Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
RORY
“What happened to you?” Josie demanded when I walked towards her at visitation the next day, her arms wrapping around me to keep me close as if to protect me from it all.
“I just got in a fight with one of the girls from my block. Nothing to worry about,” I promised, stepping back and glancing at Lukas and Jensen. “Hey.”
For a second, I didn’t think either of them were going to respond, but then Lukas muttered a curse and pulled me in for a hug, burying his face in my neck.
“I really miss you,” he mumbled, stepping back after a second to look into my eyes. “Are you okay?”
Jensen hugged me next as I answered Lukas. “I miss you guys too. I’m handling my shit.”
We all sat down, and Josie blinked back tears.
“I’m trying to get you out, honey. Are you eating properly?”
“The food’s pretty good, actually. Not as good as Karl’s, but better than the cup noodles I grew up on,” I chuckled. “Thanks for keeping my money topped up.”
“You’re welcome. The school said you’ve been handing your work in. You’ve been finding time then? Your new subjects aren’t too hard?”
“The warden is all for education. She gives me time in the library on my own to focus, but I do a lot in my cell when I’m bored too. It’s actually good for passing the time. I’m struggling a little bit, but I’ll figure it out.”
“I’m glad. You’ve made some friends?”
“There’s a few girls in my block that are nice.”
“Who did you fight with? I can try and get you placed into another block if—”
“No, thank you,” I said quickly. “It was a misunderstanding. I’m safer in my block than if I moved. I’m not really liked in here, but I have some protection.”
She frowned but nodded, and Lukas blew out a breath. “Can you tell me what happened? With Hunter? He said nothing was going on, but—”
“I promise, I’ve never touched Hunter or Marco,” I cut in, and I hated the way he looked at me. Like he wasn’t sure if my words held the truth or not.
“Whatever he tells you is true. I can’t talk about it in here. The cameras can twist my words and be used against me in court,” I said carefully, not wanting to sound like I was guilty, but needing him to know why I wasn’t answering.
He deflated a little but seemed to understand, his hand reaching out to take mine and giving it a small squeeze.
“Why are you guys staying at Jensen’s? Are you icing Ty out?” I asked, and Jensen winced.
“We’re not icing him out. He’s just buddied up with Marco and Hunter, and we don’t appreciate seeing them.”
“They did nothing wrong.”
“Doesn’t mean we have to like them.”
“Why has Caden cut him off? If he wants to be angry at me, sure, whatever, but why Ty? He just left him alone,” I said with irritation, and Josie winced.
“He’s got big emotions right now. It’s probably better that he takes some time to process them away from everyone. Being around Skeet is making it worse though, but he won’t listen to me. He comes home, stomps around and picks fights, then leaves again.”
“I honestly thought Skeet and Caden would be the two that would believe me the easiest,” I muttered, and Jensen sighed.
“Things are messy right now. We’ll deal with it when you’re home.”
“No trouble from the Soldiers?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“They’ve gone quiet now you’re in here. No idea if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
“For now, it’s good. If something happens, call Hunter. I know you don’t like him, but—”
“I know, baby,” Jensen murmured, leaning back in his chair. “Tell us about your new friends.”
I had no idea what Tyler had told them, so I started at the beginning, our time coming to an end way too soon.
It hurt just as badly as yesterday when I hugged them goodbye and walked away, swallowing down the emotions as I made my way back to my cell.
I could tell Lukas and Jensen were still a little reserved about their opinions of me right now, but at least they didn’t hate me like Caden and Skeeter seemed to.
I made it to my cell and shut the door, needing a second to myself. My chest ached, and I took a few deep breaths to try and smother whatever tears were building. I was a strong bitch, I could handle this shit.
I spun around when the door opened, finding Lexi eyeing me.
“Get out,” I growled, but she just stood there.
“What happened?” she finally asked, and I moved towards her, giving her a shove back out.
“I said, get the fuck out, Bryant,” I snapped, shutting the door again and pressing my back against it.
“Donovan? Don’t go out to the yard today,” she said, sounding like she was right against the door. “Trust me.”
“Why not?”
“Just don’t,” she answered before walking away, the tears vanishing to make way for worry.
Was she warning me against an attack? What did she know?
It must have been bad if she was giving me a heads-up.
Despite wanting to know what was happening, I took her words seriously and avoided the yard. I was dying for a cigarette, but I wasn’t going to risk it.
