Page 4 of Okay, I Regret a Little
Chapter 4
Rei
I
was going insane. All I knew was that Venus carried out a hit on Astrid from medical, and they’d tossed my fucking cell three times now. I didn’t want to sit on the nasty floor, so I kept putting my bed back together. Every time my back hit the thin mattress and I started getting comfortable, they were back throwing it on the floor. It should be clear by now I didn’t have a shiv in the mattress, but try telling the guards that.
The awful fluorescent lights never got turned off, and they still hadn’t brought us anything to eat. I was desperate to get to Dakarys and Rajack. They knew Astrid way better than I did. I knew their friendship was more profound than just needing her for their escape plan.
And what about Wren? I had this feeling Wren hated my guts. I hardly knew her, but I knew one thing: she was utterly devoted to Astrid. Faust said it was just Astrid. Where was Wren? I knew she was playing both sides. She would have stopped this if she knew. If she were back in her cell block, all the guards would be there because there would be more dead bodies. I hardly knew Wren, but I knew she was who Astrid sent when someone needed to die.
Faust hadn’t been back since he told me it was Astrid. I missed that fucking wolf. As mean as he had been to me when we first met, I wasn’t sure why I needed to see his face so badly. It was more than just him being this big bad trained assassin and a guard in here. He went out of his way to break the rules for me. He brought me a cupcake for my birthday and let me call Hauser. Maybe I liked him just a little.
Faust finally showed his face again, and Wren was with him. It looked like she had taken a beating, and there were burn marks on her prison jumpsuit. That wasn’t from witches. One of the guards had gone a little crazy with the shock baton. But what was Wren doing with the foxes?
Faust led Wren to my cell and unlocked the chains from her wrists and feet.
“Meet your new cellmate,” he grunted.
“She looks like she needs to be in medical.”
Whisper led the foxes here. Her cell was right across from mine. We were all locked in, but I think we all had questions. I could kind of understand what Wren was doing away from the witches, but not what she was doing in my cell. Wren had been pretty vocal about blaming me for the divide with the witches. She could stick a fucking toothbrush in my gut while I was sleeping, even though Venus was the one that ordered the hit and her sister witches carried out the deed.
“What the fuck is a witch doing in here?” Whisper demanded. She realized who she was speaking to and cleared her throat. “Sorry, sir. This block is for foxes only.”
“This block is for whoever the fuck I want to put here,” Faust snarled. “A witch just died. Show some fucking respect.”
All the foxes let out a little whine and slunk back to their beds. They seemed to accept Wren was going to be staying here, but I had a million questions. I had tried asking Faust for shit before he decided he wanted to play nice. Faust didn’t give out favors here unless he wanted to. If Wren had requested to move into my cell because she wanted to kill me, he would have told her no. Unless this was his idea. What game was Faust playing?
Wren joined me in my cell, and Faust stalked off. I didn’t bother making up the second bed, so the mattress was on the floor. She just sat on mine and pat the mattress like she wanted me to join her.
“Faust searched you for weapons, right?”
Wren tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder.
“I’m not dumb enough to get caught with one on me. I just got out of solitary. Sit, now. You owe me that.”
Faust kept saying he was going to protect me. I believed him. I was going to trust him with my big secret, but the alarm went off right before I could. I was a massive believer in omens and signs. It meant something that someone murdered Astrid directly before I could tell Faust; I could feel it in my gut. I knew I could trust him, but that was a big fucking sign I couldn’t ignore.
And I wasn’t going anywhere near Wren. Especially not when she was smirking at me like that through her busted mouth.
“Relax, fox. I’m not here to kill you. I’m not unreasonable. Astrid’s death was all Venus and not your fault. The walls have ears around here, so get your ass close. I won’t bite. You’re going to need all the help you can get, princess.”
Did Faust rope Wren into helping me? Why in the world did she agree? What did she get out of it? Honestly, I could use all the help I could get because I now had every witch in here gunning for my blood. I joined Wren on my cot.
“Your cunt must leak glitter and rainbows if Dakarys, Rajack,andfucking Faust are off their asses trying to protect you.”
“Why areyouhere?”
Wren just shrugged.
“Everyone has their little mythologies about Faust, but I’ve always known what he is. I was in the same profession before I got arrested. He came to me in solitary and proposed a little alliance. I accepted. It’s not just you they are after now. Venus thinks I’m on her side, but the other people in my coven don’t totally trust me, or I could have stopped this. They made sure I wasn’t there when it happened. It’s an even trade. I help Faust protect you, and he helps me get my revenge.”
I sighed.
“This is so fucked up. It’s not just me anymore. Venus had no reason to go after Astrid. They paid her to take me out.”
“You’d better start explaining things because I lost an excellent friend.”
