High Octane Heroes (24 page)

He couldn’t think about that now and not go nuts. He had to keep calm. Had to get to her. As he at last entered the third tier of the barracks, he flicked off his flashlight and felt for the iron bars atop the stairs and followed them, jostling past prisoners moving in the darkness.

Two more flights down, she’d be there. Waiting in the darkness. If he was lucky the skinheads had gotten to her first. They’d stepped in a couple of times to prevent assaults, having decided Officer Hurly was “good people.”

Relying on a lifer wasn’t Danny’s idea of the optimal situation, but an officer caught in the midst of a melee didn’t have many choices. Hiding in the darkness, her back against a wall,
hoping no one heard her breathe or noted where she was when the lights went out…

Danny drew a deep breath to calm his heart and barreled down the last of the iron stairs.

 

The moment the lights flickered out, Jenna darted to the left, through the last “hole” between prisoners where she’d been patrolling, keeping an eye on the restless bunch.

Her radio squawked. “Grayson, meet me at the North Tower!”

Thank god. Danny was on his way. She reached for her radio and turned it off. The sound would pinpoint her location to those around her. Then she slipped her cuffs from her back pocket, slid one manacle around her wrist and gripped the other like brass knuckles. Just in case she had to fight her way through.

Already she heard hard thuds, no doubt the sound of battery packs wrapped in socks hitting flesh. Soon after, the slick sounds of an illicit tryst came from beside her, but she stilled her breaths, held out her hands and moved as quickly as she could, her metal cuff and pepper-spray can held at the ready in case she found trouble.

“Red,” a husky whisper sounded beside her, using the nickname the prisoners had given her, but never dared say to her face. She was Officer Hurly to them all.

But she recognized the voice of the whisperer. For a second, she felt relief, but then she remembered the crime Prisoner Draper had committed. Murder. Of three gang rivals. With his bare hands.

She remained silent and still.

“Red,” he said a little louder. “Gotta trust me on this, ma’am.”

And because she was already turned around in the dark, afraid she hadn’t moved fast enough or that someone else would find her, she answered. “Draper, I’m here.”

In the inky dark she felt a hand clamp around her wrist. She shook her arm.

“It’s me.” The whisper came beside her ear. “Coats and Benny are with me. Where you headed?”

She drew a deep breath. If she told them, and they were using her for bait, Danny would be in danger too.

“Where to?” came the gruff whisper. “This lasts too long we’ll all be in a world of hurt.”

“Showers,” she whispered back, biting her lip and hoping she wasn’t making the worst mistake of her life.

He pulled on her arm, urging her forward, swiftly, jumbling past bodies beginning to bunch around them. More sickening thuds followed them, but Draper wasn’t deterred. In seconds, the sounds around them were more hollow. She reached out a hand and felt cool tile.

“Stand here. We’ll keep you safe.”

It was a crazy upside-down world. A guard needing to be guarded. There in the dark. Vulnerable in a way she’d prepared for, but never really experienced. Day-to-day working in a prison was fraught with dangers, but this was something darker. Something monstrous.

But for the moment, she felt relief. She firmed her grip on her pepper spray and cuff, spread her feet, prepared to fight and listened for sounds that might indicate others had found them.

After what seemed an hour but could only have been minutes, she heard more shuffling steps entering the shower. Strained whispers. A hand reached out and touched her shoulder, her hair.

She tensed, ready to swing.

“Jenn, it’s me.”

She sprang forward into Danny Crispin’s strong arms.

“I’ll take lead,” said Draper, his tone harder. He’d never hidden his hatred of the male officers. Likely wished he could have a go at Danny. “You follow,” he rasped. “Coats and Benny, take the rear.”

Danny shoved her behind him. “Hold onto my shirt. Whatever happens, don’t let go.”

They made their way slowly out of the shower. Lights flickered around them. Prisoners not using their battery packs as weapons had begun to fashion makeshift flashlights. They were on the hunt. For her, she knew it deep in her bones.

