spanng="EN"Ana’s POV

    spanng="EN"I was going to set her straight, but thedy next to me beat me to it.

    spanng="EN"“So you’re not here for the job? Are you just looking to hook up or find someone to take care of you? You were taught integrity. I know you were, as we were both in the Marines. You always managed to disgust me with your behavior. Abby, you’ve gone too far by trying to insult this woman. You don’t even know her. I think you said it because you felt threatened. She’s a beautiful woman. I highly doubt that he would give her up for a shot at you,” thedy with the pony–tail replied with contempt.

    spanng="EN"I see they know each other. But the blonde, Abby, wasn’t just going to back down. She’s clearly been spoiling for a fight with this woman. She knew what buttons to push to get the woman with the ponytail to respond.

    As we reached our cell door, he opened it with a single push, stepping inside without even ncing over his shoulder. I hesitated for a second. Just one.

    Then I stepped in after him.

    Bang.

    The door mmed shut behind me with a force that made me jump. My breath caught in my throat, spine locking as the echo rang out around us like a gunshot.

    Caged in once again.

    I turned toward him, heart thudding. “I’m sorry I left the cell,” I said quickly, handsing up in front of me, almost in surrender. “Leo promised he’d tell you I was with him the whole time. I thought – I just thought you wouldn’t want me to miss another meal, not after I skipped breakfast and…”

    His hand came up to silence me.

    I froze.

    Silence again, but this time it wasn’t the cold kind. This was deliberate. Controlled. That same unnerving calm I’d seen once or twice before – the kind that made me more afraid than all his shouting ever could.

    –

    “Take a seat, Be,” he said, nodding toward the bed.

    I stared at him, searching his face for something. But his eyes were unreadable – cool, dark, and watching me like a hawk.

    Still, I obeyed, Slowly backing up, I sank down onto the mattress, trying to still my racing pulse. The silence between us was so thick I felt like I had to whisper just to breathe.

    Then, without another word, Coban bent down to retrieve something from the floor.

    The notebook?

    It looked like it had been thrown with the pages now bent, spine warped, lying in the corner like it had been hurled there with force. I swallowed hard. So he really hade back here before lunch and found me gone… his temper obviously spiking in response…

    He didn’t look at me. Just flipped back through the pages, the crinkled sound sharp in the quiet.

    “We have some notes here,” he said after a long pause, “that I’d like to discuss before you pass over tomorrow’s report.”

    His tone was dry. Mocking. Like this was a school assignment he’d been forced to review. Like none of it meant anything to him… and yet I could tell by the tightness in his jaw – it meant something.

    A lot, probably.

    He didn’t like what I had wrote, and I didn’t me him…

    I sat perfectly still, hands gripping the edge of the bed, knees close together. “Okay…” I whispered.

    Coban cleared his throat and flipped to the first page.

    His voice was smooth. Controlled. But the words felt like loaded bullets.

    “Number one,” he read aloud. “Doesn’t follow a strict routine. Does whatever he is in the mood for in that moment. Doesn’t care if we’rete, or miss meals, or skip the schedule entirely. Time means nothing to him, but he hates being made to wait on others.”

    He paused, ncing up at me for the briefest second and I felt my palms grow mmy under his mocking tone…

    “I disagree,” he then said tly. “I admitted that I do care about missing meals with you and said I would avoid it happening again, did I not?” He snaps, as I nod quickly.

    “Y–You did yes, but I wrote that before…” I attempt to speak, only for him to cut me off sharply.

    “I also don’t agree with the fact I don’t follow a strict routine when I attend the gym every single morning and stick to a strict workout routine? That sounds likemitment if I’ve ever heard of it!” He hums, as though I were stupid as I all but nod and sigh again.

    He had a point there…

    But I had wrote the dumb list when I wasn’t thinking straight…

    “Power. He’s always in control – he needs to be. When he’s not, heshes out. That said, he has a wild temper that can re quickly but he hasn’t hurt me as of yet.” He recites the next point, making me cringe.

    “As of yet?!” He pushes thest part at me again, raising a brow at me as I shrug and lick my drying lips.

    “You think I’ll hurt you eventually?” He pressed on further, as I shake my head quickly.

    “N–No… I… just…” I blunder nervously, mortified that he was reading these back to me.

    “Well, just so you know, it would take you doing something pretty severe to piss me off enough to actually hit you, Be, which in that case, would be your own fault, however, I might bring pain to you in other ways… ways that I think you’d actually enjoy…” He cocks his head to the side to study me, as my veins. grow cold at his words.

    That sounded like a promise…

    “Ready for me to carry on?” Coban’s eyes bore in to my own as I chew my lip aggressively, drawing blood as I hum in response.

    This man was going to be the death of me…

    Too fucking silent.

