As he was cutting a second piece, Gideon Doss took the seat across the table from him. “That was quite the tumble you took back there,” he said.

Gavin didn’t answer. At first his silence was because he wanted to be left alone with his thoughts, but then it occurred to him that Gideon had been one of the men to step around him as he lay on the hallway floor, trying to breathe.

“Jail can be a dangerous place,” Gideon said. “Lots of accidents. Prison’s even worse if you piss off the wrong people.”

“What’s going on, Gideon?”

“Word is, you have some enemies in the big house.”

“Big house? What are you talking about?”

“Stillwater, Oak Park Heights, Lino, St. Cloud...It don’t matter which prison you go to—there’s some folks who are pretty pissed off at you.”

“I don’t even know anyone…”

“But they know you.” Gideon reached across the table, picked up Gavin’s Salisbury steak in his fingers, and took a bite. “That’s the thing about prison,” he said. “It’s like its own little world with rules and…What’s that word? Hi-er…hierarchs…?”

“Hierarchies?”

“That’s it. You’re a smart fella.” He took another bite of steak and tossed the remains onto Gavin’s tray, licking the gravy from the tips of his fingers.

“What’s any of that got to do with me?”

Gideon opened his jumpsuit and pulled the collar of his T-shirt down enough to show Gavin a tattoo on his chest, a lightning bolt with an A on one side and a B on the other. “I’m bettin’ a smart man like you can figure out what this is.”

Gavin’s stomach knotted up. “Aryan Brotherhood?”

Gideon smiled—a teacher pleased with a slow-learning student. “Remember how they sent me up for beatin’ that spic some years back? Well, it put me in good with some mighty particular folks. They asked me to pass on a message to you.”

“Wait—you knew what they were going to do to me?”

Gideon pursed his lips in disappointment. “You don’t get it. What happened today ain’t nothin’. You’re a marked man.”

“Why?”

“What you did—raping that white girl and throwin’ her in the river? I mean, that by itself’s gonna get you hard time. But you fucked up. That girl—she’s connected. They say her uncle’s inside, and he’s put the word out on you.”

“What…” Fear swallowed Gavin’s words.

“I’m sorry, buddy, but you’re fucked.”

“What’ll they do?”