Page 22 of Son of a Witch

Loco’s expression changed from proud to deadly. He gripped the collar of my shirt, jerking me to his face, baring his teeth. “Never show them the extent of your power.” He tightened his grasp on my collar. “You hear me? That’ll get you locked up faster than you can fart.”

I brushed him off me. “Why? What happened to you?”

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he glanced around, the first time I’d ever seen him nervous. “I’m the only one with the power to break out of here. The power to kill every single person in this place. I’m a threat. Vartros had me locked up after … an incident.”

I gulped the lump stuck in my throat. “Anything like the incident where you saved Knoxe and me?”

“An incident where a few inmates tried to goad me to use my power to help them escape,” he whispered. “They killed a man in front of me and blamed it on me, put me on the warden’s radar and under the nose of every gangster in here. Everyone came at me for not getting them out. Ever since then, I stoppedbeingBrian, andbecameLoco.”

Fuck, that was horrible. This place killed a person inside. Broke them. Destroyed their personality. Fused you into someone else. Colder. Harder. Murderous.

“To survive in this place,” he went on, turning my blood to ice at what lay ahead for me. “I had to turn into a monster, scare the shit out of people, so that no one ever fucked with me again. Those bastards got me locked up. Prevented me from visiting my family every month.”

“I’m sorry they went after you,” I whispered, not sure what else to say to ease the pain sparking in my blood at the men that stole my father away from me and my family.

“Is what it is.” He shrugged, vengeful fire raging in his eyes. “I killed every single one of the bastards.”

Fuck. Don’t mess with my dad. Loco. Whatever.

That same penchant for fury and revenge twisted in me. I wanted to hurt Devon and Edwardo for terrorizing me and attempting to gang rape me. For stabbing my men. For taking out the green light on my team and putting us through months of hell. For the nightmares that invaded my dreams.

Knoxe wandered back into Cell Ward A after disappearing to chat with Tor. He flashed me a concerned smile, which I interpreted as him asking if I needed an out from Loco. I waved him away.

Loco eyed off my lover with a displeased glare. “Be careful of that one.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not as loyal as you think.”

What the fuck did that mean? Were we really having this conversation? The one where my dad warned me about my boyfriends? Because I didn’t think he’d earned that right to do so by being absent so long and not knowing the woman I’d grown into. Not his fault, but still.

“Knoxe fights with everything he has to get us out of here,” I snarled.

“He also fights to keep you in here.” Loco’s words, like ground stone, made every joint burn as if they were crushed under a mortar and pestle.

“What?” I stared, unblinking at him.

“Somebody screwed with your appeal paperwork, right?”

That was an assumption. He had no proof.

Fuck my dad.Fuck his bullshit games. Fuck him trying to come between me and my men. Asshole was playing games because he was bored and wanted to have fun. Went a little mad from being locked up for too long. The real reason they called him Loco. That, and he was a psycho.

CHAPTER8

Astra

Avoiding him was hopeless.Loco seemed to follow me everywhere. He glanced over his shoulder at me from his position ahead of us in the queue. Bastard had the nerve to grin at me after the shit that twisted sicko had pulled to create dissent between Knoxe and me. I ducked my head and gripped Tor’s wheelchair handles tighter.

Phone privilege time for the week had rolled around, and the ten or so prisoners left in Cell Ward A lined up and waited for their allocated phone booth. Loco had made a point to stand beside me and Tor even though I didn’t want him anywhere near me, and that included on my team. The man didn’t know the meaning of giving me space to sort out how I felt about all this.

I moved Tor behind him to make a point. Didn’t need another problem mounted on top of the rest. Dealing with the loss of Raze, the fall-out of the vampires breaking out, Tor’s accident, and Pascal beating himself up. I couldn’t put off havingthe chatwith Loco forever but right now, forever didn’t seem long enough.

Tor lifted his hand to rub mine, a soothing gesture he hadn’t done in almost a week. “Did you hear they granted us twenty-minute phone calls because there’s less prisoners?”

Tor would know. He talked to all the guards. Kept an ear out for anything going down. Raids on prisoner’s quarters for inspections. Games nights to bribe the guards. Gossip that he could use for any purpose. Whatever went on around this place, Tor was the one in the know, collecting secrets and rumors for later use.

Pity that gossip failed him when they raided his contraband and confiscated it. Vartros had really cracked down on the bribes from prisoners to guards.

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