Two guards rushed in the medical facility and cuffed Danica and Cat. Avery stood in stunned silence.

Why in the world hadn’t Danica and Cat seen them all standing there? Danica had practically been in Gabe’s face when she’d made her declaration, yet she acted as if she was talking to the wall.

Madge once again gestured her to be quiet as the guards hauled the prisoners out and shut the door behind them.

Gabe turned his gaze to Madge.

“You think we’re safe?” he whispered.

Madge nodded. “Give it a couple of minutes, though. It sounds like things are under control, but let’s wait to be certain.”

They stood in silence once again. Avery’s heart thundered so loudly, she was certain everyone in the room could hear it.

After what seemed like an eternity had passed, Gabe’s radio came alive.

“Prison is secure. All guards report.”

Gabe lifted the device and spoke his name, then some numbers, probably his badge or identification number. Madge scanned the room.

“I just don’t understand why they do this,” she muttered, shaking her head. “It accomplishes nothing, except to earn them more punishment.”

Avery stood frozen in place behind the gurneys, unable to believe what she’d just witnessed.

“W-why couldn’t they see us?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“Magic,” Gabe said as he righted an overturned gurney and rolled it back in place.

It didn’t make sense. Cat had told her that no one could use their powers in the jail because of the faery dust. Madge had to be the one responsible for that little trick… the one that had probably saved her life.

“It’s none of your concern, honey,” Madge said, straightening a chair.

And it wasn’t, but Avery’s mind churned with curiosity.

She reached for one of the gurneys to push it back to the lineup of beds, but Madge stopped her, raising her hands in front of her. “Let’s get this fixed first.”

In a flurry of hand movements and words, papers flew around, furniture moved, and in less than two minutes, the place was as pristine as it had been when Avery had entered with Gabe. Except the plants. Even though the pots had been put back in place, some stems and flowers still lay broken and destroyed.

Avery stared in awe, slack-jawed. Madge’s magic was obviously very powerful, a level she would never be able to achieve as a half-human.

“We’ll have to hang out here for about an hour or so until we get orders to return to solitary confinement,” Gabe said, taking a seat. “So, why don’t you tell me what you did to make Danica want your head on a stick?”

She shrugged her shoulders, uncertain herself. “I was working a construction job with her mate, Jake. I didn’t know either one of them at the time. He… he attacked me, and I used some magic on him. I hurt him—and got fired—but I didn’t kill him. A couple of days later, his pack leader found me and said he’d taken care of Jake. It was almost as if he was apologizing for his behavior. As far as I was concerned, that was the last of it.”

Gabe raised an eyebrow at her as if he expected her to say more.

“I swear! That’s it!”

He nodded, then pulled out his phone, walked out into the hallway, and shut the door behind him.

Danica seemed to be nothing but trouble for the prison, yet, Avery was the one being punished for her behavior.

“I still don’t understand why I’m the one in solitary confinement,” she mumbled to no one in particular. She’d lost her job because Jake attacked her. She’d been imprisoned for trying to find the truth about her mom’s murder… well, she had broken several laws in the process… but she’d been put in solitary confinement because Danica started a fight.

Madge sighed. “Danica is very well-respected by the inmates in this place. She’s been here a number of times, and people listen to her. If she’d been thrown into solitary, you’d still end up in trouble because of her following. It’s easier for the warden to separate you from the threat than the threat from you.”

Avery’s heart sank to the floor. If that were the truth, she’d be in solitary confinement for the rest of her stay. And who knew how long that would be? No one had provided that detail.

Gabe returned moments later, glanced at her and shook his head.

“You’ve really stepped in it,” he said.

She tried to think of what she’d done to make the situation with Jake worse, but nothing came to her.

Jake had threatened her and then tried to rape her. She’d been the victim. Now she was being punished. Her cheeks heated with anger.

“I didn’t do anything except protect myself against a sexual assault!” she said, fisting her hands at her sides.

She wanted to punch something, to throw things, but she also wouldn’t destroy Madge’s hard work.

“Apparently, Jake was kicked out of the pack,” Gabe said, setting his hands on his hips. “Both him and Danica were excommunicated.”

Her shoulders sagged as she realized the weight of what Gabe had said. A werewolf without a pack was the lowest member on the totem pole. No one would want either of them, ever. They’d be forced to live alone for the rest of their lives unless they relocated to another state and found a pack willing to take pity on them.

“Danica then killed the pack leader, which landed her here,” Gabe continued. “And, she’s blaming it all on you.”

