Animal: A Prisoned Spinoff Standalone

by Marni Mann

  I couldn’t hide my anger. “Do you think that scares me? You’re not the first to come in here and demand things from me, threatening to tell the authorities, promising you have folders’ and folders’ worth of proof. I’ve been around a long time, young lady, and my connections run deep. You’re not going to be the end of me.”

  Her eyes smiled, and for the first time since she’d come in my office, I felt the power shift.

  “I imagine your son wouldn’t be happy if the Venezuelan police showed up at his door, especially if they asked to go in the basement. A prison isn’t exactly something that’s easy to hide.”

  “What the fu—” I cut myself off. My reaction was far too strong. I didn’t know how much this girl knew, but even the slightest expression or response could give her even more knowledge.

  “I do have a son,” I said carefully. “But he has nothing to do with the transactions that take place here or with any of my affiliates. His whereabouts and occupation are nothing like what you have described.”

  “I know he doesn’t sell drugs to The Achurdy,” she said. The smile in her eyes was gone. It wasn’t needed. She didn’t have to sound convincing or look the part. The things she knew told me she had plenty of facts stored up in case she had to use them. “But he is affiliated with The Achurdy, whether he knows it or not. Wouldn’t you agree to that?”

  I needed to try a different approach. She wasn’t caving even the slightest, but everyone had a weakness. I just needed to find hers.

  “Did they hurt you?” Still nothing. “Is that why you’re here? To get back at them?” I leaned a hand over the desk to get closer to her. Not too close that I was invading her personal space. Just close enough that showed my concern and my desire to protect her. “If they did something to you, then I can—”

  “Your doctor bullshit isn’t going to work on me, Bond. I’m not here to talk about my feelings. I’m here to tell you what I want you to do.”

  “Oh, I think you’ve told me, young lady.”

  She shook her head. “Not all of it, I haven’t. There’s more.”

  I laughed again. “More?” I pulled my hand back. “You’ve asked me to stop dealing to The Achurdy, and now, you want more?” I realized I had confirmed my relationship with them. It wasn’t a secret in this room, and I wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t already known.

  She moved to the end of her chair, and I listened to her describe in detail, step by step, what she wanted me to do.

  I had been wrong about her when she first walked in. Maybe she looked young in appearance, but there was nothing immature or inexperienced about this woman. Not in the way she had planned this all out, the requests she was making, how she was covering every angle.

  I thought about everything she was asking, and one thing still didn’t make any sense.

  “You’re demanding quite a lot from me, miss. But what’s stopping me from raising this gun from my lap and killing you right here? I’ve already told you, I’m not scared of the police, and I promise, any information you might have on my son will die before the authorities even get across the border.”

  She reached inside her jacket and slowly removed an envelope that she placed on my desk. “Open it. Everything you need to know is in there.”

  I lifted the thin paper flap and pulled out a thumb drive. I felt it shaking in my hand as I inserted it into my computer. The heaviest weight was on my chest as I waited for the file to load. When I saw that it was a movie file, I felt a little bit of relief. What in God’s name could she have that would incriminate me? Certainly, it couldn’t be more than a few junkies talking about where they had bought their pills.

  But then the movie started to play, and I immediately turned my face away from the screen. “I don’t want to fucking see this!” I shouted at her.

  She smiled—this time, with her lips. “Don’t worry; it doesn’t last long.”

  I took that as a dig, and I was sure it was what she had intended.

  She was right; the sex on the video hadn’t lasted long. And what followed was a series of events. A timeline of snapshots that had taken place over several months, bringing me to what I guessed was just a few weeks ago.

  I had been all wrong. Her evidence had nothing to do with a bunch of junkies. It had nothing to do with the pill mills at all. She was coming from a whole different direction.

  Now, I knew what she wanted.

  I knew why she was asking for help.

  I’d told her to give me a reason not to kill her. As much as I hated to admit it to myself, she’d given me one.

  More than one, actually.

  She’d given me two.

  I lifted both hands and set them on the desk. “Let’s go over it all again, slower this time, and start from the very beginning. Then, you can tell me exactly what I need to do.”

  Beard

  “You fucking cunt!” Layla screamed in an accent that I’d never heard from her before. “I knew you weren’t dead, and the minute those assholes showed up at my door, I had a feeling you had something to do with it. Get me out of these cuffs, you bitch, so at least it’s a fair fight.”

  Besides her accent, I didn’t hear much else that came from Layla’s mouth. That was because every sense I had was focused on the woman who was next to me.

  I didn’t know how she was here. How she was standing. How the fuck she was even alive.

  Because I had seen her cold. Blue. Bloody.

  Dead.

  And, now, she had color, she had somehow healed, and if I touched her hand, I knew she would be warm.

  Jesus.

  I didn’t know whether to pick her up and never take my lips off her mouth or fucking strangle her for putting me through all that hell. But I knew I couldn’t wait a second longer to hold her.

  “Tyler,” I said, taking a step closer, reaching out for her.

  She slipped her fingers in mine. Her skin had a slight warmth to it—not hot, but a medium heat, just the way I remembered her temperature being. It was so soft. And her short nails stabbed right behind my knuckles, the way she always did when I gripped her this way.

