He must have just missed them.
The roar in his ears faded to a dull ringing. Cold seeped over him as he thought of Nurse Davis in there with those two bastards. His cousin’s face flashed across his mind. All her youth, all her innocence, destroyed. In its place had been only a ravaged shell with soulless eyes.
Shaking his head, he faced his brother. “Fuck me up.”
“What?”
“Listen to me. I need you to hit me. Make sure you do some damage.”
“Fuck that. I’m not hitting you.”
He grabbed his brother by the shirt, gripping fistfuls of white fabric. “I need in that infirmary. Either you send me there or I pick a fight and let someone else fuck me up.”
North’s gaze drilled into him. “You’re serious?”
“Make it look good.” He released his shirt and backed up a step.
His brother studied him a moment longer, his eyes full of questions. Knox knew he wanted an explanation, but there wasn’t time. She was in there now. With them.
His brother trusted him enough to do as he asked. North also knew he would get someone else to give him a beating if he refused. If that happened, there was no telling what kind of injuries he could sustain.
“Do it,” Knox barked, his pulse throbbing wildly in his neck. “Make me bleed.”
North clenched his jaw with resolve. His dark eyes glinted, reading Knox’s urgency. “All right.” He shrugged and cocked back his arm. “What are brothers for?”
Knox braced himself for the blow, sorry his brother might get a brief stint in the hole for this, but there was no help for it.
He had to get to her in time.
EIGHT
THE MOMENT THE two new inmates arrived, unease bubbled like acid in the pit of Briar’s stomach. God. Working here was going to give her an ulcer. Would she never get used to it? Hopefully, they would find a full--time doctor soon and she wouldn’t have to.
Wiping a loose tendril of hair back from her forehead, Briar eyed the newcomers over the laptop where she worked as they entered the room with all the boisterousness of two -people arriving at a party. Like this wasn’t a prison. Like they weren’t inmates at all—-or sick, for that matter.
Her disquiet deepened as one of them leveled his gaze on her and elbowed his companion. As Murphy frisked them, they looked her over from across the room.
Finished searching them, Murphy returned to his chair. The wood legs creaked beneath his settling weight. Josiah motioned them to a set of beds nearest the door. They moved with all the swagger of young men who owned the world.
The skinny one with a ponytail talked to everyone in the room—-not just his companion. He called out to the guard. Josiah. The approaching doctor. Even Briar. He talked even if no one answered him back.
They were different than the others who came through here, who were mostly subdued because they were hurting or sick. They were hyped up almost like they were high. A definite possibility. There were drugs in prison. She’d watched enough prison movies and 48 Hours episodes to know that. But their eyes weren’t dilated. Simply wild and shifty. Like the raccoons her father used to catch for their pelts down by the creek. Sometimes she would sneak out before sunup and set them loose from their traps. Even though she was trying to help them, the animals had tried to take a chunk out of her hand on more than one occasion.
These guys made her feel that same sense of wariness.
Ponytail bounced on the bed lightly, testing it out as though it was a Holiday Inn and he was settling in for a long stay.
Josiah paused near her elbow.
“They hardly look sick,” she murmured.
“Well, they must be. The guards don’t bring them in here unless they show some signs of illness or injury.”
She nodded, still not entirely convinced and still keeping an eye on Ponytail. For some reason, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. It was like with Knox Callaghan . . . but different. Knox made her uncomfortable for different reasons. Reasons she hated to admit were wrapped up in his good looks and nonstop muscles. It was perverse of her, but nonetheless true. These guys simply creeped her out.
Dr. Walker settled on a stool between their two beds and began conversing with them in his low, calm voice.
Briar sighed and set her hands on the edge of the table, ready to push up and see if he needed assistance. No matter how uncomfortable it made her, this was her job and why she was here.
Josiah looked down at her and patted her shoulder. “Why don’t I take this one?”
She smiled up at him and eased back on her stool. “You know I’m growing to love you, right?”
He winked. “Just pay me with bagels tomorrow. I like strawberry cream cheese from the Bagel Stop in Sweet Hill.”