11. Ripley
CHAPTER 11
RIPLEY
BIPOLAR RHAPSODY – KID brUNSWICK
Patients march towards the cafeteria in regimented lines, trapped under the watchful gaze of stony-faced guards. Everyone’s on edge. A sleepless night of shouting and constant alarms blaring has left us all haggard.
When we were escorted back to our rooms, no one on the fifth or sixth floor knew what had happened. Rumours circled, but I don’t believe the ramblings of Joshua—our resident schizophrenic. He once claimed to have seen Santa Claus dancing naked in the quad.
Rae slips between several patients to sidle up to me. “What’s the stink?”
“You didn’t see what happened either?”
“Nah.” She glances around at the heavier than usual security presence. “Just heard about it through the grapevine. Did someone get their ass kicked?”
“I guess so.”
Fights in Harrowdean aren’t uncommon, but most people lack the energy to start shit here. They’re far too concerned with the messy business of surviving day to day. But when scuffles happen, they get violent fast.
“That’s unlike you,” Rae comments.
“Huh?” I shoot her a look.
Waggling her auburn brows, she grins at me. “You’re usually the first to know everyone’s business around here. What had you so busy that you missed a fight?”
Cheeks heating, I avert my eyes. The memory of Raine and his sordid whispers making me come so hard I saw stars fills my mind. Fuck, does he know how to get a girl off.
It was a shame that we were forced apart afterwards, or I would’ve happily returned the favour. I’m dying to get my hands on that man’s body. I’d like to see if he’ll live up to all his filthy promises.
“Oh,” she says knowingly. “It’s like that, is it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Sure.” Rae nudges my shoulder as she walks beside me. “I had no idea that you could blush. Must’ve been a hell of a show.”
“We are so not discussing this.”
Jogging to catch up to us despite the grumblings of disgruntled guards, Noah stands on my other side. I don’t miss the way he scans over me, checking for any signs of harm.
“You both alright?”
“We didn’t see anything,” Rae answers.
His throat contracts as he skims a hand over his mouth. “Someone went berserk last night. Guards dragged ‘em outside, and a bunch of others followed. A full-blown mob fight broke out.”
Rae gawps at him. “Seriously?”
I know this place is a fair comparison to hell on earth, but seriously, what the fuck? The guards abuse their authority more often than not. The sedatives and restraints usually come out long before this kind of thing happens, though.
“You saw the fight?” I clarify.
He nods solemnly. “It was chaos with all these idiots joining in, but I saw who the three guards dragged outside. Carlos started it.”
Well, double shit. Carlos is Rick’s lapdog. If what Noah says is true, the resident asshole is going to be out for blood. No wonder several others joined in. No one messes with his friends and gets away with it.
“Where were you last night?” Noah frowns.
“The gym.”
His eyes scan over me, cataloguing the bruise-like smudges beneath my eyes and the still-present trembling of my body on overdrive. The gruelling run and fooling around with Raine hasn’t quite taken the edge off.
I only bother going to work out when I’m struggling to hold it together. I’ve also been known to seek Noah out for a quick fuck when those episodes hit. But not this time. I haven’t even considered approaching him since my attention moved elsewhere.
“You didn’t call.”
“I didn’t need to,” I answer impassively.
Rae’s gaze bounces between the two of us, caught somewhere between confusion and amusement. Great. It’s painfully obvious that I wasn’t with my usual go-to hook-up last night. I can see she’s desperate for details about where I was.
“What about that… other thing?” Noah asks quietly.
“What other thing?” Rae looks between us.
“I need more time.” I ignore her, pitching my voice low. “But be ready.”
He nods in understanding. “I will be.”
Before Rae can continue fishing for information, a harsh voice barks, startling us all.
“Silence!”
The guard, Kieran, is one of Elon’s scowling sycophants. He pierces the three of us with a glare until we’re forced to shut up. I catch Noah’s gaze, and he shakes his head, warning me off talking back to this wanker.
“What crawled up your ass and forgot to die?” I snap, disregarding Noah.
Several nearby patients sneak us nervous looks, waiting to see Kieran’s reaction. It’s clear that even the guards are on edge this morning.
“You want to say that again?” Kieran returns, hands on his hips.
“Why? Are you deaf as well as stupid now?”
