Page 16 of Babalon

With that, Matias stood up and slapped his hand on the table a few times, signaling his leave. He does that shit every time like standing didn’t indicate his departure in the first place. With anod, I give my semi-undivided attention back to the… soup, it’s soup… in front of me and let my mind wander back to a tight grip on my cock and the heat of one annoying officer.

Chapter five

Nadia

Present Day

“Nadia, why are you here? You’re supposed to be off the clock,” my shadow asks, good old Zurita. What would I do without him? A lot, like worry about my own business instead of answering his questions.

We have a love-hate type of relationship. I love to hate him and he hates to love me. For the most part, we get along and have the highest safety rates of the entire unit team. He has a few years on me, I think he is 36 or somewhere around there; seems like a lot of officers and inmates range between their 20’s and their 50’s. Pretty wide gap but when the older ones start getting picked off by the new shot callers or losing medical benefits, they tend to die off sooner rather than later. Maybe this is my chance,he’s about to tell me he has some incurable disease and he’s leaving his new gear to me in his will-and-testament.

Looking up from my reports, glaring at Zurita, I shrug. Setting my pen down, my arms cross over my chest and I lean back in my chair. He hates when I do this shit, thinks I’m being disrespectful and uncooperative. But I’m just trying to get comfortable for his tirade.

“I have reports to finish, Zurita. You know, my job.”

“You would have already been done if you didn’t keep fucking around with inmate Patton. You know he hit me with that door; I should have given him an infraction for that, but no, here you come and save the day,” he said, his eyes rolling.

What the hell was with the men in here and rolling their eyes like school girls?

“Oh, give it a rest. I was on escort duty and you know it.”

“Escort duty set by whom, Warden Durden? He damn sure didn’t inform me that my partner would be shadowing one of the quiet ones today.”

I have never been good at masking my thoughts and emotions, so when my ‘go fuck yourself’ expression spread across my face, Zurita was sure to growl.

“Inmate Patton was involved in a physical altercation earlier this morning. It is my job to ensure the safety of all staff and inmates, including the ones that you don’t like. His attacker was placed in solitary while I escorted him to provide medical attention and additional observation. Does this explanation please you, Czar Zurita?”

Pushing away from the little desk, I stood up and adjusted my uniform, avoiding the red-faced glare he now aimed at me. My hands skimmed over my waist, hips, and thighs; taking a mental note of my equipment just to make sure I had everything with me since it was time to go— according to Zurita’s’ watch. We’re not allowed to carry firearms in the prison, for obviousreasons, but we do carry other things such as pepper gel and an expandable baton— which I love. Yet it all remains in my locker per protocol.

Ensuring everything is accounted for, I walk over to the lockers that run along the back wall of the office, open mine, and snatch my backpack out. Making room for my vest, I shrug it off and hang it on the metal hook, followed by my duty belt and weapons. When I leave, I usually put a jacket on because I don’t want people seeing my uniform, but it’s starting to get hot out. Since we are so far up north, it takes a while for the summer temperatures to start kicking in, so I end up throwing it over one of my shoulders to tote it with me.

Unzipping my pack, I attempt to get a sense of where Zurita is standing in the room before trying to take out the contents. Then stash them in my tactical vest— where I hide most of the contraband I scatter out across the prison. Shoving the little baggies in the pockets, I make quick work of my bag and sling it over my shoulder and slam the flimsy door shut.

“Your highness, I’ll be leaving now. You and Clark are on leadership tonight, yeah?” I asked with a petulant little bow.

“Mhm. Now get out, Pierce.”

“Working on it, dickhead.”

I enjoy it when he is curt and I get to leave quickly. Means he isn’t going to pry and make more digs at my behavior, and I can keep running snow in and out of the institute. When I first started, I was all high and mighty, doing everything by the books, but the longer you’re in this place, the more it gets a hold on you.

So, I run drugs now, which puts extra money in my pocket which prevents me from going back to Hazelwood, and keeps the race factions off my case. Women are a commodity in the prison industry and I’d rather not be on the receiving end of a gang bang or a shiv.

Well… a non-consensual one that is. The porn type is nice to look at.

Stepping out of the guard office, I turn to the right and head toward the front of the prison, up to the old stone facade. I think this place was built about a hundred-fifty years ago, and though there have been renovations, the Warden decided to maintain the stone structure that housed the entryway.

It looks nice in a gothic type of way, like you’re walking into a castle that you may never leave. But as soon as you get inside, it’s your typical metal detectors and check-in stations. Just so happens, it’s the only exit for staff which means I run the chance of getting caught with blow every time I take it through the check point— thus why I leave it in my locker.

Thankfully, the office isn’t too far away from the exit. The guards don’t worry about much when you’re leaving; waving and passing off random pleasantries on my way out usually does the trick.

Giving the night shift a tip of my invisible hat, I am out of the doors and in the suffocating humidity outside.

I hate the summer.

Staff parking is off to the left while Warden and Deputy parking is to the right outside the doors, then visitor parking is in the furthest lot ahead of me. This is the best part of my shift, the walk. Whether I am coming or going, I appreciate the clean air since the facility is so far outside of city limits.

When I moved out of my dad’s, he was nice enough, and I mean that very loosely, to give me the truck while he opted for a new SUV. At least that was one thing I didn’t have to pay for on an officer’s salary. Now I just put my money towards rent and utilities at my apartment, scraping by like everyone else while secretly stashing part of my paychecks and hoping to get further away from here one day. That was mine and Rey’s dream, evenif we didn’t plan on ever being together when we ran, we still wanted out of the area.

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