He doesn’t need to say Justine’s name to know who he’s referencing. The quickest flare that darted through his eyes told me everything I need to know, although it has nothing on the wistful glint his eyes get when his thoughts drift away from our confrontation for the quickest second.
“He was right. You’re so fucking gone,” I mutter out with a chuckle before I can stop myself. You can trust me when I say I know a man under the spell of a woman. I’ve been gone since the second grade.
Dimitri tries to regain control of our conversation. “I’m gone?Ha!” He tsks me with a shake of his head. “I’m not the one in cahoots with the man who marked up my sister with a mangy mutt.” Red hot fury burns through my veins, but before I can disperse in an unhealthy manner, Dimitri switches some of my anger to confusion. “What did he tell you, Ox? That I ordered for her to be punished?”
He has no clue Justine was punished because of Demi and me. He still thinks it’s all on his shoulders. In a way, I believe the same. He put Justine in his father’s line of sight, so he should have protected her as he pledged to Demi only months earlier.
As should I.
My negative thoughts are pushed to the back of my mind when Dimitri asks, “What’s he got on her? If my father has a noose around Demi’s throat, I can help.”
It takes everything I have not to laugh. He saved Demi once, but in the process, he threw my baby sister into the deep end without a life jacket. I can’t forget that. Her screams that night will never leave me. They will haunt me until the day I die.
As will the flare that darts through Dimitri’s eyes when I say, “Like you did Justine?”
“She’s alive, isn’t she?”
“And crying every week on the phone,” I spit out as memories of the last time I talked to Justine filter through my head. Although we talk once a week, she still hasn’t come to visit me yet. She is practically a ghost. “You fucked her over good, D. I don’t know if she’ll ever come back from this.”
The cuffs circling my wrists and ankles become super heavy when he hits me right where it hurts. “So you’re gonna let him do the same to Demi?”
He doesn’t need to say his father’s name for me to know who he’s referencing. The way he spat out ‘him’ is indicating enough. He hates his father as much as I do, and it has me curious if his disdain is the reason for his visit.
I lose the chance to investigate my theories further when Dimitri’s short fuse gets the better of him. “You kept my daughter’s existence a secret. You didn’t do that for no reason, Ox. I’m here to find out why, and I ain’t leaving until I do.”
He takes a seat in the warden’s chair before he hooks his boots onto his desk. His aggressive stance is impressive, but the quickest flash of red beaming out of the warden’s cracked closet ensures my stance won’t budge. If I want to protect Demi, I need to keep my mouth shut. It fucking sucks. I’d give anything to rat Agent Moses and Warden Mattue to the man they’re endeavoring to overrule, but disappointment seems to be the story of my life lately.
Not even a minute later, it becomes apparent that Dimitri is pressed for time. His boots haven’t graced the warden’s desk for even thirty seconds before he returns them to the floor—unfortunately minus a mess. Warden Mattue is as anal about cleanliness as he is about having first dibs of the new female inmates.
I stop picturing the pleading looks I get from female inmates every induction day when Dimitri gives a well-used trait a whirl. He threatens me. “With Megan Shroud being alive and well, your debt has not been fulfilled.” He waits for our eyes to lock and hold before adding, “Since you’re an inmate in a maximum-security prison, I have no choice but to transfer that debt back to its original owner.”
“You wouldn’t fucking dare.”
He stares me dead set in the eyes so I can’t miss the truth in his statement when he says, “Try me, Maddox. I’ve got a heap of anger and no one to take it out on.”
“My debt is with your father,” I seethe through clenched teeth.
Even aware his threat stems more around Justine’s safety than Demi’s doesn’t weaken the clench of my jaw. I’m fucking ropeable, and it’s taking everything I have not to blow this entire fucking operation to smithereens, even more so when Dimitri shakes his head, denying my claims. “Not according to you. I punished your sister, that means her debt falls on me.” He takes a moment to remove the command from his tone before adding, “I am willing to negotiate—”
“With what? I gave your father everything I have! I have nothing left to give!”
I’m not lying. My family home. My sister’s sanity. My fucking soul. Col has it all. There’s only one thing he doesn’t have, and I’m not willing to give her up for anything, even when it would be better for her if I did.
Dimitri balances his elbows onto the warden’s desk before leaning close to me like he is aware our every word is being overheard. “Give me information.”
“I don’t know anything.”
He continues talking as if I never spoke. “And in good faith, I’ll repay the favor. Special perks, hours outside these walls…” My brows arch when he drags his eyes over a smattering of tattoos peeking out of my jumpsuit. “I could even organize some additional conjugal visits.”
When he stares me down, his aggressive stance falters, and the glint in his eyes I couldn’t recognize earlier is exposed. It’s a protectiveness he’d give anything to keep hidden. A gleam a father’s eyes get when they’re looking out for their children. It reveals what Rocco said all those months ago was true, except Dimitri doesn’t just see his daughter when he looks at Demi, he sees the ghost of his sister as well.
Demi and Ophelia have the same pained look in their eyes because the same monster haunts their dreams. Their anguish is one and the same, and Dimitri was the first man to realize that.
How could I not have seen this sooner? In a warped, twisted way, everything now makes sense. Dimitri left Justine to face his father’s wrath alone because to him, she was just another woman to bed. He can’t off-hand Demi’s safety in the same manner. Not only does she have his blood, any hurt she’d endure, Dimitri would imagine it happening in the past to his sister and in the future to his daughter.
That alone will keep Demi protected better than I ever could, and the knowledge has me speaking words I never thought I would. “Can you get Demi out?”
My question stumps Dimitri for all of two seconds. “Out of what, exactly?” When he reads my reply from my face, his whole demeanor shifts, proving my theory is right. He has a heart hidden in him somewhere. It has just never had the chance to shine. “If she’s out, she can’t come here anymore, Ox. When you are out, you’re out. You can never get back in. Are you willing to face that?”
