Alpha Inmate

“Miss Winters! What happened to your face! Are you alright?” The horror on Doctor Porter’s face matches how she feels, but she flashes him a polite smile.

“I slipped on ice,” she says quickly, as Gerard follows in, his chest heaving. “Nothing major.”

“Nonsense. Gerard, please find Miss Winters an ice pack.”

The guard is all too happy to leave, hurrying through the set of double doors.

“Are you ready to meet the other inmate? We’ll be assessing him together. Then, we can discuss Erik.”

His name sends a shiver down her spine, but she agrees, following the doctor down to the Beta ward.

She rattles off her list of questions, documenting her notes, but she’s not truly present in her assessment. By the time the session is over, her mind replays every conversation she’s had with Erik.

You should know by now I can do anything.

If he has enough money to buy off Gerard, who else could he bribe? Doctor Porter? Another guard?

“Are you alright?” Doctor Porter asks for a second time. “You seem a little…distracted.”

She shakes her head. “Fine, really. Just a little dizzy from the fall.”

He frowns, but doesn’t press the issue. There’s a knock on the office door, and Gerard pokes his head in.

“Erik says he doesn’t feel well,” he informs the doctor. “Says he wants to cancel the session with the Ome—Miss Winters.”

Alarm bells ring in her head.

She knows, she just knows Erik saw what happened with Gerard.

“That’s fine,” she says quickly. “I have to work on reports, anyway.”

But when Doctor Porter isn’t looking, she sends off a quick text message.

Did you pay him off?

She doesn’t expect him to answer her.

But by the end of the day, her phone buzzes with a simple reply.

I do what I have to do, baby.

Always.