“You should go back home,” I said gruffly. “Where you have people that’ll protect you and have your back if you need help.”
She looked over at me. “I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
And with that, she walked away, swinging that shapely ass as she went.
• • •
Three months later
“Random cell inspection,” I heard the inmate closest to me grumble. “Son of a bitch.”
I saw him toss something over the ledge of the railing, then rolled my eyes.
“You stupid son of a bitch!” I heard someone say. “I would’ve swallowed that if you’d given it to me.”
I ignored them and lay on my bed, glad that I didn’t have a roommate for the time being.
I also didn’t sweat the random inspection. It was what it was. I didn’t have any contraband in here. What was the fuckin’ point?
I didn’t do drugs, didn’t smoke, and saw no reason to hide a shank in my cell when my fists would work well enough if I needed something to protect me.
Needless to say, an inspection was just another part of my day.
At least, not until she came into the cell.
“Hey, Kitty Kitty!” I heard the moron that’d thrown whatever drugs he’d had in his cell over the railing earlier say. “Come over here and let me pet your pussy.”
I gritted my teeth, hoping I wouldn’t see who I knew I would see, and turned my head.
Of course, it was exactly who I’d hoped I wouldn’t see.
Not that my eyes didn’t eat the sight of her up.
But Jesus Christ. Did I really want to be sporting a huge erection with about eight people crowding into the tiny cell that I was encased in?
Fuck no.
Yet, there she was. There my boner was. And there the eight other people were.
Great.
“You have a problem with us searching your things, Solomon?” a male guard asked.
When the random inspections happened, at least they didn’t only send female guards. They always had male guards there to help.
Again, I wasn’t being sexist or anything, but Jesus Christ, this place was a hellhole, and it terrified me to have her there.
“Are you even listening to me, Solomon?” I heard one of the guards ask.
I didn’t know their names.
I didn’t bother to learn them because I just didn’t care.
The only guard that I cared about I tried not to show anything at all.
I didn’t want the other inmates knowing that I had a weakness. It was better to continue showing the world that I didn’t give a fuck about anything.
“Sorry,” I grumbled. “Search away.”
The guards went to ransacking.
All of them pretty much ripped the room apart as they searched, uncaring about the mess that they were making.
All of them but one particular woman who took time cleaning up after herself as she ‘searched.’
Though, what she was searching for I didn’t know.
Her eyes skimmed over my books, her fingers trailing over the spines almost reverently.
I felt other things inside me clench at her obvious love of the books.
“Nothing,” I heard called by one of the guards.
“Same,” another one called.
One by one, they all called off their names and ‘nothing’ before all eyes settled on Blaise.
Blaise, who was staring at a photograph I had on the wall.
It wasn’t your usual type of photograph.
Honestly, had I known that she was going to be here, I would’ve torn it down.
But since I wasn’t given any warning, I hadn’t thought to take down the photo of Brees and me.
A photo taken about three weeks before it’d all gone down. A photo where we both appeared happy.
I hadn’t been happy. Even before the altercation with Blaise and him, I hadn’t liked him all that much.
He was a prick who thought his shit didn’t stink. He was also a prick who showed you one thing to your face and did something completely opposite when you weren’t there to keep an eye on him.
“Oh, that’s it then,” one of the guards said. “This was our last inspection.”
One of the guards started to pull out a sheet of paper and nodded once. “Except for bottom cells. Cells I’m not going anywhere near.”
The bottom cells weren’t that big of a deal anymore. But a long while ago they made the bottom area into the isolation cells, and in isolation, prisoners weren’t allowed to have anything in there with them. Not even a blanket or a sheet in case they tried to hang themselves while they were in there.
Which meant that there were none because unless a guard gave it to them, they weren’t going to have anything in those cells.
And guards didn’t rat other guards out. No matter what they did or didn’t do.
Though, I had a feeling Blaise was an exception to those rules.
“All right,” another guard said as he walked out.
The others followed until there was only Blaise.
But one guard, a big male guard that looked to have the hots for my woman—and in my head, she was my woman—stopped right outside the cell door.