prove Cy’s innocence. Help him get out of this place. For me.”
“You’re going to be fine. But I’ll do what I can to help your…whatever he is. But that doesn’t mean you can just fucking martyr yourself in there, asshole. You hear me? If they come for you, you better fight back with everything you’ve got. I’ve been making some phone calls. Seeing about getting you some friends in there…”
A digital female voice interrupted. “One minute remaining on your card.”
“I gotta go, Linc. But, seriously, no matter what happens… Don’t forget about Cyrus.”
Just like before, once the call disconnected, Webster felt hollow and more alone than ever. He hung up the receiver, a shadow falling over him a split second before he turned to find Thor in his space. He crowded Webster up against the phone box, the plastic edge digging into his lower back. Why wasn’t he working in the laundry?
“You missed our date in the showers, fish. Me and my boys don’t like to be stood up,” he said, giving a smile that caused his lips to crack and bleed in a way that turned Webster’s stomach.
Webster didn’t try to move the man. He outweighed him by a good seventy pounds at least. “Get used to disappointment. I’m afraid my dance card is full.”
His lip curled in disgust. “Yeah, that’s right. You prefer your own kin. That ain’t right.”
Webster did his best to keep a bored expression on his face. Could Thor smell the sweat suddenly trickling between Webster’s shoulder blades over the smell of the older man’s foul breath? “Are we done here? Your breath is making me woozy.”
“You sure do like to run your mouth. Wonder if you’ll be so chatty with my dick in it?” he said.
“Anything you put in my mouth is going to be bitten off, so I guess you should probably decide which body parts you’re okay with leaving behind,” Webster retorted, forcing a smile onto his face.
“Back up, inmate. This isn’t a bathhouse,” one of the guards hollered from across the room.
Thor took two steps back before spinning and raising his hands in the air. “We were just talking, Clements.” He looked back at Webster and winked. “Can somebody take me down to the laundry? I had a meeting with the warden this morning, and, now, I’m late for work detail.”
As soon as Thor and the guard disappeared, Webster deflated against the wall, adrenaline pounding through his veins until all he could hear was the blood whooshing in his ears. A meeting with the warden. About Webster? Cyrus? He couldn’t believe how much of his defensive coping mechanisms he’d lost in the eight years he’d been working with Elite. None of the danger he’d faced out there was anything like being in here. He was the trophy for some unseen big game hunter who’d stacked the game in their favor. He didn’t want to end up stuffed and mounted on some corporate asshole’s wall.
By the time Cy left the kennels, he’d realized Kemp and Rogers must both have the day off. Cy supposed it made sense. It wasn’t like they could pull off any of their plans alone. Sharing shifts made their collusion easier. It took a small amount of stress off his shoulders. It wasn’t perfect. They still had Thor to contend with, but Thor was at least confined to one place. He couldn’t move without help, and without Rogers or Kemp, he had no help. At least, Cy hoped.
When he was back on the block, he nodded to the others but was heading for the stairs when a hand reached out and snatched him from the shadows. He pivoted fast, fist clenched, only to find Nicky staring at him with wide eyes, a hand up to shield his face. “It’s just me.”
Cy’s heart hammered, his body still in fight mode. “Why are you lurking in the one place the cameras can’t see?” he asked in a harsh whisper.
Nicky shook his head. “I wasn’t. I only walked under the stairwell when I saw you coming. I’m not stupid.”
The darkened recess just behind the stairs was the only true dead zone. Blind to the cameras, blind to the guards, not that there were any guards to be found at the moment. They rarely stayed in the common room during free time. They preferred to watch from the control room and were always slow to respond to anything at that time of day. That was when the guards took their meal breaks