  “I’m really here, Jae,” she promised, as though she could read my goddamn mind. “I’ll tell you everything, but first, we have to get rid of this bitch.”

  “Who?”

  She pointed at Layla. I’d forgotten she was even in the room.

  “Her,” she hissed. “Mina, my old boss.”

  “Mina?” I asked. “But her name is Layla.”

  Tyler shook her head. “No, my love, it’s not.”

  I was shocked as hell that these two women knew each other. But after seeing Layla’s—or Mina’s—tattoo, I knew something bound them together. I just didn’t know what it was.

  “Fuck you,” Mina spit in the background.

  I didn’t know whom Mina was talking to. I didn’t care. Tyler owned me in this OR. My eyes didn’t want to look at anything but her. My hand didn’t want to touch anything but her flesh.

  She was the reason for so many things. Why I hadn’t wanted a relationship after she died, why I hadn’t gone back to the States for such a long time.

  I had dreamed about her. Fucking cried over her. I had lost my goddamn mind over her.

  And, now, she was back. Here, in my prison, a place I hadn’t ever told her about.

  And she was holding my hand, telling me I needed to kill a woman I had been fucking.

  I shook my head. This shit was way too much.

  “Look at meee!” Mina screamed.

  It was a noise I hadn’t been prepared for. Not with Tyler here. Not with her hand in mine.

  Her warm hand.

  She had started my love affair with the screams.

  She was why I had gone downstairs to the prison, in a haze of Valium and sleeping pills, trying to find that noise.

  “Tyler…” I muttered.

  “I’m really here, Jae.”

  She was the only person who ever used my real name.

&nbs
p; The last person to say it out loud.

  “You’re alive,” I continued.

  As she nodded, Mina screamed again, and the memory of that morning came rushing back to me. I had come home from getting groceries when I found her on the floor…

  “Tyler!” I shouted as I walked into the bathroom, immediately falling to my knees.

  I didn’t try to be gentle when I pulled her into my lap. I just needed to touch her, to hold her, to know she was going to be okay. But, the second her skin hit mine, I was filled with such a coldness. Her flesh was like ice when it should have been warm.

  Warm from all the blood that was pouring from it.

  It was everywhere. On the floor, on the sink, all over her, and now, covering me.

  “Tyler!” I yelled again, shaking her body, waiting for a response. “Answer me, Tyler. Open your eyes, and fucking answer me.”

  Her skin was so white, her lips already a faint tint of blue.

  I picked up her arm and held it against my shirt, hoping the pressure would stop the bleeding, but I knew it wouldn’t. She’d cut too deep. I was sure she’d hit veins. That was where all this blood had come from.

  “Tyler.” I didn’t even recognize my voice anymore. Not with so much emotion in it. But I repeated her name over and over while I pressed my face into her cold cheek. “Why did you do this?”

  I just wanted an answer. A reason.

  And then I saw it. It was sitting on the floor next to her. A letter, written in handwriting I’d only ever seen once.

  A few months ago, she’d left me a note on my pillow, and I hadn’t seen it until I got back from dropping her off. On that small piece of paper were those three words she never let me say to her.

  But this was different. This was much longer than three words. This told me why she couldn’t continue living this way. That killing herself was the only way she’d ever be free of them. She didn’t say who the people were. She just said that she loved me more than anything, and she couldn’t keep hurting me and putting my life in danger.

  “Tyler,” I said, shaking her again. “Tell me you’re going to be okay. Just tell me something, so I know you’re coming back to me.”

  There was nothing.

  Just silence.

  No gasping for air. No telling me to call an ambulance. No crying out in pain.

  Just more silence.

  “Scream for me, Tyler.” I pressed my lips on her forehead. “Scream for me, and tell me that you’re fighting, that you’re going to fight for us.”

  I heard a noise behind me, and I squeezed her even tighter. It was like I was a fucking animal, protecting its prey.

  “Who’s there?” I shouted.

  “It’s just me.”

  “Me who?”

  “Gary,” he said, his face popping into the doorway of the bathroom. “Jesus Christ.” He looked at all the blood and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. “It’s worse than I thought it would be.”

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  He shook his head, and I knew.

  “She told me what she was going to do,” he said. “She didn’t want you to dispose of her body or for you to call the police, so she asked me to come here and help.”

  “You’re fucking kidding me,” I snapped.

  “No, man.”

  “She planned this? And told you about it?” I couldn’t let her go, but I wanted to get up and punch the guy in the goddamn face. “And you let her do this? You didn’t fucking stop her? How could you let her kill herself? She’s someone I love. She’s someone who thought of you as a friend.”

  He shook his head again. “I tried. There was no way to stop her. She’s been planning this for a long time, and nothing I said was gonna change that.”

  I put my lips on hers. Nothing passed through. No heat. No kiss.

  He knelt down beside me and reached out his hands.

  “What?” I asked him.

  “I have to take her.”

  “Like hell you are.”

  His fingers went to my shoulder, and if any of mine were free, I would rip his off by the highest knuckle.

