by M. C. Cerny
The fault lay on me for this happening. I didn’t protect her. I didn’t do my job as the warden.
Nene curled up protectively on her side wearing a sallow green hospital gown that made her look even worse. Bruises vividly colored her face and shoulders. Those crazy violent gang-girls tried stomping on her. They would have succeeded too had Raina not heard the yelling from inside the showers on her way back from changing Julius. Her hair was matted against her cheeks and stained dark with blood from a seeping head wound and stitches. I’d seen a lot of things in my career, but this sight was gruesome, turning my stomach. Pretty Nene looked more like a sewn up rag doll than a human being. Her lip cut and one eye swollen.
No sounds came from her except a few wheezing breaths followed by whimpers of pain. I pushed a chair next to the bed. The metal legs scraped against the cracked tiles in the floor with a jarring sound that made her wince. Nene may have been one of the strongest women I knew, but god, I’d have to handle her with kid gloves. She’d been damaged enough by the system, by those vicious women, and lastly me.
“Sweetheart.” I tried coaxing her by laying my hand gently against the sheet covering her hip but she didn’t stir.
I attempted again stroking her leg above the sheet.
“Nene, why did they beat you in the shower?” A sniffle followed a cry, and Nene tugged the sheet closer around her. The doctor said she hadn’t been raped. I thanked God for that small miracle. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried if something worse happened. He said that nothing penetrated her, as if that was supposed to magically make being attacked better or less violating. She had been badly beaten. The doctor took photos thinking they would need evidence. I already saw them. Shoe prints bruised her body with dark, concentrated splotches where fists had hit her. Her soul had been violated and humiliated; wasn’t that enough?
I tried rubbing her back softly but when my fingers grazed her back, she flinched, digging deeper into the thin mattress. “Talk to me baby, I need to know what happened.” Guilt assaulted me for leaving her there. What choice did I have without blowing my cover? We were so close to getting her case reopened for a new trial and Hector’s case was hanging in the balance.
“She said she could smell your cum all over me.” Nene choked, verbalizing the sentence into a wracking sob. Of all things, she picked a verbal jab as the worst.
“Who said that?” Anger, not at her, never at Nene, but at those crazed gangbangers radiated from within me.
“E-Evangelina and her bitches.” Of course, the leader of the Red Tribe would be looking for retribution because she got word of Hector’s arrest through the grape vine I’m sure. It was only a matter of time before I got Nene out of here.
“She said I deserved it for being a snitch and a whore.” Neither was true, and nobody should have known about us except for us. She cried and I kept touching her slowly, reassuring her as best I could.
“What happened?” I had seen the dropped soaked socks filled with hard pieces of soap, paper, and whatever else they could get in there to hit her with.
“They waited until I went to the shower and then they barred the doors after bribing the guard.”
“Who?” I demanded.
“Officer Pettigrew.”
I was furious this happened. I knew beat downs like this occurred countless times but I’d promised Nene I would take care of her, and I’d failed.
“I’ve put the facility on lockdown”
“You know there aren’t any cameras in the shower.” She sounded so forlorn. I did know that, but I hadn’t counted on them doing something in there with guards present. A guard who had apparently been bribed. God, how wrong I had been. I’d underestimated them, and I was the fool.
“I’m having a guard I trust stationed outside your door here. I want to make sure you’re okay. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Evangelina didn’t touch me. Only her crazy ass thug bitches. But she said something, I’d never heard her say before.”
“What was it?”
“It was about the guards changing shifts and knowing when the south entrance wasn’t being monitored as closely. Maybe that’s how they’re doing it.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t want you near any of this. We’re looking over your case. I found a lawyer, a woman, to take it pro bono. She likes exposing the system’s failings so she’s working hard on the appeal, but until then, you’re going to stay here in the hospital until you heal.”
“I want to go home.” She sniffled under covers.
“I’ll have you moved to a less secure facility.” I vowed.
She hiccuped struggling to roll toward me, “You can’t.” Her eyes took on the hue of her bruises making the vivid colors stand out. “I was charged with manslaughter.”
“I will fix this.” I’d use every resource available to me.
“How? All I want to do is go home and pretend this is all a bad dream.”
I wished it were a dream too.
“I know you do, Nene. Your injuries will probably keep you here for a bit. The lawyer is working on transferring you to a low security unit despite the previous charges.” She kept crying inconsolable until her breathing eventually evened out into sleep. A nurse came in and switched out her IV line so that it was filtering a painkiller into her body making her drowsy. The medications kicked in finally giving her respite from the pain. I stayed watching her protectively as she slept, it was all I could do for her and it wasn’t nearly enough.
James came to the hospital to meet with me since I refused to leave her side. He understood my decision as it had been James himself who had been by Maris’ side during her recovery from the stabbing in the yard. She gave a statement exonerating Nene from stabbing her as well as how the guard Garcia was a relative of Hector’s. He had been working from the inside according to the Red Tribe members she got information from to corroborate evidence. The stuff Nene had overheard was enough to steer the investigation in the right direction and help get her transferred to a locked down unit in the hospital where she could recover instead of back at the prison infirmary.
