Chapter 28 #3
Ugh. My mind was being no help whatsoever. I just needed to get this over with. Focusing on my toes wriggling on the gritty ground, I yanked the strings that kept my gown up.
Holding the front of the gown to my chest, I paused.
I needed to prove something to myself first. Pulling my attention from the ground up, I glared at the very solid form of Imaginary Todd.
He looked no less real than Warden White who sat a couple paces to the right.
Which did not bode well for my mental state.
What made things even worse was that Imaginary Todd was suddenly very shirtless.
All of his scars and traditional ink on display.
The thistles on his neck, the snakes and eagles drawn over the hard planes of his chest and down the smooth muscle of his abdomen, and on either side of his hips there appeared to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and on the other, a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Which meant I was now staring at the very prominent V that disappeared below his waistband.
Nope, nope. Most definitely not going there.
Swallowing, I drew my gaze up to Todd’s near black pupils.
Heat flushed my cheeks. What was happening was all manner of weird, not to mention inappropriate, and I needed to regain control.
So, straightening my shoulders, I signed with as much authority as I could muster, “Out.”
He was gone. Just like that. With a smile on his face.
I’d have to unpack that later. Much later.
Maybe never.
?
Scrubbing until there was nothing left to scrub, I ignored the changes in my body while I sponged down, then wrapped myself in the newer hospital gown. I knew it wasn’t luxurious, or even comfortable for that matter, but I was clean.
With Three still outside with Madame, my window to converse with Warden White was closing.
“I need to ask you something,” I threw the sponge into the bucket with a splash. “While it’s just the two of us.”
“Am I to take it, you’ve finished with your shower?”
“I’m done, but that wasn’t a shower.”
“Then what was it?”
“A sponge bath. At best.”
“Hmmm…” White capped a pen then tucked it behind his ear. “Feel better?”
“I will, once you answer some of my—” Shhhhhhh. White had crossed the room and tipped the bucket’s contents towards the drain beneath the metal table, drowning out my response. When the sloshing stopped, I got straight to the point. “Where does that camera go?”
“What?”
“The one in the corner.” I jutted my chin in the direction of the device. “I’d think it dangerous to connect something like that to the internet where, say the FBI, could hack into the network and access the footage.”
“You could be more subtle, you know.” Appearing altogether unaffected, White grabbed a squeegee for one of the cupboards and slid the remaining water over the drain. “It only connects to the monitor upstairs. It’s not connected to anything external. But you probably already knew that.”
“A woman could hope.”
White didn’t lift his gaze. He kept it pinned on the spot he was squeegeeing. “You’re not going to get far with that collar though.”
“I don’t know,” I gave it another tug, the bright burn of electricity zapping through me, “I feel like I’m making progress.”
“For the love of—” The squeegee clattering to the floor, White took a hold of the bars. “You’ve got to stop doing that. Shocking yourself daily is what most people would call mad.”
“Says the man who put me in the shock collar, and is holding me captive in a basement until I give him what he wants.”
White ran a hand over his face. It was nice to still see I had that effect on people. “Madame’s not above knocking you out, you know.”
“I know, which is why I need your help.”
He took a long measure of me. Five breaths passed, before he said, “You’re serious.” Taking a half-step back, he shook his head. “You know I can’t do that.”
“What I know is that you care about Three, and we both know there is no happily ever after for her here.”
A pensive, eye flickering, expression crossed his face. It was going to take a few more attempts, but he was corruptible, I could feel it.
Just as I could feel the impending ‘no’ which would shut down the rest of the conversation, and I still had questions I wanted answered.
“Fine.” I got ahead of it. “If you refuse to help me and Three, you can at least tell me what you know about Mads.”
“Warden Masterson?” Still processing, White took a moment before he said, “What do you want to know?”
“I’ve figured out a lot of things.” I sat down on my mattress. “But something I couldn’t sort out was how he thought he’d get me out of prison.” “He’d said he wanted to wait until the time was right. That I’d been right where he wanted me, until the FBI ruined his plans.”
No reaction from White.
A moment passed. Then two.
“You really don’t know?” Not justifying that with a response, White released his white-knuckle grip from the bars of my cage, and picked up the squeegee. “Before Mads went ‘off-book’ he had the Seal’s blessing to ensure your brother sacrificed himself. That’s what I know.”
I was about to run my mouth and tell him that what he shared was ‘oh so very helpful’, when I noticed the shift in White’s body language, the way he turned—how he moved to hide his lips from the camera.
“But Mads is a self-righteous bastard,” White spoke low and quick, as he swapped out the squeegee for a mop.
“He always thought he knew best. That he deserved better than the rest of the Seal. You being in prison wasn’t part of the Seal’s plan.
It was Mads’ and Mads’ alone. He was tempering with the odds, because you being the key is going to make him a very very rich man. ”
Eight million dollars. And it was all because Mads made sure the odds of me being the key appeared unfavorable.
White went on circling the frayed mop over the floor. “He forgot about the cause. He did everything in his power for personal gain, rather than the greater good. He created his own team to ensure he could manipulate fate.”
By how freely Warden White spoke, I knew Mads was a sore spot. The story I’d told of roofies and manipulation—even if it had been laced with lies—had only continued to paint Mads in a light he’d already begun to paint himself.
“Two members of his so-called team reported back to us with what he was doing, that you were out of prison, and that Mads was keeping you sequestered away from us. They were tasked to take you in, to get you away from Mads… but you saw how that ended up.”
Stars and Stripes. The masked assailants who were killed by Mads in Monongahela. “Seems like you’re saying the Seal can’t get its act together.”
“I’m saying Mads always had his own agenda, love. You said he left you mirror messages, which means he knew where you lived and he never reported back that he’d been able to ascertain your residence. Not once. And it took a lot of effort and resources for us to get you away from him.”
There was a lot more tug-of-war going on behind the scenes than I’d realized. Mads was a villain on two fronts then. “So, you know nothing about Mads’ plans to get me out. Just that the FBI intervened?”
A beeping came from the other side of the heavy metal door.
Madame and, hopefully, Three were returning.
My time running out, White shook his head.
“No, I don’t know, love. But knowing Warden Masterson, I’d reckon he had a plan to bring new evidence to light.
Prove that you were innocent when the time was right. ”
Realization hit like a slap to the face, just as the door swung open to reveal Madame, with Three close in tow. The relief Three had returned was short-lived because I’d come to the conclusion of something altogether more earth-shattering.
Mads and his team weren’t going to break me out of prison. They were holding onto something that could prove my innocence and force my release when they saw fit.
They filmed it.