Prisoner of Your Love

Carrie Morgan hesitantly reached out for the silver door handle leading into a very modern-looking building that she used to know all too well.

As Carrie rode the elevator up several floors, she sighed wondering what this world had come to. Of course she wasn’t a fan of returning to the very company that forced her onto the unemployment list for the longest time, but she had to come here for Adele.

Everyone still believes that she’s some sort of sneaky murderer, so unless someone came to clear out her office, then all of her belongings would be given away. It’s been almost two months now, but her office had been off limits because of police work.

Carrie knew deep down inside that Adele must’ve been framed in some way, she just wasn’t sure how. Carrie glanced at all the familiar faces as she paced through a row of cubicles and desks. Adele’s office was just ahead.

Once inside, Carrie closed the door behind her and looked around at Adele’s possessions. She didn’t bring much to work with her; Carrie recalled Adele being a hard working, though private individual.

A couple of metallic picture frames lined the shelves. Some paperwork was still resting on top of her desk. Potential clients’ files were stacked high near the fax machine. Carrie got to work quickly, not allowing herself to get too caught up in her thoughts.

As she was putting some books into a cardboard box, she laughed to herself briefly.

“Someone will figure out the truth eventually. And here I am packing away and tampering what will probably be another scene for the police to re-examine.”

She finished soon after arriving, honestly not desiring to spend much longer in that damned office.

As she struggled to walk with a series of stacked boxes and her car keys, she turned a sharp corner and began walking through an alleyway to get back to her car sooner. But before she could reach her car, Carrie collided with something else. She fell backward onto her ass with her boxes’ contents scattered along the filthy pavement.

“Damn it,” she cursed, slamming her fist into the pavement out of frustration.

A hand was shoved in her face suddenly, causing her to shrink back before following up the arm and ultimately reaching the face of whomever caused her to fall. Carrie’s eyes widened as her throat began to dry and tighten. There’s no way…

“Well, are you going to take it or not? I don’t have all day,” the man muttered.

Carrie drew in a breath before regaining her composure. She slapped his hand away and forced herself up to her own feet. “I-I don’t need help from y-you,” she mumbled.

Though she regained the ability to speak, she still had a hard time masking her current I-just-saw-a-ghost look. He recoiled his hand, but didn’t leave just yet.

“If that’s not what you want, then why the hell are you staring at me like that?”

“You’re supposed to be dead,” she whispered.

CJ’s eyes narrowed at the woman in front of him. His mind was racing to try and determine how this stranger knows him, or thinks she knows him.

“You’re mistaken,” he said, “You’ve confused me with my brother. We’re twins, you see. It’s been a very difficult time.”

He couldn’t determine whether she bought it or not, and he didn’t really care. Now, in addition to waiting around for Mindy to hurry the hell up with her shift, he had to somehow sneak inside the office and search through the files to identify this pest.

She needed to be taken care of before she says too much to the wrong ears.

Adele rounded the corners quickly, desperate to reach Matt’s cell and be able to talk to him – tell him about the new developments. With a wide smile and deep inhales, she asked the guard on Matt’s floor if she could visit with him.

“Are you sure that you want to?” he asked skeptically.

Adele wasn’t sure why his tone sounded the way it did, but it wouldn’t stop her. “Yes,” she laughed, “I’m sure…”

The guard shrugged and led her down to the cell, sliding the key into the lock and pushing the barred door out of the way. The cell was dim and seemingly empty. “I guess I’ll just wait,” she said nervously, nodding behind her to tell the guard to leave.

There were no lights on in the cell, which made it incredibly hard to see what was what, but with some luck Adele managed to stumble her way onto the bed.

Just as she leaned her body against the cool cement wall behind the mattress, a series of warm droplets leaked onto her hair and down her neck. She strained her neck to try and figure out where the drops were coming from.

Her best guess was that someone was above her on the top bunk…

She scrambled off the bed quickly and squinted into the darkness. Suddenly, the pull string of the light bulb overhead was tugged, illuminating the room. Adele’s eyes wandered up to the top bunk to meet a horrible sight.

Matt’s still body was shoved up against the wall…and…whatever had been dripping on her was his blood.

She was about to leap toward the bunks until an arm slung around her neck, pulling her roughly back to where she had just been standing. Based upon the tattooed arm alone, Adele could tell that it was Gates.

“What did you do to him?” she demanded, fiercely struggling to escape him.

“We were just talking,” Gates shrugged.

“Let me go! He needs help,” she pleaded.

Gates scoffed, “Honestly, Adele, you need to start thinking about your own safety before the safety of others.”

“There is nothing that you can do to me,” she said through gritted teeth.

Using all of her strength, she pried Gates’ arm off of her and climbed the rickety ladder up to the top bunk. She pulled Matt away from the wall and rested his head in her lap as she took in the damage. It wasn’t too bad, thankfully.

