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“I have no doubt. I was offering out of… you know…” He shrugged. “Niceness?”
Ram smirked. “Someone’s got a crush.”
I startled. Jag’s eyes widened as he looked at me. “What? No, I don’t like you. I mean, you’re cool, so yes, I like you. Obviously. But I don’t have a crush! It’s just… liking. But not in that way… not at all. In fact, you smell!” He cringed so hard I was surprised his balls didn’t fall off, drop out of his pant legs, and roll away.
Considering I had been in the hole for two days, I probably did smell. But I didn’t have time or patience for Jag’s weird ramblings. I grabbed Ram’s arm again, dragging him away from the other men.
“Why did you send Jag my way?” I demanded.
He lowered his voice. “I know you don’t want to bust me out. So, I found someone more worthy of freedom to get you to launch an escape. I’m going with multiple angles because you really do hate me.” He grimaced as though admitting it stung. “If I had known Beverly was here, I wouldn’t have bothered with Jag, Elliot, and Moe, since she’s way more convincing.”
“The men will be fine,” I growled. It wasn’t true, but I wasn’t going to let Ram manipulate me so easily.
He scoffed. “Jag might survive, but those two?” He nodded down the corridor, and I followed his gaze.
Moe was hopping around and waving his arms. Elliot watched with hand on his chin while Beverly groomed herself near his feet.
“Sesame Street,” Elliot said.
Moe pointed at him. “Yes! Now you do one.”
My heart dropped. Ram was using them and playing me. And even though I knew what he was doing, I was as trapped as a beaver in a cell.
Desperate, I tried a different approach. “Why would I give a shit about those men?”
“Because you went soft years ago and have been gathering up the incompetent ever since. Once you know why Jagmeet, Elliot, and Moe are here, you’ll break them out. I know you. Your hard outer crust doesn’t go that deep.”
“You don’t know me.”
Ram’s gaze turned sad. “Perhaps not. I never thought you would betray me until you did.”
“I thought the same about you.”
Ram frowned and glanced away as though suddenly ashamed. Yanking his arm from my grasp, he crouched and pulled up the leg of his jumpsuit to retrieve a smartphone from his sock.
Phones were contraband, but there were dozens of them floating around the prison at any given time. I’d possessed a few I had stolen from Ram and his buddies until they had stolen them back.
He handed me the phone, and even though it was stanky, I took it because fuck, I missed the internet.
“Password is the first four digits of our island’s latitude.” That was the location of our old gang’s secret base. “I left notes about all the ways you’re able to beat the ward. The guards will look away tonight for fifteen minutes at 11:06 PM. If I’m not free by dawn, your bestie”—he curled his lip on the word, probably because I had betrayed him to protect Juniper—“is going down and that beaver is staying in prison because I won’t help her or you again.”
My fist tightened on the phone. “I don’t need your help. Nobody has ever needed your help, because it’s always been self-serving bullshit to prop up your fragile ego.”
He wrapped his arms around himself. “No, it was an attempt to heal my trauma by exerting control over the world.”
My brows shot up. I had not expected him to admit that.
He shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve been in therapy for almost two years. It helps. Even before I started, I didn’t want to run the world anymore. I haven’t since…” He looked away and didn’t finish his thought.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. He hadn’t changed, not one bit. For starters, he was playing me right now and threatening my best friend again. Secondly, I knew him well, and he had wrapped up too much of his pride in his plans to steal magic. In the end, his very fragile ego and his very dangerous magic were all he had.
Ram heaved a sigh and turned back to me. “Juniper is on some redemption quest, right? Returning all the relics we stole and bringing happiness to the world. Well, when her life is upended and she ends up here, you can tell her why you let it happen.” Ram gazed at me with a strange look in his eyes that I couldn’t read, even though I knew him well. “I’m sorry, Alyssa. I really am.”
“Not sorry enough.”
He pressed his lips together. “I know. I’ll be waiting for you to break me out tonight when the guards look away.” He started to leave before turning back. “Oh, and look up the band JEM with a J. You’ll see why those three dumbasses are here, and you can decide what to do about it.”
Chapter 10
