Savage Ice (Ice Breaker Cold Case #10)

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

His hands curled around Avalon’s waist. Her mouth was open beneath his, her taste making him mad with need, but this was not the place. Alarm bells were ringing in his head because of the crap that Everett had said.

How had he known about the Jag? I never told a soul about the Jag. And how did he know I was in a gang back then? How did he?—

Avalon pulled back. Her long lashes lifted.

And Beau realized that the alarm bells weren’t ringing just in his head. An actual alarm was blasting through the prison. Fear filled her green eyes.

“What’s happening?”

He grabbed her arm and ran for the door. Even as he reached out to yank it open, Douglas surged inside.

The DA yelled, “Lockdown!”

The alarm seemed to blare louder.

“The whole damn place is going under a lockdown. There’s been an attack in the yard. Swarm of prisoners jumped someone.” Douglas had yanked off his tie. “Come with me, now, before we all get our asses trapped in here for who the hell knows how long!”

Like Beau had to be told twice. He kept his hand wrapped around Avalon’s wrist. Adrenaline spiked in his blood. Wasn’t this one of the things he’d always feared when it came to Avalon? That she’d be trapped with killers when something bad happened? An inattentive guard who let a prisoner get too close? A riot where there was no control?

He’d spread the word hard at every prison she entered. Made it clear through his connections that she was not to be touched. But he still had enemies. People who might not follow along like they were supposed to.

People like freaking Everett Thomas.

You’re a dead man, Everett.

Guards were running forward.

He heard talk of tear gas being deployed. There were more frantic shouts. Metal doors clanged shut. Douglas hauled ass, but the DA kept glancing back to make sure he was being followed by Beau and Avalon, and it was while he was glancing back that last time—that was when he was attacked.

A bear of a prisoner in a garish, orange jumpsuit came out screaming, and he swung what looked like a lunch tray into the side of Douglas’s head. Douglas cried out in pain even as he stumbled to the side and slammed into the prison bars of an empty cell.

The prisoner raised the tray again?—

Beau plowed into him. He drove his shoulder into the man’s chest, and then he pounded his fist right into the prick’s groin. Oh, what? Like he wasn’t supposed to play dirty? It was the only way Beau knew how to play.

The tray clattered to the floor.

The prisoner grabbed his dick and moaned in pain.

“Douglas? Douglas, are you all right?” Avalon’s soft voice.

The prisoner’s shaved head whipped up. His eyes locked right on her. Lust. Hunger. A wide smile curved his fat lips.

Beau scooped up the tray. Not really a tray. Felt more like a damn drawer. Where had the prisoner gotten it? Did he even want to know?

I want to get Avalon out of this hell. That’s what I want.

The prisoner tried to lunge for Avalon.

Beau kicked him in his already wounded dick and slammed the tray or drawer or whatever it was against the side of the bastard’s head. Then he slammed it into the jerk’s face. Blood spattered. A tooth might have dropped to the floor.

The prisoner went down hard.

“Guess you didn’t get the memo.” Beau glared down at him. “No one touches her.” He lifted his makeshift weapon again.

“Beau? A little help?”

He whirled instantly and saw Avalon staggering to lift Douglas off the floor. A bleeding and blearily blinking Douglas. She had one of his arms stretched behind her shoulders. The two of them were toppling and about to hit the floor again.

He dropped the makeshift weapon. “Fuck.” He also grabbed Douglas. Because leaving him wasn’t an option. The DA left alone during a riot? Oh, yeah, that wouldn’t end well for the man. “You will owe me for this,” he grunted as he slung Douglas over his left shoulder.

Then Beau grabbed Avalon’s wrist again and barreled forward on the path they had been taking. “DA,” he snarled. “Wake that ass of yours up fully. Tell me where to go.” Because this was not the route they’d used on the way to the interrogation with Everett.

He had to get Avalon to safety. Right the hell then.

Another door opened. Beau tensed, more than ready to fight another attacker. No one was going to touch Avalon.

But it was the warden. Beau recognized the man because he’d been glowering during the check-in when Avalon and Beau had first arrived at McKinley prison.

