“Come on, boy!” one of the COs yelled. “Let’s see you fight back now.”

Soon, I didn’t feel their hits anymore. I just felt the pressure of their blows against my head and back. Until, finally, I began to get dizzy. The roar of the inmates filled my ears as the bars that held them back shifted and blurred.

I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was out cold. The last thing I saw before everything went black was the butt of a baton coming straight for my face.

CHAPTER 8

LYLA

TEN MINUTES AFTER the alarms went off, the room filled with chaos. Two COs were brought in, beaten half to death, and Dr. Giles was on the phones calling for an emergency transport.

Officer Parks was unrecognizable, and Officer Stone’s pulse was weak. I rushed to their sides, administering everything I could to keep them alive. The door opened again, and then they were bringing in the inmate who’d beat them.

I couldn’t see his face through all the blood, but I knew by his physique that it was X.

He really was the monster everyone claimed. I’d softened to him over the few weeks that I’d been working there. I’d even considered the fact that everyone was wrong about him, but apparently, I was the one who was wrong. So freaking wrong.

He’d beaten two COs almost to death with his bare hands and their own batons while he was shackled and cuffed. I wouldn’t have thought it possible if I hadn’t seen the two officers with my own two eyes.

“What the hell happened?” Officer Douglas asked when a group of COs came in with blood spatter all over their uniforms.

“He fell down the stairs. Lots and lots of stairs,” an officer panted, clearly out of breath from bringing the beast better known as X down.

Obviously, they’d beaten X, but rather than say that and deal with reports and all the craziness, they were all going to agree he’d fallen down the stairs. It was like watching a messed-up prison movie.

“We came in, and he was beating Parks and Stone. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then he just ran. We pursued, but he got caught up on a set of stairs,” another officer agreed with the first. “Poor bastard. It’s not like he had anywhere he could run to.”

Officer Douglas looked at them suspiciously since obviously, they were lying, but then he shook his head and placed his hands on his hips.

“Go put in a report,” he said.

He looked my way and shrugged. We were both shocked. I could tell by the look on his face. X fought, we knew that considering he was in the infirmary all the time, but it was still unlike him to snap on the COs. He was escalating… fast.

The other COs cleared the room, leaving me in the infirmary with two dying officers and the monster who’d tried to kill them. We ran IVs for the officers and prepared them for transport, and once the ambulance came, Dr. Giles called the hospital to warn them ahead of time.

During all this, X was out cold in a bed, waiting to be checked. One minute, everything was moving fast and the next, it was slow. After the COs were done, I found myself standing over X, watching his deep breaths move his hard chest up and down.

Slowly, I peeled his bloody uniform away from his body, reminding myself every few seconds that no matter how beautiful he was, he was evil. It wasn’t hard because every time I closed my eyes, I saw the officers’ faces in my mind.

I cleaned him up, putting more stitches in his body and checking for any signs of internal bleeding. He was badly beaten, bruised from head to toe, but honestly, what had he expected? He needed to learn that he couldn’t go around beating on people. As bad as it sounded, I was starting to think that he had gotten exactly what he deserved.

Once Dr. Giles and I finished checking him over and taking his vitals, I sat beside his bed and kept watch as I filled out some paperwork. All the while, I tried to process what had just happened. The images of the beaten officers were flashing throughout my mind.

My head spun with the onslaught of grotesque pictures. My mind flipped from X, to Officer Stone, back to X, and then to Officer Parks. Constant back and forth, like my body was swaying in a rowboat. Not long after, my raging headache began. Thankfully, the infirmary remained quiet for the rest of the day. I went home that night and collapsed on my bed, falling in a deep, coma-like sleep.

X WAS AWAKE when I returned the following day for my next shift. Staying away from him as much as I could, I even avoided eye contact. I couldn’t look at him, but this time, it wasn’t because of the severe attraction I felt for him. I was angry for being deceived. I was beginning to think he was a somewhat decent guy, and then he went and did something so monstrous that I couldn’t look at him the same.