Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
RORY
Marco was gone when I was woken to be discharged in the morning. He must have stayed most of the night though because the spot he’d been lying on was still warm.
I felt a little disoriented, most likely from the pain relief, and the guards were in a zero nonsense mood from the way they practically frog marched me out to the van for transport.
We weren’t far from the prison, so Marco must have hit the road to see me the second Hunter got the phone call.
The male guard kept glancing back at me, and I wondered if he’d been working all night and was the one that knew Marco had been with me, or if he’d changed shifts. Miss Jarvis was gone, so maybe this was another guy.
The warden was waiting for me when I arrived, and I carefully stepped out of the van, trying not to wince when my stitches pulled.
“A welcome home party? For me?” I joked, and she gave me a flat look.
“Just making sure you don’t run into trouble. I’ll escort you to my office. The police are here for your statement.”
“I don’t remember what happened, Warden. I know Lexi saved me,” I replied, her eyes narrowing.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
She hummed like she didn’t believe me as one of the guards uncuffed me, then they all escorted me into the building to the warden’s office.
The cops weren’t happy with my amnesia claim, getting tired of it after half an hour and telling the guards they could take me back to my cell.
A few people clapped as I walked, Marco seeming correct about the whole respect thing, and I struggled to keep the discomfort off my face from my wounds. Every step pulled on them, and I’d never been so happy to see my cell block before.
Everyone must have been in the laundry room, so I made myself comfortable on my bed to rest since I couldn’t do much else. At least I got to be lazy for a week or two, doctor’s orders.
I read for a while then did a little bit of school work, but it was hard to write without bending my middle, so I gave up and decided to wait to do that until I was in the library.
I went on alert when footsteps drew closer, but I relaxed when Lexi appeared.
“I see you’re alive then,” she said lightly, her eyes drawn to my shirt that hid the damage. I lifted it slightly with a grin.
“Can’t get rid of me that easily, Bryant. No more trouble? The fuck did they want?”
She glanced out into the common area to make sure we were alone before stepping further into my room and closing the door, leaning back against it with her arms crossed.
“When you’re at the top, someone always wants the crown,” she shrugged. “The guards blamed me for stabbing you, so I don’t know if there was more trouble. I just got out of the hole.”
“What did you tell the cops?”
“That I found you like that. The main camera in the common area had been covered, so it was a planned attack. What did you tell them?”
“I pulled the amnesia card and just said I remembered you saving me,” I snorted, trying to sit up a little more.
“Smart. You want to come out to the yard for a cigarette? You probably shouldn’t hobble around on your own,” she stated. Some time outside would be nice.
I managed to get to my feet without looking like an idiot, grabbing my cigarettes on the way out.
“Thanks,” Lexi said randomly as we walked, not looking at me. “Not a lot of people would have done that for me.”
“We might not get along, but you’re not a bad person. Whatever they had planned, you didn’t deserve it,” I said quietly, noticing her slow her steps a little so I could keep up.
“You’re not a bad person either. I don’t hate you.”
“Aw, are we friends now?”
“Don’t push it, hero,” she scoffed, making me chuckle.
We found a bench in the sun once we’d lit our cigarettes, and we didn’t miss the guards watching us like we were going to beat each other up any second.
“They really believe it was you, don’t they?” I muttered.
“Yep.”
“Can we agree to watch each other’s backs? No friendship required, I know where we stand on that, but—”
“We can be friends. If you want,” she answered, and I raised an eyebrow.
“You sure? You didn’t seem to be vibing with that idea a moment ago.”
“You literally took on two bitches and a shiv with your bare hands for me. I think I can call you a friend,” she chuckled, blowing smoke at me.
We hung out until lunch time, and she motioned for me to join her as we grabbed our trays. Kat and the others joined us soon after, and Tilly squealed when she saw me.
“You’re alive!”
“I appear to be,” I grinned, motioning for her to sit beside me.
Everyone was happy to see me, which felt strange, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Kat went on about me being a badass, and that made me suspicious, but Lexi assured me it wasn’t an act, so I tried to believe her. Kat scared the shit out of me. She always had that dead look in her eyes even when she was smiling. The one that told me she had nothing left to lose.
Lunch was drama-free, and everyone had to get back to the laundry room in the afternoon, so I took my school work to the library to sit in one of the private rooms to get some studying done.
“Hey, nerd,” Lexi snickered when she walked in a few hours later, dropping into a chair beside mine.
