Twenty-Six
Rubin
“Don’t play games with me, Simone,” I said through clenched teeth, and then forced my jaw loose.
“I’m not playing a game, Rubin. I’m asking a question.”
When she’d been with that guard chatting over childhood stories like old friends or new lovers, her smile had been easy, warm, given like it was deserved.
It was gone now.
“Get up, Simone.”
She did and didn’t even stiffen when I took her elbow and walked her out, down the hall, into the warden’s office.
She let me lead her the whole way and watched my face with an expression that gave me nothing.
I hated it with all my being. When she was like this, there was no anger to push back at me, no softness to fall into.
I was just alone. I was used to that. Being krye meant as much. But with Simone, it was intolerable.
I left her there and went back to deliver a message that should have been understood. The guard was where I’d left him, and all conversation died when I stopped in front of him.
He had the good sense to stand.
“Don’t talk to her. Don’t look at her. She doesn’t exist to you, or you won’t exist at all.”
He nodded curtly, and I half wondered if he wanted to salute. And even though his motions were smooth when he sat back down, his hand was unsteady as he hefted the meager remnants of his meal into his mouth.
So not so steel-nerved, after all. I huffed. Even Simone was braver than him.
Aaron, who’d drifted closer to me, cleared his throat. I held the guard’s gaze and then finally looked toward him.
He smiled and scrubbed a palm over his head.
He was at least twenty years older than me, and had once looked much younger and had a spirit to match.
In a lot of ways, it was that youthfulness that had brought him into my orbit.
He’d hung out at the clubs, moved product, and returned my money. He’d known everyone. He’d had a use.
Now he was redundant, worth far less than the precious calories that fueled his body. Simone looked at him like he was the most important person on earth.
He blew out a breath. “Simone’s useful, Rubin. She won’t give you any trouble. Will do whatever you need.”
My jaw ticked as I stared at him, both surprised and pissed at how forward he was being. “I don’t need her for anything, Aaron. Go play your cards and don’t ever speak to me of Simone.”
He laughed his easy laugh with nerves burning through it and went, and I stood there as if I’d spoken the truth.
The walkie on my belt crackled at me on the walk back to the warden’s office.
“Marku.”
I stopped in the empty stretch of hallway between the pods and looked at the thing.
Merrick had been radio silent for days. Not that I missed the stupid ramblings of the idiots that decided to follow him.
But the quiet meant no information beyond what flowed through the concrete in bangs and footsteps.
“I know you hear me,” he said, somehow smug through the machine.
“What do you want?”
“World peace and four hookers.” He laughed. “But I’d settle for free passage down the staircase on A block.”
I pushed the button and held the walkie too close to my mouth. “Why would I allow that?”
“Because I decide whether you have air conditioning, lights, any modicum of comfort.”
“And what do I get in return?”
“The benevolent joy of doing a good deed.” He laughed. “Besides, you owe me.”
“And how did I get in your debt, Merrick?”
“You’re harboring my escapees. And I was this close to getting Veronica Shaw to suck my cock. Guess that’s off the table now.”
Merrick again laughed at his own joke. I stared at the walkie. I didn’t know if I had the self-control not to smash the thing into the wall.
Because it was one thing to be an asshole, but Merrick actually believed he was better than the other guards and the warden.
Merrick had never taken a cent from me. I hadn’t even offered, but on my first night here, he’d told me there was no need to waste my time. I soon found out that was because he took a cut of everyone else’s bribes in exchange for looking the other way.
A bona fide saint in his own eyes.
The walkie crackled again. “I’m a fair and charitable man. I can throw in a bag of rice to sweeten the deal.”
“I’ll pass, Merrick,” I said.
“Too bad. I know you’re running on scraps down there. We’re not. Maybe I’ll just wait you out and let you starve to death. I know you’re too pussy to try to leave this place.”
The walkie crackled with static. “And speaking of pussy, how’s that accountant of yours? Simone, right? Yeah, I remember her. Ask her if she remembers me.”
The channel went dead.
Three weeks ago, I would have had his tongue delivered to me.
Now, I had to consider his proposition.
That had been a test, his attempt to see how malleable I was. He’d be back in contact, and I needed to have a plan.
Couldn’t even begin to form one when all I could hear was Merrick’s foul voice uttering her name.
I squeezed the walkie, then rubbed the center of my chest but stopped myself when I realized what I was doing. I should talk to Damian and Besnik about Merrick.
Thought that even as I turned the opposite direction and went to her.
This was a good test.
I was on the edge but I would prove that Simone would not be the reason I lost control.
Though I flung the door open, Simone didn’t look surprised.
“Did something happen?”
She was on the couch sitting crisscross applesauce, as she called it. So ridiculous, like the ridiculous woman.
She was wearing the top of a prison uniform, but her brown legs were bare, the smooth expanse of her thighs practically begging for my touch. It wasn’t an attempt at flirting.
So no fantasies of Simone trying to seduce me, subtly offering herself in hopes I would take her.
No, she was being practical, holding a pen so cheap that even she, who held onto money like she was afraid it would flee and never come back, had found the brand beneath her before.
Like nothing had changed.
Like nothing mattered.
Rage, hot and raw, flickered in my chest.
She’d sat with him, laughed with him, and eaten a half portion of cold, lumpy grits and treated it like a feast. And now, still, she was…normal.
