CHAPTER 5 — "The Contract on the Guard"
Three nights later...
A black SUV stopped outside the prison.
Inside sat a man known only as Mr. Graves.
He wasn't an inmate.
He wasn't a guard.
He was the criminal financier who had secretly controlled Victor Carter's organization for years.
Victor had fallen.
But the business remained.
And David Lawson had become the greatest threat to it.
Mr. Graves slid an envelope across the table.
Inside...
A photograph of David.
Five thousand dollars in cash.
And one sentence.
"Make it look like an accident."
The envelope eventually reached a desperate inmate serving life without parole.
His name was Mason Briggs.
Former Marine.
Decorated soldier.
Convicted murderer.
He accepted the assignment without hesitation.
The next morning, David escorted inmates to the workshop.
As he unlocked the security gate...
Mason attacked.
A heavy steel pipe crashed toward David's head.
The officers shouted in horror.
But David reacted instantly.
He ducked.
Blocked the second strike.
Twisted the pipe away.
Then stopped.
He noticed something strange.
Mason's hands were shaking.
His eyes weren't filled with hatred.
They were filled with guilt.
David lowered the pipe instead of striking back.
"You don't really want to do this."
Mason froze.
"Who paid you?"
The inmate's face turned pale.
No one had ever guessed the truth that quickly.
Minutes later...
Mason voluntarily surrendered.
Inside the interrogation room, he revealed everything.
The money.
The contract.
The mysterious man outside the prison.
For the first time...
The investigation reached beyond the prison walls.
Victor Carter had only been a puppet.
The real mastermind had never spent a single day behind bars.
David finally knew who he was hunting.
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And Mr. Graves had just made one fatal mistake.
He underestimated the man he tried to eliminate.
