"Hey, Danny Boy." a friendly Antonio greeted, waiting for Danny as the younger man entered the prison yard after his visit with Ed. Most of the prisoners were either playing basketball (Danny could see that this was where Landon and Ramon had vanished to), or just sitting around in various groups talking to each other.
"Hey." Danny replied, smiling at the older man.
"You have a good visit?" the darker-haired man asked, leading McCoy over to a bare spot near a wall.
"Yeah, it was Ed." Danny said as they sat down. "He remembered you."
"I'm kind of hard to forget." Antonio joked, shrugging his shoulders.
"Yeah." Danny chuckled, "Unfortunately, I guess that I'm not any closer to getting out of here though." He let out a heavy sigh. "He and Mike haven't found anything."
"Eh, I'm sure that they'll find something." Antonio replied, trying to keep the younger man's spirits raised. He clapped a hand on Danny's shoulder. "I'm sure that whomever did this to you was bound to leave some sort of clue behind. It would take a genius to stump Ed Deline."
Just as Danny was about to reply, a sweaty Landon and Ramon, having just run over from the basketball court, sat down in front of the pair.
"What's going on?" Ramon asked with a grin.
"Nothing," Antonio replied, waving his hand in front of his nose. "Except for you guys killing us with your stench." He closed his dark eyes. "God! I hate the smell of sweat!"
"Yeah." a laughing Danny agreed, pulling the open part of his orange uniform up on his face. "You think that you guys would be considerate enough to take a shower first!"
"Look at this man here!" Landon teased, moving so that he was sitting right next to Danny. "A day or so in the pen, and he thinks that he's a big shot!" McCoy barely had time to react before he felt the big, black man grab him and starting roughly messing with his hair. "Come here, you!"
"Ow! Landon!" Danny said, trying to push the big, black man away. "Knock it off!"
"Who's a big shot now, huh?" Landon taunted, "Who's a big shot now?"
"Get him, Lando!" Ramon encouraged from nearby.
"Let me go!" Danny replied, getting to his feet. He felt a thud against his back and realized that he had accidentally bumped into someone. "Sorry."
"You damn well better be." the person behind him warned.
Turning around, Danny could see the trio of men from breakfast that morning standing there with two other men. Although Danny was no weakling himself, all of the men looked like they could snap him in half with one hand. From behind him, he could hear Antonio, Landon and Ramon get to their feet.
"Back off." Antonio warned, putting a hand on Danny's shoulder.
"What?" the speaker said, not scared in the slightest. "This guy your bitch or something, Malocchio?"
"Can't blame him." one of the two new men chuckled, putting his hand to Danny's cheek. "He's the prettiest one I've seen come in here in awhile." He grinned at Antonio. "You ever get bored with him, let me know. I'd love to have a turn."
"Get your hand off me!" an angry Danny spat, throwing the man's hand off of him.
"Big mistake, pretty boy." the man growled before punching Danny straight in the gut, which was enough to send the former Marine lieutenant reeling backwards.
Out of the corner of his eye, the trying-to-catch-his-breath Danny saw Antonio rush forward and tackle the man to the ground. As the dark-haired, former CIA agent unleashed a flurry of punches on his opponent, Danny could hear scuffling noises from behind him, leading him to believe that Landon and Ramon had also started to fight. Clearly happy to have some excitement, the prisoners in the general area whooped in appreciation and shouted encouraging remarks at the various fighters.
"Don't think that you're getting out of this, pretty boy." the man Danny had bumped into growled as McCoy got back to his feet. The man aimed a punch at Danny's face, but the Marine saw it coming and dodged in the nick of time. Gritting his teeth, the former Marine lieutenant punched his attacker in the abdomen and followed up by a strike to the head.
"I didn't intend to." Danny grinned at his opponent.
"Danny!" a worried Antonio called out from somewhere behind him.
Right before he could turn around to see what his cellmate wanted, Danny felt something hard collide with the back of his head. Letting out a cry of pain, the brown-haired man sank to his knees before falling into darkness.
"Damn." a furious, yet quiet Ed shook his head. His blue eyes fixed on a nearby monitor, which displayed the information that Mike had found out. "So, not only was this Douglas Ainsworth Richard Hewitson's cousin, but he was also in Danny's unit?"
"Yeah." Mike replied, standing in front of the desk. "I managed to get some of his records, and it's clearly stated that he was killed in that air strike that Danny called in." A grin appeared on the African American man's face. "So, now, we've got a possible motive for framing Danny."
"And no actual proof that anyone did." an exhausted Ed sighed, rubbing his forehead slowly. Dropping his hand, he looked at his employee. "Keep digging stuff up on the former Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hewitson, will ya? I got the feeling that there's more to them than just innocent victims."
"Got it, Mr. D." Mike nodded, heading back to the surveillance room. As he walked through the sliding glass door, a red-haired woman entered from the other side. "Hey, Mary."
"Hi Mike." a quiet Mary said, not looking at him. Realizing that she was alone with Ed, her voice suddenly took on a sad tremble. "Ed…"
"Sweetheart?" a concerned Ed inquired, getting up from his desk and walking over to the woman. "What's wrong?"
"The prison called me." Mary swallowed, looking at the older man. "Danny's been hurt."
To be continued...