Keeping to the side of the wall, her band of protectors moved out of the showers, toward the first tier’s steps. Then they climbed, the sounds of Draper cursing and threatening filling the air as he pushed through the men milling on the steps. Once on the first deck, they rushed toward the stairs at the far end, running now because hollow stomps trailed behind them.

Jenna concentrated on holding onto Danny’s shirt, afraid she’d trip and they’d be trapped or pushed through the wide bars to the concrete floor below.

Sharp slaps and thuds surrounded them. Fights and sex. She could picture it, but still couldn’t see. She kept silent until a beam of light flashed in her eyes, and the whispers surrounding her grew to satisfied laughter and shouts.

Then the eerie catcalls began. “Hey, Red! Where are you sexy?” Followed by smacking sounds, like wet air kisses.

She shivered in revulsion.

They were nearer now. But her strange band of protectors were on the third tier now, heading toward the fire-safe stairwell. Almost there.

Something slammed into Danny, and he jolted sideways.
Her grip on his shirt loosened. A hand wrapped around her hair and pulled her away. She kicked and slugged at the man holding her. Then there was darkness again, more shoves, and the fingers wound into her hair tugged free. She got to her knees and crawled forward, toward the door.

Behind her, something solid bounced against her buttocks. A hand grabbed for her belt, lifting her to her feet. She swung around, but a beefy arm encircled her waist.

“It’s me,” Danny said loudly, because now the sounds of an all-out brawl filled the upper deck.

A flashlight shone. The door was just in reach. Danny thrust in the key, turned the lock, and they darted through the door, leaving the battle raging among prisoners behind them.

Danny locked the door then tossed down the flashlight and reached for Jenna. He slid to his ass on the floor, there in the stairwell, his back against the cell-block door. His hands roamed her body, seeking injuries. But he found none. She shivered inside his embrace.

“See why I don’t want you here?” he rasped.

“Goes both ways,” she whispered harshly, her breaths slowing as she wrapped herself around him. She straddled his hips, bracketed his face between her hands and kissed him hard. “I’m okay. We’re both okay. Draper and his buddies had my back.”

Danny cussed. “It just as easily could have gone another way. You’d have been at their mercy.”

Her feminine huff blew against the side of his neck. “I’m not a hug-a-thug. I know how bad it could have been, but I had to put my trust in someone.”

His arms tightened. “I should have been there.”

“You had a job, just like me. We’ve trained for this kind of event. It all worked out.”

Anger spiked inside him, heating his face. “Fuckin’ hell, Jenn. Fuck the job.” Why was she so damn stubborn? There were other jobs in the prison system for chrissakes. He shook his head, biting his tongue to keep from railing at her. This was an old argument, one they had a couple of times a week. If being trapped in the dark with homicidal maniacs wasn’t enough to convince her she had no business working inside the prison, he didn’t know what would. His shoulders slumped. “I’ve never been so scared,” he whispered, tightening his arms around her.

Again, she snorted. “Scarier than two tours in Iraq?”

Scarier than any firefight he’d lived through when he’d been in the Marines. “Hell, yeah.”

Her lips stretched against his cheek.

“Think it’s funny?” he growled.

“No, I like that you were so worried.” She snuggled closer to his chest. “And I’m relieved as hell you got to me. But won’t the LT have your ass for leaving your post?”

“I put Grayson on rover. LT will just have to understand. A female on the floor is every male guard’s worst fear.”

She sighed. “Shouldn’t be that way. I’m just another officer.”

So she always said. And he’d never agree. A distant hum sounded. Lights flickered then brightened. Danny blinked against the harsh fluorescence filling the stairwell. “SRT will be suiting up.”

She nodded, sighing as she crawled off his lap. “Better go. You’ll be busy getting the prisoners back into their cells.”

“When shift’s over…”

She gave him a nod. “My place.”

Danny gave her a lopsided smile. “Don’t even think about entering the barracks again.”

She tilted her chin. “I’m not crazy.”

Reluctant to leave her, he turned her toward the corridor and the hub’s control booth. “Stick with McGee.”

He gave her ass a slap, and she aimed a glare over her shoulder, then walked with a sway that drew his gaze straight to her round, muscular bottom. Their conversation was far from over. Only talking wasn’t going to cut it. Maybe she needed a little dose of reality.