The next two days passed with the speed of a slug moving through mud. Her only bright spot being a trip up to Madge’s medical facility after she’d finished drinking the awful green stuff. Avery had been declared well enough to return in a week. She tried not to wallow in the returning depression over Melia’s death and being in prison, but especially at night, it was almost impossible not to let it consume her. During those hours, she sobbed more often than not.

Gabe continued to guard the solitary confinement section during the day, and the guy on the nightshift barely paid her any attention. Avery quickly learned that Gabe hated being underground in the boredom as much as she did, and they passed a lot of time in conversation. He always rolled his desk chair close to the bars, and she sat on the bed facing him.

The unlikely pair discussed their favorite restaurants in the Seattle area. Avery found it amusing they both disliked seafood but lived in one of the most famous cities for it. They each enjoyed the outdoors and spent hours discussing hiking trails and forests surrounding the city.

She quickly fell into a routine. Once awake, she did some stretching, held a few yoga poses, and waited for Gabe to arrive. One morning he brought her a donut; the next, a croissant. She still didn’t understand why he was being so nice to her, but Avery appreciated whatever kindness she could get. The guard never seemed to want anything in return, but she remained wary, actually glad for the bars separating them. She longed to escape her cage, but at the same time, their presence did offer her a safety blanket.

When she was young, before her father had left, the family decided they needed a dog. Samantha, a golden retriever, had been crate trained. When she was stressed or wanted to be left alone, she’d retreat inside it. Melia had called it Samantha’s safe zone. After being in this situation, Avery now understood. This cell had become her safe zone, a place where no one could get to her.

“Tell me about your mom’s murder,” Gabe said out of the blue on the afternoon of their third day together. They’d just finished discussing their favorite television shows, and the change in subject blindsided her. She shifted in her bed as butterflies tickled her belly while she considered an answer. What if his job is to gain my trust, find out more about my crime, and then turn that information over to the authorities? It made sense. The more they had against her, the stronger their case would be, and the longer she’d be put away. McAllister didn’t have to worry about her if she stayed in prison. He probably hoped she’d either rot away or be scared straight, so to speak.

“There’s not a lot I haven’t told you already,” she said, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them.

Gabe shook his head, long legs stretched out in front of him as he stared her down from the other side of the bars.

“Sure, there is. You paraphrased. There’s always more to death than that. What set your radar off, besides the bites?”

Her memories returned to when she and Victoria had gone through her mother’s belongings. She still hadn’t been allowed a phone call and wondered if Victoria had gone nuts searching for her yet.

“Mom was murdered in her apartment. When the police released the crime scene, I went there with one of my friends and took a look around. It was trashed.”

“Like there had been a fight, or like it had been tossed?”

She recalled the mess and shrugged. “I guess I really don’t know the difference. Is there one?”

Gabe leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “Did it seem like a fight had occurred, or like someone was searching for something? Was the damage more methodical, or did it have an element of crazy to it?”

Images of her mother’s black and blue body lying on the gurney filtered through again, despite her attempt to block them.

“Definitely a fight. She was bruised up pretty bad.”

“Anything out of the ordinary in the apartment besides the mess?”

Her stomach twisted as she recalled the scene. Avery squeezed her eyes shut for a second, the anger bubbling to the surface. Her mother had been a good person and hadn’t deserved what had befallen her. Melia would never laugh again, never enjoy another plate of pasta, or the job she loved—helping others.

Tears threatened to flow as she remembered her mother’s hugs and her smile that would remind her of a warm sunbeam filtering through a window on a cold day. How many times had she wished she could just snuggle up beneath that smile and let it soothe her as if it were a familiar, cozy blanket? What she wouldn’t give to see Melia now, to allow her presence to give her comfort.

She avoided meeting Gabe’s gaze and stared down at her dismal looking prison blanket, picking fuzz balls off it, her thoughts returning to his question. McAllister had never asked her if anything was missing from her mother’s apartment. If Gabe was working for him to get information from her, she didn’t see how telling him about the missing religious items would hurt her case in any way.

“The one thing she did spend her money on was religious artifacts, specifically, Christian ones. Mom always wore a cross around her neck, and she had statues of Jesus and Mary around her apartment, as well as a plaque of the Ten Commandments. Some of them were gold and might have been expensive, but I never knew for sure if they were real or not. I never asked.”

“What about them?” he asked.

She focused on him when she heard the edge in his voice. He met her stare with rapt attention, the muscles in his arms tense as he clasped his hands together.

“They were stolen,” she said.

The silence thickened except for the ticking of a clock somewhere down the hall.

“Seriously?” he said, his voice almost a whisper.

“Yes.”

“Holy shit.”

He placed his head in his hands. Avery furrowed her brow, confused. Somehow, she’d just delivered news he found incredibly interesting.

“What?” she asked. “Holy shit, what?”