Page 3 of Butterfly

Ollie had come into the prison with him.

HeknewCaptain.

But for a terrible moment, he wondered whether Captain was about to tell him it was all a lie too, that Captain wasn’t who he thought he was either.

Ollie stiffened, and Teddy reacted.

He swung his leg over Ollie’s thighs, tightened his arm around Ollie’s middle and made a rumbling sound from his throat.

It was a warning, and Captain understood.

He stayed in the doorway.

Captain glanced down at his tightly folded arms, seemed to recognise his default pose could be perceived as threatening, then dropped them by his sides.

“I know you’re upset—”

“Of course I’m upset,” Ollie blurted. “Aren’t you?”

Captain hesitated, mouth flapping for a moment, then he recovered. “In some ways, yes, but in others…I understand.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“He wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

“But he did.”

Teddy adjusted his grip on Ollie with both his leg and arm, drawing him impossibly closer. Ollie twisted to look at him, breath hitching at the anger Teddy directed at Captain, as if he was the one to have upset Ollie.

Teddy didn’t know what had happened, but he’d taken Ollie’s side, clutching him tightly while threatening a violent death to Captain if he dared encroach on their personal space.

But it wasn’t Captain’s fault.

“It’s Rory,” Ollie mumbled.

When Ollie had arrived nine months ago, he came in with two other people. Captain Benjamin Tracy, the ex-army captain with nightmares that terrified the whole wing, and Rory Price, chess-obsessed, kindred spirit, whom Ollie had confided in on more than one occasion.

Teddy’s hard eyes softened upon meeting Ollie’s.

“He wasn’t who we thought he was,” Ollie continued. “He’s a police officer. He was here to spy on Sebastian Claw. He used me and Captain as his cover when he came here. He’s been using us the whole time.” A jagged lump scratched Ollie’s throat when he tried to swallow. “I thought he cared about me. I thought we were friends.”

“He does care about you,” Captain argued. “And you are friends.”

“He made me believe we’d go through this together, the whole time knowing he would walk out of here when Sebastian got released.”

“He had to—”

“He didn’t have to do that. He could’ve… He could’ve pushed me away.”

Ollie frowned, remembering the times Rory had tried to push him onto other inmates, Green and Jack in particular.

“You still have me,” Captain said.

“I know, but…you’ll only be with me for half my sentence.”

Teddy squeezed Ollie tight, eyes wild as he searched Ollie’s face for something. His expression pleaded; it begged. There was a desperation to it in the way his eyebrows twitched and his forehead contorted.

“I’ve got you,” Ollie whispered. “I know I have.”

---