I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,40

she wants.”

It was a start. Hauser was on my side, but now I needed to win over Rei. I still didn’t have a fucking clue what my mate was. I didn’t ask Hauser to tell me either.

I wanted her to trust me enough to tell me herself.

Chapter 28

Rei

I

really needed to call Hauser, but it wasn’t phone time, and my commissary hadn’t processed just yet. But it would soon. I could just tell I could trust Dakarys and Rajack. I was sure they’d planned this down to a T, and they knew the prison way better than I did. But I always ran my plans by Hauser first. We had our own secret language that the prison wouldn’t have any idea I was breaking out.

I was trying to ignore the morning bell again because it was hard sleeping in here. They did lights out super early like they expected us all to be morning people. Like we weren’t all criminals, and that kind of activity was best kept to night. Seriously. I’d barely fallen asleep before the bell was ringing for me to get to breakfast.

“Look out! It’s Venus with a shank!” someone growled in my ear.

I jumped out of my bed and threw my fists up. Venus wasn’t even fucking there. It was just Faust again.

“What the fuck?”

He crossed his arms and smirked at me.

“You said you didn’t like it when I shook you awake. You’re awake now. Get to the front of your cell for count.”

“Asshole,” I grumbled, stomping out for count.

Faust made his rounds with his clicker. I guess I was glad Venus wasn’t in my cell block. I could already guess she was making a shank or had someone in mind who she was sending after me. Faust turned on his heels at the end of the hall.

“Thirty minutes before breakfast. Some of you desperately need showers. That means you, Murphy. That’s just awful. I can fucking taste it. If I don’t see you head for the shower, I’m throwing you in solitary. Bring your clothes to the witches in laundry. I’m not your mother, and I’m tiring of telling you to wash your clothes.”

Was I the only one who ever told Faust he was an asshole? I thought Faust was just being cruel until I got close to Murphy and got a whiff. He had dried food all over his clothes, and some of it was the peanut butter pie from a few days ago. And Faust wasn’t lying. You could taste his stink. I would have stayed away from him even if he wasn’t a fox shifter.

Except he got right up in my face as we walked to the shower.

“You too good for the other foxes, love?”

Maybe I was thanking that stink now. He wasn’t using his nose to confirm I wasn’t like him. I just needed to work a little magic. I clasped my hand behind my back and twirled my finger. I nudged his flip flops off his feet until he tripped.

“Better be careful,” I called over my shoulder. “You wouldn’t want to slip in the shower.”

The other foxes must be nose blind because they helped him up. Not a single fox in my cell had tried to sniff out my secret. How curious. I stepped into the nasty shower and desperately wanted my commissary to buy some flip-flops for the shower. A girl took the showerhead next to me.

“We’re all dying to know,” she said, scrubbing her hair.

“Know what?”

“Why you’re slumming it with a gargoyle and a sphinx instead of us. You aren’t even on work duty with us.”

Hauser prepared me for this. I could do this. He taught me everything he knew about fox shifters.

“Don’t you think it’s weird hanging out with an entire group of foxes that aren’t your skulk?”

“It totally is, but what else can you do in prison? I’m Candra, by the way.”

“Rei.”

“Oh, we all know by now. You seriously pissed off the witches. I know the real reason you’re all up with the gargoyle and the sphinx.”

Oh, shit.

“Yeah?”

“They get yard time with the foxes since they can’t put them anywhere else. I’ve seen them naked. To say it’s fucking impressive is an understatement. I’d get me some of that too.”

Oh, gods. Now I would never be able to look at them without wondering about what they looked like naked. I couldn’t say I hadn’t already thought about that when I couldn’t sleep in my cell, but Candra just confirmed it.

“I haven’t actually got any yet. How is