Like she wasn’t trapped in a prison. Like the world hadn’t fucking ended. It occurred to me then that this was how she had managed to fool me.
I’d thought it admirable, the resilience that was so easy to miss at first glance. But now it was the thing that taunted me.
Because sitting here serenely, calmly, through this… This was the way she had sat next to me for years, collecting evidence that she could so calmly deploy to her benefit.
Like it was okay. Like it didn’t even matter. Simone had shown the ultimate disrespect and had just done it again, like she knew that I was nothing to fear. I pulled her to her feet.
She stumbled slightly, then looked at me, confused. “What’s going on, Rubin?”
I was too…angry. Yes, that was the feeling that had seized me and had my throat closed too tight to speak.
So I didn’t. Just threw open the door and walked her down the hallway. I barely noticed the smudges on the floor, dust accumulating from the lack of circulation and of my usual maintenance routine.
Didn’t notice anything, really, but the steady, even thud, thud, thud of her pulse beneath my fingertips or the way she breathed.
Calm, steady, unbothered. Even now. I kept walking, then stopped at the threshold, right at the catwalk.
I glanced at her. Her eyes were narrowed slightly. But there was tension around her mouth now. “So you remember this place,” I said.
She chuckled the little nervous laugh that I refused to allow to disarm me. “How could I forget?”
At that she glanced over the edge and looked down. The few that had been there the first day had grown.
I wasn’t sure how. We had checked the floors and made sure there were no more hiding, but still these had come, probably wandering out of cells that they hadn’t been able to escape before.
Or another gift from Merrick. Merrick, who should have been my top priority, my only concern. And yet again Simone was distracting me with her antics.
“Rubin, why are we here?” She spoke the words calmly, but with a care that was more than usual for her.
“You know we’re here because I say so,” I said. She gulped but made no move to pull away from my grip.
I wasn’t sure how to interpret that. Was she worried she would offend me? Was she trying to manage me?
I should stop trying to figure out anything at all about Simone. I’d proven to be shit at it so far and had no evidence that was going to change.
But a point needed to be made. I pulled her closer, her body flush against mine. She sank into me.
But I noticed the way her eyes darted toward the well. “I told you what to do, didn’t I?”
She nodded. And I smiled. “You know better than that.”
“Yes,” she said, the faintest tremor in her voice, her eyes flashing now.
She was scared, but she was also angry, and that mix was combustible. I took a step, then pulled her closer, pressing my cock into her stomach.
“You know there are consequences for disobeying me. Don’t you?”
She nodded, and I shook my head. “No, Simone. Words.”
“Yes,” she said. We were inches away from the edge.
I tightened my arms around her. She relaxed against me, sighed with something more like relief.
Relief that was short-lived.
I opened my pants and reveled in her shriek as I lifted her leg and notched it on my hip.
“Rubin,” she said.
“Simone,” I responded as I seated my cock at her entrance.
She tightened her grip on me and huffed out a breath against my neck. She yielded to me, clung to me. And breathed out hard as I pushed my cock inside her inch by inch. I cataloged every hitched breath, the way her fingers tightened on my shoulders.
The way she fluttered around my cock, testing restraint that I didn’t have.
“Are you worried I’m going to drop you, miu? That I’m not strong enough to hold you up?” I asked.
She panted against my ear. “No,” she said, her voice trembling.
“Are you worried I might let you go?” I said.
She nodded and I stilled and loosened my hold. “Words, Simone.”
She met my eyes. “Yes.”
I could see how much the answer cost her, just as I could see the truth of it.
I pulled out slowly until only my crown breached her and stared down at my slick shaft, then up to where we met.
I let my gaze trace her fat mons, the wet, matted hair and hot cream that continued to wet my cock leaving no doubt of her desire.
“Then you should be smarter.”
I thrust hard, and leaned her back an inch. Her scream drifted into a low moan when I ground my hips into hers, putting just the right amount of pressure on her clit. She gushed around my cock, the way she clamped down on my cock making me see white.
“You’re afraid,” I whispered when I had enough control to speak.
She started to nod, but stopped it short and met my eyes. “Yes.”
I slowed my thrusts but kept the pressure on her clit. “Want me to let you down? I will, but I’d have to stop,” I said.
“No!” She tightened her thighs around me and brought me closer.
I licked her collarbone to keep myself from doing something else.
“You’d better hold on then,” I said.
She reached back, searching for the rail.
“No.” I went completely still. “Hold onto me.”
Before I got the words out, she gripped my shoulders so tightly, her fingers dug into my skin.
That feeling, Simone’s hot walls clamped down around me, her hands holding me, desperate, needy for me, was too much.
I pulled out roughly and spilled my seed on her thighs and didn’t give myself a second to recover before I started stroking her clit in just the way to send her off.
She came hard, her teeth digging into her lip, her body strung tight.
God, would I ever tire of seeing that?
I wouldn’t, but I could never let her know that.
When she looked at me again, I made sure my expression was stern. “You disobeyed me twice, Simone. I won’t tolerate a third.”
Her expression was as stern as it could be with my cum staining her thighs.
I braced myself for a challenge, some part of me prayed for it.
And when Simone narrowed her eyes, my cock, which should have been completely spent, stirred.
But just as quickly, she shut it down and fell back into the docile Simone I wasn’t even sure she knew was a facade.
“Yes, krye,” she whispered even though her eyes burned with fire.