Page 27 of Okay, I Regret a Little
Chapter 21
Rei
I
was back at the mess hall, and they hadn’t thrown that peanut butter pie our way again in ages. Since they didn’t serve lunch here, everyone loaded up on food for dinner. So did I, even if Faust had been bringing me lunch. Yeah, I was kind of a pig, and prison made me hungry. I was such a stress eater, even if the food here was terrible.
“Guys, be careful. I think Faust is onto you.”
It felt so strange betraying Faust to them, but I wanted to keep them safe. I didn’t think he would kill them, but I also knew his wolf could snap if he got jealous. I also didn’t need him ruining our plans to get out of here. I planned to call him when I was out and try to make it up to him when I got out of here. I didn’t want to leave anyone behind when I ran, but Faust might not want to come. I wanted to give him the option, but I didn’t want him to have to make a tough decision.
Dakarys just shrugged.
“He won’t find anything unless he comes to the mailroom. His attention is divided right now because of the witches. Faust won’t catch us. We’ll be gone by then. The ingredients will be here in just about a week.”
Just then, Wren snuck into the mailroom. We had been inhaling our food so we could get here and talk. Wren had to stay with the witches until the last minute but somehow still made it.
“Venus is getting out in a week. I’m going to kill her.”
Rajack sighed. We needed Wren, but we didn’t need her blowing this.
“You can’t kill her, Wren. If she dies, we’ll go on lockdown. They’ll toss the cells, and they might find our ingredients. We can’t risk it.”
Wren’s eyes blazed. Something happened while we were all at work. I didn’t care how prickly she was. I walked over and pulled her into a hug. She was shaking she was so angry.
“What happened, Wren?”
It surprised me when she hugged me back and sighed. Wren was angry, but she was also upset. I knew this was prison, and she had a reputation to uphold, but had anyone even touched her or tried to comfort her since Astrid?
“Venus is pimping out the witches. She has them fucking Brody. It’s how she intends to take over the black market.”
Rajack and Dakarys just scoffed.
“Fucking Brody? Not only is he totally inept, but the guards are also searched before they come in. He’s not going to be able to do most of the items we can and nowhere near our volume.”
Wren was almost my size, but she was slightly taller. She wasn’t letting go. She tightened her arms around my waist and rested her cheek on my head. This was nice. I liked this. It felt like I hadn’t been touched since I got arrested.
“She intends to kill Rei when she gets out, and then she’s coming for you two when she’s done with that. I want her dead.”
“If she comes near me, I’ll use that new electricity thing and kill her. It’ll look like an accident. No one knows about me except Faust, and he gets it.”
“I can’t believe we are trusting fucking Faust,” Dakarys muttered.
“No one makes a move on Venus unless it’s self-defense. We can’t call attention to ourselves until we are out of here. We don’t need anyone sniffing around. Faust can watch us all day on the cameras, and he won’t figure out what we are up to. We just need to last a week, and then we are gone,” Rajack said.
Wren pulled away, and she looked a little disturbed.
“I get it. I do. I don’t like the witches here, but they don’t deserve this. I was planning on killing them anyway, but you just don’t fuck guards.”
“What if we spread a rumor Venus was pimping out her witches and had them kill Astrid?” I asked. “Wouldn’t the whole prison turn on her? She can’t come at us if she’s worried about the entire prison.”
“Yeah, but how? If it comes from me, they will think it’s sour grapes. Everyone knows Rei and the witches have a beef. It can’t come from Dakarys or Rajack because right now, no one has a problem with them except the witches.”
I had an idea, but I didn’t know if it would work. I didn’t know the first thing about these handcuffs. All I knew was that mine were keyed wrong, and I still had my magic.
“Could you get around the handcuffs if you channeled me? Like, put a curse on them, so the information comes from the witches themselves? It wouldn’t tie back to any of us. Maybe just get them to brag about it a little loudly so that people can hear. It might also solve our riot problem so I can get Brody’s keys.”
Wren beamed and gave me a quick kiss on the mouth.
“I love it. We can definitely try when we get back to our cell.”
“Hold up,” Rajack said. “How come Wren gets to kiss Rei?”
Wren just pulled away and smirked. I could tell she was about to say something sarcastic, but the bell rang for us to get back to our cells.
I hated that damned bell, but it saved me this time.
