SIXTEEN
Simone
“Hi, Besnik,” I said when I finally gathered the nerve to leave the kitchen.
Rubin had left a half hour ago, and when I’d finally come back to myself, I’d gone back to finish my inventory. It irked me to leave a job undone, and I’d hoped for distraction.
There was no distraction to be had, especially not when I got to the peaches.
Dented cans stacked three high, each apparently stronger than a human skull.
Not a factoid that would be useful in trivia, if trivia was even a thing anymore.
But it was fact nonetheless. Some small, stupid part of me swooned at the thought of Rubin protecting my honor, being offended enough to kill over words I hadn’t paid any attention to.
The bigger, slightly more intelligent part knew the truth.
Rubin had killed Davis for his own reasons that had nothing to do with me.
Rubin had killed Davis because Rubin was a killer.
I’d known that. Had even seen it once before, but had let it pass over me like nothing, unwilling to let something as mundane as the truth topple the little life I’d built.
There was no overlooking it now, and so I didn’t.
Just waited for the horror to arrive, for the bile to burn my throat, waited for the regret and sadness that a decent woman would feel.
No matter how long I stared at those peaches, it didn’t come.
I wrote 6 in the peaches column on my inventory and moved to the next shelf. And tried to pretend that I’d given Davis’s brains spilling onto the floor more than a passing thought instead of accepting all I could think of was Rubin. His fingers gripping my hips, the taste of his cum on my tongue.
How badly I wanted him again.
Another thing I should have been ashamed of. Another thing I wasn’t.
I finished my count but lingered until there were no more excuses for hiding.
Besides, as little as I wanted to face a roomful of hostile mobsters, I would not hide.
I’d made my deal, and Rubin had made how he felt about me more than clear. So yes, I would give myself to him. I would enjoy it. But that was all it was. And when the time came, I was going to get me and Aaron the hell away from Rubin.
To go where? the voice in the back of my head whispered. I didn’t have an answer, but I’d figure it out just like I did everything else.
I’d been happy to see Besnik in the cafeteria and had made a beeline toward him.
“?kemi, Simone.” His smile was genuine, as was the kindness in his dark brown eyes. It was almost enough to make me forget the staccato bursts of screams that rang out overhead.
Besnik looked up toward the sound, his face shifting into a scowl. He shook it off and looked at me again. “Did I tell you about my son?”
He knew he hadn’t. None of them had spoken to me since I’d walked into the courtroom, but I played along. “No.”
“He’s going to school to become an engineer.” Besnik’s chest swelled with pride.
“Oh, that’s amazing. A long way from a D in algebra one,” I said.
“Because of you,” he responded.
“I was happy to help.”
Besnik’s son was the apple of his and his wife’s eye, and after the woman tragically passed away, Besnik had focused on him even more. I didn’t have the heart to ask if he knew whether his son had survived.
Instead, I smiled at him, but his expression changed abruptly. I looked over and realized the other men were watching. They didn’t look happy, and I refused to let Besnik suffer because of me.
I stood. “I’m going to go find the infirmary.”
Besnik narrowed his eyes. “Did Rubin say that’s okay?”
“I didn’t know I had to ask,” I responded.
I went to reach out to pat his shoulder but thought better of it and dropped my hand to my side. The clipboard clanked against my thigh as I started to walk.
“Hey, Moni!” Aaron called when I passed him. I’d been too nervous to look for him, but smiled at him now as I pulled him in for a hug, uncaring about the strong odor of bleach that surrounded him.
“Hey, Aaron. You okay?” I asked.
His forehead was wet with sweat, and he held a wet mop in his hand.
“’Course I am. Look at all my hard work.”
I glanced around the cafeteria and out into the hall. It looked like an entirely different place. The floors gleamed, the precise mop lines that were drying one by one layered from one end of the room to the other. And there wasn’t a body in sight.
“Nice, right? I bet that this place wasn’t even this clean before,” Aaron said with a chuckle. “But I always suspected Rubin was a little OCD. I’d never had the nerve to ask, but he proved it here.”
“How?” I asked.
“He was on the cleanup crew. Woke up every morning at four forty-five to mop the floors just like he was one of the regular guys.”
“Well, he is just human,” I said.
“Yeah, we’re all God’s children, right?” he said, reflecting back the words Nana had said to both of us countless times. “Anyway, I’m glad this is looking better. Can’t concentrate on my cards with dead bodies all over the place.”