“Not a nerd, I just got an opportunity to not be an unemployed, homeless bitch,” I pointed out, rubbing my eyes. “What are you doing here?”
She grabbed one of my text books and spun it around to look at what I was working on, scrunching her nose.
“How do you even understand that shit?”
“It’s taken a while to catch up to the other students, and with the new semester starting, I’m behind again with the new subjects. I don’t understand it,” I said dryly.
“You’d make more money stripping like me. Save yourself the headache,” she joked, putting the book back. “You should come and hang out with me at Wet Dreams one night. Hunter can bring you and play guard dog while we get drunk.”
“That will just piss off Archer, won’t it?”
“You think Hunter’s going to give me the time of day when you’re there? C’mon, Donovan. Don’t be so oblivious. Me and Hunt only fuck when we’re lonely. We don’t have the chemistry like you two do.”
“We don’t have chemistry.”
“You’re telling me your pussy doesn’t start doing a little happy dance when you see him?”
“My pussy doesn’t dance,” I scoffed, only making her smirk.
“Maybe you’re just into girls? Want to test it? I’ll be gentle, I know you’re injured.”
“Knock it off, you’re worse than Marco with taking a hint. They all think I need a prison wife,” I chuckled.
“Problem solved. You get orgasms and protection, and I get to fuck you. What’s not to like about that?”
“Lexi,” I sighed, rubbing my temples. “I’m straight. No amount of orgasms will change that.”
“Hey, you can be as straight as you want, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come for me,” she murmured, and I kicked her lightly.
“You’re ridiculous. I have enough traffic in my pussy to last a lifetime.”
She laughed, putting a foot up on the chair to rest her arm on her knee. “Fine, but if you ever get lonely, you know where my room is.”
“I’ll never get that lonely,” I deadpanned, picking up my pen to keep working.
Lexi stayed with me until dinner time, joining me to eat, then she followed me to the showers before bed.
“Are you stalking me?” I joked, making her roll her eyes.
“No. Figured you shouldn’t be alone when you can’t really fight back. I owe you one,” she answered, hanging her caddy up in her stall before closing the curtain.
I stripped off in my own stall, making sure to clean my wound carefully when I was finished. I needed a fresh bandage, so I’d have to stop at Medical on the way back.
I dried myself and got dressed, inspecting the wound.
“That looks sore,” Lexi stated as she peeked over the top of the stall.
“It is,” I grumbled, trying to keep the shirt off it to let the air get to it to make sure it was properly dry. “Did you bruise from the gut punch?”
“Oh, definitely,” she replied as she stepped out of the stall, lifting her shirt slightly to show me.
“That was from one punch?” I asked in surprise as the black and blue bruise came into view.
“No,” she said dryly. “They got a few hits in before you interrupted.”
Other people started trickling in to shower, so we finished up and headed to our cell block, dropping our things off on the way to Medical to grab the bandages.
The nurse was dealing with someone who’d cut their finger in the kitchen, so she shoved the bandages at us and scampered back to her patient.
“It’s okay, Nurse Bryant can handle it,” Lexi saluted, taking one of the bandages and squatting in front of me. “Hold the shirt out of the way.”
“I thought you could handle it?” I joked, earning an amused smile.
“I can strip you if you want, Donovan, but I won’t stop at your shirt.”
“You’re a bit of a whore, you know that?”
“A big whore. Stand still,” she chuckled, putting one bandage in place before taking the other from my hand and sticking it over the second wound. “Feel okay?”
“It’ll do,” I answered as she stood, and I scowled as she smacked a kiss on my cheek.
“Good as new,” she purred, throwing out the packaging before leading me out of Medical.
The girls all wanted to watch a movie, so I decided to join them, Jamie giving up her spot on the couch for me so she could sit on the floor. It was strange sitting there with them as we laughed at whatever comedy movie they’d picked, and I kept glancing at Lexi as if trying to figure her out.
Would we be friends on the outside when we got released? Or would we go back to being enemies from rival crews?
As much as her idea of drinking at Wet Dreams sounded nice, I knew it wouldn’t be that simple. Archer hated me and he hated Hunter, so it was asking for trouble.
What was Hunter doing right now? Was he busy digging into my situation? Working? Having a beer with Marco and Ty? What was Lukas and Jensen doing?
Did Caden and Skeeter really hate me?
My chest ached at the thought of them all, and I must have shown something on my face because Tilly leaned into me, giving me a reassuring smile.