Laughing under her breath, Rae catches his attention next. His lips curl in a derisive sneer as he takes a step closer to her. She can’t stop laughing at him.
“That’s insubordination, inmate. Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Rae giggles.
“A night in solitary ought to shut you up.”
The colour drains from her face as her laughter dies off. Rae hasn’t experienced that delight yet, and I have no doubt a night in a cell with nothing but her own mind for company will truly end her.
“She’s just laughing,” I defend.
“Enough,” he snaps at me. “You were told to be silent!”
“You’re threatening my friend.”
“Then she should’ve kept her goddamn mouth shut, shouldn’t she?”
Seeing the visceral terror on Rae’s face is the final straw. Regardless of the awful things I’ve enabled her to do to herself, I still care about her. I’ll take this dick’s wrath before letting her suffer.
“You can’t talk to us like that,” I chide. “We still have rights.”
“Not that I noticed,” Kieran sneers.
Consequences or not, I want to beat the shit-eating smile off this bastard’s face. Whatever happened last night has nothing to do with us. He can take his bad attitude elsewhere.
“You all need to learn who is in charge around here!” he rages loudly, his voice causing several patients to startle. “Disrespect will not be tolerated.”
“I’m s-sorry.” Rae is now trembling, her eyes filling with tears. “Please don’t make me go to the hole.”
“I don’t give a shit, inmate. You’re coming with me.”
“No!”
“Enough! You’re out of here!”
When Kieran reaches out to restrain her, I leap into action and step in front of Rae. She ducks behind my shoulder, her cheeks stained with tears.
“Leave her alone. She’s done nothing wrong.”
“You both wanna go down there instead?” His spit flies angrily.
“Gladly!” I shout back. “If it’ll mean I don’t have to look at your ugly mug for a second longer.”
His narrowed eyes fill with discontent. “You little…”
Drawing his baton from the belt around his waist, he raises it high. I try to move to protect myself from the blow, but sandwiched between the tight press of patients, I’m too late to avoid it swinging towards me.
“Rip!” Noah bellows.
Pain blooms in my abdomen from the hard strike. I double over, coughing and wheezing as I fight to avoid hurling. I feel an arm wrap around me as I blink aside tears. I won’t give him the satisfaction.
“That fucking hurt,” I grit out.
“Now, now.” Elon’s smarmy voice nears. “What’s going on here?”
With my head lowered, I can see his shining black boots approaching our huddle. He easily parts the crowd around us before stopping next to his dickhead colleague.
“Nothing to worry about,” Kieran responds.
“Then let’s not make a scene.”
“But sir, she?—”
“Move along, everyone,” Elon commands. “Nothing to see here.”
Surrounding patients begin to shuffle away, resuming their trudge into the cafeteria. I hear Elon move closer, his knees bending so he can lower himself to my level.
“When will you learn to keep that loud mouth of yours shut?” he hisses.
“Fuck off,” I croak.
“Get your ass inside, Ripley. My patience for you is wearing very thin.”
Returning to his full height, I hear Elon clap his pal on the shoulder before he saunters away. Kieran reluctantly follows him, still complaining to himself about tossing our asses in solitary.
“Jesus Christ,” Noah grunts. “They’ve lost their minds.”
“Can you stand?” Rae touches my shoulder.
Nodding, I straighten my spine, despite the fierce agony curling around my midsection. Rae backs off at my cursing, giving me some space to breathe.
My eyes catch a pair of seafoam orbs amidst the crowd. Lennox isn’t even fighting to hold back his grin. He shifts to murmur something in Xander’s ear, the pair of them watching me struggle. Raine is nowhere in sight.
Teeth bared, I flip them off.
Xander slips back into the crowd with his buddy. I’ve caught him silently following me several times recently, never once saying a word, but keeping me within his sights at all times. Stalking. Hunting. Studying.
I’d very much like to take that baton from Kieran and shove it up Xander’s asshole. Perhaps he’d learn then that I’m not some scientific curiosity for him to tear apart. I don’t even want to consider what he’s planning.
“Come on.” Rae grips my elbow. “Let’s go before we get in more trouble.”
“Yeah.”
“Um, Rip?” A rush of breath shoots from between her lips. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”
I study her tear-streaked cheeks and glassy, kohl-lined eyes. Emotion claws at my throat. Thick. Cloying. A bittersweet concoction that I usually shove down as deep as possible when I fulfil her regular orders.
