Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Maybe I’m not a bad girl…maybe I’m just a fool for believing the prison warden would ever have real feelings for me.
The shouts of the men outside grow louder. They bang on their doors, slam against the walls, and howl obscenities that beat against my ears like fists.
I curl up into a ball, trying to block it all out as panic rises within me.
I am a fool. I let myself hope. Here, in this hell. What was I thinking? My mom hates me, the judge never believed me, and Killian…he’s just out for himself.
This is my life now. A hopeless cement and steel cage. With a whole year to go and no one to protect me, I’ll be lucky to make it out alive.
“Shut up!” I scream, my words burning out of my throat. “Shut up!”
And like that, the men’s voices stop. I raise my head. Did the universe just glitch or something?
But then I hear them. Killian’s footsteps, walking calmly and steadfastly down the hall toward me.
Hope blazes within me, but a wall also rises. Can I still trust this man? Should I? It pains me to even think these things, but what am I supposed to do?
Since I arrived, I’ve been torn in different directions by Killian. And just when I thought I’d found solid ground, my anchor, I was whisked away again and left on my own.
And the things those guards said…
I shouldn’t believe them, but I’m floundering. Drowning. I don’t know what to do.
The lock to my cell twists, a cold metallic sound, followed by the hinges creaking as the door swings open.
It’s him. Killian. Suited and handsome as ever as he looks down at me.
Part of me wants to throw myself into his arms. Another part of me wants to cry. Instead, I do the only thing I can do. Nothing.
I stare up at the man who claimed me, waiting for him to act.
Will this be the nice, caring, gentle Killian? Or the cruel, cold, punishing warden?
“Why aren’t you in the infirmary like I specified?” His voice is flat. Not quite as frightening as the day I met him, but not warm either.
“I…I don’t know…” I shake my head, my eyes falling to the floor. He steps closer, the sound of his boots ringing out against the concrete floor. When he stops before me, I can feel the heat from his body. I can smell him. And my senses go wild.
It’s getting harder and harder not to throw myself into his arms.
“Alice,” he says, his voice low as he kneels down beside me. It’s warmer now. Quiet. “Tell me what happened.”
Finally, I find the courage to look up, and when I do, I see something in his eyes…
Concern? Is that real concern?
It can’t be. I’m just a toy to him. Replaceable. Once my sentence is over, he’ll find himself a new girl.
“Why? Do you even care?” I ask. The sound of him cracking his knuckles causes me to curl tighter. I pull my knees to my chest and avoid his gaze entirely.
“How can you ask me that, Alice? You know I care. What happened?”
I can feel them. His words burrowing into me with such tenderness that I want to accept them.
“A man…” I whimper. “He took me here.”
“What man?”
“I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head. “The things he said, Killian…they were just…so awful.”
With such tenderness, he takes my wrist and runs his thumb across the skin, lighting me up inside. There it is again. That soft touch you’d never expect from a man like him.
“Tell me, Alice,” he whispers. “What did he say?”
A sob chokes in my throat as I replay the guard’s words in my mind. The poison returns, like a hole in my chest, I swallow hard and breathe deeply. “He said I meant nothing to you…that you’d replace me—”
“Nonsense!” His voice snaps, but his tone is defensive, not angry. Threading his fingers through my hair, he pulls my face to his. “Alice, you are irreplaceable. Do you understand?”
My heart trembles.
The change in his voice. Could it be? He barked at me from the door to keep up appearances, but now that we’re close, he can show his true feelings.
“Killian—”
“I know you’re innocent, Alice. You were set up, and it was all a ploy to get to me. To ruin me.”
I’m starting to shake now, allowing myself to hope. “But why would anyone want to ruin you?”
“The old warden wants his job back,” Killian growls. “He’s a scumbag and a liar and a criminal, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it, including getting your old boss, Jamie Foxgrin, to lie about you.”
“What!?” My hands clench together.
“Look,” he says, pulling out his phone. My stomach twists when he shows me a photo of Jamie with some man I don’t recognize. “That is Brian Gumble, the man who had you sent to Last Rites instead of a women’s prison.”