Page 48 of Auctioned to the Prisoners

“Wilson might not be controllable.”

“So, let Grady bring him down here, and we’ll get him under control.”

“In front of Lory? You think she’ll want that? She won’t look at us the same after, so what would be the point?”

I close my eyes, breathing roughly through flared nostrils. I can’t lose her. Not like this.

“We haven’t had enough time,” I say.

“For what?” Rock asks his question slowly and deliberately.

I open my mouth to speak but then snap it shut because I get what he’s doing. He knows this isn’t just about sex anymore. This is about spending time in Lory’s company. Getting to know her. Developing feelings for her. He wants me to admit what I’m feeling, even though it was never part of the arrangement and pointless under the circumstances.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Kinkaid says. His jaw tics as his troubled eyes move from me to a point in the corner. “I know you’re thinking about her as more than someone to use for a month.” He sighs, and it’s a helpless sound, so unlike the Kinkaid I’m so familiar with. “She has a way of getting close and making me want things I have no business wanting.”

“We’re going to get out of here one day,” I say, then I’m swamped with guilt. My release date is closer than Kinkaid’s. Ifour roles were reversed, I’d resent the fuck out of him for getting out before me, especially if there’s a chance to be with Lory.

“No time soon,” he says. His finger picks at a dent in the table. “And anyway, she’s going to get out of this place and go help her sister. She won’t wait around for our criminal asses to get out.”

“You don’t know that.” Am I an idiot for hoping for something Kinkaid dismisses so easily? “She doesn’t have a man out there. She’s got no one to look out for her. Maybe she’d want us if there was a chance.”

“She’s doing what she needs to do to stay safe with us.” Rock rubs his bearded jaw, his expression dark and defeated. “You’ve gotta realize that the Lory in here isn’t necessarily the Lory you’ll find on the outside.”

“Nah.” I slump against the chair and realize I haven’t worn a shirt. I don’t want the first thing Lory sees when she’s finished showering to be my mess of a back. “Nah, Lory’s straight down the line. I’ve never met a woman like her.” I push the chair back with my knees and loom over them.

Kinkaid and Rock remain silent, but I don’t care. I won’t hear another word on this subject. Lory is the best woman I’ve met in my life, and if there’s a chance she’d consider keeping this thing going between us while I serve out my time, then I’m going to try. I’m not letting her go without telling her how I feel. What the others do is up to them.

18

ROCK

TAKING CHANCES

This situation is getting to Hyde, and he’s talking crazy. It was always my worry that he’d get attached and start to feel things that weren’t real. I keep telling myself that the warmth I feel in my chest when I look at Lory is just about circumstances. I’m holding tight to the truth that she’s doing what she’s getting paid to do because that keeps us all where we’re supposed to be. I’m sure she’s a great woman in real life, a woman I could love, but if we were free and she met us all in a dark alley, she’d probably run for her life. She’d swipe left on any dating app if she read our sorry profiles. Collectively, we’ve all spent more time in correctional facilities than in education and have no business imagining she could want us back.

After our conversation, Hyde stormed off, then grabbed Lory as soon as she’d showered and disappeared to fuck her noisily. Kinkaid’s pacing again, his mind tangled up in everything that’s out of his control.

I keep circling back to what it will be like to return to our cells, and the thought makes me sick. Even though we’ve been holed up in this strange, abandoned prison unit, it’s felt almost like a retreat. We’ve all slept better here. We’ve all had a chance to unwind, but soon it’ll be over.

When Grady appears at the door again, he's not bringing good news. “I have to take her,” he tells us. “I’ve put it off for as long as I can, but he’s going open his mouth. There’s no controlling men like Wilson.”

“There is,” Hyde growls. “There are plenty of ways to control men like that.”

Grady loses the color in his face at the veiled threat. Whitaker Evan’s found out the hard way just how easily Hyde can control a bad man.

“Okay.” Kinkaid says the word with determination and resignation before Hyde can go any further.

“Warden…” I pause, trying to straighten out the scrambled thoughts in my head. “We want to get out of here. What can you do to help us with that?”

I haven’t said, ‘You still owe us,’ but he’s not a stupid man. He’ll understand my intent.

“When you come up for parole, you’ll have my seal of approval.”

“He’s innocent, and you know it,” Kinkaid says. Grady sighs like he’s carrying the world on his shoulders, and every joint in his body is screaming in agony.

“I’ll do my best.”

What does that even mean?

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