Page 16 of Rat

Rory tried to force down the lump in his throat. “He’s bluffing.”

Teddy made a short, sharp sound. Both Rory and Ollie looked over at his table, once Teddy knew he had their attention, he shook his head in a firm contradiction to Rory’s statement.

“I’ll…I’ll stay out of his way,” Rory murmured.

Ollie wrinkled his nose. “For the next eight years?”

“For all we know, he gets out in months.”

“He’s three years into a life sentence,” Ollie murmured.

Teddy tapped his finger on the table to get Rory’s attention, then flicked his gaze in the direction of Sebastian. Rory looked, then quickly looked away.

“He hates me.”

Teddy shrugged.

“He might be the lesser of two evils,” Ollie mumbled. “Get him onside.”

“I don’t know how. He scares the shit out of me.”

Teddy snorted, then he smiled at Ollie. Ollie grinned back and lowered his gaze.

“Win him over,” Ollie suggested.

“How?”

“Spend time with him outside your cell. Go over there right now.”

Teddy slapped his palm on the table and sternly shook his head. His eyes were unblinking as he glared their way.

“Or not,” Ollie muttered. “All I’m saying is, Sebastian clearly has some kind of power on this wing.”

Teddy nodded as he pointed his fork at Ollie.

“Get him onside, and you’ll have his protection. Pauly won’t touch you.”

Teddy dropped his fork so he could clap at Ollie’s idea. Ollie beamed, pleased with himself.

“Yeah, but how do I do that?” Rory asked.

He’d been trying for the past six days to find common ground, but he was getting nothing back from Sebastian, unless death glares and savage snarls counted as progress.

Ollie sighed. “No idea.”

“Well, I’m all ears when you think of something.”

The bell sounded for yard time, and the inmates queued at the gate. Rory sighed and took his unfinished lunch to the front to scrape into the bin, but Teddy cut in front of him and emptied his tray first. Others pushed in front of Rory too, and he sighed as he finally got to the front.

Ollie and Teddy stood next to each other near the front of the line going outside, but Rory didn’t dare try to join them. He took a space at the back, which soon became the middle.

They walked in single file down the corridor, then they suddenly stopped, and Rory narrowly avoided bumping into the man in front.

“Oi, newbie,” one of the inmates ahead shouted. “Rory, is it?”

Rory didn’t get a chance to answer—

“You left your mug on the table. This isn’t the damn Ritz. We don’t have table service, clean up after yourself.”

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