Prisoner of Your Love

Mindy reviewed her lines over and over again in her head. If she didn’t get this done properly, then her brilliant murder scheme was for nothing. She checked her appearance in the mirror once or twice before crawling out of the black Mustang and entering the bank.

Today she would be playing the role of legal representative for CJ’s distraught brother. Of course her resume didn’t quite support this role, but she was hoping that wouldn’t be brought to light. If anything did go wrong, the least she could do is pretend to be AJ’s girlfriend, which wasn’t too much of a stretch in this situation.

She kept a black leather briefcase held closely to her side as she walked up the stone stairs leading to the gaudy bank. Once she made it past the glass revolving doors, she dropped her look of contemplation and wickedness and exchanged it for polite smiles and saddened eyes.

“Ah, you must be…?” the banker, Mr. Phillips, asked, glancing down at some papers on his desk.

“Mindy,” she replied, extending her hand, “I’m here to represent Mr. Morris – he’s still too shaken up to take part in his brother’s affairs.”

The banker paused the conversation and gave a long hard stare at the woman sitting before him. It didn’t take him long to determine how exactly he’d seen her face before. “Ma’am, I am very familiar with this story. So, would you mind explaining how being a secretary qualifies you to handle Mr. Morris’ assets?”

She subtly rolled her eyes as a brief moment of pure frustration overcame her calm façade. She glanced both ways before leaning in closer to the banker, making it seem as though she was about to reveal the world’s grandest secret.

“I was a bit ashamed to admit this to anyone, but you see, the truth is that AJ and I have been dating for quite a while. We kept it only between family and friends, mostly because my parents are oh so strict when it comes to who I date.”

Mr. Phillips wasn’t sure what to think at this point – this woman sitting before him essentially just gave him two completely different reasons for her representing Mr. Morris – first she claims she’s his representative because he’s too distraught to do it himself, then she says she’s here because she’s his significant other.

Regardless, he certainly did have one big bombshell to drop on her. “Ma’am, I really don’t need your background story right now because quite frankly it doesn’t matter who you are. AJ Morris is the only person who can sign for the fortune his brother left behind.”

Mindy’s jaw clenched as she stared at the man before her, thinking countless insults in her mind. “I see,” she smiled stiffly, “thank you for you time, Mr. Phillips. I suppose it’s time for AJ to leave the house by now. I’ll be seeing you soon.”

There was something so chilling about her words that Mr. Phillips nearly shrunk back in his seat as she stood up to leave. Honestly, if foul play wasn’t involved here, he’d be completely surprised.

“Adele, I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” Shadows jeered as he stepped aside and let Oli and Adele into the room from the previous night. As she walked into the room, she noted that both Shadows and Gates were taking in the sight of her horrible and painful wounds.

Ever since Oli raped her, it seemed as if her eyes wouldn’t stop watering. She rarely let the tears fall, but the tears she kept locked behind her eyelids stung her eyes and blurred her vision, causing her body to shake on occasion from fighting the sobs.

“Let’s just get this over with,” she whispered timidly.

Oli had done quite a number on her. He broke most of what she was holding onto in order to evade these very men and try her best to focus solely on getting out of prison. Gates, ever the accurate observer, instantly noticed that something was different about Adele.

“As relieved as I am to see that you decided to take the offer, I must ask…what happened to change your mind?”

Adele felt her throat burn as the words made their way out of her mouth, tasting disgusting and vile on her tongue. “O-Oli raped me,” she said bluntly.

At first, it looked as though Shadows was about to rip him a new one, but instead his lips curled into a broad grin of what could only be satisfaction. “That’s what I like to hear,” he said, patting Oli on the back.

Obviously, even Adele could tell that Oli hadn’t been looking for Shadows’ “approval.” He did it out of his own benefit, and at her expense. Gates chose to remain silent, wearing a heavy look of jealousy. Shadows cleared his throat after a brief and awkward silence fell upon the four prisoners.

“Anyway, Adele, now that you’re here, why don’t you tell us what you really did to land a place here?”

Adele limped over to a nearby chair and sat down, feeling almost all of her energy leave her body after performing the simple task. “I was a big shot producer / graphics supervisor. In my office there was another guy with the same job who was essentially my only competition when it came to getting assignments. He was murdered by ingesting poison and somehow my fingerprints were at the scene, despite the fact that I never went in his office that day. Someone…framed me, and that is why I’m here. I didn’t do shit, yet somehow I’m here paying for someone else’s crime.”

