Chapter Seven
ELIJAH
I feel like I'm living in some sort of shit TV show—you know the one, a reality show with some Z-list celebrity being followed around while they do dumb things. There are cameras on me everywhere as I move down the halls and into the mess hall, trying to catch me scratching my balls or something equally mundane.
My skin prickles as I take a seat at a table with my cup of lukewarm coffee. Grinning up at the closest one, I hope I’m making whoever is on security feel a little uncomfortable—who knows, maybe it’s even the pretty Officer Bishop. It had been a week already and getting near her was proving next to impossible. I was quickly learning that it was either art class or nothing. I’m not even sure what it is about her, but with nothing else to distract me, she’s quickly becoming my newest obsession.
I was a patient person, I had to be, but it still rankled that I had barely even laid eyes on her while I watched and waited for my opportunity. Beans has been following The Cartel gang members and their movements, reporting back to me each night when we lie in our bunks after lights out. I needed them dealt with, in order to get closer to Bishop.
Tiny was rarely on his own, away from the other goons. I’d have to find a way to reach him when his gardening duties ended, which was usually around the same time as my maintenance and domestic duties each day. After that, he was allowed an earlier shower, which is where I plan to catch him alone. To get myself placed in that class, I needed him out of the equation, just for a few weeks. I don’t plan on being here much longer than that.
As if I’ve conjured her, Bishop enters the hall, leading a small group of inmates I assume made breakfast today. I’d thought about asking to be assigned kitchen duties, but fixing shit and cleaning gave me more movement around the facility.
She’s braided her hair, the plait hanging down over one shoulder. The light blue-colored officer shirt isn’t exactly flattering, but her English Rose complexion seems to make it work, even with the smattering of freckles across her nose. There are dark smudges under her eyes, and when her hazel gaze locks with mine, I swear my heart stumbles in my chest, missing a beat because she’s paying me an ounce of attention. What the fuck was with that?
I lose sight of her as she vanishes behind the door to the kitchen, but I catch snatches interspersed with laughter as she talks with the prisoners while they go about setting up.
“Hudson, I saw that. Go wash your hands!”
“Ten minutes, inmates! Then the hungry rabble will descend.”
“Hudson. Last warning!’
Her voice isn’t as soft as I expected. There’s an edge there that tells me my little officer isn’t afraid to use her authority.
Chuckling to myself, I pour myself another mug of the crap they call coffee. Sludgy, lukewarm and more like dirt water…but it’s the only option right now. Papa T and his cellmate, a small man with shaggy dark hair and blue eyes called Houdini Hari, take their seats near me as the rest of cell block F is allowed into the hall for breakfast.
I haven’t interacted with them much, but we seem to have an unspoken understanding to mind our own fucking businesses, which, of course, Beans completely disregards. He wouldn’t understand boundaries if I drew him a map and then carved it onto his skin.
“Morning grumpy fucks!” He drops his tray down next to me. “Are you getting some grub?”
“Yeah, not that it’s ever very edible.” I scoff, pushing to my feet to join the queue. Papa T makes a noise of agreement as he stirs his mulchy fruit pot. Always the same bullshit, just a different day.
When I get to the end of the line, Bishop is standing with another female officer, both of them surveying the room while occasionally chatting. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but as I draw closer, her eyes are drawn to me like a magnet.
Returning to our table, I watch as Bishop tries to hide a yawn with the back of her hand.
“Late night, Officer Bishop?” I smirk at her. “Boyfriend keeping you occupied until the early hours?”
The female officer next to her wearing a badge that says Meyers raises a curious brow. She’s pretty, and around the same age as my officer, but her auburn hair and blue eyes do nothing for me. She’s not Bishop.
Crossing her arms, Bishop gives me a hard stare. “None of your business, Creed.”
So, she knew my name then. My smirk turns into a shit-eating grin. Of course she did
It sounded delicious falling from her lips, but it wasn’t enough. I was going to make her scream it.
“Hmmm, I’d prefer to be called Elijah.” Rubbing a hand over my stubble, I let my voice drop into a huskier tone. I hadn’t shaved since I entered here, but maybe it was time to fix that. I wouldn’t want to give Bishop stubble burn. “By you anyway.”
I watch her cheek bulge slightly as she bites her tongue, and one day I know her cheeks will bulge because of my cock. I know it like I know the sky is blue.
She’s mine.
Mine to toy with.
Mine to use.
She just doesn’t realize it yet.
“Not going to happen, inmate.” She shakes her head before tugging on her earlobe gently. Did I make her nervous?
