by Carly Fall
Danica seemed to be nothing but trouble for the prison, yet, Avery was the one being punished for her behavior.
“I still don’t understand why I’m the one in solitary confinement,” she mumbled to no one in particular. She’d lost her job because Jake attacked her. She’d been imprisoned for trying to find the truth about her mom’s murder… well, she had broken several laws in the process… but she’d been put in solitary confinement because Danica started a fight.
Madge sighed. “Danica is very well-respected by the inmates in this place. She’s been here a number of times, and people listen to her. If she’d been thrown into solitary, you’d still end up in trouble because of her following. It’s easier for the warden to separate you from the threat than the threat from you.”
Avery’s heart sank to the floor. If that were the truth, she’d be in solitary confinement for the rest of her stay. And who knew how long that would be? No one had provided that detail.
Gabe returned moments later, glanced at her and shook his head.
“You’ve really stepped in it,” he said.
She tried to think of what she’d done to make the situation with Jake worse, but nothing came to her.
Jake had threatened her and then tried to rape her. She’d been the victim. Now she was being punished. Her cheeks heated with anger.
“I didn’t do anything except protect myself against a sexual assault!” she said, fisting her hands at her sides.
She wanted to punch something, to throw things, but she also wouldn’t destroy Madge’s hard work.
“Apparently, Jake was kicked out of the pack,” Gabe said, setting his hands on his hips. “Both him and Danica were excommunicated.”
Her shoulders sagged as she realized the weight of what Gabe had said. A werewolf without a pack was the lowest member on the totem pole. No one would want either of them, ever. They’d be forced to live alone for the rest of their lives unless they relocated to another state and found a pack willing to take pity on them.
“Danica then killed the pack leader, which landed her here,” Gabe continued. “And, she’s blaming it all on you.”
The next two days passed with the speed of a slug moving through mud. Her only bright spot being a trip up to Madge’s medical facility after she’d finished drinking the awful green stuff. Avery had been declared well enough to return in a week. She tried not to wallow in the returning depression over Melia’s death and being in prison, but especially at night, it was almost impossible not to let it consume her. During those hours, she sobbed more often than not.
Gabe continued to guard the solitary confinement section during the day, and the guy on the nightshift barely paid her any attention. Avery quickly learned that Gabe hated being underground in the boredom as much as she did, and they passed a lot of time in conversation. He always rolled his desk chair close to the bars, and she sat on the bed facing him.
The unlikely pair discussed their favorite restaurants in the Seattle area. Avery found it amusing they both disliked seafood but lived in one of the most famous cities for it. They each enjoyed the outdoors and spent hours discussing hiking trails and forests surrounding the city.
She quickly fell into a routine. Once awake, she did some stretching, held a few yoga poses, and waited for Gabe to arrive. One morning he brought her a donut; the next, a croissant. She still didn’t understand why he was being so nice to her, but Avery appreciated whatever kindness she could get. The guard never seemed to want anything in return, but she remained wary, actually glad for the bars separating them. She longed to escape her cage, but at the same time, their presence did offer her a safety blanket.
When she was young, before her father had left, the family decided they needed a dog. Samantha, a golden retriever, had been crate trained. When she was stressed or wanted to be left alone, she’d retreat inside it. Melia had called it Samantha’s safe zone. After being in this situation, Avery now understood. This cell had become her safe zone, a place where no one could get to her.
“Tell me about your mom’s murder,” Gabe said out of the blue on the afternoon of their third day together. They’d just finished discussing their favorite television shows, and the change in subject blindsided her. She shifted in her bed as butterflies tickled her belly while she considered an answer. What if his job is to gain my trust, find out more about my crime, and then turn that information over to the authorities? It made sense. The more they had against her, the stronger their case would be, and the longer she’d be put away. McAllister didn’t have to worry about her if she stayed in prison. He probably hoped she’d either rot away or be scared straight, so to speak.
“There’s not a lot I haven’t told you already,” she said, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them.
Gabe shook his head, long legs stretched out in front of him as he stared her down from the other side of the bars.
“Sure, there is. You paraphrased. There’s always more to death than that. What set your radar off, besides the bites?”
Her memories returned to when she and Victoria had gone through her mother’s belongings. She still hadn’t been allowed a phone call and wondered if Victoria had gone nuts searching for her yet.
“Mom was murdered in her apartment. When the police released the crime scene, I went there with one of my friends and took a look around. It was trashed.”
“Like there had been a fight, or like it had been tossed?”
She recalled the mess and shrugged. “I guess I really don’t know the difference. Is there one?”
Gabe leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “Did it seem like a fight had occurred, or like someone was searching for something? Was the damage more methodical, or did it have an element of crazy to it?”
Images of her mother’s black and blue body lying on the gurney filtered through again, despite her attempt to block them.
“Definitely a fight. She was bruised up pretty bad.”
“Anything out of the ordinary in the apartment besides the mess?”
