Read the first two chapters

Prologue

Teresa Brandon checked her makeup and hair once more in the BMW’s mirror. The purple highlights she’d had put in her medium blond hair made all the difference she thought.  A rap song resonated loudly from the car’s speakers as she drove at least five miles per hour over the speed limit up Parham Road.  She was almost out of her Winsor Farms neighborhood heading for I-64 east and eventually Paula Kellogg’s house in the northeast Richmond.
She and Paula had bonded at a rock concert some months before and Paula was her key to getting a date with Tank Dodson, her idea of the perfect bad ass.  His real name was Todd but somehow that wasn’t bad enough so he’d picked up the nickname ‘Tank’.  She didn’t know where. Tonight they were finally going out on the town.  There would be beer, pot and she figured she could bring some whiskey to the party too.  He’d told her he liked the good stuff and she knew where she could get a couple of bottles...daddy’s safe at his office.
Paula lived in Creighton, not one of Richmond’s better neighborhoods.  As Teresa approached the apartment complex she could tell her car was being scoped by various groups hanging on the street corners.  She should have been alarmed, but having just turned eighteen this whole neighborhood was just new and different to her.  She was not afraid.  It made her feel somehow powerful, important and desirable.  Her short dress was way up her thighs and although she knew they couldn’t see that it gave her a thrill she couldn’t explain. 
Fortunately, Paula was watching for her and came running out of the main door to her unit just as Teresa drove up.  That too drew the interest of the neighborhood watchers.
“Let’s go.”  Paula said as she hopped in the car.  “We don’t want to talk to any of those losers.”
“Hey to you too girlfriend.”  Teresa said sarcastically as she gunned the engine.
“Damn girl, you look hot.”  Paula observed.  “Tank’s gonna be all over that tonight.”
Teresa smiled.  “Hey you look good too.  We are gonna have us some fun tonight!”
Paula dated Tank’s little brother Billy.  That was how Teresa had first met Tank and while they were from different worlds she fell for him immediately.  A classic little rich girl falls for poor bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks romance.  Of course it wasn’t really a romance yet.  Just getting together with Tank had proven difficult.  When she met him she’d been grounded and without her car...again.  After pleading with her father she was finally back in her car now and tonight was going to be their first real date.  She was ecstatic!
“Where are we going?”  Paula asked when Teresa didn’t get on I-64 east that would take them to Sandston out near the airport.  They were meeting the Dodson brother’s at their place there.
“We’ve got a stop to make first.”  Teresa explained.  I know where we can get some fine whiskey.
“You shit’n me?”
“Nope, daddy keeps a nice stash in his office and I’ve got the key.”  She held it up dangling on a chain.
“You are something else Teresa Brandon.  You are slumin’ tonight!”  Both girls giggled and laughed with glee; the radio blaring yet another rap song and both of them wiggling to the beat.
Teresa drove slowly down the industrial street where her father’s construction company was located.  The equipment was behind a high chain link fence but the cinder block office building was just off the street side parking lot and a set of steps led up to a door.  She parked noting the street lights cast a brownish glow over the whole area.  It was dark outside the range of the lights but no one seemed to be around.  Teresa got out of the car and Paula followed.  They didn’t look like they belonged here.  Their party dresses under their light jackets showed lots of leg and their heels made climbing the metal safety tread stairs a bit tricky.  Teresa looked around as they climbed making sure no one saw them.  She inserted the key she had swiped from the family key caddy in the kitchen and, “Wa-la! We’re in!”  She said excitedly, pulling the heavy door opened.
They went inside.  Teresa whispered, “I’m not going to turn on a light just in case somebody drives by.”  She produced a small LED flashlight and turned it on.  Paula followed her through the outer office to another door.  She opened it and again whispering said, “This is my daddy’s office.”  She walked in and went behind his desk to a good size safe.
“The whiskey’s in there?”  Paula asked also whispering.
“Yeah, he doesn’t want anyone to know he keeps some here.” 
The safe was an older model, very heavy looking and an old fashion round knob on the front.  Teresa began turning the tumbler from memory, first clockwise and then back, then forward again.  “Daddy taught me how to do this when I was younger and would come with him to the office.”  She said playfully.
Paula looked around the dark office, able to see a bit of it through the glow of the flashlight.  It was obviously kept in order and despite being in an industrial section of town the furnishings were nice.  “You’re so lucky Teresa.”
“Huh?  What do you mean?”
“This place.  It’s an office but it’s like...nice.  Big time nice.  You’ve got no idea what it’s like to be poor do you?”
“I guess.  That doesn’t matter does it?  We’re no different.” 
Paula didn’t say anything, but she thought, ‘Yes we are.’
“Look at this!”  Teresa said as she opened the safe door and pulled out two bottles of Makers Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon.  “Now this is what I’m talking about.”
“Shit, that looks expensive.”  Paula said.
Teresa pulled out another bottle.  “Not as expensive as this.”  She held up another bottle and held the flashlight on it. 
Paula read it out loud, “Johnnie Walker Blue Blended Scotch Whiskey?  I’ve heard of Johnny Walker.”
“Yeah, but this is the good stuff...over two hundred a bottle.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“Nope.”
She took one bottle of each and put the other Makers Mark back in the safe the flashlight glancing off the other contents inside.
“Wooo, what’s that?”  Paula asked pointing at a stack of plastic wrapped bills.
“Oh, daddy hires a lot of Mexicans for his construction business and they like to get paid in cash you know.  They don’t have bank accounts.  Hell, they’re probably illegal’s.   He keeps a stash of cash here to pay’em.  You ready?”
“Yeah.”  Paula said, not sure if she’d ever seen that much cash in one place before.
Teresa closed the safe and spun the tumbler.  They went back out the way they came in.  She made sure the door was locked as they departed and again they gingerly negotiated the tricky stairs back to the BMW.  Teresa popped the trunk and placed the bottles in a bag next to the cooler Tank had asked her to bring.  It already had ice inside for the beer Tank and Billy were going to bring.
Closing her door Teresa looked around outside again.  “Nobody about...Good!”  She started the car and they headed out of the industrial neighborhood back on to I-95 and soon were driving on surface streets up Church Hill and on to meet the Dodson’s.