“This way!” The warden motioned frantically. “I saw you on the security feed. Get Douglas over here, now!”

He went there but sent Avalon through the doorway to safety first. Then he followed with Douglas. The door shut behind them. Another clang. And another corridor waiting up ahead. But guards were there, too. Rushing up to cover the rear of their group. Beau followed Avalon and the warden. More twists. Turns. Doors that were lined with bars slammed shut behind them time after time, and then…then they were in what looked like an infirmary.

“Put Douglas on a bed. Nurse? Nurse!” A shout from the warden. “Check him out, now!”

A male nurse in white scrubs rushed forward.

Douglas blinked when Beau dropped him on the bed. “Wh-what—” A ragged groan took away the rest of his words.

“You’re alive,” Beau told him, voice hard. As hard as the rage burning through him because Avalon should not be in the middle of this danger. “You can thank me later. Trust me, I will collect on the thanks. Probably with interest.” He spun, caught Avalon’s smaller hand in his, and bluntly told the warden, “Avalon is out of here. Now. Show me the exit.”

“There’s a riot going on!” Sweat dotted the warden’s forehead. “A prisoner was just attacked in the yard. A gang swarmed him. Shanked him again and again! We can see the body on security footage, but we can’t get to him.”

“Body?” Avalon sidled even closer to Beau. “You’re sure the victim is dead?”

“With that much blood, I’m gonna say that, hell, yes, the Slasher is dead.”

Slasher.

Dead, right after leaving their meeting?

“We’re going to use tear gas in the yard. The attackers will disassemble. I’ve got them on camera. They’ll be prosecuted. They will be—oh, fuck, most of them were already in for life, anyway. What the hell will more time do to them?” The warden whirled away. He pointed at a guard. “Moses, get them clear. Now.”

Moses—tall, with grim features, dark eyes, and a posture that said he was ready for battle—nodded. Then he started moving, fast.

Beau followed, making sure that Avalon was with him every step of the way. He remained as tense as Moses because he expected an attack to come at any moment. In a lockdown, people weren’t supposed to be allowed out, but there was no way Avalon was staying in that prison while hell was breaking loose. If the warden hadn’t seen the wisdom in the fact that she needed to flee, then Beau would have just been kicking that guy in the dick, too.

Moses typed in a fast code near a closed, massive steel door. With a beep and hiss, the door opened. “Go!” Moses urged.

Alarms were still blaring.

But they were almost out. Beau curled his arms around Avalon and urged her in front of him. He glanced back.

Moses dipped his head toward him.

Moses Milroy had sure changed one hell of a lot over the years. Once upon a time, plenty of people would have been sure that Moses would be the one who wound up behind the bars. Being a prisoner. Not the individual keeping the prisoners in check. But Moses was a proud father of two now. His wife was finishing up nursing school.

They planned to move down to Pensacola in a few months. Fresh starts for them both.

Beau would make sure that Moses was given one damn fine housewarming present when that move came.

Then Beau and Avalon were being checked by more guards. Cleared. Sent out of the prison and into the sunshine as, behind them, chaos still reigned.

Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

When the last guards gave them the all clear, Beau opened the passenger side of his car and ushered her inside. He hooked the seatbelt across her, then ran his hands quickly over her arms and legs. “You’re not hurt.” Not a question.

Her hands fisted in her lap.

“Avalon, you’re not hurt.”

Still didn’t sound like a question to her, but she managed to shake her head because she had the feeling he was not going to move until she did something, and she very, very much would like for him to move. To get in the car and get them out of there. Now, please.

He slammed the door and rushed around to the driver’s side. In moments, the Jag’s engine was growling to life.

“He…knew you drove a Jag.” Her heartbeat thudded too loudly in her ears. “He’s been watching you. Having someone watch you. Everett knew this specific car. He mentioned your Jag.” He’d been taunting them. And now he was dead? It wasn’t that she felt bad about his death. He’d been a monster. One of the worst killers out there.

But, he’d had answers, dammit. Answers that she needed. And now she might never get them.

“He wasn’t talking about this car. The bastard was talking about the ride I was stealing the night you and I first met.”