Her stomach twisted as she recalled the scene. Avery squeezed her eyes shut for a second, the anger bubbling to the surface. Her mother had been a good person and hadn’t deserved what had befallen her. Melia would never laugh again, never enjoy another plate of pasta, or the job she loved—helping others.
Tears threatened to flow as she remembered her mother’s hugs and her smile that would remind her of a warm sunbeam filtering through a window on a cold day. How many times had she wished she could just snuggle up beneath that smile and let it soothe her as if it were a familiar, cozy blanket? What she wouldn’t give to see Melia now, to allow her presence to give her comfort.
She avoided meeting Gabe’s gaze and stared down at her dismal looking prison blanket, picking fuzz balls off it, her thoughts returning to his question. McAllister had never asked her if anything was missing from her mother’s apartment. If Gabe was working for him to get information from her, she didn’t see how telling him about the missing religious items would hurt her case in any way.
“The one thing she did spend her money on was religious artifacts, specifically, Christian ones. Mom always wore a cross around her neck, and she had statues of Jesus and Mary around her apartment, as well as a plaque of the Ten Commandments. Some of them were gold and might have been expensive, but I never knew for sure if they were real or not. I never asked.”
“What about them?” he asked.
She focused on him when she heard the edge in his voice. He met her stare with rapt attention, the muscles in his arms tense as he clasped his hands together.
“They were stolen,” she said.
The silence thickened except for the ticking of a clock somewhere down the hall.
“Seriously?” he said, his voice almost a whisper.
“Yes.”
“Holy shit.”
He placed his head in his hands. Avery furrowed her brow, confused. Somehow, she’d just delivered news he found inc
redibly interesting.
“What?” she asked. “Holy shit, what?”
18
Gabe stood up so fast, the metal chair tipped over and clanked to the floor, the sound echoing off the wall making it seem even louder. The crash startled Avery, causing her to jump from her bed.
As he paced, Gabe ran his fingers through his hair so roughly, she thought he might pull strands right off his skull.
“What? What did I say?” she asked, uncertain about how she should interpret the outburst.
Someone stole my mother’s religious symbols. What did it mean, and why was Gabe so anxious about it?
After a moment, he stood still and put his hands on his hips, nostrils flaring.
“I just want to make sure I’m getting this right. Your mom was killed. The cop investigating is Fae and thinks a human killed your mother, but you don’t believe him. You think it was a vampire based on a bite mark you saw when you identified the body. And, not only was she beaten, but all religious symbols were taken from her apartment. Am I right so far?”
She nodded, stepping away from the bars and remaining silent. His intensity caused her concern. The anxiety that had eased over the past few days now returned with a roar. She ran her hand up and down her arms as her limbs became warm, then leaned against the wall when the room started to spin. What she’d said had obviously upset him, but she couldn’t make sense about why.
“Okay, I need to think.”
Gabe pivoted and marched down the hallway toward his desk. After a moment, she heard his voice but couldn’t make out the words. He was talking on the phone again, but to whom?
Avery collapsed back on the bed, frightened that she’d just hurt her case, or punched a hole in a new can of worms she had never known even existed.
An hour passed, and Gabe didn’t return. When she heard the elevator doors open, she stared at the hallway, curious to see who had come to visit. To her absolute delight, it was Madge.
“I came to check on my patient,” the nurse said with a grin. “How are you feeling today, Avery?”
When Madge waved her hand, the cell door rolled open. For a place that didn’t allow magic, Madge sure could spin hers around.
“I’m pretty good,” she replied as the nurse entered her cell.
“Let’s take a peek at your injuries.”
Avery extended both arms, examining the pink lines where deep gashes had been. Madge’s cool, gentle touch caused a shiver to travel down her spine, but she found it calming and reassuring.
“These look wonderful,” the nurse murmured. “I think the scarring will be minimal.”
A brief wave of happiness radiated through Avery, followed by a heavy sigh of disappointment. Who knew how long she’d be in this awful place? Who cared about scars in here? Nobody to impress.
“Lie down and let me see your torso.”
Avery did as instructed, then unzipped her jumpsuit. The bruising had turned an awful yellow and brown color.
“Any pain?” Madge asked as she sat on the edge of the bed, lightly pressing around Avery’s ribcage.
She shook her head. “Only when I roll over a certain way at night, but other than that, no.”
“Good,” Madge said with a grin, but then her brow furrowed, as if the woman worried about her.
Although it was none of her business, Avery wanted to understand why Madge’s magic worked in a place where it was forbidden.
“Why can you use your magic when no one else can?”
Madge sighed. “I’m one of the original Fae who help secure Spectral Prison with faery dust. Since it’s my magic holding it together, I can use it.”
Avery didn’t dare ask what Madge thought of her creation where paranormal entities were housed in horrible conditions.
“Gabe seems edgy today,” Madge commented as she got to her feet.
Avery zipped her jumpsuit, then sat up, curious about the quick change in subject. Why did Madge care about Gabe’s frame of mind?
