Page 105 of Shattered Pieces

“Lexi? Yes. Rory? Absolutely not,” he snorted, flicking through the reports about the girls in the hole. “These girls are all bottom feeders. Junkies with a complex. There’s strength in numbers though, and a handful of junkies is a pain in the ass if you only need to teach one of them a lesson.”

“True. I’ll look into the newbies more,” I confirmed, taking the laptop back and bringing up the security system.

“Mark,” he warned when he noticed what I was doing, but I shrugged it off.

“It’s fine. Just a peek.”

I hacked into their system and flicked to the right cameras, looking back through footage of the evening to see what Rory had been up to. She’d spent most of the evening on the couch with Lexi, Jamie, and Matilda. Lexi flirted with one of the guards when he did his rounds, and Rory lazily put her legs over Matilda’s lap to stretch out more as they picked at snacks.

I scrolled back to the afternoon footage to see the fight in the laundry room, smirking as Rory very obviously started the fight to get the other girl in trouble.

“What a sly bitch,” I muttered with amusement, Vines being dragged off to the hole.

We watched everything down to the footage of the warden’s office when she spoke to Rory about the fights, and Rory played the role of a bored inmate really damn well for someone who’d definitely been involved with more than she was admitting to.

“What are the chances of her getting assault charges and doing more time even if we get her out of this fucking murder charge?” I asked dryly, and he groaned.

“We really need to get her out now before that happens. I can’t get her out of charges if she beats people up on camera regularly.”

“She’s a little bit spicy.”

“A little bit?” he said with a scoff, motioning for me to click out of it all before we could get caught. “She has to be spicy for Skeet to be that interested for so long. He doesn’t like boring girls. You need to back off from him, man.”

“Me?” I said with fake surprise, but I knew exactly what he was talking about.

“Yes, you. You’re going to get us shot,” he grunted, lighting a cigarette.

“I don’t know why. He didn’t mind me choking on his cock,” I smirked, making him sigh.

“If he shoots you, I’m going to laugh. You know you can’t fix the damage you caused back then, even if it was for his own good.”

“I don’t want to fix it,” I scoffed, and he gave me a knowing look. That fucker knew I was lying.

“Right now, I need you to focus. Help me get Rory out and away from the Soldiers. Fight with Skeet later when it’s over,” he ordered.

“Fine,” I huffed, putting the laptop on the coffee table and standing to stretch. “I should head home.”

“No Ty tonight?”

“Nah. He’s over at Holloway’s. They’re still tense but at least they’re talking. Means I get out of babysitting duty,” I joked. I’d enjoyed the asshole’s company, if I was being honest. It was nice to just hang out, play games, and drink beer with someone I didn’t work with all the time.

I loved Hunter, he was family, but we were always together. Like tonight, hanging out with him still meant talking crew business and Rory.

I needed to switch my brain off sometimes or I’d explode.

“You’ll be lying in bed lonely tonight sending him sad texts that you miss him,” Hunter deadpanned. “Be careful. If the Soldiers are making moves in the prison, they could be making moves out here too.”

“I’m always careful,” I grinned, and he rolled his eyes.

“Sure, you are. Don’t go hacking that system again tonight either.”

“I won’t. It’s dark and she’s in bed anyway. Nothing to snoop on,” I shrugged, patting him on the shoulder and grabbing my keys from the kitchen counter. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

I headed outside to where my car was parked, driving off into the night and heading home.

The last person I expected to see when I stepped inside my house was Skeeter. A very drunk Skeeter.

“Are you here to kill me? Because I’d appreciate it if we could have a rain check and come back to this another time,” I joked, tossing my keys on the counter and shrugging my jacket off.