Page 19 of Pretty Cruel Love

7

DR. WEISS

Day Four

Subject: Extra Cabin Time

Dr. Weiss,

Allow me to be crystal fucking clear: No matter how many people you call—or how far above my authority you try to go—extra time will not be granted to your “experiment” just because the prison transport encountered travel difficulties.

Deal with it.

—Warden Burress

I have fifty binders of research to sift through, but I haven’t cracked open the first one. No matter how many alarms or mental countdowns I set, my mind can only focus on one setting: Sadie.

Giving in to the distraction, I log into the cabin’s internal surveillance system to check on her, along with fifteen other “live viewers.”

I select “Patient Bedroom,” and the screen fills with her image.

She’s fresh out of the shower, wrapped in a white towel that clings to her curves. Her skin glows under the low lighting as she sits at the edge of her bed, legs crossed, eyes fixed on our chessboard.

Tapping her lip, she reaches for a pawn on the far left side, but then she hesitates.

She narrows her eyes at the squares, sensing what I may be planning, and then she grabs a different pawn and slides it up two spaces.

Good girl…

My fingers hover over the keyboard, but my mind is elsewhere.

I imagine dragging that towel from her body, revealing the soft flesh underneath. I’d pin her against the glass wall and press her palms to the cold pane while I moved inside her—hard and slow—until she begs to surrender.

As I’m envisioning how her lips taste, she looks up from the game.

Right at the camera. Right at me.

Her cheeks flush red as if she can see me, and her lips part like she’s about to speak.

Fuck.I immediately log off.

“We have a problem, Dr. Weiss.” Robin appears at my desk, looking like she’s seen a ghost.

“A huge, will-ruin-everything kind of problem.”

“Robin…” I don’t move. “Please stop using your suspense-building-author lessons on me. Just say it.”

“A huge chunk of the staff is refusing to work this case with us,” she blurts out. “They’ve come down with mystery illnesses, taken paid leave, or straight-up refused to participate.”

I raise a brow. “Define ‘huge chunk.’”

“Everyone except you, me, Sheldon, and the nurses.”

Jesus.That’s over fifty people.

“Bet you wish I’d built up the suspense now, don’t you?”

I don’t answer. I knew this was coming the moment I named her as the next cabin subject.

---