“Yeah, he is. We had a conversation that… well, he wasn’t happy with my answers.”
“He can be difficult,” the nurse replied. She seemed preoccupied, her brows still knit with worry.
Avery’s curiosity was piqued, and she wondered how long Madge and Gabe had known each other. Although the nurse was the nicest person she’d met since arriving, the warden/prisoner dynamic remained, and this was far from an ideal way to get to know someone.
“I found that boy out in the forest when he was about five or six,” Madge began. “He was curled up against his mom. She was in wolf form and had been shot. He was naked, crying, and wetter than water. I don’t know how many days he’d been out in the wild, but I took him in and raised him like my own.”
Avery’s stare widened. A Fae raising a shifter? “What about his pack?”
Madge shrugged. “They weren’t anywhere to be found. He’s a member now, but that didn’t happen until he turned eighteen.”
“What about you? What did the shifters say about you raising him?”
“Nothing. They weren’t mad. They weren’t grateful. It was just the way it was. He’s very close to the pack now, but I’ll always consider him mine.”
Gabe’s footsteps drew closer, and he came into view.
“I didn’t hear you come in, Madge,” he said. “You know you aren’t supposed to be down here. It’s against the rules.”
She waved her hand in front of her face as if pushing his words away. “I know, and sometimes rules are meant to be broken. I wanted to check up on my faery patient. It’s so rare one of my own kind comes to this place.”
She winked at Avery and stepped outside the cell once Gabe opened it.
Avery watched with newfound interest as the two had a brief conversation. She noted a definite familial connection between them, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before. Then again, she’d been terrified the first time she’d met the nurse and had been absorbed with the fact Danica was trying to kill her.
Gabe escorted Madge back to the elevator, their conversation fading into hushed whispers. Surely they didn’t want her to hear what they had to say, but Avery stood and went to the bars, trying to decipher their murmurs.
After a few minutes, Gabe returned and righted the chair. He sat down, his dark gaze more intense than she’d ever seen it.
“I want to know what you learned when you stole that paper from McAllister. What was written on it?”
She opened her mouth to tell him about the addresses but decided against it at the last second. Information could be very valuable in a place like this. He obviously thought she knew something about her mother’s murder, and even though she really didn’t, maybe she could leverage it.
“How do you know I took anything from him?” she asked.
“McAllister updated your file with a detailed report that says you assaulted him and took a paper from your mother’s murder file. I want to know why you stole it and what was on it.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. Earlier, he’d just about had a heart attack when she’d revealed her mother’s religious relics had been stolen, and now, he seemed ready to beat her into telling him what had been on the paper.
What had Gabe stumbled into, and how did her story fit in?
“Why do you want to know?”
He sighed and rubbed his face. “My pack recently had a religious symbol stolen by a vampire. The damned bloodsucker almost killed one of our members. I want revenge for that, and we want to get the artifact back. We haven’t had any luck recovering it. I think it seems too much of a coincidence that a vampire took the same type of item from us, and from your mom. It’s strange he’s taking religious symbols. There have never been more godless creatures than vampires.”
Avery immediately thought of Victoria, and was about to argue, but thought better of it. As a general rule, she avoided them too because they tended to be awful and wanted to suck her dry. Hell, she’d just been attacked twice not too long ago. Victoria was the excep
tion.
Frankly, Avery couldn’t argue with his logic, but Gabe wanted something from her, and even though it didn’t seem important, maybe she could use it to get something out of this hellish experience.
Who knows how long I’ll be here?
Then it hit her.
“McAllister updated my file? Does that mean that he included my sentence in there?”
Gabe nodded. She knew by the pity in his stare, it wasn’t good news.
“What did it say?”
“He’s recommending fifteen to twenty.”
The words slammed her in the gut like a fist, leaving her unable to catch a breath. There was no way she’d heard him correctly.
“What?” she whispered.
“Fifteen to twenty years, Avery,” he repeated.
Her knees weakened as she sank to the mattress, a hollow pit forming in her stomach. “T-that’s so long! It’s not like I killed someone!”
“I know.”
As her eyes welled, she glanced around, trying to imagine spending the next fifteen years in prison. All the grey, no sunlight, no plants … she’d rather slit her wrists.
“And no trial?”
“Nope.”
The paranormal justice system was much harsher than its human counterpart. The cops decided if there was a trial or not, or they could simply sentence a prisoner to whatever amount of time they saw fit. She’d heard it was what most cops did, and that was one reason the prisons were so overcrowded.
Long moments passed as she let the weight of Gabe’s words sink in. She thought she might drown in the hopelessness of her situation while her hatred for McAllister roiled.
Finally, Gabe broke the silence. “What do you think, Avery? Will you tell me what was on that paper?”
She’d likely spend the best years of her life in this horrid place, but Gabe thought she had something valuable. Leverage it, Avery. Figure out a way!
“I’m… I’m not sure it’s a good idea for me to share that.” She hedged before revealing more. She’d never negotiated like this before and wasn’t sure how far to push it.
