Page 78 of Hard Heart

Amazingly, my worst fears hadn’t been realised. Now Sykes had three people on his side—me, Heidi, and Raelene—and even if we didn’t win, we weren’t going down without a fight.

The sirens finally quieted, and we collected our purses from the security station. That was when I saw the missed calls on my phone. Sixteen of them, and they all came from a single number. The one I’d saved as “Naughty Prison Phone.”

I froze.

“What’s wrong?” Raelene asked.

“I’m not sure.”

Levi said I shouldn’t call him back on that number, but he’d also never tried calling me repeatedly while the prison went into lockdown. I waited until we were in the car park, then dialled and pressed the phone to my ear.

“This Levi’s girl?”

It wasn’t him. I didn’t recognise the voice, and the description wasn’t entirely accurate, but I didn’t bother to argue.

“Yes.”

“He got stabbed. They took him away.”

Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell. “How bad?”

“Don’t know. I gotta go.”

The stranger hung up, and as the sun broke through a gap in the clouds above, I was left chilled to the bone.

“What was that?” Raelene asked.

My breath hitched. “Levi must have passed my number to somebody. They said he’d been stabbed.”

“Guess that explains the siren. You gave Sykes your personal cell number?”

“In the beginning, when I was trying to arrange a visit.”

Raelene rolled her eyes. “Did they say how badly he was injured?”

“They didn’t know. What happens now? I can’t even call him because he has to call me, and what if he freaking dies?”

“Now? Now, we go see the visitation coordinator, and I try to claim Sykes as my client.”

“You’d do that?”

“At this stage, I’m not sure I have much choice. Let me do the talking, okay?”

“Okay.”

The visitation coordinator recognised me, and I said a brief “Hello,” then shut up as instructed. The guy was cagey, and he didn’t want to give us any information on Levi’s condition or let us see him. But Raelene knew her rights, and she also knew Levi’s rights, and when she plonked herself in a chair and made it clear she wasn’t going anywhere until she’d seen her client, the VC gave in.

“Sykes is still in surgery. Nobody’s talking with him today.”

Oh, shit.

“What injuries did he receive?” Raelene asked matter-of-factly. “And how exactly did they happen?”

“An altercation in the chow hall, that’s all I know.” A pause. “He was stabbed.”

“Stabbed where?”

“In the chow hall, like I said.”