I clenched my jaw, shoved my stuff into the tray, and stepped through the metal detector.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
My chest tightened, and I went still.
“Back up,” the guard ordered, his tone all but a bark.
I was frozen, panic crawling up my throat with each repeated command from the officer.
Carrington held up his hands casually.
“Relax. It’s the damn belt buckle.” He jerked his chin toward me. “Take it off, Sunshine.”
Heat rushed to my face as I fumbled with the fucking belt, but my fingers didn’t seem to want to work.
Carrington walked to me, swatting my hands away. “So fucking cute.” He unbuckled it in two quick moves and handed it over to the guard. His mouth curved in the faintest smirk as he looked at me. “First time in the slammer and you’re already stripping for me, naughty boy.”
I glared at him, my cheeks burning even hotter than before. The biting edge of my panic dulled as I stared at his molten eyes. He’d done that on purpose.
Asshole.
“Forward,” the guard grunted.
I walked ahead, the detector silent this time. My heartbeat finally slowed enough that I could breathe, just like Carrington had shown me before.
The hall inside was long and echoey, while the annoying fluorescent lights buzzed overhead like static. My tennis shoes squeaked on the waxed floor, and I focused on the sound, hearing the clomping of Carrington’s big ass boots in tune with me. Every step deeper into this hell felt like I was walking into my own grave.
Maybe I am—the death of my past.
Carrington’s voice cut low and close beside me. “You’re wound up so tight, Baby. Breathe, Shiloh. Let me help you.”
“I am fucking breathing.”
“No, you’re gasping, and although I love these sexy, little whimpers…” His hand brushed my back briefly, the touch so soft I wondered if it was there at all. “If you walk in there looking like prey, he’ll eat you alive. Stand tall. Show him the fucking man you are. The man you became in spite of his stupid ass. He doesn’t get to see you small, Sunshine. Blind him with that light of yours.”
I straightened instinctively, my jaw clenched. “You’re not exactly helping…and you act like you know how he thinks.”
Carrington’s eyes flickered, waning as he looked at me, his expression unreadable. “I know men like him. I know how to break them just as easily.”
Because he was worse. The ultimate predator.
The unsaid hung heavy like our footfalls as we walked.
I wanted to know more about the people he broke, but the guard stopped in front of a heavy steel door and looked at Carrington. It was a familiar look, almost transactional.
“You have one hour, Carey. Not a minute more. Edmund will be prepped for visitation.”
I looked at Carrington, confused as fuck, just as the big steel door opened and the guard closed the other heavy door behind us.
An hour. Perfect.
Enough time to ruin Shiloh in ways no one else could, so he could handle whatever fucking evil his father was going to dish out today.
When the door shut behind us, leaving us in a darkened area of smaller empty cells, I smiled. Shiloh was staring apprehensively around us, trying to let his eyes adjust to the dimness. It was colder, and there was a silence here that made my ears ring.
Shiloh was stiff at my side, his cleanshaven jaw clenched, while his baby blue eyes darted between the cells and me.
“Carrington…” His voice was low and tight. “What the fuck is this?”