I was doing some school work when an alarm sounded, and I scrambled to my feet to yank open the door, relieved to find Tilly and Jamie sitting on the couch. At least they were okay.
“The fuck is that for?” I asked as the alarm continued, and Tilly winced.
“The panic alarm. It usually means someone’s hurt pretty bad. We’ll be locked in here all damn day if that’s the case.”
Lexi and Kat appeared out of Kat’s cell, and Lexi glanced at me before moving towards her room to stand beside the door. We all did the same, standing in place when the guards arrived to do a head count before locking us in to go and find Faith, and I made a beeline for Lexi.
“What do you know?” I whisper-yelled, and she gave me a dirty look.
“Nothing.”
“Something happened in the yard, right? You told me not to go out there today, so you knew something was going down.”
“I heard there was going to be trouble, that’s all,” she argued, and I scowled.
“Why can’t you tell me? I’m not going to rat about it.”
“For fuck’s sake, Donovan. Don’t even tell anyone I warned you, got that?” she hissed, making me frown.
I could hear yelling as someone was dragged past, nausea hitting me when I looked over to see them covered in blood as they fought three guards to try and break free.
Maybe I hadn’t been the target after all?
Guards were rushing around on their radios talking about CPR not working, and Lexi’s face was emotionless when they finally dragged a gurney past, a body hidden under a sheet.
My eyes flicked back to Lexi when I noticed the rose tattoo on the girl’s hand that was poking out, but Lexi just stared back at me blankly before walking back into her room.
It was Faith.
Was Lexi trying to hide that she was upset, or had she had something to do with it? She knew something was going down, so was it set up by her?
I really needed to watch myself around her, she was more dangerous than I thought.
Kat gave me a dirty look before joining Lexi, and I took that as my cue to head back to my room now that the alarm had stopped.
Visitation was canceled for the rest of the week, meaning Marco couldn’t come and see me on Friday. I wasn’t sure why that upset me so much, I couldn’t stand that asshole, but there was a strange sense of comfort in seeing him.
I’d had no idea if he was bringing Hunter or Tyler with him, but knowing I wasn’t seeing anyone else this week sucked.
Apparently, murders in a prison shut everything down.
Guards were on edge, more patrolling the yard than usual, and they watched us like a hawk when we ate or showered.
It was Sunday night when things went to absolute shit again.
Everyone was in the shower block, but I decided to head straight to bed from dinner and skipped it since I’d showered in the morning.
The others grabbed their shower caddies and left, so I sat on my bed to do some work, zoning out to focus.
I was aware of movement in the common area, figuring some of the girls had made their way back, but then I heard a muffled curse and a door shut. Being nosy wasn’t good in here, but I finally decided to investigate, poking my head out to see Lexi’s door shut.
It wasn’t that strange, she always shut herself in there, but something felt off.
I heard a scuffle and decided to risk the possibility of walking in on her fucking someone, especially when I heard more than one voice whispering.
Who the fuck was in there?
Mind made up, I quietly walked over and yanked the door open, finding Lexi pinned against the wall by someone, a hand over her mouth to stop her from making a noise, while another person held a shiv up to her face.
Lexi’s eyes widened when she saw me, the girl with the shiv turning to face me with a scowl.
“Get the fuck out, Donovan.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” I bit out, the girl holding Lexi punching her in the stomach and making her hunch in pain as the other girl chuckled.
“None of your business.”
I couldn’t exactly run to get a guard without getting both of us killed, and the other girls were still in the shower block.
The second the girl turned her back on me, I lunged at her, hitting her in the head and shoving her away from Lexi. She stumbled and we ended up on the ground wrestling over the shiv, the bitch kneeing me in the ribs to try and make me let go of her arm.
“Donovan!” Lexi shouted, and I looked over just as the other girl tackled me, trying to fight them both off.
“Go!” I snapped at Lexi, but she joined the fight to try and help me.
I’d almost overpowered my attacker when I felt a sharp pain in my side, hissing out a curse as I saw the bloodied shiv before it stabbed me again.
“What the fuck?” Kat barked as she appeared with Jamie, the girls scrambling to escape when they realized they were outnumbered. The pain started to take over as I clutched my side, making me hiss out a breath.
Holy fucking shit, that hurt.
Lexi was already grabbing her spare uniform off the shelf and pushing my shirt up out of the way to get a better look, cursing as she pressed the clean uniform to the wounds.
“The fuck were you thinking?” she growled, but the panic on her face told me it was probably worse than I thought.