“You lied to me, Sara,” he growled. “I’m going to rape and kill you. Is that what you fucking want?”

“Then do it!” I spat out before my rational brain could tell me otherwise.

Even in his monstrous state the surprise escaped him. He gritted his teeth and threw my head down. Air replaced where his body had been as he moved off the bed. I didn’t move. When my chest hurt, I stopped holding my breath and breathed in as much as I could. My whole body was tense and my mind muted from what had just transpired. I couldn’t process anything, and for a second I thought I’d gone mad.

Then I heard him from somewhere behind me.

“Is this a fuckin’ ruse, Sara?” The voice belonged to the real Remy, but it no longer comforted me. “Have you been usin’ me this entire time?”

“No,” my lifeless voice responded.

“Then how come you saw Jaxon at the park today?”

It didn’t even bother me that he knew. I was dead inside. Nothing mattered.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Stop lying. If you don’t stop, I can’t protect you.”

“I don’t care.”

He went quiet, and at least a dozen heart beats passed by. I waited for him to grab my hair again, to choke me, rape me, do all that he threatened because I wasn’t going to budge on this. He wasn’t going to get the truth out of me.

“Why were you in the surveillance room?”

“I was looking for something.” This much I would come clean about. If it had nothing to do with Jaxon, I’d appease Remy.

“What were you looking for?”

“Something of you.”

He exhaled in irritation. “Be specific, Sara. What were you looking for?”

“A lie.”

“What the fuck are you on about?”

“You’re hiding something from me. I don’t know what it is, but it’s there, and I can see it everywhere in this room. You knew at the bunker I’d be in this room in time. So you cleaned it up, and then you removed anything incriminating.”

He scoffed. “Wow. You’ve lost your shit. Now why would I do that, Sara?”

“Because you’re obsessed with me,” I whispered into the sheets, not daring to turn around and look at him. I knew I’d see the look of guilt, and I wanted to spare him. But I didn’t stop there. “You wanted me to love you. You didn’t want me to know your secrets.”

I waited with bated breath and wondered how he was going to fight this one. He could play the denial card, of course. He could refuse to come clean and I’d never get the truth out of him. Regardless of whether he came clean or not, I didn’t care. I was broken by what he just did, and the stupid in love side of me could try and argue that he was justified. That he did it because I was caught attempting to spy into the Jackal’s privacy. That it made me look highly suspicious, especially after seeing Jaxon hours prior.

Still.

It didn’t matter. He hurt me. He hurt me so badly and it was killing the heart he’d replaced in me.

His answer came in the form of the door slamming shut.

Jaxon

Shit’s gone down fast. What the fuck were you thinking seeing her? I don’t know how Remy knows – maybe he’s just assuming because she came out of that fucking forest looking like hell. Now there’s screams coming from their bedroom. She was caught in the fucking surveillance room snooping around the safes, and Prez is pissed the fuck off.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“What the fuck have I done?” he whispered. It was a stupid move seeing her, but fuck, he couldn’t help himself. Ever since that night he saw her crying…

He’d been numb the last few months, but now all he could do was feel – and he felt fucking everything. He wanted her back. He was going to have her the fuck back even if it killed him.

He went through his contact list and dialled a number.

“Hello,” said Lucinda on the other end.

“Mom,” he paused, and shut his eyes.

“Are you alright?” she asked, soothingly.

“I need you to leave.”

Silence.

“Mom?”

“Leave? What are you intending on doing?”

“Things are going to go down, Mom, and I need you out of Gosnells right the fuck now.”

“Does this have something to do with Sara?”

“Yes.”

“Can I actually pick up her goddamn calls?”

“No. Now pack your shit.”

“I’m not going anywhere! I’ve got Janet Morrie’s bushy hair to do tomorrow and then I have six other appointments to get–”

“Mom, this isn’t a fucking request. It’s a demand. You’re leaving. You’ll come back when I tell you to.”

He hung up and tapped the phone against his chin.

Thinking.

And thinking.

He finally went back into the bar. There he took a seat on the stool and circled a beer in his hands.

“The men agree,” said Damien, joining him. “They’re with you, bro. Go do it.”

Jaxon closely watched the Scorpions socializing around him. They were laughing, arms wrapped around their ladies, but their usual rowdiness was gone and replaced with cautious looks in his direction.

Finley was playing poker, smirking as usual, completely oblivious of the change in the air from the men around him.

“We got your back. We’ll take care of it,” Damien promised.

Yeah, maybe they would… but he wasn’t going to hope for anything.

*****

He did what he was told.

And Finley fucking loved him.

At first it was small errands: delivering drugs, taking in orders from inmates who wanted their own supply, negotiating with the shady prison guards being compensated by Scorpions outside the walls, beating on men who didn’t pay up their debts…

Fairly easy shit.

Until now.

One thing the prison was impossible to come by was weapons. You’d smuggle them in somehow, but they were always found. Every routine inspection was carried out by higher ranked officers rather than the easily bribed prison guards, ensuring that the place was weapon-free. And when a prison was weapon-free, that meant one thing: you made your own fucking weapon. Out of anything you could. And the shit some of them made… It was both pathetic and impressive.