Page 44 of Shattered Pieces

“You should’ve called me,” Hunter scolded, walking over to sit on the edge of the bed.

“I handled it,” I grumbled. “You should be more worried about the Princess.”

“Why?” he asked suspiciously, and I winced. He wasn’t supposed to know I’d hacked the prison cameras. “Marco, I swear to God. What did you do?”

“I hacked the cameras just a tiny bit to try and occupy myself,” I admitted, giving him a sheepish grin. “There was a scuffle in the laundry. Rory and Lexi got dragged off for beating each other up.”

“You hacked the fucking prison cameras?” he hissed, and Tyler gave me a dirty look.

“You hacked them and didn’t tell me? I thought we were bros.”

“Hey, I wasn’t even supposed to tell Hunter,” I grumbled, and Hunter groaned.

“You can’t do that shit. What if you get caught?” he demanded, but he looked worried. “Did they go to the hole?”

“No idea. I shut it down before I could get busted. Lexi was arguing with some girl in there and punched her. Rory tried to get between them, and it somehow ended up with Rory and Lexi fighting.”

He looked ready to throttle me, but he took a deep breath. “That aside, you’re okay now?”

“Yeah. It got too quiet at the warehouse, that’s all,” I sighed, and he nodded.

“Answer the phone next time, but I’m glad you came here.”

“We’re getting pizza for dinner. You want to join us?” Tyler asked, and Hunter let out a huff before nodding.

I checked my phone, seeing missed calls and messages, and then my phone rang as I went to put it away, surprise filling me. It was the prison.

I quickly answered, saying I accepted the call before I heard Rory’s voice.

“Hey,” she said like it was hard, making me frown.

“What’s wrong?”

Hunter looked at me with a questioning look, and I held up a finger for him to wait.

“I just needed to hear a familiar voice before lights out. I didn’t want to bother the others,” she sighed, and as much as I should have put her on speaker for the guys to talk to her, she would have called them if she’d wanted to talk to them, right?

“Give me one second,” I murmured, getting to my feet and leaving the room, wandering downstairs to talk outside. The front wasn’t safe from drive-bys, so I went out the back to the pool. “Okay, talk to me, Princess. Did something happen?”

I couldn’t exactly ask her about the incident in the laundry room, calls were recorded, and I’d get myself into a pile of shit.

“Not really. There was a fight today. I think everyone’s in a bad mood.”

“You got into another fight?”

“Yeah. Me and Lexi got into it,” she mumbled. I sat in one of the chairs, getting comfortable.

“What over?”

“I got involved in her argument with the girl she’s been seeing in here. I thought I was helping, but she kind of snapped at me. She’s been in a bad mood all day,” she grumbled.

“So you called me for a verbal hug?” I teased, a snort leaving her.

“I guess. I was doing alright in here until I got to see you guys today. Now it feels like day one all over again. Is Ty okay?”

“I know, it can suck, but not seeing people at all sucks harder. Ty’s fine, I’ve been with him at Josie’s for most of the afternoon. We’re just gaming,” I explained, lighting a cigarette. “You and Bryant got beef now?”

“No. We both admitted tension was high and it shouldn’t have gone down like that. She looked kind of guilty, actually. Pretty sure she dumped her girl or something so she’s going through it.” She was quiet for a moment, seeming deep in thought. “If you see Skeet, can you tell him to at least call me? He can be mad at me all he likes, but we still need to talk.”