"Lowery! Work release."

"Duty calls!" Lloyd rolled out of his bunk with a cheerful salute to his aging cell mate, who grunted and lifted a hand farewell. While the old man was creepy, he was a hell of a lot better than his previous cellies, and Lloyd found himself smiling on his way out the door.

The smile quickly fell away when he thought about what was ahead of him. This would be the first runner they'd tracked since Damien. Since they'd all been put on the spot to rat Ray out…in exchange for their freedom.

Lloyd knew Ray knew about what the Chief Director had asked them to do. What he'd offered them in return. Three years ago, Lloyd wouldn't have hesitated to throw Ray under the bus. But now…

Damien had deserved it. And he owed Ray a debt he could never repay.

It was a hard pill for him to swallow, but he owed Ray so much more than the two years he'd managed to shave off his sentence. Ray had gotten him out of max sec. He'd given him a shot at redemption. He'd pulled Lloyd out of a deep spiral of depression after Damien had killed that girl in front of him, and even when Ray had been well within his rights to hate him after Damien kidnapped Theresa, he hadn't. He'd pushed him, yelled at him, but in the end, Ray had been right there with him.

And it was because of Ray that he had Julianne.

Not that he had Julianne, per se, he thought with a snort, trying to ignore the sideways glance of the guard and the sharp stab of pain in his chest. There wasn't nearly enough water under the bridge for him to be past the pain of Julianne telling him she regretted that kiss.

It figured that the first time he fell in love, it would be with someone that didn't want him.

The hardest part was, when he set his pride aside, he couldn't even blame her. She was everything-smart, resourceful, beautiful. Blooming now that she was slowly coming out of her shell. He was a convict, responsible, however indirectly, for the death of two young women. If he walked out of the prison today, he'd be unemployed. No medical license. No home. No income. His only chance at not spending the better part of the next 20 years behind bars was to throw her boss under the bus. If he were her, he wouldn't be in a relationship with him either.

He'd made the choice to tell Julianne how he felt about her. She'd been honest, just as he had wanted her to be. Now he had to find a way to live with that.

"You okay?" Erica asked softly as he climbed into the back of the van leaving Maybelle. Lloyd offered her a quick half smile.

"Are any of us really okay?" he asked, giving a pointed look toward the driver.

"Maybe not, but only one of us got shot down by their girl and kidnapped by a madman the same day. That's pretty much a five star shitty day right there."

"Shut up, you ass." Erica glared at Shea, who just raised his eyebrows back at her. The lack of fear on his face was alarming. Lloyd wasn't sure what had happened that tipped the balance between those two, but he suspected it had something to do with that NYPD investigation. He'd been pretty sure Erica was up to her neck in it. She was just a little too quick to disappear when that Pete guy was in.

But hey, who was he to judge? Dude might have turned out to be a creep and a murderer, but at least one of them was getting laid.

"Thanks for that Shea."

"Hey Iceman, what did I tell you?"

"Like that was ever going to happen." Erica rolled her eyes. Lloyd had to smile. It might have happened in the most fucked up way possible, but right here, right now, it was good to have friends.

"Yeah, well, we have bigger problems."

"We'll figure that out later." Shea bobbed his head frantically at the driver. Lloyd got the message. Not in front of witnesses. But they were going to have to figure out what they were going to do, and they were going to have to figure it out fast.