“You girls look damn sharp tonight.”  Tank gave them both a once over and then Billy claimed Paula resting his arm over her shoulder as she got out of the car.  She kissed him and ran her hand down his tattooed arm.  Both boys were wearing wife beaters and no jackets despite the cool early October evening air.  Paula and Billy got in the back seat while Tank got in front with Teresa. 
“Where are we off to?”  Teresa asked. 
“Out beyond the airport, there’s a place.”  Tank said as his hand wondered over to her thigh.
“Alright now.”  Teresa warned.  “I’m driving.  There’ll be plenty of time for that later.”  She smiled though to let him know she liked the attention.  His hand stayed on her leg.
They made small talk; Billy and Paula already making out in the back seat.  She drove as Tank instructed her where to go.  Her car was the reason they could go to this place tonight.  Tank and Billy had motorcycles but no car.  Neither was in school.  Tank was twenty three already, another attraction to Teresa...an older man.  Billy was eighteen like both Teresa and Paula but he’d dropped out of school.  The girls were both seniors.  Paula at a public school near her apartment and Teresa at an exclusive Catholic girl’s school in the west end of Richmond.
“Hey, pull over there.”  Tank instructed.  “And back up to the door.  You brought the cooler right?”
“Yeah.”  Teresa answered.   She pulled into the convenience store parking lot and backed in as he had asked.
“Come on Billy, let’s go get the beer.”  As the two of them got out of the car Teresa released the trunk lid. 
“Hey check out the stuff I got us.”  She said out of her window.  Tank opened the trunk and saw the bottles.  He picked them each up and then came around to her window.
“Damn girl, you know how to pick some smooch.  Alright, we are gonna have us a ball tonight!”  He leaned down and kissed her full on the lips.
Teresa swooned.  He liked her, she could tell.  His hand wondering into the front of her dress while he kissed her and it gave her tingles all over.  Then he and Billy were gone to get the beer.  She turned up the radio as she and Paula tapped their feet and hands to the beat.  Neither of them had had anything to drink or smoke yet tonight, but both were high on anticipation.  This was going to be a great night.
A few minute later the guys came bounding out of the store’s doors and yanked open the trunk they had not completely closed.  Teresa started the car knowing that the beer was going into the cooler.  They were ready.  She heard the trunk slammed shut and both boys got in the car quickly.
“Drive, drive!”  Tank yelled loudly.  He seemed very tense to her but Teresa jammed the accelerator down and the Beamer scooted out of the parking lot onto the street.  She even managed to squeal the tires a bit.  The boys were agitated and laughing nervously.
“What’s going on?”  Teresa asked confused.
Tanked laughed nervously, “We took some beer.”
“You stole it?”  Teresa asked, alarm bells going off in her head.
“Yeah, right out from under Habeeb’s face.”  Tank laughed.
“Why?  I gave you money to get the beer.”  Teresa asked.  Indeed she was financing this entire evening.
“Why the hell not?”  Tank answered.  “Hey turn here; we don’t want no cops finding us.”
“There’re going to be cops?”  Teresa was not liking this.  She was no saint but her thieving days were over; unless you counted stealing liquor from her daddy’s safe, and she didn’t.  A couple of shop lifting excursions during her teenage years had given her a juvenile record but she was over eighteen now.
For the next fifteen minutes they traveled back streets and roads putting as much distance between themselves and the convenience store as possible.  Eventually, Tank directed her back toward the party they were attending.
The house was crowded with people like Tank and Billy and girls like Paula.  No one explained whose place it was or who was hosting the party. Teresa felt out of place, but that was the thrill of it all.  She was a rebel and she couldn’t have explained it if she tried.  The night wore on.  There was music, attempts at dancing and lots of drinking and even pot and no doubt stronger drug use. 
By the time she left she was as drunk as her passengers.  She and Tank had made out in a bedroom of the house along with several others.  She noted that her underwear was nowhere to be found.  Driving at two in the morning was a challenge but they avoided the main streets and somehow the police.  She got Tank and Billy home and they grabbed their stuff from the trunk after kissing and feeling up their girls.  She managed to drive perfectly to get Paula home and then returned to her neighborhood and at last pulled into her driveway.  Amazingly she had avoided any RPD patrol cars.  She made her way to her room, ditched the dress, pulled on shorts and a t-shirt and collapsed in her bed.

