Page 16 of Twist Me

“Uh, yeah. Sometimes.” Not understanding a word I was saying, he laughed nervously and nodded.

“The new girl.” I leaned forward and traced the healing brand on my arm. “Pull up her file. I have a feeling she’s a lamb in wolf’s clothing.”

“That’s not how the saying goes?—”

I placed my pointer finger over his lips and shook my head no. “I want to know everything about her: her favorite fucking color, even the types of underwear her grandmother wears. Got it?” Something was definitely off with my Little Lamb.

Judas and Pharaoh walked into the library, saw me, and headed over.

“You still moping?” Roe said.

Judas spoke up with a fake sob. “I am! I didn’t even get to eat that cake.”

Pharaoh laughed and bit his lip. “Got me there, Judes. We need some fucking cake around here that isn’t discount second-shelf shit.”

Dexter spoke up, and I zeroed in on his screen—there was a picture of my Little lamb wearing the most interesting attire.

Well, well, well…

The man supposedly killed by our new guest was just seen at a local café with not a scratch on him. Now, how could that be?

“Oh my god…Larry, Roxy, Tony, look at this shit! We’ve been duped, bamboozled by the hottie who cried wolf?—”

I stuck my finger in Judas’s mouth to get him to shut up, but he sucked it like a fucking baby and began mumbling lullabies.

I read over the information displayed about my naughty lamb to myself. The education and history were pretty impressive. Her socials were enough to show she was a devout little catholic who owned a fucking cat that was massive…and had a dead mommy and a poor-as-shit daddy.

Dexter’s hacking skills told me the rest.

She worked on cars as a teen with her dad in their run-down shop. She liked lattes at a tiny downtown shop close to where she lived, and her heritage, as I had suspected, was of Hispanic origin. Writing down the information, I left my brothers to stew over the intel while I retraced the hallway Zee had escaped into to get away from me.

The empty hallway space was lit up now. Everything was immaculate and looked untouched. At this point, I barely had any more commissions left over from the payoffs I’d used lately, and Dex was still chirping in my ear about paying him more for the ‘fancy’ lighting work he’d done in the building when Zelle first arrived. Now, this requested fishing expedition was only going to cost me even more.

Running my hands along the wall, I remembered the taste of her blood, and the survival instincts she’d exhibited weremouthwatering.It didn’t make sense how she would come up with something like that little stunt, but no less impressive.

Still, I had to know how the fuck she simply disappeared.

Walking forward to the next hallway, I examined every corner until I reached the end. Intrigue struck me like lightning when a small seam slid under my fingertips, and under the dirt caked on was dried blood—nothing anyone would notice without seeking it out.

Tilting my head, I bent down on my knees and followed the small, thin line under the painted wall. Behind a potted plant, it stopped in the middle of the hallway. I peeled the corner off some of the paint and saw a metal door. It looked like one of those doors that you see from old-school laundry chutes, and my enormous ass wasn’t going to fit in that shit. I’d be lucky if I got my dick to fit.

A light bulb moment struck, and a smile curled on my lips. The little doll, Emmy, escaped me when she first came here. I never knew how the fuck she did it, but now, I realized they pulled an Alice in fucking Wonderland and popped through the walls.

I knew there had been old tunnels this shit hole was built on, but could those tunnels be accessible through these shafts?

Sending a text to my brothers to cover for me at lights out and then another one to Dex to cut off the entryway of this particular hall from the guards and staff, I did a quick measurement of my large ass. I then started to dig my fingers around the hatch. The powder came off under my nails like chalk. It took a bit, but finally, I got a hole opened up big enough to get my ass inside it.

Crawling into the small tunnel, I thought of the Little Lamb. Since I knew she wasnotin a decompression room, I may as well check out her address. Dex had given it to me, and her place wasn’t far from here. I knew the area well enough from workingaround it back in the day. I hoped she liked getting surprises because I was going to get out of this tunnel and find where the ‘bad little cannibal’ was hiding.

Whistling, I started my trek, crawling my way to freedom. The tunnels were a cramped fucking mess, and between the dust and the smell of sulfur, I was happy when I finally saw some light.

Pushing past some rocks, I could hear a river roaring like a hurricane. Sure enough, when I got out of the stuffy old tunnel, I could see a river next to the exit. The lights from the prison and the asylum in the distance shone like old-time street lamps. I had to be a few miles from the buildings now and took pleasure in flipping my jailors off. Turning, I snagged a few rocks and twigs from a low-lying tree to mark my exit. These tunnels were going to be put to good use as valuable detours—a quick escape option was a fucking plus.

Smiling and turning toward the dirt road and woods with no one around…I pictured my Little Lamb.

“Run, run, run, Little Lamb, the big bad wolf is coming to play.”

When I arrived at her little highrise apartment, being outside felt strange after being stuck inside Hospital Twelve for so long. I didn’t like it. It was so damn loud out here. I held my hands over my ears. The buzzing street lamp that kept fucking flickering was giving me a headache. Until now, the trip was all quiet woods and dirt roads with nothing else around, but not anymore.

---