Excerpt of Included!

CHAPTER19Icalled Robin from the car and told her what had happened. She wanted tomeet us at the jail but I told her no. She was already in this thing too deep.She fought me about it, and the more we argued the more convinced I became.She’d made her choice—me—and I wasn’t going to let that choice hurther. We agreed to meet the next day, once I had some idea just what the hellwas going on.We went downtown to the Rowan County Detention Center; Parks, Dad,and me. Jamie said he couldn’t handle it, and I knew what he meant. The bars,the smells. The fact of it. Nobody tried to talk him out of it. He’d been sullenall afternoon and there was little love lost between him and Dolf. The buildingloomed against the descending sky. We crossed against traffic, mounted broadsteps, and passed through security. The front room smelled of hot glue andfloor cleaner. The door fell shut behind us, a crash of metal, and lukewarm airsighed out from ceiling vents. Four people sat in orange plastic chairs alongthe wall, and I took them in at a glance: two Hispanics in grass-stained clothes,an old woman in expensive shoes, and a young man biting his nails bloody.169