“TERESA!” A loud voice that could only be her father woke her with a start.  He was banging on her locked bedroom door.  “Get the hell out here...NOW!”  He shouted.
Shit, what had she done now?  She jumped out of bed and wrenched open her door to discover not only her father but two Richmond Policemen in uniform.  Shit.
The nearest cop gently pushed her father aside as he said, “What the hell have you done now?”
“Teresa Brandon?”  The policeman asked. 
Her eyes were wide opened now.  She couldn’t find her voice so she just nodded yes.
“You are under arrest for armed robbery of Ritchie’s Convenience Store.  You have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an Attorney.  If you can’t afford an attorney one will be provided for you.  Do you understand your rights?”
Teresa began to cry.  “What armed robbery?  All they took was a damn 12 pack case of beer for god sake?”  While she was saying that the officer was roughly handcuffing her wrists behind her back.
“Shut up Teresa.”  Her father yelled at her.  We’ll sort this out at the police station.
In moments she was taken down the steps, out the front door and placed in the back seat of a police car.  Neighbors all around their house were taking it all in.  Her last look at her home was of her father holding her crying mother at the front door.

Chapter 1

Teresa

“Brandon?  Go get your shit ready.  You goin’ home today girl.”  The guard said as she rattled something along the bars on the door to the cell. 
Teresa looked up sadly.  Attila put her hand on Teresa’s, “You’ll be fine sweetie.  This is your day.”
“I’ll come visit you.”  Teresa said hopefully.
“No you won’t.  Don’t.  You stay as far away from this place as you can.  I’ve got great hopes for you.  Besides I haven’t got much longer myself.”  She hugged Teresa long and hard before she went back to gather her few belongings.
Her five year sentence was finally over just two and a half years in.  Of course to Teresa Brandon the two and half years had seemed like a lifetime.
Three and a half years had passed since the day she’d been dragged out of her home in Richmond accused of armed robbery of all things.  Teresa was now twenty-one; she’d be twenty-two in September.
That day she had been arraigned before a judge and assisted by her father’s attorney, Gregory Larson.  He’d told her that she’d been charged with armed robbery because the video from the convenience store clearly showed her car and license number and her driving.  Police didn’t know who her accomplices were but it would go easier on her if she’d tell all to the police.  Teresa was to say the least pissed.  She had no idea they’d stolen money or that they even had a gun.  She felt like a fool.  This time her devil-may-care attitude had really gotten her in deep shit.
They interrogated her for hours.  She explained over and over again that she had no idea what they had done.  She gave them Tank, Billy and Paula’s names.  Did Paula know about this before hand?  She didn’t think so, but maybe the police would believe her if Paula was as in the dark about the robbery as her.
She spent her first night in jail.  It was not a pleasant experience.  The next day more questioning and through her lawyer she learned that the others had been brought in.  After a few days she was finally allowed to make bail and go home.
Home was not as before.  Everyone in her family was upset with her.  Her oldest sister Tiffany wouldn’t even speak to her.  She had brought shame to the family.  Tiffany was married to an accountant, Glenn Carlyle.  They had one child Jeffrey, barely a year old.  Her next sister Tanya was attending Virginia Commonwealth University, majoring in advertising.  She was supportive to a point but not thrilled about it either.  Her brother, Thomas Jr. was in his second year at UVA, pre-law.  He wasn’t speaking to her.
Her parents were the worst though.  Her mother was a very social person.  She was into all the clubs and causes and took great pride in her social standing in the community.  A daughter being dragged from her home by the police was not socially acceptable at all.  Her father, Thomas Brandon of Brandon Construction, one of the city’s largest construction companies was furious at her.  To him her constant rebelliousness had been a sore spot for all of her teenage years.  Now she had really done it.  He hoped his attorney could get her off, but in the meantime she was on his shit list for sure.  Home was not a pleasant place.
School was another problem.  Despite her parent’s pleading her case the Catholic Girls only high school she attended would not have an accused armed robber attend their school.  She was expelled.  Teresa’s friends at school deserted her in droves.  She was dropped from their Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites.  Her father hired a tutor for her and told her to go for her GED.  It was the only chance at any kind of future she had now.  He sold her car and so she was pretty much stranded at home.
The month’s dragged by as the court system slowly got around to her case.  She had numerous meetings with her attorney and he even tried a plea bargain but the state was insisting on prison time for her.  They went to trial almost a year after the robbery.  Each participant was tried separately.  Paula’s trial was first.  Teresa was on the witness list.  Finally she would get to tell her side, that she did not know they were robbing the store.
