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Nik’s smug smirk disappeared when his eyes met Ali’s. She was clearly not amused. He raised his brows at her and gave a quick wink. She shook her head and turned to begin her work.
“You enjoying yourself?” Sam asked him as they moved toward the corner to observe the prisoners. Sam took a seat on a wooden stool and Nik hopped up on the counter next to him, scratching his forehead.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. You just seem to get a kick out of annoying that guy.”
“Do you have a problem with it?”
“No. By all means, do whatever you want.” He bit into an apple and pulled out a sketch pad with a bored expression. “If there’s something I need to know, though…” He gave Nik a questioning look. “If he’s dangerous or causing trouble, then you have to tell me.”
Nik shrugged. “It’s not like that. I’m just having some fun.”
“All right. We could all use more entertainment around here, I suppose.” He didn’t question Nik again after that and Nik thanked the gods that Sam was so easygoing. He’d let Nik torment Eli as much as he wanted so long as the work got done.
Halfway through the day, the prisoners had filled several barrels full of tomatoes. Nik was charged with taking the barrels to the stockroom. He wasn’t fond of leaving the greenhouses, but it had to be either him or Sam. Since they couldn’t let a prisoner leave on their own. Since Sam had taken the last batch, it was now Nik’s turn.
Nik loaded them up on a cart and hauled them off to their storage. When he came back, he looked around at their group. Something wasn’t right. He saw the two no-name prisoners harvesting tomatoes and filling new barrels, but Ali wasn’t where she was supposed to be.
“Where’s Ali?” he asked Sam.
Sam didn’t look up from his sketch pad. “Who?”
“The blonde one.” Nik was agitated. How the fuck was Sam not paying attention? What else did the prisoners get away with while he wasn’t watching?
“Oh yeah, she went over that way to help water the plants.” He waved his hand over in Eli’s direction and Nik huffed when he saw the two of them, their heads together. Still inseparable. Maybe Nik had underestimated Eli.
He stomped off in their direction. They had to have heard him approaching. Eli caught him out of the corner of his eye but quickly looked back down. Ali ignored him altogether.
“And what are we doing here?” He kept his tone light and airy to hide his irritation.
She stopped what she was doing and stood up straight. “We’re watering the crops.”
“Pretty sure I gave that job to him and not you.”
“Does it matter?”
Nik didn’t like the tone of her voice. It didn’t matter if she was the most beautiful woman on the planet. He was in charge here, and she was challenging his authority.
“Yes, it does. When I give an order, I expect it to be followed.” It was hard to reprimand her with her big brown eyes. They looked so innocent.
“I think you’re being a bit ridiculous—”
“Ali, just drop it,” Eli interrupted in a mutter. “It’s fine. I can work here on my own. It’s not a big deal.”
Nik gave her a frustrated tilt of the head and waved a hand at Eli.
See? Even this fool knows what’s good for him.
He grabbed her by the arm to pull her back to her designated working area, but she wouldn’t go easily. She tugged her arm back out of his clutch.
“Why are you doing this?” Her voice was louder now, and they were attracting attention from the others.
Great. Just what he needed.
“Why are you doing this?” It wasn’t a clever retort, he had to admit, but he was growing tired of this. If one prisoner acted out, it would threaten the whole system. They needed to understand who was in charge. And he needed to be respected. There was no room for insubordination.
He put a forceful hand on her back to guide her in the right direction, but she spun around and pushed him away. Now he was getting angry. She had disregarded his commands and put hands on him. If the prisoners thought they could get away with that, there would be a full-on revolt.