She looked up from her fisted hands. Her stare flew to his hard profile. A muscle flexed along his jaw.

“Didn’t you wonder why I was there? In the middle of the damn night?”

“I was…” Avalon swallowed to ease the dryness of her throat. “I was just grateful you were.” She hadn’t stopped to question why he’d been at the scene.

The engine growled louder as they sped down the road.

“I’m surprised they let us leave,” she breathed. She truly was. “They searched us, and they checked the car, I know they did, but I-I thought they might hold us until the facility was secure.”

“No prisoners are getting out. You’re only out because the last thing the warden wanted was a PR nightmare on the news in which a pretty crime writer got attacked or killed in his prison.” A growl. Not from the car this time. From him. “You know what you do is damn dangerous. I do my best to protect you, but I can’t control everyone. They’re fucking killers and rapists. The worst bastards out there. You can’t control them. You can’t play your games with them. Dammit, what if I had not been there?”

“But you’re always there.” Her nails bit into her palms. “Aren’t you?”

That muscle jerked harder in his jaw.

“You do your best to protect me…” She let those words—his words—linger between them. “You knew the guard who led us out of the prison. Moses. I saw the way you two looked at each other.”

He didn’t deny her words. Didn’t confirm them either.

“You knew him,” she repeated.

“Yes.” A hiss.

“But you know others in there, too, don’t you? Maybe some guards. Maybe some prisoners.” Everything was slipping into place for her. “You’ve got connections everywhere, don’t you?” The implications of his true reach stunned her. “I once asked if you were a crime boss, and my God, I think you are.”

“Told you before, my businesses are legitimate.”

“Now. What you said was that your businesses are legitimate now. A very important qualifier—and would you slow down? You’re scaring me. Just because a car can go this fast doesn’t mean it should!”

Immediately, he slowed. They were on a long, lonely stretch of road that led to the prison. No houses nearby. No businesses. Because who really wanted to be neighbors with a maximum-security facility that housed the most dangerous criminals in the state?

And Beau knows them. Beau knows so much he didn’t reveal to me. “I trusted you.”

“Did you? Because I thought your trust was a lie. Isn’t that why you kissed me right after saying you trusted me? Our little lie game.” Angry words. Mocking.

Avalon sucked in a shuddering breath. “I fucked you last night. I don’t fuck men that I don’t trust. You know so much about me, so really, shouldn’t you know that?”

“You were just in danger. There were too many of them, and I didn’t think I could get you out. I’m not thinking clearly. I have to get you away from here.” His knuckles whitened around the wheel. He huffed out a breath. “And I’m not a crime boss.”

She could feel his rage in the car, but she could also feel her own fury and Avalon wasn’t about to back down. She wanted the full truth from him. “You’ve been watching me for years. Getting other people to watch me. When I go in prisons, do you have eyes on me then?”

“You don’t get to have sit-down chats with the worst predators out there without me having contingency plans in place. Bad shit happens. Just like today.” He slanted a glance in the rearview mirror. Automatically, Avalon whipped around to make sure they weren’t being followed.

They weren’t.

“I wanted to make sure you were safe,” he gritted from between clenched teeth.

“Because I’m your good thing. Right. Been over that. You’ve been stalking me because I’m good and you are?—”

“I’ve been watching over you because I’ve been in love with you since I was sixteen years old! Fuck! Fuck!” A hard shake of his head. “You were just in a prison riot. You could have been ripped apart. Douglas was on the floor. That big, burly bastard was coming at you. My contingencies weren’t going to save you. I had stayed away all this time—thought it was better for you. Thought you deserved better than me. But if I hadn’t been there today, what the hell would have happened to you?”

Her breath exhaled slowly. She opened her fisted hands. Stared down at the small half-moon marks that had been left by her nails. “Simple. I would probably be dead. So, what does that make? The fourth time you’ve saved me? The fifth? Maybe the hundredth? What the hell am I? Lois Lane while you’re some undercover Superman?”

“You’re everything! Everything. And that’s why I’m so absolutely insane where you’re concerned.”