“What the fuck does that mean?” I demanded, but she was already standing, already leaving through the side door.
The guards grabbed me before I could even process what had happened. No appeal. No defense. Just guilty, sentenced, done. They dragged me out of the courtroom and down another corridor, this one narrower, more institutional. The corporate veneer was gone now. These were the guts of the building, the parts they didn’t show in promotional materials.
We stopped at a door marked only with a number: 7. One of the guards pressed his palm to another scanner, and the door opened to reveal what looked like a medical examination room. Sterile white walls, bright overhead lights, a padded table in the center with stirrups at one end.
My stomach dropped.
“Strip,” the taller of the two guards said. Older and harder, too, with eyes that had seen this a thousand times before.
“No.”
“You can strip yourself or we can strip you. Your choice.”
I looked at the door, at the guards, at the examination table. Every cell in my body was screaming to fight, to run, but there was nowhere to go. My hands were still cuffed behind my back.
“Un-cuff me,” I said, hating how my voice shook.
The other guard moved behind me, and I heard the click of the cuffs releasing. My shoulders ached as I brought my arms forward, rubbing at the red marks on my wrists.
“Strip. Now.”
My fingers fumbled with the buttons of my shirt. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. I was Pam Nelson. I was the smartest person in any room. I didn’t end up on examination tables with fucking stirrups.
But my shirt came off anyway. Then my bra. My jeans. My underwear. Until I was standing naked under those harsh fluorescent lights, every instinct telling me to cover myself while knowing it was pointless.
“On the table. On your back.”
I climbed onto the padded surface, the vinyl cold against my bare skin. The taller guard moved to my right leg, lifting it and positioning it in the stirrup. Then the left. I felt the restraints close around my knees, heard the soft clink of buckles as he tightened the webbing.
I was spread open, exposed, completely vulnerable. Everything I’d spent my entire life avoiding.
“What are you doing?” My voice came out higher than I wanted. “What is this?”
CHAPTER 2
Pam
The guards didn’t answer. The taller one just moved to a cabinet on the wall and began pulling out equipment. Medical equipment. Sensors and shit. Things I couldn’t identify and didn’t want to.
The door opened again, and a man in a white coat entered. Doctor, I assumed, though he didn’t introduce himself. He didn’t even look at my face. His eyes went straight to my exposed privates, and he moved between my spread legs with the practiced efficiency of someone who’d done this too many times to count.
“Subject presents as physically healthy,” he said into a small recording device clipped to his coat. “Proceeding with sensor installation.”
“Sensor?” I tried to sit up, but the taller guard’s hand came down on my shoulder, pressing me back against the table.
“Standard procedure for Non-Violent Offenders,” the doctor said, still not looking at my face. He pulled on latex gloves with a snap that made me flinch. “Perineal biometric monitoring device. It’ll track your physiological responses during your rehabilitation.”
“My what? I didn’t agree to?—”
“You lost the right to agree to just about anything when you were convicted.” He selected something from a tray I couldn’t see. “This will be uncomfortable, but not painful. Try to relax.”
Relax. He wanted me to relax while he installed some kind of fucking sensor between my legs. I felt his gloved fingers touch me, clinical and impersonal, and every muscle in my body locked up.
“I said relax,” he repeated, his tone irritated now. “You’re only making this harder on yourself.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to separate my mind from what was happening to my body. This wasn’t me. This was just meat on a table. Meat they were modifying for their purposes. I could survive this if I just?—
The pressure came suddenly, a sharp intrusion that made me gasp. Not inside me, but right at that sensitive spot between my vagina and my anus. I felt something cold, then a brief burning sensation, then nothing.