“You deserve better, Rae.”
“Than what?”
The backs of my eyes burn. “Than any of this.”
Arm curled around my aching waist, I turn away and follow the moving flow of patients. Noah accompanies us through the packed reception and into the awaiting cafeteria where long tables are slowly filling up.
At the head of the room, Davis watches over us all with cold calculation. His salt-and-pepper hair is slicked back today, perfectly matching his impeccably tailored suit.
We approach an almost full table, the few patients spread across the seats quickly scattering when I cast an eye over them. A couple even mumble apologies without daring to look up at me.
Rae takes the seat opposite. “What does the warden want?”
I shrug, easing myself into the chair with a wince. Before Noah can sit down next to me, a huge, scarred hand clamps down on his shoulder. He’s roughly shoved aside so someone else can take his place.
“Seat’s taken,” Lennox growls roughly.
I glower up at his smiling mug. “Like fuck it is.”
Despite his smirk, the predatory gleam in Lennox’s eyes is pure malice. He ignores Noah’s put-out expression and slides in next to me, the overwhelming bulk of his shoulders brushing against mine.
“What are you doing?” I snarl under my breath.
Lennox fiddles with the silver chain tucked into his neckline. “That beating was a hell of a sight.”
“Show’s over, Nox.”
He chuckles throatily, the sonorous sound rumbling from his chest. “I think it’s just beginning.”
Beneath the table, my fingers curl until I feel the sting of my nails piercing my palms. “I saved your friend. Leave me alone.”
“You think that makes us even somehow?” he huffs. “We need to get a few things straight.”
Determined to ignore him, I focus on the small scuffles and shows of aggression unfolding around us. Several patients are being shoved and manhandled. The tension is racketing up more with each second.
I don’t recognise several of the additional guards that have been called in to beef up security. They seem even more overzealous, positioning their sheathed weapons clearly on display and barking at everyone who dares to scuttle past.
“Listen, bitch,” Lennox demands.
“What?” I hiss back. “Get on with it, then fuck off.”
He leans close, his tone frigid. “Raine was high this morning.”
I don’t respond at first. Wrestling with my decision to sell to him after what happened in the gym has relentlessly occupied my thoughts. But when the trembles returned, I had no choice but to cave.
“I won’t watch you deal drugs to Raine and screw him up even more.”
“You’d rather poison him yourself, huh?” I retort.
“We protected him,” Lennox grinds out.
“And benefitted from every drop of goodwill, no doubt.”
“You won’t keep him safe.” His shoulders hunch, lined with determination. “I refuse to watch someone I care about get hurt because you’re too greedy to regulate his intake.”
“Is it hard?” I peer deep into his pale-green irises. “Seeing someone you care about get hurt? I wouldn’t know what that’s like, would I?”
Ignoring my snark, his hard gaze cuts into me. “We will take control of Harrowdean, one way or another. Why don’t you just give it up now?”
“Because, almighty Lennox, men like you are the reason why places like this exist.”
At my words, he recoils like I’ve stabbed him in the gut. I can feel the rage and indignation pouring off him in waves. I almost laugh out loud at his visceral reaction. Drilling into Lennox’s ceaseless vein of fury will never stop being entertaining.
Beneath the anger he wields as a deadly weapon, Lennox likes to think that he has this strict moral code. Some pathetic justification for the horrors he’s inflicted in the name of keeping those he cares about safe.
Lennox isn’t just an angry man; he’s a broken one. And that particular brand of twisted love is the reason so many of us walk around with holes in our hearts through which our sanity escapes.
“If anything happens to Raine because of you?—”
No longer able to stifle it, laughter tears free from my throat.
“What? You gonna kill me? Or perhaps another one of my friends?”
Casting a quick glance around the bustling room, Lennox moves fast for a man of his stature. I gasp as he seizes a handful of my short curls and slams my face down into the solid tabletop. Hard.
“Argh!”
Wrenching my hair in his grip, he lifts my head to inspect the blood that’s exploded from my now-throbbing nose. I breathe raggedly, swallowing the river streaming down my throat.
Lennox’s lips touch my ear. “I’ll make what I did to Holly look like a walk in the park compared to your death.”
“So you keep threatening,” I choke wetly. “Yet… I’m still alive.”
“Careful what you wish for, cunt.”
