“This is messy,” said Griff. “I don’t like it when things get messy, on account of it brings the guards, and they like to take measures.” Griff pointed at each of them with an arthritis-crooked finger. “When they take measures, things change. I like things just the way they are, so you two are going to have to back the fuck off. And you.” Griff pointed at Kell. “You’re going to have to choose. These two will abide by that choice, and I’ll get to go back to my wall and get my daily dose of vitamin D without having to monitor you asshats.”
“Choose?”
Kell swallowed hard. His gaze flicked from Bede to Ryan and back again.
Ryan was an asshole on the verge of looking like a skinhead. He wanted Kell. Wanted him bad, and didn’t mind using threats and force to get it.
Bede had twice the bulk that Ryan had, shoulders bursting out of a white t-shirt, his denim shirt tied around his waist because maybe he wanted to show off his bulging biceps while getting a little sun on them. His dark eyes were on Kell without any expression in them whatsoever, which was just about as scary as Ryan’s threats.
There was no way this unassuming older guy who farted when he took a dump had the attention of every guy in the yard, and, evidently, the authority to tell them to jump and their only question was how high. But it was true.
Ryan and Bede looked at each other with sharp eyes, and then turned their attention to Kell, patiently waiting, it seemed, for Kell to do as Griff had instructed so they could all go back to their regularly scheduled lives of unhampered brutality and the worst fruit cocktail Kell had ever tasted.
“C’mon, kid, I don’t want to stand here all day while you gawp,” said Ryan. “I’ll still take you on. I don’t hold no grudges.”
Kell knew better. Ryan was the type of guy to hold on to grudges until the day he died, and no amount of sweet-talk and crooked smiles were going to convince Kell of anything different. Bede, on the other hand, had not moved a muscle, was not trying to cajole Kell into anything.
Kell knew he had to choose, or Griff would probably choose for him. So it was either red-scalped, sneering Ryan or silent, bigger-than-life Bede, who would get to do with Kell what he wanted, only Kell didn’t know what that was. Fuck him face down in the mattress, probably, and while that wouldn’t be pleasant, it would be a damn sight better, somehow, than saying yes to Ryan and listening to him crow to his buddies about it.
“Bede, I guess,” said Kell, his breath feeling cold in his throat.
“Bede it is,” said Griff, and then he gestured for one of the inmates to come closer. “Go tell Lenny to move this guy into Bede’s cell so I can have my own cell back. And Bede.” Griff pointed at Bede like a schoolteacher about to deliver a scolding. “When you fuck him for the first time, use a pillow to make sure he doesn’t scream. Screams interrupt my sleep.”
“You got it,” said Bede, not taking his eyes off Griff as the inmate trotted off, going right up to one of the guards, whispering his message hurriedly.
So not only did Griff rule the yard, he was able to send someone up to a guard, passing on his message that way, rather than sullying his hands and wasting his time by having to tell a guard what to do himself.
The power in those old hands probably spread a good way into the prison system, and here Kell had assumed that just because he was old and looked pretty helpless that Griff was a nobody. Lesson learned, then.
Hopefully he hadn’t made the same mistake in his selection, where Ryan would turn out to be the good guy in all this, and Bede an absolute monster who would make Kell’s next eighty-six days an utter living nightmare.
Chapter3
Kell
Bede had turned out to be the surprise Kell hadn’t expected. After dinner, when everybody was lounging around waiting for shower time, Kell had been escorted to his new cell, this one painted a pale green on the inside. His stuff was already on the top bunk, each item lined up like a soldier waiting for inspection.
“You coming for a shower?” asked a voice from behind him. Kell turned to see Bede reaching into his little cubby for a towel and a bar of soap. “We got a slot.”
“I-I don’t need one,” said Kell, tightening his lips against his teeth to cover the stammer.
“You do, and we need to go now.” Bede pulled down Kell’s towel and soap, then cupped the back of his neck to draw him out of the cell. “Stay close,” Bede said as they got in line.
The metal shower stall held ten men, it seemed, but there were only seven nozzles, so several had to share. Kell stripped in the dressing area, hanging up his clothes next to Bede’s, and stuck close to the wall as he entered the stall.
He kept his eyes up, aimed only at Bede’s silky smooth chest, eyeing the tattoo, trying to figure it out as he took the fastest shower of his life. Which only meant that he had to wait, naked and dripping, while Bede took a more leisurely shower, soaping up his pits and his junk and rinsing off as calmly as if he’d just gotten out of a dip in the ocean.
All of Bede was cut and hard, muscly, like he worked out all the time. And his attitude was as if he didn’t care, wasn’t afraid of anyone in that shower stall. Could be naked and bend over and pick up the soap any old time. As if Kell wasn’t standing close enough to clasp Bede’s hip and hang on for dear life until the ten minutes were up.
“Bring clean briefs next time,” said Bede as they dried off and got dressed. “So you won’t smell.”
Nodding, Kell avoided catching Bede’s gaze, that dark look Bede gave him as they got into line, and inmates headed back to the break room or their cells. Kell thought for half a second that he had the freedom to choose, only Bede’s hand cupped around his neck again and directed them both back to their shared cell.
The cell door stayed open and would remain that way until lights out at nine-thirty. Until then, until darkness came, Kell would be safe from whatever Bede wanted to do with him.
Which was what? He’d find out soon enough, so he wasn’t going to be a fucking idiot and ask. Just enjoy an hour or two before his asshole was ripped open.
“I like to read,” said Bede.
