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“None of us can,” Camilla says, and Lace releases me briefly so Camilla can hug me, too, narrowly avoiding the freshly wrapped arm. It’s no longer throbbing, but it still aches like a bitch. “We thought for sure you’d died in the hospital when we didn’t hear anything—”
“Or been killed after your escape!” Lace huffs.
“Or that you killed your sis,” adds Sabine.
I laugh and wipe tears from my own eyes. “No one is dead,” I promise them. “Not that they shouldn’t be.”
Warden Flynn’s lips purse at this comment, but still, she says nothing.
“Rumor says Mr. Jaxon found you before you did it,” says Camilla, dropping her voice. “Is that true?”
“Yeah.” I look over my shoulder to where Jaxon is standing at the edge of the room, keeping an eye on things. He doesn’t look at me, but he doesn’t have to. We both know what happened that night. “It’s true.”
“God, I was so worried.” Lace hugs me again, but this time doesn’t let go. Warden Flynn doesn’t move from where she stands. I still can’t read her expression; I don’t really want to. She certainly doesn’t look pleased, not that I expected her to be. I’m not pleased with how anything worked out, either.
Mia does the strip search before I’m released back into the general population. She doesn’t speak to me the entire time, but I can’t blame her. I can’t imagine the shit she’s in for allowing a dangerous criminal like myself to escape from right under her nose.
Lace and I are hand-in-hand on the way to our unit when Ronnie steps out into the hallway, blocking our path. Flanking her, Bull cracks her knuckles and Deadeye sneers.
“Welcome back,” Ronnie says, eying me. “We thought you’d died.”
“I’m sure you would have loved that, Veronica,” I make an attempt to step around Ronnie, but Bull blocks my path.
“Yeah, I would have,” Ronnie says. “It would have done away with the problem.”
“Sorry it didn’t work out for you.” I stand my ground, refusing to take even a single step back. Ronnie, however, takes a step toward me, forcing me back against the wall. I’m still holding onto Lace, who looks terrified.
“You better watch your back, rat, or you won’t get out of this shit hole alive.”
“Problem ladies?” someone says behind Ronnie. Jaxon steps out of the security office, eyes on us, and Bull and Deadeye step back automatically. Ronnie doesn’t move away from me, but her head turns to look at Jaxon.
“Ah, look at that. Your Screw in Shining Armor is here to rescue you again.”
“Keep talking, Veronica, and you’ll spend the next week in isolation.”
Ronnie smiles a cool, deadly smile at him, then at me. “Remember what I said,” she murmurs in my ear. “Your time here is limited. Enjoy it while you can.”
I don’t have much of an appetite that evening, so I send Lace along with Sabine and Camilla for dinner and stay in my cell, tucked under the covers, trying to warm the chill that has been slithering through my body for the last few days. As far as I know, Julie has been notified of my plan to kill her after escaping the prison. Fortunately for her, I’ve failed, and it’s probably the last time I’ll catch a glimpse of my sister ever again. I want to trust Jaxon when he says that he’ll help me prove my innocence, but I really don’t know what he’s going to do, and I hate thinking about it. The only person who knows of my innocence is Julie, and she’d die by her own hand before admitting her guilt.
I know that now.
And that’s the hardest part of all.
A tear I didn’t realize had been forming slides down my face, hot and wet. I sniff and wipe it away roughly, burying my head in my pillow, wishing that everything would end. I’m happy to see Lace, of course I am. It feels like she’s the only reason for my being anymore, but she’s going to get out, probably sooner than I will, and the mere thought of losing my only support system sends a shard of ice through my heart. With Lace gone, what’s the point? My innocence simply can’t be proven. Do I really want to live the next however many years of my life rotting away in a prison cell?
No, I don’t.
Exhaustion pulls at my eyelids, and after a few minutes, I must fall asleep, because it’s hours later when Lace comes in and crawls into bed with me, her soft blond hair tickling my nose. We hold each other, silent, breathing quietly, and fall back asleep without another word.
Chapter Twenty-Three
We’reon our way to breakfast the next morning — sausage and French Toast, it smells like —when Jaxon stops me in the hallway, calling after Lace and me.
“Warden Flynn wants to see you,” he says, ignoring Ronnie’s sharp gaze as she passes us, now flanked now by Lulu and Bull. I don’t know where Deadeye is; probably picking on some new, terrified inmate.
“What for?” I stop in the hallway, still gripping Lace’s hand, and ignore Ronnie as she shoulders past me, knocking into us.
“Dunno,” Jaxon says. “But she’s waiting.”
