving in on him with each breath he took. Just a few steps away was his freedom. His chance to re-join society and form some semblance of a life for himself.
    “Move your ass, Ridley. It’s time for you to get the fuck out of here so I don’t have to look at your ugly face anymore.” His cellmate’s voice was hard, cold steel. Much like most of the inmates in the state penitentiary, he was tough as nails and didn’t take shit from anyone. A fact Sam had learned within the first few hours of his sentence.
    The guard waiting for him was also losing patience. “Let’s go, cocksucker,” he motioned him forward with his nightstick. When Sam still remained rooted in place, he swore under his breath. “What’s your problem, man? You’re free. Done. Your sentence is finished. Don’t you want to move on with your life?”
    Sam stared hard at the skinny guard, revulsion filling him. He may not look like much, but his reputation for being one of the most brutal of all of them was well-earned. Sam could attest to that brutality firsthand.
    He moved forward a few feet and stepped over the threshold between his cell and the narrow hallway. Glancing over his shoulder, he gave a quick nod to his cellmate—the only farewell needed between them—and then met the eyes of the guard.
    “No. No, I don’t want to move on with my life at all; but we all have to play the cards we’re dealt. And for me...it’s time that I see where the chips lie.” The guard rolled his eyes and shoved him between his shoulder blades to get him moving.
    “It’s time to make amends,” Sam spoke quietly under his breath as the cell doors swung closed once again, the resounding clatter sealing his fate as a free man.
    Not some twenty minutes later, after filling out some paperwork and changing his clothes, he was walking down the gravel pathway away from the State Penitentiary that had been his home for the past seven years.  Any other inmate likely would have been overjoyed at being granted early parole, but for Sam being set free was just another sentence.  Being forced back into society, into a life that he’d single-handedly destroyed was like trying to swallow a large lump of coal, no matter how hard he tried to choke it down; it just refused to fucking budge.  He could try to deny it all he wanted but the fact remained that he’d walked alongside the dregs of humanity. Traded his soul for a black mask of mayhem. Aligned with malevolence and trudged through the darkest parts of despair. All in the name of justice; revenge. Now that he’d emerged into the light—was there anything left of him to salvage?
    “Hey, buddy, you getting in or what?”  Blinking, Sam stared at the cab driver who was currently glowering at him.  The passenger side window was partially rolled down, allowing him a view of the balding, heavy set man behind the wheel.
    Sam opened the door and climbed in the back, setting his oversized zip-lock bag of belongings on the gray leather seat.  To think that after seven years all he had to show was in that sheer plastic bag, sent a desolate feeling washing over him.  How far he’d fallen from the life he’d once mapped out with his beloved wife, Hailey.  Even just thinking her name had his heart constricting in pain; the physical ache he felt over the loss of her never left him. He carried it with him daily.
    “ I love you with everything that I am.  With every minuscule part of my soul, you are my match.  My soulmate, my one true love.  I ’ m going to think of you every day.  I will make sure your name lives on, Hailey love. ”
    He stood and walked over to large pile of earth, taking a small handful.  Sprinkling it over her coffin, he made her one last promise.
    “I will avenge you.”
    It had taken him two years, but he’d made good on the promise that he made at Hailey’s grave the day they laid her to rest.  He’d infiltrated Mila’s inner circle and