Chapter 7 #2
I glance toward the door of the conference room and silently point out the other prisoners who are starting to crowd around, every last one of them more than happy to take my place in this room. “Take your pick, Menace.”
Aria doesn’t respond, just stands there shaking like a cold, wet dog, and I scoff at her performance. “Have it your way.” I pick up my bloodied shiv and wipe it on my pants before starting toward the door, and she quickly snaps into motion.
“WAIT!” she cries, scrambling after me. “I don’t want to die.”
I hold her stare. Let’s be honest, I wasn’t planning on leaving this room without her. I have a plan, and I’ll be sticking with it, but it would be a shitload easier to pull it off if she weren’t fighting with me the whole way.
“You listen to me. You want to get out of this prison still breathing, then you move when I say you move. You shut up when I say to shut up. And you run like your fucking life depends on it when I tell you to. No questions asked. Is that clear?”
“I . . . I thought you wanted to kill me. Why are you helping me?”
I grin. “Oh, baby. I’m not doing this for your benefit. The sooner I get you alone. The sooner I make you pay for what you did.”
She shakes her head, her brows furrowed. “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything. I don’t know what—”
“Move.” I shove her in front of me toward the door. The other inmates track her every move, hoping for their chance to get a closer look at the pretty woman strutting through the prison.
I hold the gun up, resting it over her shoulder, ready to take a shot at anyone who even attempts to take my prize, but I’ve already taken out the heavy hitters. The rest of them should have enough common sense to leave us the fuck alone. In theory.
“Well, shit,” Leads, one of the newer prisoners, calls out from across the hall as wolf whistles surround us. “Give us a crack at her once you’re finished, big man.”
Someone else laughs. “Ha. You seen the size of this fucker? There won’t be anything left once he’s through with her. He’ll split the bitch in two.”
I ignore every last comment, keeping my focus on getting out of here. From the sound of it, the majority of the prisoners are in the canteen, probably keeping themselves distracted with whichever guards were caught in here when the gates malfunctioned.
“You,” I say, looking at one of the older prisoners who generally keeps to himself if he can help it. He’s been here for well over twenty years and knows every in and out of this place, much better than any of the guards. “What’s the deal?”
“Doors malfunctioned. Only C-block. Cells, canteen, and first aid rooms are free for all. Fucking riot. You don’t wanna take that pretty thing out there. Not even the likes of you could fend off all of those assholes.”
I nod. “This happened before?”
“Fifteen or so years ago, over in D-block.”
“How long?”
“Riot squad was making headway within two hours, but times have changed. Doubt you’ll get that long to enjoy that pretty thing.”
I nod and give Aria another shove. “Keep moving.”
She clenches her jaw but does as she’s asked, every step full of hesitation, not knowing what lies ahead. Screams, roars, grunts, and cries fill every corner of C-block, the sounds echoing like an eerie haunt through the long corridors.
There’s not a guard in sight, and judging from the random gunshots coming from deeper in the prison, it’s clear more than just the two guards I took out have lost their lives today, their guns now in the hands of desperate inmates.
Surveillance cameras are in pieces on the ground, shattered beyond recognition. The corridor starts to clear out, and when we’re completely alone, I start trying the handles of the doors, searching for anywhere I can stash this woman for the time being.
They’re all locked, and just as I come up to the janitorial closet where all the cleaning supplies are kept for C-block, I hear someone coming our way.
“FUCK!” I grunt, trying the handle again, only to shove against it and break the locking mechanism.
It swings open, and just as someone comes around the corner, I shove Aria inside, quickly following behind her.
“Get in,” I say, pushing her deeper into the small closet, the smell of cleaning products already singeing my nose as I grab a shelving unit and move it in front of the door, barricading us in.
“What are you . . . What . . . What do—”
I shove her against the shelving unit, my hand clamping over her mouth. “I thought I made myself clear. No questions asked.”
Aria shoves me away, and I reluctantly give her space before searching the small closet.
It won’t be long before word gets around that she’s wandering the halls like a chew toy, and when the other prisoners find out, I need to have her out of sight.
And this janitor’s closet is the first place they’re going to look.
“Fucking hell,” I mutter to myself, looking around for anything. My gaze shifts up to the ceiling hatch above. My brow arches. What are the chances that I can break through that?
It looks as though it’s been welded closed, but the technician who did it hasn’t done a good job. If I could get something to jimmy between those gaps, there’s a chance I could snap it open.
I dig through the shit on the shelves. “Move,” I tell Aria, getting to the unit at her back.
“What are you looking for?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. A screwdriver or something small and heavy-duty.”
“Why? Gonna rip my throat out too?”
“Ever forced a young inmate to suck your cock until it hit the back of their throat, only to slit his throat in front of fifty fucking prisoners?”
She gasps, looking at me in horror. “WHAT? No!”
“Then I suppose I don’t need to tear your throat out, do I?”
“Fuck,” she grunts, starting to pace as she shakes her head. “Is that really the shit that goes on in here?”
“What do you think? That it was all rainbows and unicorns? That the assholes in here live by a moral compass and would kindly ask for consent before trying to fuck you? You think if you say no, they actually respect your decision and apologize for trying to cross boundaries? The men in the real world aren’t that respectful, so why the fuck would it be any better in here?
This is a fucking maximum security prison, Menace. This is the worst of the worst.”
She huffs and grabs containers of shit, tipping them out, searching through the wreckage. “Why do you keep calling me that? My name is Aria. Not . . . not Menace.”
My head whips toward her, my brows furrowed.
The fuck did she just ask me? She has got to be fucking kidding me right now.
Why is she doing this? I figured at first she was trying to pretend as though there’s not a world of history between us in front of her boss, but now?
What’s the fucking point? It’s just us here.
I want to argue with her, to knock some goddamn sense into her and find out why the fuck she keeps denying all this basic shit, but I notice a piece of rebar in the pile of shit she just poured out.
“There. Give me that,” I say, trying to put a lid on my temper.
I can deal with all that other shit later.
For now, I need to figure out how the fuck I’m going to break us both out of this hellhole, and once that’s done, I can set my sights on the she-devil beside me.
The benefit of being six-seven is that I don’t need a ladder when trying to fuck with the ceiling, and as I jam the old piece of rebar into the hole and try to break through the welds, nothing stands in my way.
“What the hell are you trying to do?” Aria sneers.
“We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
She scoffs, irritation thick in her tone, and it’s more than clear that she’s had enough of this bullshit, but she’s not the only one.
“Don’t know if you’re aware, but this is a maximum security prison.
There is no getting out of here. Do you have any idea how many security gates I had to get through just to get to the first induction room?
Hate to break the news, assshole, but we’re not going anywhere. ”
“Have it your way, princess,” I grunt, breaking through the last of the shitty welds and popping the ceiling hatch out, opening us to a whole world of potential. “But I’m getting out of here. Feel free to take your chances on your own.”
With that, I reach up and grab the frame of the manhole and pull myself up into it, leaving Aria to fend for herself as I disappear above.
“FUCK!” she grunts, pacing the small room, clearly not enjoying any of her chances, but she knows damn well that if she stays behind, her ending is going to be far worse than the one I have in store for her. “Wait. I’m coming.”