The Warden stood on the wall and surveyed the exercise yard with sharp eyes. The yard was basically separated into two sections, as it had been for years; the Daggers and their allies on one side taking up the free weights and on the basketball court was the Aces and those loyal to them. The Daggers were lead by a con serving four life sentences named Thomas Buckley or Snake as he liked to be called. And the Aces were lead by an equally dangerous con named Louis Roscoe aka Thor. And on a regular day you could find the two gangs at each others throats but today was quiet and that had the Warden worried; quiet days meant something was brewing. Something big and something bad. It was the quiet that had him double up on guards. Better safe than sorry and he most certainly didn't want a repeat of '04. A commotion near the edge of the basketball court drew his attention and he watched as the guards on duty moved in to brake up the impending fight before it could spread. He took note that it was the Daggers very own Lieutenant and his friend that had tauntingly crossed the invisible line that divided the yard in half. If asked three years ago if those two were gonna be any trouble he would have said no without hesitation. But now….now they were just as dangerous as their fellow Daggers. He must have zoned out because before he knew it the yard was empty and he was being joined on the wall by one of the guards that had contained the situation in the yard earlier. "What was it about this time?"

"Word is the Aces are responsible for putting Carlos Reynaldo in the infirmary." The guard, Jonathan Watkins, reported. "I don't think Snake is gonna let this matter drop until he has blood."

"Carlos Reynaldo." The Warden searched his memory. "He just arrived a couple of weeks ago, right? He's serving time for manslaughter. He one of Snake's boys?"

The guard nodded. "From what I heard they took him in right off the bus. He has yet to get his tat but I'm guessing it'll be waiting for him when he gets out of the infirmary."

Sighing the Warden shook his head. "Search their cells before he's released and confiscate all items that can be jerry-rigged into a tattoo gun. I don't want to see any ink on the boy, understood?"

"Yes, sir." The guard nodded and went off to see about organizing a series of searches of the Daggers cells. He'd oversee the search personally.

One Week Later

As the Warden watched the convicts eat from his office above he couldn't help but notice that the Daggers had an extra body at their tables. Somehow, despite his best efforts, Carlos Reynaldo, still sporting bruises and stitches, had received his tattoo, a dagger on both sides of his neck stretching from ear to collar bone. It was the tattoo that all Daggers sported just like the Aces all sported tattoos of Ace of Spade cards on the right side of their necks. He knew it was more than an initiation into the gang. It was a death sentence to the person that had put Carlos into the infirmary. He also knew that in a day or two a body belonging to the Aces would be found in the shower room stabbed to death with no witnesses. He watched as the newest member was welcomed and after a few moments hit the intercom near the door. "Escort Misters Spencer and Guster to my office please." Grey eyes once again returned to scene below and he watched with grim satisfaction as the two men sitting on either side of Carlos was hauled to their feet, their identical tats catching the light, and escorted, protesting, from the cafeteria. He knew he'd get nothing from them and he wasn't sure why he still singled them out. Their days of helping any law enforcement officer was over and had been the moment they were accepted into the Daggers. It was admittedly sad to have bared witness to those twos loss of innocence as gradual as it was. He knew they had yet, in all three years they had been incarcerated, to receive any visitors. No friends or family waited for them on visiting day and he could see it in their eyes that they no longer longed for contact from the outside world. The Daggers were their family; a family that took care of their own. He could still remember the look in Spencers eyes when he was told that the men that had hurt Guster, that had put him in the infirmary because of the color of his skin, were gonna get away with it because there was no evidence but the eye witness account of another convict. It was that moment that Shawn Spencer accepted that he was a convict and two days later he joined the Daggers and two days after that the guys that had beaten Burton Guster to within an inch of his life were laid up in the infirmary sporting broken bones and concussions. The Warden had held out hope that once Guster was released he'd talk some sense into his friend but instead, weather it was out of gratitude to the Daggers for carrying out some form of justice or loyalty to his friend, Burton 'Gus' Guster turned up with daggers inked on his neck and elevated status within the prison population; he was off limits and everyone knew it and accepted it. He moved around his desk when a knock sounded on the door. "Show them in." Everyone else may have given up on these two but he'd be damned if he was.