Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
I’m sprinting forward before my heart beats its next beat.
Where are the guards?
I spot two of them standing by the wall, laughing about something to themselves. Another two are watching the basketball, twirling their batons.
They’ll be punished later. Right now, I must save her.
As I close in on the circle, I hear her cries, helpless and pleading. “No! Please, don’t! I–I’m not supposed to be here!”
“Back!” I roar, raising my punishment rod in the air as I reach the crowd. The inmates see me and instantly make way. They might give the guards trouble, but they know better than to screw with me. I’m the one who can turn tean years into a life sentence.
I’m steaming inside, but I must remain stone-faced in front of the men. They’re like animals. If they detect weakness, they’ll strike.
Alice is on her knees in the dirt, her jumpsuit torn at the sleeve, the top two buttons missing. A quick glance shows me the men responsible. Tony, Marty, and Lester. Lester has been a problem since his arrival last year.
Alice crawls toward my feet, tears streaking her snow-white cheeks.
“Causing trouble again?” I ask, looking down at her. My heart stings as her eyes go wide and she slumps forward, letting her hair obscure her face.
No choice. I must maintain my authority in front of the men.
A guard rushes up behind me, and I snap my fingers at the three aggressors. “Write them up. Extra work duty and two weeks cell confinement.”
Lester opens his mouth to protest, but Tony, the smart one out of these three idiots, smacks him and shuts him up.
I point to Alice, who is trembling at my feet. “Bring her to the infirmary. Make sure she’s okay.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard replies, taking Alice by the hand and leading her away from the crowd of animals.
I’m seething. I want blood. Looking around at these savage creatures makes me want to tear off my uniform and rip through them. And I could too. One by one, I’d beat them all into the ground with my fists. Show them the consequences of laying a single fucking finger on her.
She’s mine!
But I can’t. I’m the warden. It’s my duty to maintain order, not create chaos. And that’s what Brian and Chad want. Chaos.
They want to topple me out of some kind of ill-conceived desire for revenge.
They’re the reason I’m in this position. Tormenting this poor girl with my unrelenting sexual desires. She didn’t ask for this, but those eyes, those hips, those curves, that sweet pink slit between her legs—they’ve conquered me, and it’s all I can do to stay standing.
The men responsible for this, they will burn.
But right now, I have to protect Alice. By whatever means necessary.
6
ALICE
As the infirmary doors close behind me, I’m on the verge of a breakdown. My mind is a storm, still anchored back in the yard where I was surrounded by men.
So many of them, staring at me like a slab of fresh meat.
Three days in solitary, and I was praying to be let out. To see the sun, smell the fresh air. But I knew it would never happen. Not until Killian said so. Which is why I was so surprised when that random guard, the one with the mustache, showed up and told me it was time for exercise.
It felt wrong to go with him. You have to wait for Killian. That’s what I told myself. But what was I supposed to do? Disobey a guard’s orders? So I let him take me outside, and within seconds, I was surrounded.
Eyes…that’s what I remember most. Bloodthirsty eyes, plotting and planning as they scoured over me, not even seeing me as a person but as a simple object of desire.
Even now, I can still feel their hot, sweaty bodies against me. Smell their sour musk as they closed in. Their hands, fingers, groping at me, knowing I was helpless to fight back.
But then he showed up.
Killian.
He strode into the crowd like Thor, parting the sea of madmen as he walked over to me. What could I do but kneel before him?
He’s here to save me! I thought. And then his lips moved.
“Causing trouble again?”
I couldn’t believe it. My stomach sank and my mind blanked. I zoned out completely as I was hauled from the yard—not by him but by one of his cronies.
For a moment, I actually allowed myself to believe that he cared about me. But now as I sit on the infirmary bed and look up to see Killian staring down at me, his eyes cold and firm, I realize I’m just another inmate.
How could I be so stupid to think he would ever have real feelings for me? The better question is, why do I even want him to?
“Examine her,” he barks at the doctor, who quickly starts going over my body with gloved hands. I squirm back against his touch but feel myself drifting off again.