He was hilarious, just like our fake last names, although we kept our first names for convenience. After that, breakfast was delivered to our cell, which surprised me.
“They’re doing things differently here,” Adam explained to me later. “Breakfast and lunch are served in the cells. Dinner is the only meal served in the chow hall. They changed the routine a few years back because they had too many violent incidents.”
“No wonder, since they sent all the worst criminals here,” I said. “Couldn’t they scatter them around the country or something?”
Adam chuckled. “And where would be the fun in that?”
When he sat down on the lower bunk next to me, I winced against my will. I still wasn’t used to him being so close to me. Usually, he avoided the room I was in, although, to be fair, this wasn’t an option here.
“What did we get?” I said, opening the breakfast pack. “And is it edible?”
Adam peeked into his pack. “Toast, peanut butter, jelly, milk, and an apple. Eh, I’ve had worse.”
“When you say you had worse, where was it and what was it?”
His expression told me that it wasn’t a pleasant memory.
“Here and there. This and that. Stop thinking and eat, weirdo.”
I made a face. “Don’t call me that.”
“Stop thinking and eat, princess?”
“That’s hardly better,” I said, pushing my breakfast away. “You can have mine if you want. I have no appetite.”
“You have to eat.”
“You’re so much better at this,” I grumbled. “How can you be so calm?”
When Adam touched my knee, making me look at him, I blinked in disbelief. His blue eyes were so close to me that I felt as if I’d dived into an ocean.
“This is important, Jordan, so listen up,” Adam said, looking serious. “You’ve been assigned to the kitchen, and I to the laundry, which means we won’t see each other for a while. I will meet you here at lunchtime, but until then, lay low and keep your mouth shut. I’ll kill anyone who looks at you the wrong way, but let’s try to prevent that, yeah?”
I nodded, too stunned to speak. His overprotectiveness wasn’t unexpected, but he’d never vocalized it before. Also, since we came here, he’d behaved like a different person. He actually talked to me. He even smiled at me a few times, which was shocking, to say the least.
“Where’s asshole Adam?” I blurted. “Did we lose him along the way?”
“Still here, don’t worry. However, since we’re surrounded by the criminally insane, we need to watch each other’s backs. Sounds reasonable?”
It sounded like a dream, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it because I spent the next few hours slicing and dicing in the kitchen. The guy chopping cabbage next to me was chatty, but it was a welcome distraction, and he seemed harmless. He was a skinny dude with curly hair tied into a ponytail and a thin mustache he was unsuccessfully growing.
“Name’s Miguel,” he chirped, looking way too comfortable with a knife in his hand. “I turned twenty-two in this shithole, believe it or not. Six months here, but it feels like six years. My first time in a slammer, too. I’m innocent, though. Just paying off someone’s debt because life’s a bitch. You’re new, huh? Whatcha in for?”
I listened to Adam’s advice and kept it short. “Drugs.”
“Hmm,” he hummed thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t have guessed it by the looks of you. You seem nice, though, so I’ll give you some advice. Stay away from the Reapers. You’re pretty, and their leader likes them pretty.”
I frowned. “I’m not pretty. And who are the Reapers?”
“Well, basically, we have two power players here. The Reapers are bad news. Stabbers. Sodomites. Their leader, Skull Crusher, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Armed robbery, murder, setting a school bus on fire with children in it... You name it, he did it. He’s never leaving this place, and what he wants he takes by force. If I were you, I would grow eyes on my ass.”
“Peachy,” I murmured. “What about the other ones?”
“Santiago and his goons. No one dares touch him because of his connection to Bull, the cartel boss. Santiago has guards’ protection, so don’t get on his bad side. In fact, stay away from him altogether, because his enemies have the habit of OD’ing.”
My ears pricked up when he mentioned Santiago, but I refrained from asking questions.
“I don’t plan on making any enemies here,” I said instead.