  “Trust me, man. You don’t want to see this any longer than you need to. She’s not coming back from this. I’m going to take her and do what I need to with her. It’s what she wanted.”

  What she wanted?

  She always told me, one day, it would end. But she never told me it would end like this.

  I felt a lightness on my arms as he lifted her, her body weight no longer on me, and I watched her legs dangle and blood drip from her hand. I saw it hit the floor and the splatter it left behind.

  “I’ll come back in a little while to check on you.”

  I looked down at my fingers. Everything was red. My clothes. My boots.

  My vision.

  “Don’t bother,” I said. “I won’t be here.”

  “No?” He turned around to face me.

  I looked up at him, knowing if he didn’t leave my place right now, there would be two dead bodies I needed to get rid of. “No,” I said, “and I’m never coming back.”

  “Tyler!” I shouted as I shook my head, glancing all around the room to get my bearings.

  She squeezed me. “I’m right here, Jae.”

  “I’m right here, too,” Mina snapped.

  That fucking accent. It had come out of nowhere.

  “Tyler, I’m going to kill her,” I said. “I promise you, she will suffer. I’ll drag it out so long, she’ll be begging for me to take her life. But, first, I need some answers.”

  Now, she held both my hands, and with her standing so close, I could feel the warmth through her clothes.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you everything. I just have to do this first.”

  She reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck. Her cheek pressed against mine as she hugged me, and I felt her breath. It was the best thing that had ever been exhaled on my skin.

  I closed my eyes just as she said, “I love you.”

  Tyler

  Now

  I squeezed Jae as hard as I could, and I closed my eyes as I inhaled his scent. I hadn’t forgotten it, but the memory wasn’t as crisp as it had been, and now, it was all coming back to me. Fall nights in Kansas—part nature, part cold, and completely man.

  God, I’d missed him. It felt so good to be back in his arms, a place I never thought I’d ever return to.

  It hadn’t been easy to get here. In fact, it was harder than any job The Achurdy had ever given me. I’d treated it just like a job, too. Mina had been the item up for bid, and Bond had been my mark. Once I’d tracked him down and put together all the information he needed to see, I had known I could eventually get what I wanted. But finding Bond hadn’t been as easy as I’d thought, especially with him being in San Diego, the city where I had to be the most cautious.

  Fortunately, I’d found him, I’d converted him, and now, I was here.

  It was amazing, the things I had been able to find when I faked my own death and stepped away from the organization. The Achurdy was careful. They covered their tracks well. I’d just figured out where to look, and I always kept a close tab on Mina. She was my answer, and ultimately, she’d led me right to where I wanted.

  When Jae had held me in his bathroom, when he had begged me to scream, I’d hoped that, wherever I ended up, I would be able to watch over him and protect him. I had done just that. Only I had done it from afar. And the minute I’d found out that bitch was coming for him, I’d started making my plans.

  Wynter and Mina were never satisfied with the proof of my death. I knew they would never let it go. I just hadn’t believed they would go after Jae. Although, I had to admit, the lesbian team was a solid act. Their downfall was their cockiness. If they had done their research, if they had bothered to learn just a little about him, they would have uncovered his loyalty. He never would have told them about me, just like he wouldn’t ever fess up about the prison.

  Men like him took secrets to th
e grave.

  Mina wasn’t even close to getting him to spill. She probably hadn’t realized that though, and I had intercepted before she could keep trying.

  Then, there was Wynter. She was just a toy. Someone Mina had used to help entice the mark. She hadn’t made it more than twenty minutes in the prison before her arms were cut off, and she was fed to a roomful of rats. The thought of that kind of death made me quiver, but I didn’t feel sorry for her. She was as guilty as Mina.

  Jae turned his lips into my cheek and said, “Talk to me, baby. Tell me what happened.”

  I finally pulled out of the lock I’d held him in, knowing that, in just a few minutes, I’d be hugging him again, and I reached for his hands.

  The only way for him to know what had really happened was to start from the beginning. So, I took him back to my college dorm room when Wynter and I had gone to the club that very first night. I continued my story right up to when I had found out I was pregnant. I didn’t tell him that part. That was for later when we were alone. But I mentioned Gary’s involvement—how he’d gotten me new identification, helped me get out of town, and sheltered all the cash I had been withdrawing from my Achurdy account. Then, I explained how I had gone to Bond—although I left out the details of how I’d persuaded him. I just told Jae that Bond was no longer supplying them drugs and how I had become a client of the prison, hiring them to take Wynter and Mina as inmates.

  “The stripper,” he grunted.

  “You didn’t even know her fucking name,” Mina barked.

  “I didn’t give a shit about her or her name,” Jae snapped back. “I still don’t. That bitch is getting eaten, exactly the way she deserves.” He continued to look at her with so much hatred in his eyes. “You’ve been a client all this time, and I never knew.”

  “Nix took care of all that,” she said. “I never knew it was you either or who he spoke to at this place.”

  Jae lifted my hand and looked at my tattoo. He’d stared at it so many times, but this one felt different. “I didn’t know, Tyler.”

  He was talking about The Achurdy being a client, the girls they’d sent here. The ones who might have even died in the same place I was standing.