Page 69 of Victorious: Part I

“I’ll keep her safe as I can. But Landry, please get Montana to convince her to take protective custody when she’s out of the infirmary. She’s resisting. Thinks she needs to stay to protect the inmates in her circle. Stubborn woman reminds me of you, actually.”

I smirk, knowing that it’s exactly what Valerie would do. From the short time I was inside with her, she was all about the community of women she was with. And that group was tight. They fought for each other. They stood up for each other.

One in, all in.

Valerie isn’t leaving her people behind.

She’s a lot like a biker in that way.

The only problem is it will more than likely get her killed.

Alpha chuckles, letting out a sigh. “Yeah, figures. All right, hit me with protocol. Do you need to call Montana officially, or do you want me to tell him for you?”

Garver groans down the line. “This place is a fucking hell hole. Honestly, they need to just drop a bomb on it and fix the issue that way, but until they give me such pleasure, I have to try to stick to protocol. Even though technically, I broke it by calling you and telling you the disaster zone that is my life right now.”

Snorting, Alpha shakes his head. “Hey, what are friends for?” he mocks.

Garver lets out an exaggerated grumble down the line in his obvious frustration. “All right, gimmie a couple of hours to finish dealing with the mess here and get a full report from the infirmary on Valerie so I can go into the call with every fucking detail I can. It will give you a little time to prepare how to handle Montana’s reaction.”

“Yeah, thanks. That’ll be fun. And Garver, appreciate the heads-up, brother.”

He exhales like the stress is getting to him. “Not a call I wanted to make, but I knew you should know first, and Landry? Like old times, brother, watch your damn six. Whatever’s happening in my prison isn’t staying contained here. I feel it in my bones. This shit is bigger than the prison system. I don’t know what the fuck is happening in Los Angeles right now, but the earth is moving, and I don’t want us to be swallowed up by it,if you catch my drift?”

Alpha subtly nods his head in understanding, a slow smile crossing his lips, completely confusing me. “10-4, brother. Talk soon.”

“Good luck, Landry.”

“You, too, Garver,” Alpha states, then ends the call.

Raising my brow at him, I wave my hands in the air. “Why the hell are you smiling?”

He steps past me, moving for his clothes, and starts pulling them on. “Get dressed. The Warden just gave me a coded message.”

Jerking my head back, I gasp, then grab my clothes and frantically pull them on. “What did he say?”

Alpha turns to me, sliding his shirt over his head. “He said the earth is moving, and he didn’t want us to get swallowed up by it.” He starts laughing to himself as he moves to the bookshelf to grab his club cut.

Furrowing my brows, I slide my shirt over my head, then grab a boot and hop on one foot, trying to put it on as I follow him around the table. “Am I supposed to understand what that means?”

Alpha slides his cut on, his chest puffing out as he faces me, defiance flowing through him like the president he is. I stop for a moment to bask in how fucking delicious he looks when he owns his strength.

He grins down at me, shaking his head. “Not unless you were on tour with us. He was referring to this one mission we had. We were hunting insurgents in this god-awful sand-filled death trap. They called it the Last Outpost. No backup. No comms. No light. Just us and the shadows. We used to joke about it, all of us. Like it was an urban legend through the forces that if you were sent to the Last Outpost, you’d better call your family before you get there because soldiers go in…” He pauses. “But legend says that the Last Outpost is a version of purgatory. And once you come out of there, you’re judged. Either you leave, but your next stop is hell, or you don’t leave at all.”

Widening my eyes, I jerk my head back. “Jesus, that’s intense.”

Alpha exhales, slowly nodding. “Legends are cruel in the Army, but no one laughed once we got inside. It felt like the end of the fucking world in there, or maybe the pits of hell.” He stops, his eyes fading off into the distance like I’ve lost him to his memories for a moment.

I reach out, gently caressing his arm, his focus instantly coming back, and he clears his throat, continuing, “Anyway, Garver and I were doing a routine sweep through the Last Outpost. It was nothing special, just a dilapidated insurgent building. Honestly, we thought the hype over this place was so overdone. Maybe that’s why we relaxed, and as we cleared each room, we thought, nah, they’ve abandoned this one. It’s all good. Then, in the final room, on our way out, the floor gave way.” I gasp, my eyes widening in shock.

Alpha tilts his head in recognition but continues, “Garver and I both fell through, the sand flowing down around us. We couldn’t breathe. It was dark as shit. Scorpions were circling around us like the fucking devil’s hellhounds trying to sting us. The rest of our platoon was screaming out for us to see if we were okay. Eventually, with bruised egos, we both got up, turned on our flashlights, dealt with as many scorpions as we could, and then discovered something that would change the course of our tour.”

Inhaling deeply, I shake my head. “Discovered what?”

A slow grin forms on his face. “The tunnel system, the Last Outpost, was a front created by the insurgents. A myth about a location to try to scare us away, but it was merely to hide the opening for an extremely sophisticated maze of tunnels beneath the surface that stretched on for fucking miles.”

Letting out a small laugh, I grin. “Holy shit.”

Alpha tilts his head in acknowledgment. “Yeah, Garver and I fell through the floor and uncovered a massive drug and weapons operation. We took down anentireterrorist network because of it.”

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