 

Even through the rattle of the spray hitting her glass shower door, Jenna heard the front door slam. Rinsing the last of the suds from her hair, she turned off the water and tugged her towel from over the edge of the door, wrapping it quickly around her body. By the sound of the heavy thuds of his boots, he was a man on a mission. She had no doubts what was on his mind.

What had been on everyone’s mind during the debrief at shift’s end. She’d felt the glances, saw the condemnation simmering in the male officers’ eyes. Despite the fact females had been serving inside the prison for years, she was a problem. Too pretty. Too slim. A distraction for the prisoners and officers alike.

Things she’d faced down before. No matter how she’d tried to minimize her attraction—no makeup, loose uniforms, her hair pulled into an unflattering, tight bun—she still stuck out like a sore thumb. Danny had to come to her rescue, and that put him in unnecessary danger because guards caught in the dark were supposed to hit a wall and wait. He’d traversed the entire barracks to get her out. Yet no one pointed a finger at him for breaking protocol. They all understood the need.

More than once the LT and the major had offered her easier duty, inside the infirmary or permanently manning a hub’s control, but she’d refused, wanting to prove herself. Not
because her sole ambition was to be the best corrections office she could be, but because a successful stint there would make her application to the police academy stand out among the other candidates.

Danny knew this. But he didn’t support her. Even before they’d begun to see each other, he’d been after her to quit or transfer. When she’d been assigned to his shift, under his command, he’d kept silent about their relationship because he’d been hell-bent on protecting her. Maybe it was time she asked for a transfer to another shift.

The thought left her cold. Because even though things had gone sideways tonight, she’d known he would get to her. No matter what. And that thought had kept her from panic. Not something she would ever let him know.

Her bathroom door slammed open. Still dressed in his uniform, his shoulders spanned the door frame. His short black hair skimmed the upper edge. His dark blue shirt, spattered with raindrops, reflected the stormy color of his eyes as he raked her with a glance. Anger simmered in the glance he gave her.

Her chin shot up. “No, hello darlin’?”

His hand shot out, grabbed her arm and yanked her against his chest. “Fight me.”

Her eyes widened. “What’s this about?”

He gave a sharp shake of his head. “Shut up. Fight me.”

She inserted her free hand between them and shoved at his chest. “Danny?”

“Think you could have fought Draper off if he’d been after you?” he said, his voice a deep, graveled growl.

She swallowed hard against a burning lump at the back of her throat. So that was what this was going to be. A lesson. Proof she wasn’t strong enough, mean enough to be on that barracks floor. “Stop this, right now.” She pushed again, but he
ducked down, shoved his shoulder against her abdomen, forcing her to crumple over him.

Then he was backing out the door, striding toward her bed. He shrugged his shoulder, and she tumbled to the mattress, her towel flying open.

Before she could roll over the side to escape, he was on her, his superior weight sinking her deep into the mattress. Covered shoulder to toe by his large body, she could barely breathe. “Danny.”

He shook his head again, a grim set to his tight square jaw. “This ends, Jenn. Tomorrow, you’re gonna accept that transfer. Work in the warden’s office, guard the nurse, whatever, but you won’t be on that goddamn floor.”

“You have no right to dictate to me.”

“Don’t I? Wasn’t my ass on the line tonight?”

“I didn’t ask—”

“You didn’t have to! Dammit, I love you!”

His shout reverberated in the room and had her jaw clamping shut. Bitter tears filled her eyes.

His eyes squeezed shut. Then before she could draw the next shattered breath, he rolled off her to sit at the edge of the bed, his back to her. His shoulders were slumped. “I can’t do this again.”

The softly spoken words cut through her more sharply than his shouts. Jenna sat up then crawled behind him. He jerked at the first tentative touch of her hand to his shoulder, but she moved closer, wrapping her other arm around his waist and leaning against him. “I’ll take the transfer to the infirmary,” she whispered.

“I don’t want the job to come between us.”

“Neither do I. And since this isn’t my life’s goal, I’ll bend. I love you, too.”