The two men weren’t small. Egers was half the reason we’d taken the big weights out of the gym, and he was still stacked. He was tall and tattooed like Black, and I was fairly sure he was a prison inductee into what was left of the AS. The other man’s name escaped me at the moment, but he was big and bulky with fat and muscle. His shaved head made him seem scary, but then again, he might be. Just because he was in medium, didn’t mean he’d never killed anyone.
Standing tall, I crossed my arms and stared down Black’s two underlings. They hesitated.
“Egers, you leave now and you don’t even get a shot. Just go. You too.” My throat nearly closed and strangled me as I tried to bluff my way out of this situation. I needed them to take the bait. I needed them to leave.
The man on the floor wasn’t moving, but I wasn’t counting him out of the game until I got the fuck out of here. I started forward and so did they. Egers came in first. There was barely any room for one person in the cell, let alone four big men. I threw a knee up into Egers’ abs, and he slammed a fist to my left jaw. The pain shocked me fully awake. The jab hurt, but I kept going, planning to bulldoze my way out into the hallway between the cells so I could maybe get on the cameras. I should have never come into a cell alone when all day I’d been feeling like something was going to go down.
I fucking knew to trust my gut.
Another punch landed on my right eye. The pain had me gritting my teeth, and stars burst in my spotty vision for a second as I shoved Egers hard.
I never should have ignored that creepy-crawly feeling.
Turning a little, I went down and planted my shoulder against Egers and heaved my body weight forward. He fell against the other man. I tried to move them with sheer determination, but together they were heavy. I jammed an elbow into Egers’ face. His buddy tried to roll around him onto the bed so they could tag team me, but I drove Egers back on top of his friend. They landed in a tangle on the thin mattress, and I tried to rush past them.
Egers snagged my arm and yanked me backward. We ended up in an awkward slugfest of a wrestling pile. I punched, then caught a fist to the side. I couldn’t let myself get on the bottom, though. Panic ate at me and my muscles tensed. I sucked in a breath and yelled when a bright wash of pain sank into my left thigh. I glanced down and found a fucking bolt from a bed frame sticking straight out of my leg. The damned shiv was jammed so tight the wound wasn’t even bleeding yet. I looked like a cyborg. My heart thudded, and though I knew the injury would hurt later, right now I barely felt it.
I left the bolt where it was lodged and sank my fist into Egers’ stomach. I wasn’t sure which one had driven the shiv home into my leg, but I was fucking over this. I jumped off Egers as fast as I could and went for the door. I was nearly out in the hallway—there wasn’t far to go—when someone pulled me back. I surged forward and dragged the bald man out with me.
We fell to the floor, and I twisted, meaning to sink my knee into his gut, but my breath was knocked out of me when I landed on my back instead. Not thinking, I raised my leg and cried out as the bolt was driven deeper into my muscle, and then I winced as another bright burst of fiery pain lanced above my hip bone in my left side.
An alarm went off and I guessed my situation had been spotted on the cameras. Burnsdale was getting a huge bouquet of roses and a fucking case of beer. Someone clocked Egers’ bald friend right in the mouth and blood sprayed across my face. I blinked the warm liquid out of my eyes as the man was tossed to the floor.
I didn’t get a chance to breathe because Egers landed his knee on my gut, but I curled out of the way of his fist. He screamed when he drove his knuckles into the gray cement with his weight behind it, and I thought maybe he’d cracked his bones. Even though I was still struggling with Egers, it registered that it was Bolton, one of the men who’d been serving time here a while, and not another guard who’d helped me. He was older and never got involved in anything, but he had his laundry cart sitting beside him as if he’d use it to dump a body if he had to go that far.
Egers strained on top of me, but I slammed an elbow into his nose, and he sat back to grip it as blood gushed. We were drawing a crowd in spite of the alarm that meant all the cons should be on their bellies with their hands out. Most of these men knew better, and I was terrified they’d get caught in the crossfire when the guards got here.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” Haggerty, who’d been in my block for about four months, asked. He was a big Irishman with shaggy red hair, and he put all his weight behind it as he kicked Egers in the face. “Greene ain’t never done anything to us. He isn’t fucking Meyers or Orlov. He’s stand-up.”
I laughed and groaned as I lay back down on the floor. I was the best of the worst, what a marvel.
Feet pounded hard across the floor and everyone backed off into their cells, hands in the air. Momma hadn’t raised any fools. I glanced up to find myself with the med team dropping to the floor at my side.
“You’re supposed to wait for the guards to clear the situation.” I glared around.
“Seriously?” Dr. Bond asked and shook his head at me. His hair fell in front of his eyes and he shoved it back out of the way. “Burnsdale sent me a message.”
Orlov pounded along the corridor and came to a stop beside me with a Taser in one hand and his baton in the other. “Who?” he yelled, eyes wild. He wasn’t a big man. I didn’t blame him much for his tase first, ask questions second attitude, since I had two shivs sticking out of my body.
“They’re all on the ground. Egers and two pals.” My head felt funny and I rested it on the floor rather than sitting up to point. “One is laid out in a cell.”
Orlov snarled, smacking his baton against his leg. I didn’t even fucking feel bad if Egers caught a beatdown from him.
“Shit, don’t move,” Dr. Bond said. “You need a surgeon. Goddamn it. Sometimes they put nasty shit on these shivs. You up to date on your shots?” His serious gaze had my heart jolting to a standstill. He pressed his fingertips to my wrist and glanced at his watch intently.
I nodded.
“We’re going to move you to a stretcher.”
“Like fuck.” I tried to sit up, and he pushed me back down.
“You have a bolt sticking out of your side, and I have no idea if it hit any organs. The one in your leg could be lodged in a major artery. I don’t think it is, but it’s close. You will let me move you.” Dr. Bond glared.
“Yes, sir.” I laid my head back again and panted, staring at the ceiling. Sweat broke out on my forehead and I shivered. “Fuck. I was gonna take Peter his toothbrush,” I said, more to myself than anything. Dr. Bond caught my eye and winced, and I thought maybe he’d worked out that more was going on between me and Peter than should be because he gave me a little nod. “We’ll make it happen. Don’t worry.”
Some time slipped through my fingers in a blur as Dr. Bond yelled at people and cons talked over one another, probably trying to tell someone what the fuck had happened.
Orlov stepped over and bent down to look in my face. “You gonna fucking live? I don’t want to do the paperwork for you to be dead.” He smiled, and that was probably the most I’d get by way of a “get well soon” from him.