Oli was the first to respond. “I knew it! There was no way you were capable of killing,” he smirked, pleased that he had been right the entire time.

Shadows looked surprised, almost as if he had expected her to have at least done some sort of crime. Gates was the one who ended up asking the question on everyone’s mind. “Why didn’t you just say that from the start?”

Adele stared down at the cement floor, feeling guilt and resentment growing inside. “I…I thought that maybe if you believed I was just like you all, then you would’ve stopped torturing me,” she shamefully confessed.

Her eyes squeezed shut as her fingers coiled tightly around the metal armrests on the chair, as she awaited some sort of violent physical rebuttal. But it didn’t come. Instead, something much stranger and somewhat scarier took its place.

“I think we may be able to use your situation to our advantage,” Shadows grinned.

David Samson had just recently survived law school and was now struggling to find a firm willing to accept new lawyers. After spending a whole nightmarish day submitting applications and resumes to some local firms, he crashed hard on the sofa, clicking on the TV and scanning the channels. He settled for the 6 o’clock news.

“And now we have a development made in the CJ Morris murder case. Today, it’s been confirmed that Mindy Robinson, former secretary of Mr. Morris, had attempted to sign for his brother’s fortune…”

David tuned out the rest of what the overly perky news reporter had to say. He was vaguely familiar with this story, all of his knowledge coming from what the news had to report, and quite frankly, he didn’t feel comfortable about something.

He jotted down today’s development on a small piece of loose-leaf he used to record facts about this case and stared at the words before him. “If I didn’t know any better,” he mumbled aloud to himself, “I’d say that this Adele chick was framed for murder.”

David decided that the job hunt could be put on a temporary hold. Instead, he planned on visiting Adele Luis first thing in the morning.

Besides Adele, there were in fact some other female inmates that were trapped inside the walls of the prison. Deborah Martin was the first to arrive six years ago. She was convicted for several charges of robbery and a few murders. She was respected amongst the men, but her fame and glory began fading slowly with each new female that arrived.

She was standing at a distance when she saw Shadows, Gates, Oli, and the new girl exit a small room. How the fuck does a new prisoner like that bitch land with three of the worst men in this entire place? she wondered angrily.

Her and Shadows went way back. In fact, at one point, her and him were like the king and queen of the prison yard. Everyone feared them. It was the greatest part about being in prison.

Now, she was practically losing to a poor unfortunate rich girl who probably was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Deborah glared as she watched Oli take Adele back to their shared cell. She wasn’t about to lose to the likes of her.

Shadows had hoped to sneak into the cafeteria to grab a late night snack in celebration of finding out Adele’s not-so-scandalous secret. But he was stopped short when a pair of hands clamped down over his eyes and a body shoved his against the wall. There was only one person other than Gates who could’ve sneaked up on him.

“Deb, what the hell do you think you’re doing? Can’t you see I’m trying to get a snack?”

“Cut the crap, Shads. I need to have a word with you,” she said, removing her hands and granting him a small amount of space for him to turn and face her.

“Make it quick, my stomach isn’t so patient,” he grumbled.

Deb rolled her eyes before shoving her fist into Shadows’ only weak spot, located just below his ribs and right above his abs. “What do you think you’re doing, spending so much time around that rich skank?” she spat.

Shadows erupted into a deep, throaty laughter, having to lean back up against the wall for support. “You’re jealous, aren’t you?” he asked between laughs.

“It’s not funny!” Deb growled, closing in closer on the man before her.

Shadows extended his arms, blocking her from taking away any more distance. “We aren’t together, and I thought that you understood that the first time I had to explain that much to you,” he replied.

“I don’t care about that. I’m sick of watching the three of you drool over her. Tomorrow I’m gonna beat her fucking face in.”

“Didn’t you see that she’s already been through enough for now?”

“You’re defending her?!”

“Look, Deb, like it or not we’re going to stay with her because she may be our ticket out of this place, so don’t think about getting in our way or you’ll be the one to pay.”

Shadows dropped his arms and pulled her close to him so that their bodies were touching. “Understand?” he breathed out seductively, before leaning down and invading her mouth with his tongue roughly, just the way he recalled her preferring.

She moaned into the kiss, so desperately wanting more, until Shadows pulled away unexpectedly and shoving his way past her, unknowingly giving her just enough fuel to storm down to Adele’s cell.