Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“Did we miss something?” he asked, knowing Bang Bang wouldn’t have the answer. “Where’s Aim—”
As if she rehearsed her entrance and wanted the timing to be perfect, Aimee knocked on the bars with her bully stick before he could finish his question, a half-cocked smile on her face. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, two tiny diamond studs glinting in her ears. She pressed the key card against the door and stood back.
Then pressed her key card again. And again.
Her thin brows inched together. She flipped the card around, tried again. It wasn’t working. She shrugged and muttered something under her breath before going for the set of keys on her hip, next to her pistol. As she was unlocking the door, a loud alarm blared, resembling the eerie sound of a tornado alarm.
Moments later, all hell broke loose. Literally.
The door slid open, along with every other cell door in the building. And the one next door. And in solitary confinement.
Suddenly, about a hundred inmates found themselves staring at an open door. And not a single one of them decided to stay put. They all ran out into the halls and into the cafeteria and common rooms. The sound was ear-splitting. All the shouting and howling and cursing. Fights immediately broke out, not just between corrections officers and prisoners but between long-standing rivals, fed by a bloodthirsty rush of adrenaline.
“Don’t fucking move,” Aimee said to Roman and Bang Bang after trying in vain to close the door herself. She pulled up her walkie and shouted for backup, running down the stairs to where three of her colleagues were cornered.
“We have to go,” Roman said. This was it. The moment they’d been waiting for. They dove headfirst into the chaos, using it as a shield. Many of the men were too interested in the sudden field trip they were given, walking through the halls as if they were looking through a museum, laughing and ripping papers off the walls. Some of them had found a stash of alcohol somewhere as they passed around two handles of vodka, guzzling it down like they were drinking Dasani.
“This way,” Roman said, grabbing Bang Bang’s elbow and leading him down a crammed hall. There was a group of men trying to get through a set of vault-like doors, the way out to the parking lot just on the other side. But whatever had unlocked the cell doors didn’t extend to the barriers that still kept the men locked inside the prison.
Good job, Salt.
Roman and Bang Bang ran into another cramped hallway. Officers were trying their best to get the prisoners back under control, but they were outnumbered about ten to one. For the most part, the prisoners seemed to be treating this like a fun field trip day, no one getting extremely violent.
Yet.
They moved on, going by memory of where the yard was in this brick-walled maze. Shouting could be heard from up ahead, and it sounded bad. Like someone needed help. It was coming from the opposite end of where they needed to go, but Roman couldn’t ignore it. He told Bang Bang to keep going, but the brute didn’t listen, sticking by Roman’s side as they followed the sounds of the shouting.
“Hey! Hey, back the fuck off!” Roman pushed into a crowd of three men, having cornered a—Aimee. It was Aimee they had pushed down almost onto the floor. She had her hands above her head and appeared to be shielding herself from the kicks that were raining down on her. The prisoners didn’t seem to like being interrupted, turning their attention to the two newcomers.
That’s when Roman recognized two of them. Kenny and Jim. The two of them blocked the way forward. Roman could see the door to the yard over his shoulder, already open, sunlight pouring in. “Where are you two butt buddies off to?” Jim asked, vitriol in his tone even though his “insult” was something a sixth grader would use.
Roman grabbed the nearest man—a skinny guy missing most of his front teeth—and knocked him out with a punch directly to the jaw, not even giving these fuckers a chance. “We’re off to do some poppers and piss glitter. Now, shut the fuck up.”
Jim didn’t stand a chance. He got a punch in the gut and another to the side of his head, dropping him like a bag of potatoes.
His friend Kenny seemed to have better fighting skills. He blocked a hit from Bang Bang and ducked, landing one of his own against Bang Bang’s ribs. He gave a pained grunt before driving his knee up, hitting Kenny in the chest.
That seemed to knock all the air out of him. He gasped for breath but still didn’t go down, putting his back against the wall instead.
Roman helped Aimee to her feet as Bang Bang pushed forward, grabbing a fistful of Kenny’s jumpsuit and lifting him up. He gave a playful wink before he whipped his head forward, hitting it against Kenny’s.