Pain & Gain

Chapter 4

We pull into the lot for visitors at Central Correctional. Ren jumps down out of the car and I scramble to follow her. We reach the visitors office and there are two guards by the door. They really don't skip on anything. In the waiting room there's a woman and a small child both with laminate lanyards around their necks. Inside the laminates are visitor IDs with small black print under them.

"Can I help you?" A policeman with the name 'Martin' asks us.

"Yeah we wanna see Emmett Tyler." Ren says bluntly.

"Do you have a scheduled session?" He asks her, flexing his arms at his sides.

"No." Ren snaps at him. "But I highly doubt there's a line of people that want to see him."

Jesus Ren you're talking to a cop. I bite my tongue. Not even the law enforcement is spared Ren's ruthless sarcasm. I pick at my nails and try not to look at them. I'm hoping he'll tell us there's nothing he can do and send us home, but knowing Ren she won't take no for and answer.

"Look we drove a long way to see him can't you just check his schedule?" She bats her eyelashes at him.

Damn that's a good try Ren. Martin sighs and tells us to wait here. He turns and disappears through a door guarded by another policeman. It scares me to think that the law is swayed by a girl who bats her eyelashes, but in our case we got what Ren wanted. I reach into my back pocket to check my phone. Shit a text from Rule.

Rule: Dinner? I'm supposed to make sure you eat.

"Fuck, Ren look." I show her my screen and she scoffs.

"Tell him you're with me he'll back off right away." She rolls her eyes.

Me: I'm with Ren still

Rule: Okay? Does she want food too?

"Ren." I nudge her again and this time she takes the phone and starts typing.

Me: I'm eating with Ren you don't need to take care of me I'm not a child

"What the hell?" I slap her shoulder lightly. "You're the one who's mad at him not me!"

"Well he won't bother us again!" She whisper-yells to me.

At this time Martin returns from wherever he was.

"You can see him but only for a little bit. He's on kitchen duty in 30 minutes."

Ren nods and I just look down. Dammit. Martin walks back through the door and returns with two visitor IDs. We're instructed to put our driver's licenses in the laminate, picture forward. After our IDs are in the lanyards we are asked to remove our jackets and bags for inspection. They take us and our stuff through the door Martin went through into a white room. In there, we're asked to stand with our arms up while we get wanded for any metal devices.
After we are deemed free of any harmful objects we're asked to leave our jackets and bags in the room until the visit is complete. Martin then takes us through a door on the opposite side of the room that leads us to a long hallway. He walks ahead of us and I link arms with Ren. It's an enclosed hallway with solid white brick walls on either side. After a good 3 minutes of walking the left side of the wall turns into glass and inside the room on the other side are men in blue jumpsuits at tables with normal people. The convicts are not handcuffed and there appears to be only 5 officers covering the room.