Releasing my hair, he rises and quickly blends back into the crowd of patients. I straighten my septum piercing and pinch the bridge of my nose to staunch the blood. Today is not my fucking day.
“Here.” With eyes the size of dinner plates, Noah pulls a crumpled tissue from his jeans pocket as he sits down. “Your face is covered in blood.”
I quickly plug my nose. “Thanks.”
“What the hell is his problem?” Rae gawps after the giant.
Watching Lennox’s broad shadow part the crowd, I can’t even answer her. If Holly were here, she wouldn’t take this laying down. She’d know what to do. But with each passing day, I feel like I’m losing more control. Just like she did.
“Attention all.” Davis’s voice booms over the low conversation. “Be seated.”
His authoritative tone matches the terrifying coldness in his gaze. The walls of the cafeteria are crawling with guards, shoulder to shoulder, all watching with the same frigid glares.
“Last night’s violence was deeply unfortunate and will not be tolerated.” Davis casts a look around the packed room. “A full investigation will be taking place to determine what unfolded.”
“Where is Carlos?” someone shouts.
Glancing to my left, I spot Rick and his gaggle of buddies. They’re all glaring and visibly bruised, like they spent the night plotting the institute’s demise after getting their asses handed to them.
Davis clears his throat. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for violence here at Harrowdean.”
“Violence?” Rick yells, breaking his silence. “What have you done to him?”
“Enough!” Davis shouts back with a rare flash of temper. “Inciting group violence against our staff is unacceptable. We have rules that must be followed.”
“Fuck the rules!” another person calls out.
“Where is Carlos?”
“You can’t keep shoving us around!”
With each voice that adds to the melee, more and more patients are speaking up. Guards close in around us, pushing and shoving, but their intimidation isn’t working. Not when we have strength in numbers.
Davis gestures for the guards to halt. “Our number one priority here at Harrowdean is your safety. Action was taken last night to preserve the peace.”
“Bullshit!”
More enraged shouting ensues. Rick and his friends are at the heart of it, spitting and raging, despite the tight press of security attempting to contain them. Seeing their outburst sets off others until Davis’s voice is no longer audible.
“This is going to turn bad, fast.” I glance around at the advancing guards. “With all that extra muscle.”
“We need to get out of here,” Noah agrees.
Pulling the wad of wet tissue from my nose, I shove it in my pocket before offering Rae a bloodstained hand. She smiles gratefully then links our fingers so we can stand up together.
“Let’s go.”
“What if they stop us?” she worries.
“The guards are gonna have bigger things to worry about if this goes south.” Scanning the crowd, I search for Langley. “Besides, I can get us out.”
Seeing us rise, several other nervous patients begin to follow, seeking a safe route out of the increasingly unstable situation. How I became a symbol of safety, I’ll never know. It’s laughable, really.
Winding a path through the crowd, we’re halfway to the doorway when there’s a loud crackling noise. I glance over my shoulder in time to see one of Rick’s friends—Owen, I think—thrashing on the cafeteria floor.
“Tasers?” Noah gasps. “Move!”
A cacophony of screams fuels the rising panic. There’s another loud crack. Thudding batons. Crying. Barked orders to disperse. Now there’s a tsunami of people trying to do exactly the same as us—escape.
We’re being half-carried by the shoving crowd. Sounds of violence echo all around us, adding to the carnage. All it took was a tiny spark to ignite.
“Ripley!”
Waving above his head, Langley motions for us to go to him. Clenching Rae’s hand tight, I tow her along, hoping that whoever is behind me can fend for themselves. We have to fight to get over to Langley as it is.
Snagging his shirt sleeve, I drag us the final steps. Langley clears the rest of the path. He has a reputation for being one of the good ones, so he doesn’t seem to be attracting the attention of those looking to fight.
“What happened to your face?” He winces.
“Just help us!”
Langley pushes open the exit doors then ushers us outside into the welcome safety of the corridor. As soon as we’re free, I can drag in a full breath. It’s short-lived, though. There’s a whole ass stampede hot on our heels.
“Get out of here,” Langley instructs. “Go!”
Still holding Rae tight, I break into a run. Only this time, it isn’t a crazed fellow patient posing a threat. It’s the very forces hired to protect us who want to harm us.
My kingdom is crumbling.
Harrowdean isn’t safe anymore.