She stayed in the hospital a full week. Her lawyer, the new one I found to take her case was a godsend, expediting the process with a few loopholes the first lawyer missed. Nene’s lawyer hired her own investigator and found eyewitness statements corroborating Nene’s original testimony Zeke Wells had easily overlooked. How that idiot was practicing law boggled the mind. It was only a matter of time before he ended up disbarred once I was done with him. Soon enough I would be able to keep my promise to Nene and get her out of here.
Epilogue
NENE
I turned my face up to the hot Texas sun glad to be outside for a change. The silver bangle bracelets were new. A gift from Cohen who was lucky I had a decent sense of humor. They were less of a reminder of my time in prison, and more of a comfort that I belonged to him only. They were shiny, one engraved with the words, “My love for you is everlasting,” followed by the date I was released, and exonerated of the charges. The second was engraved with, “Thank you for entrusting me with the key to your heart.” It was something we both worked for, but I luck favored me to have him in my life, loving me and supporting me.
The lawyer, a spunky young graduate with a passion for criminal defense wanted to file a civil suit for damages and I still mulled it over. She said there was a statute of limitations, but I wasn’t concerned about the money. I wanted to forget what had happened to me. I had the scars to tell the tale. No money on Earth that would erase the dips and grooves in my skin from those experiences. They were my tiger stripes and I was a warrior. Cohen supported that decision either way, and we had time yet to decide.
Maris recovered slowly. She was able to tell Cohen that Evangelina had stabbed her in the fray before framing me for it. She testified on my behalf, and I was ever grateful to her. She decided that job was her last as an undercover officer and gave James her resignation. Both Maris and Coh
en brought Hector to justice and incriminated many of the Red Tribe members, including Evangelina and her intimate crew in heavier charges. I hoped she enjoyed her earned time off, chasing after a certain NG unit director. James was going to have his hands full with her.
I rubbed the slight swell to my belly easing the ache in my lower back. Soon I would be earning a whole new set of tiger stripes bringing our baby into the world. I couldn’t be happier. Cohen had been promoted, now moving into a supervisory role within the NARC unit, one where no one would dare question how our relationship started or evolved. We decided to stay in Texas. Ultimately moving to Austin since the regional NARC office was located here. Austin-true to it’s moniker was a place as weird as we were and we loved it. There was so much to put behind us and be grateful for.
THE END
The Warden was a novella previously published in the Forbidden Anthology. All of my books can be found on all platforms.
Acknowledgments
Sometimes I have no idea what to write at the end of a book. Each one is a different baby birthed onto the pages with unique trials and complications. A labor of love. The journey to the end always, always, always takes a different path, no two are the same. The Warden was a novella I contemplated writing under a different pen name, instead I chose to include it here when I published it with the Forbidden Anthology earlier this summer. Nene and Cohen had an interesting story to tell and I challenged myself to reach for a different set of characters, stretch my literary voice if you will. I hope I accomplished that. Writing in the taboo has always been a challenge for me and without you, my darling readers, there would be no one to write these stories for.
Seriously though, huge thanks to my READERS, my BETAS, and my TRIBE of savagely amazing authors and friends in the industry. You’re my RBT, my BLT and my POUTINE when the going gets rough. (Yes, I did just call you my cheese fries!) You do the hard stuff everyday day. There are no words to express thanks for all of your reads, reviews, and reactions.
LYTTMAB
XOXO
MC
About the Author
M.C. Cerny fell in love with books after experiencing her first real ugly cry reading, Where The Red Fern Grows. Her debut romantic suspense novel, Flashpoint was written in a series of post-it-note ramblings that would likely make her idol Tom Clancy and her mother blush. She is a post graduate of NYU, and calls rural NJ home with her menagerie of human and feline fur-babies. When M.C. is not writing, you’ll find her lurking in Starbucks, running stupid marathons, singing Disney show tunes, and searching out the perfect shade of pink nail polish.
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Other Titles By M.C. Cerny
DESGINED BY LOVE SERIES
Love Under Construction
Unlovely Things
Heart Burn
Tailwind
Love Actually
Mission For Love
Mine To Keep
Love On Tap
GOLD BEACH SERIES
Summer Ever After
Remains of Winter
Roman Holliday – A Novella
THE REED SERIES
Flashpoint
Pulse Point
THE MATCHMAKER SERIES
Under The Mistletoe #1
The Naughty List #2
Own The Night #3
DEFINED SERIES
Deviation
Contusion
STANDALONE NOVELS & NOVELLAS
Night Owl - The Complete Serial
Angel
Mr. Huntley’s Wife
Blackout
The Warden
FIONA DAVENPORT’S KINDLE WORLD
Love, Doctor
Training, Daddy
THE VAULT
Declan’s Demand
Sydney’s Submission
LeHavre’s Lover
THE CLUB
An Eye For An Eye
Branded
WOODLAND CREEK
Dream Catcher