It wasn’t long before Gates spoke up again. “I think you just proved that there is something we can always use against you,” he smirked.

“What are you talking about?”

“From now on in addition to any punishment you receive for not doing what we say, your boyfriend there will be punished as well.”

“Matt has nothing to do with this! And I sure as hell won’t help you if he gets hurt anymore.”

Gates took a couple of steps forward, reaching the bunks. “There’s only one problem with that, princess. You’re not the one who gets to negociate. You’ve had it good so far. If you want, we can really give you the true experience.”

His evil grin sent tremors through her body as she reluctantly jumped off the bunk. “There’s a good girl,” he smirked, wasting no time to pull her close to him once she was within reach. “Now, let’s get going. Shadows has been waiting for hours.”

Adele glanced over her shoulder and gave one last look at Matt, hoping that he’ll be okay when he wakes up.

Gates dragged Adele through the prison by her arm, clutching it so tightly she could feel the bruise forming already. “You really have a talent for making things harder than they have to be,” he said as they were nearing Shadows’ domain.

“And you really have a talent for being creepy and jealous,” Adele retorted, unable to stop the fleeing words.

Gates spun around and had Adele in a chokehold within a second or two. “If you keep this up, then you might be dead before you can even dream about escaping,” he growled.

Shadows’ door was right nearby, so he maintained the hold before throwing her into the room. Adele flew forward, colliding with another body. She groaned, clutching her head before turning around and realizing that of all people, she was thrown into Deb.

“Fancy seeing you again,” Deb sneered, shoving Adele off.

Adele distanced herself instead of offering an equally snarly verbal response.

“Nice of you two to finally join us,” Shadows muttered, getting up from his chair near the TV and approaching the rest of the group.

“Look,” Adele said, shakily standing up, “let’s just get this shit over with. I just want to get some sleep right now.”

Shadows’ eyebrows perked up at her sudden aggressiveness. Although it was technically a challenge to his authority, he still found it to be an attractive quality in her.

“So, you want to know how I plan on using you as an escape? It’s simple, really. Eventually – thought I can’t say for sure how long – someone will realize your innocence and call for another trial. Once you’re on the outside, you’re going to meet up with some of our allies and help them break us out.”

“If you have friends on the outside, then why do you need me?”

“Shads and I aren’t allowed visitors. You can use your boy toy Matt as an excuse to get inside for a visit. Then you can work from the inside while they work on the exterior.”

Adele bit back a laugh. How could they honestly think she would help them, or bring Matt into this, after what Gates just told her moments before arriving? Besides, Adele secretly already had her own plans for her time spent outside of these walls; none of which included risking her newly gained freedom for a couple of criminals like them.

She didn’t want to openly deny their plans, so she just acted skeptical with a remote amount of interest. “Good luck with that,” she said with a subtle eye roll.

“Now that all the business is taken care of, why don’t you explain who the hell you spent such a fucking long time talking to in the visitor’s room?” Deb asked.

Adele stopped herself before she answered. She realized that if she told them it was a lawyer that they’d realize that the timeline for this project could happen much sooner than they anticipated. Plus, Adele wanted to have the upper hand over Shadows and lying to him seemed to give her that feeling.

“It was one of my friends from work. Now that the case has cleared for a while, a lot of my fellow employees have stopped by either shocked or in disbelief.”

Another hour or so passed after the big “meeting” took place. Adele really was getting tired and wanted nothing more than to return to her cell, naturally hoping that Oli was absent, and just pass out.

“This has been fun and all…but I’m going back to my room now,” Adele said firmly, making her way toward the door.

Gates gave her a hard stare, almost as if he believed she was up to something. Shadows, on the other hand, placed his trust in her and permitted her to leave, not that she planned on waiting for his approval.

She peered into the dark cell and groaned when she heard Oli’s snoring above her. She tried her best to ignore his presence, sliding her shoes off and reclining down into her bed. Her pillow felt cool and refreshing against her skull. Her heavy eyes closed happily.

And just when she was nearly asleep, there was a racking at the door. Her eyes shot open to find a guard standing outside. “Adele Luis, you have a visitor. If you plan on meeting with her, then I suggest you get up. Visiting hours end in ten minutes.”

Her?

Adele cautiously climbed out of bed and met up with the guard at the door.

Just before she reached the door, Oli tossed and turned momentarily while mumbling something along the lines of “If you keep making all this bloody racket, I’ll slice you into pieces” before resuming his snoring.

Perhaps curiosity was the only driving factor behind her decision to see whoever this visitor was. She couldn’t possibly image who this female visitor could be.

And because she was practically half asleep while following the guard, she didn’t realize that she herself was being followed.