The Prison Project (by Bethany Donaghy) novel Chapter 216

Coban’s POV

We’d done it.

A full week.

No blowouts, no fights, no chaos ripping through everything we were trying to build this time.

Just… us… Margot and I… surviving together.

I was slightly proud, because I’d meant every second of it. I’d kept my temper in check. Kept my focus where it needed to be.

On her.

On Margot.

On making us work.

Proving to her and showing her that I wasn’t just all talk.

That when I said I wanted this… wanted her… I meant it… and fuck, so far… it had all been worth it.

Every night.

Every touch.

Every time she’d looked at me like she actually trusted me with her life again…

That alone had been enough to keep me in line.

That was…

Until today.

Because today? Something bad had happened.

Something was off.

I could feel it the second they ripped her out of my cell this morning.

Too fast.

Too rough.

Too fucking wrong – everything!

“Shit feels different today…” Leo muttered, pacing the yard like a caged animal.

And I didn’t blame him for being antsy. The place was packed to the brim now. Every single inmate shoved out here at once, the tension thick enough to choke on….

This had never happened before. Not like this. Usually after an incident, we’d be on lock down in our cells… not forced to stand out in the yard for endless minutes…

I sat back on one of the low benches, cigarette hanging between my fingers as I kept my eyes forward toward the walls, toward the towers.

Anywhere but where the guards were.

Because if one of them came near me right now? Even attempted to tell me to quit smoking? I wouldn’t be responsible for what happened to him next.

I dragged in a slow breath of smoke, letting it burn my lungs – grounding me.

But only barely.

“So you think one of the girls is actually dead?” Leo said, stopping in front of me now, his voice lower – but holding an edge.

I didn’t answer straight away.

Didn’t want to.

Because hearing it out loud?

Made it feel more real.

I exhaled slowly. “That’s what they’re saying so far,” I muttered.

Rumours had already started flying around all morning. Whispers being passed between inmates out here. Fragments of panic sparking amongst the men.

A girl…

Dead.

Brutal and currently unclear of how or why….

Unclear of who done it…

And that alone? That was enough to put every single man here on edge… because who had crossed that line? Who was trying to fuck this project up for the rest of us?

“Why would they pull all the girls out like that over one incident?” Leo pushed, running a hand through his hair. “And why the fuck are we all being held out here like this?”

He gestured around us to the crowded yard.

The inmates.

The guards.

The growing lump of tension between everyone…

“I don’t get it.” Leo mutters agitated.

“I don’t know,” I said, flicking ash to the ground. “We just need to wait it out.”

But even as I said it, I knew myself that something wasn’t adding up…

Because they didn’t panic like this over nothing. Not these people. Not the suits. Not the guards.

They controlled everything swiftly and seamlessly – I knew that first hand – since they’d even used me to help them do it!

But this? This was a real breakdown of control…

Today…

They were scrambling.

My jaw tightened as my thoughts dragged back to this morning. Back to Margot.

The look on her face when they’d come barging in to our cell. The confusion and the instant fear behind her eyes as she forced her to dress quickly.

And then the way they’d grabbed her to take her out – hands too rough. Too careless. Like she was just another prisoner to move.

That alone had pushed me over the edge and I’d stepped forward without thinking – dropping one of the guards on to the floor with one punch, before three of them were quickly on me – restraining me.

“You put your hands on her like that again and I’ll fucking break them,” I’d yelled, and I’d meant it too.

Every fucking word… and rest assured I’d remember that damn guards face…

His time with me will come.

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