Testimony for the prosecution began with the police who investigated the crime.  When Billy Dodson was questioned about Paula’s participation in the robbery he told the court that he’d never told her a thing about their plans.  Teresa and Todd (Tank) were never called to the stand.  Paula was acquitted and went free.  She smiled at Teresa when they made eye contact.
Two weeks later it was Teresa’s turn.  Her attorney was encouraged by Paula’s acquittal but concerned that the judge would allow her Juvenal arrests to be entered into the record.  His concern was valid; the judge said it was relevant because it showed a consistent disregard of the law on Teresa’s part.
Again the police were first with their investigation report.  The worst was of course the video of Teresa’s car pulling away from the store.  It clearly showed her driving, her widow down.  Then came the testimony.  Paula said she had no idea whether Teresa knew about the heist beforehand but she did tell in great detail how they had gotten the whiskey from her   father’s office before the robbery.  Todd was then called to the stand and indicated that yes, Teresa was their getaway driver.  He said he told her they’d robbed the place.  Teresa’s attorney on cross examination tried to establish that all he told her was they’d taken some beer but Todd proved to be less than cooperative on the stand.  While he never said she didn’t know about the whole plan beforehand he gave the impression that she did.  Not helpful.  The prosecution made much of her shoplifting exploits at thirteen and sixteen and then rested their case. 
Gregory Larson called a few experts; doctors who had worked with Teresa after her earlier shoplifting arrests.  They explained her as a rebellious ‘baby of the family’ who had seemed to have grown out of the tendency to steal for attention.  The prosecutor had an easy time making that testimony look silly.  Next Teresa took the stand.  She was honest in her answers to both her attorney and the prosecutor.  She maintained that she had no idea they even had a gun much less had robbed the store of anything more than a case of beer.  She said that made her uncomfortable but there was nothing she could do about it at the time.  She was remorseful.
The jury all agreed she was guilty and two days later the judge sentenced her to five years at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Virginia.  She was immediately taken into custody and the next day transferred to the facility.

Now two and a half years later, her sentence reduced because of good behavior and overcrowding, she was to finally leave this place.  While she waited for processing and the van which would return her to Richmond, she was lost in thought.  Teresa knew she was not the same girl who had arrived here two and a half years ago.  The place had changed her forever.  She could hardly remember who she had been.  When she did she was not happy with what she remembered.
She remembered being scared to death upon arrival.  Everyone in her block frightened her.  The way they looked at her, the way they spoke to her, the implied threat of violence.  Even the guards were frightening.  While they were mostly women a number of men served as guards here too.  There were rules but inside it seemed nothing was out of the realm of possibility.  She heard stories every time someone spoke to her.  Drugs were here, sex happened not just between inmates but with guards as well.  She had tried to keep a very low profile, but in prison a young attractive girl got noticed even if she tried not to be.
Within the first week she met Attila.  A couple of inmates were giving her trouble during the daily free time outside.  The guards were ignoring it.  There was some groping and advances by the two who had her in a corner away from most of the other inmates.
“Kasha, Mattie...Lay off her!”  A voice commanded.  It wasn’t a guard but instead an older woman in the same orange jump suit all of the inmates wore.
To Teresa’s surprise the women stepped away from her.  They gave her a look but walked away.
“Th...Thank you.”  Teresa meekly said.
“What’s you name sweetie?”  The woman asked.
“Teresa.  Teresa Brandon.”  She could see kindness in the woman’s eyes.  She had not seen that in anyone here before.
“Teresa.  What a pretty name.  They call me Attila.  I guess for Attila the Hun.”  Her eyes glanced from side to side as if looking for someone who might be listening.  “I killed my husband see and they respect that.”
Teresa didn’t know what to say.  Most of the women in this block were in for drugs, robbery and the lesser crimes.  The murderers were kept in another block.  “You killed your husband?”  She finally got out.
“He beat me and then he beat our son, so I shot him.  Planned it out and everything.  I’ve got about four more years on my twenty.”  She said it as if it were just a ho-hum everyday occurrence.
“Oh.” Teresa remembered saying.  Little did she know that Attila would become not only her best friend in prison but her lifeline to her future.  Attila adopted her, somehow became her cell mate and because the rest of the inmates respected her, Teresa’s time in prison would become at least tolerable.  Under Attila’s guidance she had learned the ropes of prison life and then taken online courses to complete two years of college while here.  She had managed to get her GED before the trial.