“And how would you know that, Aaron?”
He chuckled, and patted the size medium uniform top. I’d missed the outline of the thick rectangle but saw it now.
Who’d ever guess fifty-two little pieces of plastic could cause so much trouble?
“Dead folks or not, still gotta pass the time somehow.”
I huffed but then stared at Aaron until he looked at me. “Are you really okay?” I whispered.
He’d been in this place for over two years, and I’d worried about him every single day. If Rubin ever found out…
Aaron pulled me in for another hug, the easy smile on his face making me jealous. “Girl, you know I always land on my feet. But what are you doing here?” He shifted and leaned close, whispering to me, his eyes roaming the room to make sure that no one else was watching us.
“Rubin.” My voice was flat, but no inflection was necessary.
“Yeah. I figured he had to have something to do with it.” Aaron chuckled. “Well, I guess it could have been worse. He just brought you here instead of taking you to the upper room.”
I laughed, Aaron’s gallows humor one of the things I’d always appreciated about him and a lot of the source of my own humor. “Yeah. Well, you always did manage to look on the bright side.”
Aaron smiled but then went serious. “Baby girl, be careful,” he said, his voice going low.
“What’s going on, Aaron? Has someone threatened you?”
“Naw, I’m just saying these boys have never been nothing to play with. And now all bets are off. Gotta watch your back, Moni.”
“Aaron, you know I can take care of myself too,” I said, though it was funny.
Years ago, I had told him the same thing, gently suggesting that perhaps getting into business with the Albanian mob was not the right move.
But then again, having seen what had happened inside, I didn’t want to imagine where Aaron and I would be right now if we weren’t here.
Nana always said that everything happened for a reason. I hadn’t always believed her, but maybe she had a point. “Any idea what’s going on with the rest of the prison?”
“Yeah, it’s a mess on the other blocks. I’m glad I ended up here, all things considered,” he said. His expression turned dark.
“What is it?”
“Those COs… They were coming at everybody. Didn’t matter whether they was one of those things or not.
If I hadn’t been with Marku’s crew, who knows what would have happened?
They goin’ be a problem,” Aaron said. He glanced toward one of the four doors in the cafeteria, which led to D block.
Most of the screams had come from that direction, but I hadn’t been brave or stupid or both enough to try to figure out why.
“Everything’s always a problem, but Rubin will handle it,” I said.
Rubin. It only occurred to me that I was standing up for him after a moment.
Aaron nodded his agreement. “Yeah. I don’t doubt his talents. I’m just saying this is about making sure we’re okay. And that’s what I’m gonna do,” he said.
I looked over my shoulder and risked giving him a hug.
He hugged me back briefly, but then dropped his arms suddenly.
I felt Aaron pull back and a split second later, felt the weight I immediately knew the source of.
Felt that dirty flame of desire too. I didn’t have to look back to know why Aaron had let go or why my sex clenched, but when I did, I found Rubin watching, all the more menacing for the patient coolness in his eyes.
He held my gaze for a few seconds longer than was polite and then walked away.
Aaron didn’t say anything until Rubin was gone to the opposite corner, apparently bored of us, but then he shook his head. “Don’t worry, baby girl. He pissed off at you, but you still got sway.”
“What does that mean, Aaron?” I asked.
“It means if you were anybody else you would have been welded into a barrel alive and thrown into the ocean. But you’re not, because you’re smart.
Stay that way and play your cards right, and we might make it out of this alive.
” His expression was grim, but lifted for a split second before his gaze darted over my shoulder.
Welded into a barrel. One of Rubin’s nicer punishments, far nicer than he’d ever grant me.
But I didn’t say that to Aaron. There was no reason to worry him.
And there was no reason to worry myself either.
Right now, I was in a semi-clean cafeteria without zombies attacking me and the only man I’d call family at my side.
Whatever might happen in the future would have to take care of itself.
I followed the path of Aaron’s gaze and settled on the group across the room. Besnik, Lorik, Arben, a few of the others gathered around Rubin. He wasn’t looking at me, but Damian was.
Damian didn’t look at me like he hated me. He looked at me like I was a hurdle to jump, a forest that needed to be cleared for his highway. And then he looked at Aaron and I saw the same determination in his eyes I’d always seen in his brother’s.
Aaron was right. I was smart. But that might not be enough.