Tilting my head, I return her glare, letting my gaze move over her freely. “Do you want to make a little wager on that, Officer?”
She rolls her eyes, but says nothing.
“Now, back to that boyfriend of yours…” I take another sip of my coffee, using the cup to hide how wide my grin is.
She makes a point of breaking our little eye fucking session and scanning the room as if I’m unimportant to her. “It’s still none of your business.”
But it would be.
I was meeting with my lawyer soon, and I planned on asking for a little reconnaissance on the woman before me. I wanted to know who her father was. Where she lived. Which side of the bed she slept on? Who she was fucking. How she took her coffee. There wouldn’t be anything left to hide behind once I stripped her bare.
I must have gotten into someone’s good graces as I watched Officer Bishop from the corner of my eye for the second time today.
She hadn’t been present at lunch, but when I’d entered one of the communal recreation rooms with Beans, Papa T and Houdini, she’d been stationed against the wall at the back, this time paired up with a male officer named Foxx.
He may think he’s being covert, but I see him checking her out when she isn’t looking his way, and it makes me want to punch the smug fucker. He’s not even attractive, and he looks a bit too baby faced to be of any real competition, with his red-hued hair and easy-going smile.
“Woah, blessed by the goddess twice in one day.” Beans chuckles as he nudges me. “We should hang out in the rec room more often.”
Grunting in reply, I pull out a chair as Houdini grabs the dominos and pours them out, shuffling them face down on the table.
I’d been avoiding communal spaces where possible because I was still working on my plan, and until I’d met with my lawyer, I didn’t want to expose myself to unnecessary risks. I wasn’t getting shanked because I wanted to watch old TV reruns.
Sliding the closest tile towards me, I flip it over to reveal two threes. Beans has the highest count with nine, meaning once we’ve drawn seven tiles each, he starts the game off.
Beans is his usual chatty self, keeping the conversation flowing as I watch the others. Tiny and his goons are absent, likely out in the yard, but there are a few other faces I recognize, including one of Lev Volkov’s men, Ilya Gorev. I only remembered him because his name, Ilya, was the Russian equivalent of mine. He was in here for firearms charges, if I remember correctly.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I wonder if it’s worth approaching him as an ally. The Volkov’s worked with The Family occasionally, but Lev had been underground for a while, leaving his feral brats, the Volkov twins, running wild in Newtown and Port Ellesmere.
Anoushka and Alexi Volkov were…unpredictable. And while I once thought Anoushka could be someone fun to play with, she was gorgeous and loved violence, I’d soon learned better. I’d seen her skin a man alive for skimming off their accounts, her eyes lit up with a twisted wickedness, until she’d noticed the blood spatter on the leg of her pants. After that, she’d been furious and taken more than her pound of flesh. Brutally. Mercilessly.
She’d quickly shut down my offer to fuck with barely a flick of her long white hair and a glance over the rim of her Ray Bans. I never struggled to find someone to hook up with, but her rejection had stung a little. Alexi, on the other hand, made sure I knew there was always room under the covers for me in his bed. Shame, he wasn’t really my type.
If Gorev was still part of the Volkov Bratva, then he may have resources inside this little play pen that can help me flush out my traitors faster.
A gravelly voice pulls me from my thoughts. “You always plotting?”
Papa T's eyes are narrowed in my direction as he lines up his dominos and reorders them. I hadn’t managed to get a read on the older man just yet, other than the fact he kept to himself. He always walked around with a cigarette tucked behind his ear and occasionally it found its way between his lips, but I’d yet to see him actually smoke it.
I offer him a lazy shrug as Hari and Beans also glance at me, like children watching a conversation between adults. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Boy, I see those cogs turning, clicking over in that head of yours while you watch,” Papa T scoffs as he places down his tile. “Always watching.”
Clicking his tongue, he reaches up for that cigarette and rests it between his lips. “There’s two places you’re gonna end up in, solitary or the infirmary. The first is no fun—trust me, and the second is even worse.”
“Hmmm,” Houdini nods with a shudder. “Nurse Rancet is a mean one. Gets grabby too, if you know what I mean.”
“Well, if I need a little attention, I guess I know where to go.” Chuckling, I place my tile down next.
The sound must have caught her attention, because once again Officer Bishop’s eyes landed on me. I can tell when she’s watching me, I can feel the curiosity in her gaze. With a smirk, I wink at her, taking pleasure in the way her skin flushes. Oh, she was going to be divine when I finally got her beneath me.