Dipping my head down, I pretended to root through the clothes in the dirty laundry basket as a guard walked overhead. As their footsteps disappeared, I ducked into the shadows, letting them cloak my bulk and keep me out of sight of the guards. A small part of me rejoiced at the darkness, just as it always had.
I’d discovered this small corner years ago. It was near the huge industrial washing machines and dryers and couldn’t be seen from the platforms above. Besides, it was so dark and steamy in the laundry room, I didn’t think the guards ever saw much of it from above. The atmosphere probably steamed up their visors. I grinned at the thought. They never paid much attention to the space, not unless there were the sounds of a fight...which I’d forbidden in here; I liked to keep their attention away from this hidden corner.
I peered at the wall hoping to find the power outlet to the huge machines. It was my guide. I’d only seen what I was looking for once before, and that had been years ago, dismissing it then as being of no use.
Kawan dipped in beside me and regarded the industrial powerpoint skeptically.
“That amount of power will blow it up. And the socket’s sealed anyway. How are we going to wire this laptop into that power source without killing ourselves?”
“We’re not.” I ran my fingers down the wall right to floor level and reached into the small space behind the washers until my fingers hit the metal of the other power socket I sought. My heart banged against my ribs and I grinned widely. “Pass me that power cable.” I peered up, making sure no guards were near.
Kawan quickly did as I asked.
Fumbling with the plug, I cursed. My hand was twisted at an awkward angle, and I had no hope in hell of seeing what I was aiming for. All I could do was move the metal prongs over the socket until it slid into place. Finally it slid right in. “There.” I sat back, panting, and gave Kawan a wide grin.
His eyes widened. “What? You’re shitting me? There’s a socket down there?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. I found it years ago, but ignored it. It served no purpose until now. The other laundry rooms have one, too. They must be a throwback to some old machines they had that weren’t wired into a sealed unit, or perhaps from when they built this place. Who knows? The thing is, it wouldn’t help us with anything…normally.” I grinned and out of sight of the guards, rummaged in the laundry cart. My fingers gripped the smooth metal of the laptop and I pulled it out, careful not to let it slip from my grip. “But now it will.”
“You hope,” said Kawan, eying the computer with doubt. “What are you hoping to do with that anyway?”
I shook my head. “You know better than to ask questions like that.”
“I suppose.” But his smooth brow furrowed.
“Don’t worry, brother. You’ll know everything you need to, when you need to. But, you also know the drill; the fewer people who know what’s happening the better. The warden is very persuasive when he wants to be.”
Kawan rubbed his face. “Yeah, he is. Right, well, I’m on Ember watch now, so I’m off. Hey, didn’t you ask Stone to watch Ember this morning?”
I frowned. “I did, why?”
Kawan frowned too. “No reason. I just wondered.”
My stomach flipped. He was covering for Stone.
“Why? Was she on her own?”
“No, boss, the lion was with her, and Rawson. Stone must have been called away to deal with something.”
I grunted. “Yeah, probably.” I’d find out later exactly why Stone had ignored my orders and left my mate’s side. The half-fae had always been difficult to control, but I didn’t question his loyalty to me, not at all. It was just that his thought processes were definitely arse about face sometimes, probably because he was more than a little bit fae in his outlook on right and wrong. He’d do something morally questionable and be able to justify it convincingly, a classic wrong thing for the right reasons, guy. Then again, I scoffed at myself, isn’t that what we all did in here? I was the last person to judge anyone’s morals. I’d left mine in the outside world until Ember had reappeared. She was a burning light in the darkness of my current life.