PR150N

Chapter 14

Stephanie fell to the floor beside me, scrunched up in the foetal position as she clutched at her head. With the shouts of pain now evident to the whole room, we suddenly weren't sure how to react. I climbed to my feet slowly, my hand automatically coming up to my face where her punch had hit. Sol quickly crossed the room and threw an arm around me, pulling me into him.

"We need to take her back to her room." I said before any other conversations began. I looked over at Sol expectantly. "What's her room number?" Sol furrowed his brows at me, trying to work out what I was doing. One minute ago this woman was attacking me and now I was trying to help her. I glanced up to the cameras as a hint. We needed to keep on the Govs good side and look like model prisoners. He seemed to understand in an instant.

"212." He said quickly. "Let's go." We both slung one of her arms around our shoulders as we dragged her out of the room and back to hers. The two of us scooped her up as the shocks began to die down and rushed her to her room. We got a few confused stares from prisoners as we bypassed everyone at high speed like paramedics trying to sort out an emergency. We barely said a word to each other in this time, but I could feel Sol's stare on me as I led us to her room. I held her hand up to the scanner as Sol moved her face close to the camera. With the authentication done, her door slid open and we pulled her into her room. She, too, had a fancy room like Sol did, all kitted out with a sofa and a separate room for the bedroom. We lay her in her bed slowly, her half-conscious body flopping down onto the bed like a dead weight. She attempted to mumble a few things to us but she couldn't get her words out. I pulled her blanket up over her body and moved her hair out of her face. With that she grabbed my wrist and my attention at the same time. For a moment, we both just stared at each other. She couldn't speak and I didn't now what to say.

"Feel better soon." I said as I gave her a nod and headed out of the room with Sol right behind me. Once we were back out in the hallway and Stephanie's door had shut behind us, Sol finally spoke. His hands instantly came up to my face and he turned it to look at the aftermath of my fight with Stephanie.

"You should have fought back a little. That's quite an injury you've got there." His thumb moved across the area she landed the punch and I sucked in a sharp breath. Instantly he removed his hand with an apologetic look on his face.

"It's fine, honestly. I know what I'm doing." I offered him a half smile as we started walking back to his room. We knew a lot of what we wanted to talk about was not to be listened to by any prisoners, so we kept it to a minimum until we made it back to his room. Once the door was closed and we were safe, we could relax and speak more freely.

"Hey Lex, you okay?" Toby asked carefully, eyeing up the side of my face. I let out a smile.

"Honestly, I'm all good." I said, sitting down beside him as Sol sat the other side of me.

"So what the hell was that about? Why did you tell us to leave the fight alone?" Ty asked Sol, knowing it was against everything in them to just let a team member get beaten. Sol looked over at me and smiled, his face brightening.

"We've got some good news. But you cannot repeat this to anyone, not even to each other outside of this room, understood?" The three of them nodded resolutely. "The Gov is on our side. Toby's attack got us high up on his list of interests, especially because Lex helped. The Gov spoke with Dr Forrester to get all the information. He knows we are model prisoners, we don't fight unless we are protecting ourselves and we stick to the rules. Lex kindly spoke to the Dr in detail about what happened and her worries which he fed back to the Gov. He knows we are being targeted and he wants to help us." Sol explained the backstory to the guys, who all sat with their mouths hung open.

"They reviewed the footage of Toby's attack, they know we did nothing wrong. I just vocalised what I'd heard, that someone was targeting you. They wanted to help straight away. With Stephanie, we couldn't be seen in a bad light, she needed to be seen for her true colours. With me not fighting back, every move she made was purely her own and not led by me at all. Sol got the Gov's attention on the cameras whilst I fought her. Again, we weren't fighting so we are the model prisoners." I added which Sol nodded along to. The gang looked at Sol in disbelief at what they were hearing. They stayed silent, just blinking as they tried to process the information.

"So why'd you let her hit you?" Eddy asked carefully.

"Just for me to show Dr Forrester. Before I left, I vocalised my worry for the gang and how there were people who were being manipulated to attack you guys. If I go back with an injury from protecting you all, it proves my point more. They'll be more vigilant, they'll try to protect you all, they'll monitor the cameras around us better. It should help us all out." Raj let out a huff in disappointment before folding his arms across his chest.

"I'm sorry, what? You want me to believe that purely because you jumped in and dragged Toby from a fight that were suddenly the Govs best friends?" He looked round at the other gang members. "You can't seriously be buying into this?" Too stunned to speak, I just stared back at him as I tried to come up with an answer.

"She didn't just drag me from a fight, man." Toby jumped in. "She ended up in hospital longer than me, she fractured bones Raj." Raj remained the same, looking as unimpressed as he was a few moments ago.

"Fuck it I don't care, I'll say it to your face Lex. I think you bought the problem to us in the first place. We had no problems until you started turning up regularly, now suddenly - conveniently when you're trying to prove yourself to Sol - we are being attacked by prisoners who are coerced by some mysterious woman. Not only that, but one fight in, ONE, we suddenly have Govs backing?" Wringing my hands together, I tried my best to fight down the anger that was boiling up inside of me. How dare he think I'm doing all this for my own gain. Not only that, but he thinks I'm the one coordinating all the attacks? It hurt a lot to know what even when I was trying my best to help I was still being targeted.

"Raj, it's not like that at all. I've been speaking to Dr Forrester, they've always liked the gang. We are model prisoners, we stick by the rules. They want to protect us so it shows other prisoners that being good has rewards. It has nothing to do with me. I would never want to hurt any of you, or create any problems. I just want to help." It took a lot of energy for me to silence the angry thoughts and focus on trying to respond in a calm way. The last thing I needed when trying to say I'd help them was for me to be the one lashing out at them.

"Raj, I think you need to take a moment." Sol said, his voice low and angry. "Go take a stroll and come back in a few minutes."