Read Slocum's Breakout for Free Online

couldn’t send Slocum and his two partners to the hell of solitary if he saw anything amiss.
    The guard puffed contentedly on his cigarette, not moving.
    Slocum continued to push hard against the door, hoping to get it open so he could reach the other side of the wall. The guard wasn’t armed so he couldn’t shoot Slocum if he had to run, but sounding the alarm would bring a swarm of guards Slocum wanted to avoid.
    The guard finished his smoke, then walked toward Slocum. The guard stopped, shuffled his feet in the dirt as if noticing a hunk of concrete or something else out of the ordinary. He gave a slight shrug, as if realizing he couldn’t figure out what he had seen, then continued his patrol. Slocum remained flattened in the cavity in the wall. The moonless night worked in his favor and hid him enough so that the guard walked past.
    It took another interminable minute before the guard reached the far end of the building, then turned and disappeared. Slocum wasted no time spinning around and hammering the pick against the hinges. They popped open within seconds. A swift kick sent the door tumbling away.
    Both Valenzuela and Murrieta joined him.
    â€œWell done, novio ,” Valenzuela congratulated him. He laughed in a way that irrationally irritated Slocum. He didn’t like being reminded that Conchita considered him her lover, although it was true. “She will reward you well.”
    â€œSilencio,” Murrieta said. He pushed them through the open doorway. “We must not betray ourselves now.”
    Slocum agreed with the son of Joaquin Murrieta. The less said now, the better.
    They had come out on the west side of the prison. San Francisco Bay lapped on the shoreline to their left, giving them a constant beacon so they wouldn’t be distracted from their escape and walk in circles. In the darkness Slocum knew this was a distinct possibility. The last thing he wanted was to end up where they had started. The only way off the outjut of land into the Bay was westward. Then they might swing around and get down to Tiburon and take the ferry across to Oakland. Better to go farther south still and find a way across the Golden Gate to San Francisco, if that ferry wasn’t running at night.
    He stopped and stared at their striped canvas prison garb and knew that wouldn’t happen until they changed clothes. The wooded area thinned as they ran farther west.
    â€œI need to get my bearings,” Slocum said.
    â€œWhat for? We can go only this way. In any other we would have to swim,” said Murrieta.
    â€œI cached some clothes and guns,” he said.
    â€œWhat?” Murrieta stopped and stared at Slocum.
    â€œWhy would you do such a thing unless . . .”
    â€œUnless he got into prison to break me out,” José Valenzuela said proudly. “Conchita did not find a fool for this dangerous jailbreak.”
    â€œYou were sent?” Murrieta shook his head in disbelief. “I have planned for months how to escape but never did I have anyone outside helping me.”
    â€œYou didn’t need it,” Slocum said, slapping him on the back. “You had me. I’ve got clothes for me and José.”
    â€œConchita raided my wardrobe, eh?” Valenzuela laughed heartily. “I must see how she chose to dress me.”
    Slocum stared at Valenzuela but could not see the man’s face in the dark. Something about the way he spoke of his sister put Slocum on edge.
    â€œThey are after us,” Murrieta said, turning to look at their back trail.
    â€œI hear nothing,” Valenzuela said. “Come, let us keep going, find those clothes Jarvis has told us of.” He reached out, made his hand into a gun, and pretended to fire. “I would also have a six-shooter in my hand once more. You have a six-shooter for me?”
    Slocum ignored Valenzuela and went to stand beside Murrieta. The wind blowing through the trees masked much of the sound. What