    As I felt my temper re…

    My eyes locked on the small notebook still sitting on the desk, finding it to be closed now, not the way I’d left it.

    She’d fucking read it.

    She’d seen the damn note I’d left.

    “Don’t leave the cell… how hard was it to understand? I think she enjoys this… enjoys tempting me to rip out her fucking hair…” I mutter to myself, shoving the book from the desk – sending it hurtling across the floor.

    Clear. Unmistakable. Not a fucking suggestion.

    And she’d just decided to ignore it anyway.

    “Stupid little bitch,” I hissed under my breath, my teeth grinding as my hands balled up into tight fists at my sides.

    The fucking nerve of her to keep doing this to me…

    Nobody had ever disrespected me more than once and got away with it, yet here she was, doing it again and again as though I was nothing more than a weak man…

    After everything I’d done for herst night too? After the meeting this morning where I’d stared down three guards and a camera feed defending her?

    I’d trusted her to listen today.

    To follow orders.

    Yet, now she was gone!

    I tore out of the cell, moving through the corridors like a storm in motion, my steps mming the floor in a quick pace. I stopped two guards outside the block. “You seen my little blonde? The girl I’m always with?

    The one who looks like she wouldn’tst two minutes in here without someone holding her fucking hand?”

    One of them blinked, startled. The other, a woman, gave a small nod and gestured with her chin.

    “I’m certain I saw her go in for lunch, Santorelli.” She mused.

    Lunch?

    My jaw tightened so hard it cracked. That wasn’t even our designated time slot for lunch either…

    So not only did she leave the cell – she did it outside of schedule? Up for a new challenge today it seems? Fresh fucking meat?!

    “Who was she with?” I growled, but the woman shrugged. “Didn’t see, I only noticed her.”

    I didn’t say thanks to them, because I didn’t have any time for polite.

    I was already charging toward the cafeteria.

    Blood boiling.

    Heart thudding.

    If she came here alone just to eat something, I swear to God…

    I shoved the doors open and strode inside, eyes immediately scanning the room.

    Different faces today. Different colours everywhere.

    This wasn’t our rotation. This wasn’t the group that knew by now to stay away from her.

    If she got mixed up with the wrong crowd without me here then it could be worse than just bad!

    And then I saw it,

    Not the deer–caught–in–headlights that I’d been braced for.

    Or the tiny scared girl stood in a corner somewhere, panicking over her poor choices…

    No…

    Just a fucking hand. Waving at me.

    She was sat at one of the back tables like she owned the ce, tucked between Leo and the other girl, Cara, with a damn grilled cheese in front of her like it was a pic date.

    At least she didn’t fuckinge in here alone like a fool…

    Leo’s presence dulled the rage by a thread, but not nearly enough to stop me from stalking toward them with fury bleeding off every step.

    They saw meing, of course they did.

    Leo turned, always too casual for his own good. Cara blinked like she’d just seen a ghost. Margot’s whole body jolted, shrinking into herself the moment I locked eyes with her.

    Good. She should be scared.

    I wasn’t happy.

    “You out of the dog house already, Santo?” Leo smirked like this was some joke, like I wasn’t half a second away from flipping the goddamn table upside down.

    I ignored him, my stare fixed only on her.

    “I told you not to leave the fucking cell,” I snapped, my voice sharp enough to slice through the whole damn cafeteria.

    Margot stiffened, eyes wide, lips parted like she wanted to defend herself but couldn’t find the words. Good. Maybe that meant she knew just how badly she’d fucked up already.

    Before she fully attempted to mumble anything, Leo leaned back to face me, calm as ever.

    “Fortunately for her,” he said, “I went to your cell to figure out why you skipped the gym – thought you were just beingzy. Little Be here told me you’d been at a meeting with the guards, so I brought her with us for lunch so she wouldn’t miss another meal. She hasn’t been walking around anywhere on her own, don’t worry.”

    He held my gaze, not challenging, just firm. Leo was the only man in this ce I tolerated talking to me.

    He had been my closest friend since we were kids.

    The one who’d put his neck on the line and had gotten caught alongside me –nding us both in here.

    Still, I didn’t speak right away.

    –

    I let the weight of my silence hang. Let her squirm a little more while I studied them both the guilt on her face, the concern on Cara’s, and the casual, near–bored ease on Leo’s.

    He never gave a shit.

    Finally, I let out a short grunt. “Guess I better go grab something then before they kick us out.”

    I turned and walked to the front of the line, of course I did.

    Nobody in this ce was going to tell me to wait behind them.

    I didn’t care that the guards called me in this morning to tell me that surveince saw her get hit. That the girl had attempted to make aint against me.

    Snitches get stitches…

    I sniggered at the thought, piling a tray of two grilled cheese sandwiches and fries, knowing that even the guards didn’t care about what I’d done…

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    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!