Page 34 of Shattered Pieces

“I’m used to getting in trouble,” I grinned as Lexi stepped out of her room. She had a bruised eye, telling me I’d definitely missed something.

“Donovan,” she greeted, leaning against the wall beside her door and crossing her arms.

“You really need to take it easy on Faith if she’s thrashing so bad that you get a black eye,” I joked, her lips twitching into a small smile.

“You mean my black eye isn’t hot? You don’t like it?”

“Are you the door that Smith ran into?” I asked dryly, making her shrug.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure,” I chuckled, walking over to my room to find it seemingly untouched.

“Hey,” Lexi said, and I took a step back to peer out my door at her. “Thanks for having Tilly’s back.”

“I look after my friends,” I replied, glancing at Tilly. “Come fill me in on anything I missed.”

Tilly was more than happy to join me for a gossip session, letting me know all the drama, like two of the girls broke up and were fighting, someone’s hidden phone was stolen, and there had been an overdose in cell block A this morning as well.

“Overdoses usually lead to a cell toss and the K9 Unit coming through,” she sighed, glancing around my room. “You don’t have any contraband in here, right?”

“No. They seriously toss the cells?”

“All the time. It gets worse when someone’s confirmed to be on drugs because they know for sure there’s shit getting in,” she answered, just as Kat stuck her head in.

“One of the girls just said the dogs are coming through right now.”

“Ladies! Out of your rooms and against the wall!” one of the guards called out, making Kat curse as she left the room.

Lexi groaned loudly as we all congregated against the wall, glaring at the warden as she appeared.

“This is ridiculous. It wasn’t even our block.”

“Pipe down, Bryant,” she ordered, making sure we were all out of the way before the K9 Unit entered and started tearing our rooms apart.

Frustration burned through me as they started tossing our belongings out into the main room as they searched, my snacks all getting tossed into the big pile in the process.

“You’re cleaning that up, right?” I asked, but I was ignored as they went from room to room until everything was in one big pile.

The warden seemed to relax a little once nothing was found, and she eyed me seriously.

“You’ll do your best to stay out of trouble, won’t you, Donovan?”

“We’ll see,” I muttered, eyeing my things scattered on the floor.

As expected, they left without cleaning up once they were satisfied, and I cursed them out as I started dragging my bedding back into the room, collecting the smaller items once the bed was sorted. I could hear shouting down the hallway, so I assumed someone had been caught with contraband.

The other girls tidied their spaces, and with the K9 Unit still wandering the prison, we were all locked in our common areas to make sure no one could move stuff around to keep it undetected, so I dropped down onto the couch with Tilly, the others dispersing to their rooms.

“Lunch will be late,” Jamie grumbled as she joined us, putting the TV on to occupy herself.

“How often does this happen?” I asked, not being able to help but notice Lexi and Faith’s quiet disagreement that was happening in Lexi’s doorway. Faith looked pissed about something, but Lexi just seemed annoyed to be having the conversation.

“That’s the second cell toss in a month, but it’s usually less than that. The girl’s just suck at hiding shit these days,” Jamie grimaced, not looking over at me. Lexi saw me watching and sneered, stepping into her room more and pushing the door shut for privacy. “You don’t want to get involved with that,” Jamie said, drawing my attention to the fact she’d caught me watching the drama.

“They’re fighting?”

“Seems like it,” she stated, pausing before speaking again. “Thanks for stepping in with Smith.”