know what she’s capable of,” I tell Dinah, and her gaze grows dark as she nods her head.
Dinah’s parents were kicked out when she was young. She was raised by an aunt and uncle still in the lounge, and we all grew up being told her parents were bad and we should hate them. Dinah and I learned when we were teenagers that the story we had been told when we were little wasn’t true. Dinah’s mat was going to challenge mine, but my mat exiled her before she could.
We didn’t tell anyone, too afraid to suffer the same fate, but we’ve always wondered how many stories out there like Dinah’s exist because of my mat’s underhanded and power-hungry ways.
“How are they doing?” I ask softly, not liking the pain and anger in my friend’s features.
“Mom and dad are good,” she says with a smile. “Maybe Tark, Verity, and I will take an impromptu vacation out to visit them until our lounge is safe again,” she tells me.
“That’s a good idea.”
I’m so glad that Dinah was able to track her parents down and that they have an amazing relationship. I’m glad that she can go somewhere and be safe with her family, but her words haunt me.
Until the lounge is safe again.
The sentence runs through my mind on a loop, and I have no idea when it will happen or how to make it possible. If I had known my lounge was at risk, I would have never left. I would have tried to find another solution, but I’m in Nightmare Pen now, and I have to figure out a way to do something from here. I need to find Zen.
“How are you doing in here?” Dinah asks, pulling me from the plans I’m putting together in my mind.
“Good,” I shrug. “Food’s amazing. My squad is fierce. I have a successful shank business, and I’m about to launch something new that I think is going to be a huge hit,” I tell her. “There’s also a superhot prison guard.”
Dinah giggles and shakes her head at me. “Only you, Sinclair Denali, would thrive in a place like this.”
“I’m totally taking that as a compliment.”
“You should, Sin. You most definitely should.”
“Okay, go on. Get out of this place, go take your kid and your mate somewhere safe,” I tell her. “Wyve, Pya, Tracy, Hank and Forrest are who I would go to before you leave. They all know how to keep their mouths shut while looking out for others. They can spread the news quietly while you head out to see your parents.”
She puts her hand up against the plexiglass, and my throat gets tight as I do the same.
“Miss you, Sin,” Dinah tells me, her voice cracking with emotion.
I smile at her, but it feels sad. Forced. “Miss you too, Di. Only nine more months to go,” I tell her, and she nods and wipes a tear off her cheek. “You tell Verity that I have a year of tickles and tummy raspberries to make up for.”
Dinah laughs and pulls her hand away. I feel the loss of it immensely, even though the thick barrier keeps me from truly connecting or feeling the physical comfort I’m suddenly missing. I need to figure out a way to keep Dinah and her family safe. I need to figure out a way to save all of them.
We throw out tear-filled I love yous and then crack up when I accuse Dinah of fucking with my rep and making me look all soft. My heart lurches as we hang up our phones. I watch her leave, calling out blessings of protection to the heavens and promising any listening deity my eternal devotion if they’ll watch her back.
I release a heavy, stress-filled exhale and wipe my eyes before standing up. I walk to the door and bang on it to let the guard know I’m ready to go. I silently hope it will be Rook that steps forward on the other side. He’s annoying, but I’m in the mood to be annoyed. I need the same kind of distraction he gave me last time.
Disappointment wafts through me when the sliding peephole on the door opens and I see that it’s Sandbag still standing there. I bite down my groan. Anxiousness crawls up from my stomach to roost in my chest. Let’s hope he can get me back to my cell without “accidentally” tasing me.
His dead eyes look behind me, checking to see that my visitor has