Page 38 of White Rabbit

“Christ, where did you come from?” I shake my head as he admires my rabbit, bending down to lick up some of the blood. “You know that’s disgusting, right?”

“This is why he’s called Houdini,” Beans shrugs. “He just seems to pop up.”

“Houdini didn’t randomly appear dipshit, he was an escape artist.” My gaze ping pongs between the two. “You’ve got it the wrong way around.”

“Oh,” Beans seems to deflate, and I feel a little bad for correcting him.

“Why did you cut his tongue?” I ask as Houdini gets to his feet with a lazy grin.

“Were we not doing that?”

“Christ.” I exhale, rubbing my face, before grabbing Louis by the hair. “Louis, you better cough up a name before I set reverse Houdini on you.”

“Six Suns,” he stammers out, trembling in my grip.

I roll my eyes and shake him by his hair. “Nope, we already know about them.”

“T-T-Tian,” he mumbles, looking down at his unconscious gang mate. “Rightful heir to the Six Suns. Owns some tech company. He’ll stop at nothing to take down the current leader.”

The pieces click into place as I think about all the problems we’ve been having recently, with routes being blocked or uncovered by the feds, Cartel divisions encroaching on our boundaries, and our people randomly ending up behind bars. It was all part of a larger scheme from some fucker named Tian.

“Including helping you.” I nod, stroking my stubble. If he could make shit happen, that meant he had power, influence. He wasn’t some small-time gangster. “You give him men and territory to hide behind, and he helps you expand. How original.”

Wrapping my hand around Louis' throat, I squeeze, cutting off his air until he passes out.

Looking at the two men staring at me expectantly, I nod my head back towards the main corridor. “Let’s get back to the rec room and hope no one missed us.”

As we sneak back into the room, taking seats at the back, I hear Beans whisper, “Uhhh, Houdini—you’ve got a little something on your face. There. You got it.”

Beans spends the next couple of days watching over his shoulder like some sort of twitcher, jumping every time someone comes too close. He doesn’t understand that The Cartel won’t try anything, not until they’ve cleared it with their higher ups, and I was willing to bet that they’d been told to stand down.

I skim through Nicco’s latest update about the businesses in Meadowville that had been targeted. The Cartel was going to be too busy cleaning up the mess to be worried about little old me.

There’s a restless itch under my skin as another day passes without seeing Ava, but thankfully, she finally puts me out of my misery.

It’s not unusual to be occasionally pulled out of duties by another officer or for visitation, so only Beans seems to care as I’m escorted out of the maintenance workshop. The other inmates are jealous that I’m getting to leave behind my tasks, and since today we were working outside in the rain, I saunter past them with a giant grin on my face.

Officer Foxx is the one delivering me to my woman, and I take great pleasure in that as he knocks on the door and motions for me to enter while he waits in the corridor.

She stands as I enter the room. She’s wearing the same skirt as last time instead of trousers. I wonder why; I think to myself with a smile, knowing exactly the reason.

There aren’t many ways of smuggling something into prison without getting caught. As an officer, she still had to be patted down and walk through a metal detector when she arrived for work each day. She could still be caught.

Closing the door behind me, I lean against it and stroke my chin. I hadn’t shaved in a few days, and I wanted to leave her with more than just hickies today.

I wonder if the risk got her off? If she drove to work, clenching around the contraband. If walking made her sensitive as she went through the security checks. If she made small talk with her colleagues, knowing what was hidden in that tight cunt of hers.

“Did you get them?” I ask, with a curious tilt of my head even though I know the answer. She wouldn’t have called me here otherwise.

She nods, biting her lip.

Raising a brow, I’m impressed by my little white rabbit. Being a prison officer, the daughter of a judge and a general goody-two shoes normally meant that morals were unshakable and worn like a badge of honor. Every second we spent together just proved that she was like me, a creature of the shadows.

My voice is low as I stalk towards her and ask, “Where are they?”

“I haven’t...removed them yet,” she replies, straightening her shoulders. A blush spread across her cheeks, almost hiding her cute freckles as it continues to blossom down her neck.

God, Ava Bishop was going to be the death of me. She was perfect. And mine.

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