I need to get Alice out of here before Brian and Chad take me down. And if that means resigning and smuggling her out of here, so be it.
The only thing that matters now is her safety. Not my career, not my reputation.Her.
I’m sweating as I get up from my chair and march from my office. Alice should still be in the infirmary, getting her actual inspection from the doctor I sent back in after we finished our time together.
Doomsday scenarios play out in my head as I stomp down the hall. But I push them aside.
None of that will happen. I will protect her. She belongs to me now. It’s my duty to keep her safe.
But when I reach the infirmary and barge through the door, I find it empty. Only the doctor who looks up from his desk.
“Warden?”
I grip a stool beside me and hurl it across the room. It crashes against the wall as my rage boils over.
“Where is Alice!?”
8
ALICE
The guard’shands are rough on my arms as he pulls me down the hallway. He’s squeezing so tightly it’s like he’s trying to rip the flesh from my body.
I was still buzzing from my first time with Killian, so when the doctor came back to give me a real checkup, I was barely present. My mind was off in the clouds somewhere, dreaming, recounting his every touch.
But then this man showed up, a man I’ve never seen before with a paper for the doctor. He grabbed me up off the cot, cuffed me, and dragged me away.
“Where are you taking me?” I plead for the fifth time. And for the fifth time in a row, he doesn’t answer. He’s big and hulking and moves like a robot, pulling past rows of cells as men bang on the doors, whistling and cat calling.
My stomach lurches. A wave of nausea replaces the thrilling high I was riding thanks to Killian.
Where is he? I’ve never missed my cell phone so badly. If I could just call him right now and get an idea of what was going on, maybe my body would settle down.
Speaking of cell phones, the guard’s rings from his pocket. He grabs it and answers.
“Chad? Yes, I’ve got her. No, not a problem. Cell four-fifty-eight.”
His tone is flat and detached, almost inhuman, and makes my mouth go dry.
“Where is K-Killian?” I stammer. “He told me to stay in the infirmary—”
“Don’t you get it?” the man laughs, his voice filling with spite. “You’re not special to him. You’re a sex toy. Just something to relieve stress with.”
An anger I’ve never felt before burns up through my chest, and without thinking, I bark out, “Shut up!” My voice is so loud that even he turns and glances at me, amused. “You don’t know him, and you don’t know me!”
“I know men. And I can tell you this—when your sentence is up and you’re gone, he’ll just have another young woman sent over to satisfy him.”
“Fuck you!” I scream, tears pooling in my eyes, only to be met with a hard slap across the cheek that whips my head to the side.
“Shut up,” he growls as men laugh from their cells, taunting me as I’m dragged faster down the hall.
I see cell four-fifty-eight, its door open like a whale’s mouth, waiting to gobble me up, and I cringe.
This shouldn’t be happening. I haven’t done anything wrong. Why am I being taken here instead of back to solitary? I struggle as we get closer, but it’s like trying to break through a brick wall.
The next thing I know, I’m being shoved through the door and into the barren room. My knees scrape on the ground, and I roll quickly into the corner, my back against the wall.
“You really thought something would happen with you two?” the guard laughs to himself as he slams the door shut. I seehis face grinning viciously at me through the barred window. “Pathetic.”
