Page 70 of Rat

Rory nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again. He slapped away a tear on his cheek. “I don’t know.”

“Can I ask for something in return?”

“What?”

“Never ask me to do that again.”

“Aww, how sweet.”

Rory blinked back the moisture in his eyes, then looked up at Pauly. He gestured to the table, where Sebastian’s hands were no longer pressing down on Rory’s. At some point, they had linked fingers, and they were holding each other.

Rory was so fucked.

“Keep walking,” Sebastian hissed.

Pauly carried on, and Rory noticed more men wearing bandanas following him. He counted ten, and they all glared venom at Sebastian as they passed.

“There’s more of them,” he whispered.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I am worried.”

Sebastian smiled. “I can handle it. I’ve still got the majority of this prison behind me.”

“But it only takes one to hurt you.”

Sebastian’s smile fell, and he dropped his gaze down to their hands. “Rory, you’re squeezing me pretty damn hard.”

Rory stopped clutching and pulled his hands away. “Sorry, I didn’t realize.”

“It’s okay… Chess?”

Chess was Rory’s salvation, and Rory nodded eagerly.

Sebastian waved Einstein over. He placed the board down, and Sebastian set about getting it ready.

“Okay?”

“Yes,” Rory breathed.

Sebastian rubbed his fingers up and down the pieces before he moved them, and Rory was transfixed.

When he took Rory’s pieces, he clutched them in his hand before setting them in front of himself. He lined them up, all the pieces of Rory he had claimed and now owned. Rory took more pieces of Sebastian, but he didn’t line them up with confidence. He pushed them aside.

“Captain’s back,” Sebastian murmured.

Rory turned around expecting to see Captain looking a bit less guilt-ridden, but instead he looked raging angry, and Rory’s heart started to thump.

“Captain?”

“He wouldn’t even hear me out. Got the officers to tell me he felt too threatened by me, doesn’t think we can work together. You hear that, Rory? He spent thirty minutes with me and saw me for what I was, a monster. Unsavable, evil.”

“You’re not evil.”

Captain stepped forward and towered over Rory. “Don’t. You don’t know me.”

He turned his attention to Sebastian. “You run this wing, right?”

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