Darkmore Penitentiary 2 - Caroline Peckham Page 0,188

arm. "But I should go. I'm sure I was worrying about nothing anyway."

I gave him a tight smile, tiptoed up to press a kiss to his cheek then turned and jogged away down the stairs smirking like an asshole. And I probably should have felt worse about toying with Hastings' feelings, but it was just so damn easy to get him dancing to my tune that I couldn't help it.

I headed into the Mess Hall for my lunch and spotted Gustard holding court in the rear corner of the room with his Watchers.

I grinned to myself and headed over to join my pack who all started howling and yipping with excitement as they spotted me, brushing their hands over every part of my body until I snapped at them to stop and they let me take a seat with my meal. As Hastings had promised, there was a nice, juicy orange waiting for me on the tray and I grinned at it as I got myself into a good position to watch the doors.

Banjo got all over excitable and started singing a song in my honour which I tolerated because he literally went around like a kicked puppy all day the last time I'd told him no and I couldn't take the guilt of it. Besides, this was the last time I'd be hearing any of his songs so he might as well unknowingly give me a send off.

“There was a girl so pretty that I wrote a little ditty and her name was Rosalieeee. She was strong and brave, liked to misbehave and one day she noticed meeee. It was a lonely place with my fall from grace but she made it all okayyyy. And I love her so, I need her to know, so she never goes awayyyyy.”

I glanced at Sonny who shrugged at the choice of song lyrics but I guessed it was just what rhymed, not that Banjo had any idea what we were up to.

I probably should have been feeling bad about leaving so many of my pack mates here, but I knew what each and every one of them had done to earn their spot in Darkmore and it was an unfortunate fact that most of them deserved this. I was not Robin Hood sitting amongst the Merry Men. I was a gang leader surrounded by murderers and sick motherfuckers and I wasn't going to be setting a plague of them loose on the world.

I spotted Hastings the moment he entered the Mess Hall and his gaze fell to me for a brief moment as he gave me a firm nod before turning away and stalking towards Gustard's table.

I grabbed my orange and jumped up, moving around the room and catching Roary's eye before heading over to join him at his table where we would have a good view of the drama as it unfolded.

I hopped up to sit in front of him, pushing his tray of half eaten food aside and earning myself a growl for touching his meal. Lions didn't share food and all that jazz. I rolled my eyes and pushed a segment of my orange into his mouth to apologise and the noise that escaped him as he sucked my thumb between his lips was a wholly different kind of growl.

"I knew it," I hissed, pointing at him in accusation. "You like it when people do shit for you. Even though you claim not to want to use your Charisma to earn yourself a bunch of slaves to hand feed you, you like it when I do it!"

"Maybe that's just because it's you, Rosa," he said in a playful tone as he leaned towards me and parted his lips for more.

I giggled like a fucking idiota and then tossed my hair because I'd already gone that far, offering him another segment before snatching it back and eating it myself.

Roary growled again, grabbing my knees and yanking me closer to the edge of the table so my legs hung either side of him as he opened his mouth for more.

But before I could oblige him, a shout went up from Gustard's table and I looked up in time to see Hastings pushing him against the wall as he searched him.

Roary turned to look too, his hand sliding from my knee up my thigh as he did so and making my pulse skip as I tried not to think about that too much.

Officer Nixon prowled over to help Hastings and I didn't