Leland’s gaze, long and stricken, stopped Jack’s words. He glanced over his shoulder at the officer and spoke sharply. “You’re mistaken.”

“I’m not.”

Leland leaned toward Jack, angled close, and shook his head slightly. Back and forth.

“I saw the briefcase—”

Leland lurched from his chair and grabbed Jack by the head and slammed his face to the table. The world went dark in Jack’s eyes and he clawed at the table, trying to stand, but Leland pushed his head down harder. Jack felt his front teeth sink through his lip and he tasted blood and heard ringing and clattering steps. Leland leaned his face down to Jack’s and brushed his beard against Jack’s cheek, slid his lips to Jack’s ear, kissed once. “You know better than this. Don’t you come back here. You hear? Don’t you come back—”

A clatter, and the pressure let off.

Jack sat up. The pain came hot and hard and swelled over his face in pulsing echoes. Blood ran down his nose. He stood and staggered and sat again. The correctional officer had hauled Leland backward against a wall. An alarm was going off. Only one of Jack’s nostrils worked.

Jack pulled himself up and swayed. He thought he was going to puke, but he didn’t. Red spit drooled from his lips to the tile in a long string. He moved his tongue along the punctured meat inside his swollen mouth. His lip throbbed. Blood—all over the front of his shirt. He stumbled across the room to the door, the floor tipping under his feet, and then stopped, and in the pale light he saw Leland standing in the corner with his hands cuffed behind him. Breathing no harder than if he’d just woken from a nap.

“When you get outta here, don’t look for us,” Jack said. “Don’t try to call. Don’t look for Matty. We don’t want you. You understand?”

The words came out slurred. Leland just stood there. He seemed oddly at peace.

“Eat or be eaten,” Leland said, his voice quiet. Fierce. “You know the law.”

Jack turned and went tottering into the hall and through the metal detector, cupping his hand under his mouth to catch the blood. Nobody stopped him. At the desk the officer stood and asked if he needed to sit. He shook his head and walked through the front doors to the Caprice and got in. He started the engine and drove out of the parking lot.