All Chained Up (Devil's Rock #1)(20)

Knox knew it put him in Reid’s debt, and he accepted that. Fortunately, Reid had never asked either of them to do anything he was intrinsically opposed to. If that day ever came . . . Well, he would deal with it then.

“The skins are pissed but not making any moves.”

Knox snorted. “They’re not going to do anything.”

North nodded as they crossed side by side to where Reid and a dozen of their guys played basketball.

“Everything’s been pretty quiet. Well, except the two fish. They’ve stirred up a little noise.”

“Yeah?” he murmured, stopping at the edge of the game. Reid, the big motherf*cker, was shirtless. Sweat gleamed off his tan muscles as he dribbled the ball effortlessly, eyeing the players on defense.

He was surprisingly graceful as he wove between them, his elbow shooting out and colliding with another guy’s nose in a move that would have gotten you thrown out of any other game in the civilized world. Blood spewed and the player dropped. Reid didn’t pause in his drive, dunking the ball and sending the rim into loud vibrations.

“Yeah,” North continued, “word is they hatched this crazy-f*ck plan to hijack the HSU.”

Knox swung around, all of him locking tight. “What?”

“Yeah. Everyone’s been talking about this new nurse in there. You must have seen her. Old Smitey couldn’t stop talking about her. Hell, everyone’s suddenly claiming they’ve got food poisoning to get in there and check her out . . .”

The rest of his brother’s words faded. A roar of blood rushed to his head. He turned around, scanning the yard, searching for the two new fish his brother was talking about. He remembered them. They talked too much and spent the better part of their time getting their asses handed to them. Skinny guys, both in for armed robbery. Repeat offenders, they were in for life this time.

“Where are they?” he demanded.

His brother looked at him oddly, his dark eyebrows drawn tightly together. “They both faked sick. Made themselves puke and everything. Guards took them about twenty minutes ago.”

He must have just missed them.

The roar in his ears faded to a dull ringing. Cold seeped over him as he thought of Nurse Davis in there with those two bastards. His cousin’s face flashed across his mind. All her youth, all her innocence, destroyed. In its place had been only a ravaged shell with soulless eyes.

Shaking his head, he faced his brother. “Fuck me up.”

“What?”

“Listen to me. I need you to hit me. Make sure you do some damage.”

“Fuck that. I’m not hitting you.”

He grabbed his brother by the shirt, gripping fistfuls of white fabric. “I need in that infirmary. Either you send me there or I pick a fight and let someone else f*ck me up.”

North’s gaze drilled into him. “You’re serious?”

“Make it look good.” He released his shirt and backed up a step.

His brother studied him a moment longer, his eyes full of questions. Knox knew he wanted an explanation, but there wasn’t time. She was in there now. With them.

His brother trusted him enough to do as he asked. North also knew he would get someone else to give him a beating if he refused. If that happened, there was no telling what kind of injuries he could sustain.

“Do it,” Knox barked, his pulse throbbing wildly in his neck. “Make me bleed.”

North clenched his jaw with resolve. His dark eyes glinted, reading Knox’s urgency. “All right.” He shrugged and cocked back his arm. “What are brothers for?”

Knox braced himself for the blow, sorry his brother might get a brief stint in the hole for this, but there was no help for it.

He had to get to her in time.





EIGHT


THE MOMENT THE two new inmates arrived, unease bubbled like acid in the pit of Briar’s stomach. God. Working here was going to give her an ulcer. Would she never get used to it? Hopefully, they would find a full-time doctor soon and she wouldn’t have to.

Wiping a loose tendril of hair back from her forehead, Briar eyed the newcomers over the laptop where she worked as they entered the room with all the boisterousness of two people arriving at a party. Like this wasn’t a prison. Like they weren’t inmates at all—or sick, for that matter.

Her disquiet deepened as one of them leveled his gaze on her and elbowed his companion. As Murphy frisked them, they looked her over from across the room.

Finished searching them, Murphy returned to his chair. The wood legs creaked beneath his settling weight. Josiah motioned them to a set of beds nearest the door. They moved with all the swagger of young men who owned the world.

The skinny one with a ponytail talked to everyone in the room—not just his companion. He called out to the guard. Josiah. The approaching doctor. Even Briar. He talked even if no one answered him back.

They were different than the others who came through here, who were mostly subdued because they were hurting or sick. They were hyped up almost like they were high. A definite possibility. There were drugs in prison. She’d watched enough prison movies and 48 Hours episodes to know that. But their eyes weren’t dilated. Simply wild and shifty. Like the raccoons her father used to catch for their pelts down by the creek. Sometimes she would sneak out before sunup and set them loose from their traps. Even though she was trying to help them, the animals had tried to take a chunk out of her hand on more than one occasion.