“Yep.”
Orlov shook out his shoulders like he was preparing for a prize fight, then stepped to the side and opened the door. Beast stood in the center of the small room with his arms crossed. His elbows almost hit the walls, and he had likely needed to sleep curled up on the thin mattress that had been his bed. He was a monster and always had been, just fucking massive, and built to hurt people. He smiled and his rotting teeth had me desperately reminding myself to schedule a cleaning at my dentist. His prison tattoos were as horrific as the rest of him—headless bodies and injured women. In the last year they’d started creeping up his neck and onto his jaw. I happened to know that one of those corpses was a portrait, not an imaginary phantasm of his mind. I wasn’t sure who she had been in life, or how he’d gotten someone to ink the proportions just so, but I’d seen that one die.
Made me think the rest of his art was trophy ink, too.
Yes, he belonged right where he was, even though he’d never been caught for most of his crimes.
“Congratulations, you’re coming to E block!” I said in my most cheerful tone. “We’re so excited.”
He narrowed his eyes and didn’t step forward the way I’d thought he might. He never had liked someone who was close to his own size; I suspected he was more of a coward than he let on. “I don’t want to move. My boys are in F. I got someone there to take care of me.”
He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by ‘take care of me,’ and Orlov and I didn’t need him to be clearer, but his proximity to his most recent fuck partner wasn’t my priority. In fact, I was glad I got to tell him some even worse news.
“I appreciate your concerns, but you are moving. In fact, you’ve already been transferred, along with your belongings. And you’re going to act appropriately in E block, or you won’t be leaving this room.” I glanced around at the four tight walls. “You wanna stay here? You like it?”
“You’re a big man, Greene, huh?” He tilted his head back and stared. His words weren’t too clear, and I thought it might be from his bad teeth, which he wouldn’t let anyone clean. I didn’t like the way gears appeared to be turning in his head, either placing me or thinking up terrible shit to do to me.
Blindly, I groped at my side for the baton I hadn’t picked up when I came in earlier, since I never liked to rely on weapons to get my point across. I felt stupid but shrugged it off. “Okay, Beast. Let’s be reasonable. I’ll sweeten the pot a bit, how about that? No one else is in your cell at the moment. Just you. It can stay that way.”
“I like having my bunkmate.”
Fucker, I bet you do.I didn’t say anything out loud, only fixed my smile on my face. “He was transferred out while you were in here.” I neglected to mention the transfer was for his own safety because Beast had put him in medical with an anal fissure, and that Lon Wiseback had more or less had to sell his soul to the devil to make the move out of TFC happen. It was fucking difficult to transfer men around the prison system right now because the facilities were more overcrowded than ever, so we often got stuck with prisoners who needed to be elsewhere.
Like Beast.
He snorted and grinned. “Now I gotta find a new bitch.”
“Don’t tell me more. Not my issue. Let’s move out.” I stood aside, well out of striking range, and tried not to look scared as Beast moved forward. I took the cuffs off my belt.
His nostrils flared. “You want everyone to see me chained?”
“It’s procedure on the way back from the SHU. In case you need to go right back in it.” Or rather, it was my procedure when dealing with Beast, to have him cuffed as much as possible. Anything that limited his ability to punch was good.
Orlov walked with me in our parade of three back to E block. We had to go through his old stomping grounds in F to get there, and Beast was pissed off by the time we got him to his new home. His shoulders rose and fell fast with his breath, and I thought he was probably ready to lose his shit again. Once we were at Beast’s new, mostly bare cell, Orlov took off like a shot to get as far away as possible. The scaredy-cat was probably worried Beast would detonate when he saw most of his contraband had been tossed. It wasn’t even worth writing him up anymore, not for that small shit.
“I know you do a lot of whatever you want.”
Beast sneered and shifted toward me. Since he’d been in the SHU, he didn’t have on sweats like a lot of the other cons, and his gray jumpsuit was stained with some questionable bodily fluids. I tried not to look down at his body and play the guessing game my mind so desperately wanted to have.Is it cum? Is it snot?
“Your time in my block can be good or bad. That’s on you. I don’t try to make anything worse than it needs to be.” Again, I went for a smile.
“This is my prison.” Beast narrowed his eyes.
“Keep it up and you’ll live in the SHU. You can’t fuck anyone in there, now, can you? That’s the only thing you’re known to care about, so think long andhardabout some good behavior, okay?”
He laughed. “Someday you won’t see me coming.”
Nodding, I pointed. “Good one. I’m not an old man waiting for retirement. I’m not one of these cocky fucks like Orlov, but if you try to jump me, it’s gonna end in permanent hurt for you.” I winked at him, and his sneer slipped to a scowl.
Beast nodded, and I thought we understood each other. My stomach flipped. I hadn’t ever spent this much time talking to him.
“Hands.”
He held his fists out, and I forced myself to stay steady while I uncuffed him.
Gaffin rolled out of the single cell next door. The bruises on his handsome face were worse today than yesterday, probably because they were beginning to heal. His split bottom lip looked like it could use some ice. It was to be expected that the marks would darken. Usually I didn’t get invested in the cons, beyond keeping them alive, but I hated seeing him beat-up. Brandon must have brought him back here for some reason. I smiled at Gaffin, but he didn’t notice because he’d shifted his attention to Beast and was too busy gaping.
His face went ghost white. I flinched as Beast turned to see who I was looking at. Gaffin spun his chair with a pained grunt and wheeled hard away from us toward the door that would take him around through the blocks and to the mess hall.
