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“Coming to Ashgate saved my life,” she continues, her voice cracking. “No one ever in a million years thinks that prison will save them, but it did for me. If I hadn’t had been caught, arrested, I would have died, Joey, I would have died somewhere on the streets of Seattle, nothing more than a bum, a drug addict. No one would have cared, no one would have helped me. I was nameless. I was nobody.”
I kiss Lace’s forehead, brushing damp hair behind her ears. Her blue eyes are rimmed with red, cheeks crimson. For a few minutes we just hold each other, because there’s nothing left to say. Somehow, her words make me feel better, if even a little bit. After all, Lace is probably the only reason I’m still alive.
If anything is worth fighting for at this point, it’s her.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Even though I’vealready denied Warden Flynn’s offer for protection, I can’t help but feel like she has all the guards keeping an extra eye on me, anyway. Jaxon, especially, seems to be everywhere I am, whether it’s passing through or poking his head into different rooms to find me. If it weren’t so fucking annoying, it would be nice to have all the extra attention. Unfortunately for me, the other women know something is up, and that just makes things worse.
“Where’s your screw lover?” Ronnie asks one day, bumping me so hard into the stone wall that a shock of pain shoots up my arm.
“Fuck off.” I make an attempt to step around her, but Ronnie blocks my path, smirking. The hallway is empty, of course, and it’s just the two of us.
“So what’s the plan with you now, screw lover?” she asks. “Now that you tried to off your own sister and got caught in the act?”
“It’s none of your business, Ronnie.” The truth is, I have no idea what’s going to happen to me, because the warden is keeping a tight lip on her plans, or the court’s plans, or whoever has plans for me at all. Even Jaxon hasn’t bothered to tell me anything since I’ve been back at Ashgate.
“Look,” Ronnie says, forcing me back into the corner with her shoulder. “I don’t know how long you plan to be here, kid, but I’ve been hearing whispers.”
“Whispers about what?”
“About you,” Ronnie says, glancing over her shoulder. “About you wanting to take me on.”
I laugh, because I don’t know how else to react to this.
“Believe me, Veronica, I have no intention of challenging your position.”
“That’s not what I hear.”
“Well, that’s what’s true.” I shrug and shake my head, burrowing my fists into my pockets. “My only motivation in life right now is to get the fuck out of here, even if that means putting my sister in my place. That’s all I care about. That’s it.” I step to the side to step around her, but Ronnie continues to block me.
“I don’t think that’s the only thing you care about, is it?” she asks in a low voice. “I think there’s someone in here you do care about.” She laughs. It’s cold and filled with hatred. “In fact, if my sources are correct, there is more than just one person here you’ve taken a liking to. Isn’t that right?”
“Whatever you’ve heard is bullshit.”
“But it’s not though,” says Ronnie. “Because Lace Willis aside, how would you feel if something happened to your precious Nick Jaxon? He’s been so good to you, after all. What a pity that would be.”
Something comes over me, something so new and so frightening that my hands begin to shake and an overwhelming fit of rage boils in the pit of my stomach. Before I can even think about what I’m doing, I lunge at Ronnie, shoving her back against the wall, my forearm to her throat. She must not have been expecting this, because her eyes bulge a little. Even then, even as I have her by the throat against the wall, she’s still smirking. But I don’t care, not anymore. She doesn’t have her band of misfits to back her now.
“I should kill you,” I whisper through clenched teeth. “I should break your neck or slit your throat, Veronica, because you’re nothing but bad news.”
“You won’t do it,” Ronnie hisses. One of her hands is prying at my fingers, but I barely notice over the rage pulsating through my body. The anger alone is enough to hold her there against the wall.
“You won’t do it because you’re achild, Josephine, a little child who won’t survive long in a place like this.”
My nostrils flare as I take a deep breath, teeth creaking as they smash together impulsively. I push my body closer to hers, arm against her neck, until Ronnie starts to turn purple.
“If any harm comes to Lace Willis or Nick Jaxon, Veronica, I’ll know where to find you.” My arm releases Ronnie as I take a step back, and she nearly falls to the floor, clutching her throat and sputtering. I turn to leave, but not before glancing once over my shoulder one last time. “I almost put a bullet in my sister’s skull, Veronica,” I say quietly. “Keep in mind, if harm comes to Lace or Jaxon, I will have nothing left to lose.”
My hands are still shaking by the time I make it back to my cell, and I slam the door behind me, ignoring Sabine who calls out to me from the couch, looking concerned. Lace is at work unit, so I’m alone, but for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel afraid.
I feel furious.
Murderous.
I want to kill somebody.
I want to kill her.
