Page 47 of I Regret Nothing
“I’m so glad it wasn’t you.”
Faust banged his shock baton against the wall.
“No touching, inmates. Stand for count,” he growled.
He was back to being scary again, but I got it. Someone had died, and he was doing his job. We all scurried off and stood in front of our cell doors. Faust didn’t even look at me as he walked down the cells with his clicker. It said a lot about Faust that everyone was dying to know who it was, but no one said a fucking thing.
He got to the end and turned on his heels. He grabbed the walkie on his shoulder.
“Cellblock D is all accounted for.”
Guards started chiming in. No one was missing. A few more guards stormed into my cellblock and started tossing shit everywhere. I didn’t have a lot of stuff in my cell, but my thin mattress and shitty pillow were now on the floor.
There had to be some serious hiding places here because they didn’t find a single shiv or any of Dakarys and Rajack’s black market items aside from hooch. I was seriously going to have to ask where to stash shit because they could not find me with Brody’s keys after I lifted them. And I wanted some black market shit too.
After our cells were a total cluster fuck, they locked us in and wouldn’t turn the lights out. Were they seriously not going to feed us? I didn’t know the protocols for prison murders, but I should probably find that out. I just stuffed my face with Faust’s delicious homemade pizza and that cupcake, but I was a stress eater. And a bored eater. This qualified as both.
“So, I’m going crazy, and this is my first prison murder. I was working in Faust’s office the entire time. Does anyone know who it was or if anyone claimed it?”
Wait, a minute. Technically, Iwaswith Faust the entire time except when he slipped away to let me make a phone call. Did Faust do all this for my birthday because he needed ten minutes to kill someone? No. Faust wouldn’t do that. I was getting to know him, and he wouldn’t play me like that, would he?
“We thought it was you or that witch. Most of the prison feuds have been settled except yours. We didn’t do it,” a fox called. “Faust could have struck again.”
“Faust was in his office with me. It wasn’t Faust. Do you think the witches took care of Venus?”
“I doubt it. Sneaking into medical is hard. You have to be injured to get in. They will let you visit, but you have to be fingerprinted in and out. Killing someone in medical is stupid. You’d get caught,” Whisper said. “Astrid doesn’t use poison often. She usually sends Wren. Wren always makes it look like an accident, so it can’t be tied back to the witches. I get what went down with you and Venus, but I’d avoid pissing off Astrid or Wren. Wren isn’t dumb enough to make it public she’s coming for you by asking around. You won’t know until two minutes before you die.”
“Couldn’t she technically sneak into medical and kill Venus if she’s that good?”
Candra laughed.
“It’s not her style. Too many risks.”
“Are they going to feed us or turn the lights out?”
Every single fox in my cellblock started laughing, and foxes tended to sound weird when they did that.
“It depends on who it was and how it was done. If they were smart and make it look like an accident, that’s how they will rule it. If they stuck a shank in them, we aren’t getting out of here until they’ve pinned it on someone, which means finding a weapon. Usually, any weapon. They will bring us shitty sandwiches and an apple, keep us locked in, never turn off the lights, and keep tossing our cells until they find something so they can pin this on someone.
“They don’t get super deep into prison politics. They round up everyone stupid enough not to hide their weapons well enough and bring them down to solitary. They interrogate them until they start mixing up their stories because they are going crazy in isolation. Eventually, they pin it on someone, and they never come out of solitary. If they found you with a weapon, they’ll let you back in gen pop once they’ve decided you’ve suffered enough, and they got extra time added to your sentence,” Whisper said.
They bolted my bed to the wall, but I had just managed to get my thin mattress back on it. I tossed my pillow on the bed and flopped on my back. I was bored, and a bored Kitsune was going to get into trouble. I couldn’t just lie there and talk with all this going on.
Who died, and who did it? This was like reading a book I had been waiting for ages for, finishing it in one night, and only having it end in this massive cliffhanger. Then the next book wasn’t out for an entire year. This was way worse than that. I didn’t even have other books to keep me occupied. I was going to go crazy in this tiny cell. I needed something to do.
I didn’t intend to be here long, but I wanted to be comfortable. And I needed a weapon. I wasn’t about to end up in solitary the next time someone died in here. I needed to find a hiding place. I’d barely started searching my cell when I heard a baton against metal.
“Out for count!” Faust yelled.
Why was Faust counting again? No one in here was missing. He didn’t just count us this time. He shoved everyone into their cells and frisked them. When he got to me, he pressed me up against the wall and ran his hands over my body. Ishould notbe getting turned on by this.
“Heads up, Rei. Someone stabbed Astrid in the laundry room. It had to because of Venus. They will come for you next,” he hissed.
Oh, shit. The one person between every witch and me in here trying to kill me had just been murdered. IlikedAstrid. It wasn’t that she kept her people in line and was vital to our plan to get out of here. I didn’t think she likedme,but I thought she was pretty cool.
“I’ll protect you, Rei,” Faust growled.
And I knew that. I knew Faust would take out every single witch in this prison if it meant keeping me safe. That protection didn’t extend to Dakarys and Rajack, and I needed them safe too. I was getting attached.