“Alright Brandon, here’s your stuff.  Go in there and change to street clothes and the van’ll be here when you come out.”  She was directed into a bathroom, an actual private one.  She hadn’t been in a private bathroom her entire time here.  She changed into the same jeans and button up shirt she’d arrived in.  They still fit.  She hadn’t gained any weight here.
When she came out the guard, whose name tag said Tillie offered her some parting words.  “Don’t let me see your sorry ass around here again Brandon.”  With that she pulled open the door and Teresa walked to the van along with two other departing inmates.  They climbed in and were told to fasten their seat belts.  They did.  Orders were something you followed around here.
The van deposited them in Richmond at the court house holding jail several hours later.  Here they were to meet their sponsors.  Someone who had volunteered to get them to their halfway house.  She had asked to be placed in Virginia Beach since her family had pretty much given up on her.  No one had visited her even once the entire time she was at Fluvanna.  No calls, no letters.  Her family had simply written her off.  Her sponsor was her new halfway house supervisor.  Not her sponsor because he wanted to be but because there was no one else to pick her up and get her there.
Jake Hamlet was a large man.  His hair was cut in a buzz cut with some designs on the side that kind of went with the tattoos on his arms and very large neck.  He looked like a football player or maybe a bouncer Teresa thought.
“You Brandon?”  He asked.
“Yes, yes sir.”  She replied already intimidated by him.
“I’m Jake Hamlet."  He didn’t offer to shake her hand.  “That all you got?”
She had a paper bag with some extra underwear and another t-shirt and some shorts, toothpaste, the money they gave her and not much else.  “Yep.”
“Get in.”  The car was an older Taurus.  She got in.  As he pulled out into the street he continued.  “So you’re from here but want to start over at the beach huh?”
“Yes sir.  I don’t really have anyone here, but a lot of people would recognize me, so I just want to start over someplace else.”
“Why the beach?  Think it’ll be easy there?  Cause, it won’t.”
She rolled her eyes.  “I use to go there a lot.  I know my way around, but nobody knows me there.”
“Okay, I’ll buy that.  You gonna go straight or get in trouble on me?”
Teresa thought about that for a moment.  “I didn’t rob the store I was sent up for.  I was just a driver on a date with the wrong guy.”
“Yeah, I’ve read your sheet.  Why the hell were you even in that part of Richmond with those kinds of people?”
“I was stupid I guess.  Looking for thrills...slumming my ex-friend called it.”
“Well at least you’re honest.”  He went quiet on her then and most of the trip down I-64 to Virginia Beach was spent with her quietly reflecting on her life up to now.  It sure hadn’t turned out like she’d thought it would.
After the usual stop and go traffic on 64 from Newport News to the bridge tunnel they finally got on I-264 and headed into Virginia Beach.  The halfway house was in an older neighborhood a few miles short of the beach.  It was a large older house that had been split into rooms for the residents and they shared the kitchen and living room.  At the moment she had a room to herself.  She suspected this room had once been a walk-in closet because it had no window and just barely room for a cot and a chest of drawers that she really had nothing to put in. 
“Brandon.  Get settled and I’ll give you some job prospects in the morning.  You need a job soon.”
This she knew.  She read over the rules of the house.  The idea was to get a former inmate into a house, get her a job and help her get re-acclimated to the outside world.  Teresa spent her first evening of freedom walking the nearby streets.  She listened to birds, the wind in the trees, people talking and jets from Oceana Naval Air Station flying over.  She could smell charcoal grills and burgers cooking.  Prison had always smelled like a cross between a gym locker room and disinfectant.  She reveled in everything she had missed.  Everything she had once ignored or taken for granted.