Page 117 of Shattered Pieces

“You don’t have to do that,” she grumbled, but she gave me a grateful look.

“I want to. We’re friends, it’s what we do,” I insisted, glancing up as Lexi appeared in the doorway.

“When are they letting you out?” she asked, trying to look happy for me but struggling.

“Monday,” I answered, making her groan.

“That soon? Ugh, you suck. You’ll be jumping on all that cock again in no time and forgetting all about the beautiful nights we shared.”

“Already forgotten about them,” I teased, laughing as she dove on me and forced a kiss to my cheek.

“I’ll really miss you,” she admitted, and I pulled both her and Tilly in for a hug.

“I’ll miss you guys too.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

RORY

Ihad a shitload of money in my account, so I bought a bunch of snacks and cigarettes to split them among the girls, making sure to hand some out to others like Maxwell and her girls to keep the good relationships going.

If I ever needed a favor on the inside, I knew a lot of them would help me.

Vines had avoided me since getting out of the hole, and Roberts squeaked out short replies when I asked her something, but she mostly stayed away too.

We spent Saturday night having a movie night with snacks, kind of like a goodbye party for me, and by Sunday, everyone was talking about me leaving.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when trouble wandered straight over to me in the yard to try and ruin it for me first thing on Monday morning while I waited for the warden to come and get me.

I was smoking and playing basketball with Maxwell’s girls and Tilly when someone barreled into me and knocked me to the ground. My attacker was pulled off me fast by Maxwell, and I scrambled back and turned to see Roberts being restrained by Maxwell, a shiv in her hand.

“I fucking knew it was you,” I snorted, and she started screaming curses at me as the guards rushed over to handle it.

Lexi squatted beside me, checking me over.

“Did she get you?”

“Don’t think so. Maxwell was fast,” I replied, cringing when Maxwell was hauled to her feet kicking and screaming too.

“See you next time, Donovan! You’d better fucking think of me when you’re topping up commissaries!” she shouted, giving me a wide grin.

“You’ll be first on my list!” I called back, Roberts still cursing me out as she was dragged away too.

Tina sneered at me from a distance, but her crew had been avoiding us since the hole and the Anderson incident, making our lives a lot easier.

“You’re lucky that happened in front of the guards or you’d be stuck in here while they dealt with it,” Lexi huffed, helping me to my feet. “We should head inside to make sure we can avoid more of that happening.”

“You just want to get me alone,” I joked, and she shot me a wink.

“You caught onto that, huh?”

Lexi had slept in my bed all weekend, and as much as she was doing well at containing her emotions, she let it slip more when it was just us. It made me feel bad that she wasn’t getting out yet, but she should be out by the end of next month.

She’d been in here since October.

A bunch of us spent the next hour watching TV and hanging out, my heartbeat increasing with excitement when the warden appeared with a small smile.

“Ready to go?”