All Chained Up by Sophie Jordan

surprisingly graceful as he wove between them, his elbow shooting out and colliding with another guy’s nose in a move that would have gotten you thrown out of any other game in the civilized world. Blood spewed and the player dropped. Reid didn’t pause in his drive, dunking the ball and sending the rim into loud vibrations.
    â€œYeah,” North continued, “word is they hatched this crazy-­fuck plan to hijack the HSU.”
    Knox swung around, all of him locking tight. “What?”
    â€œYeah. Everyone’s been talking about this new nurse in there. You must have seen her. Old Smitey couldn’t stop talking about her. Hell, everyone’s suddenly claiming they’ve got food poisoning to get in there and check her out . . .”
    The rest of his brother’s words faded. A roar of blood rushed to his head. He turned around, scanning the yard, searching for the two new fish his brother was talking about. He remembered them. They talked too much and spent the better part of their time getting their asses handed to them. Skinny guys, both in for armed robbery. Repeat offenders, they were in for life this time.
    â€œWhere are they?” he demanded.
    His brother looked at him oddly, his dark eyebrows drawn tightly together. “They both faked sick. Made themselves puke and everything. Guards took them about twenty minutes ago.”
    He must have just missed them.
    The roar in his ears faded to a dull ringing. Cold seeped over him as he thought of Nurse Davis in there with those two bastards. His cousin’s face flashed across his mind. All her youth, all her innocence, destroyed. In its place had been only a ravaged shell with soulless eyes.
    Shaking his head, he faced his brother. “Fuck me up.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œListen to me. I need you to hit me. Make sure you do some damage.”
    â€œFuck that. I’m not hitting you.”
    He grabbed his brother by the shirt, gripping fistfuls of white fabric. “I need in that infirmary. Either you send me there or I pick a fight and let someone else fuck me up.”
    North’s gaze drilled into him. “You’re serious?”
    â€œMake it look good.” He released his shirt and backed up a step.
    His brother studied him a moment longer, his eyes full of questions. Knox knew he wanted an explanation, but there wasn’t time. She was in there now. With them.
    His brother trusted him enough to do as he asked. North also knew he would get someone else to give him a beating if he refused. If that happened, there was no telling what kind of injuries he could sustain.
    â€œDo it,” Knox barked, his pulse throbbing wildly in his neck. “Make me bleed.”
    North clenched his jaw with resolve. His dark eyes glinted, reading Knox’s urgency. “All right.” He shrugged and cocked back his arm. “What are brothers for?”
    Knox braced himself for the blow, sorry his brother might get a brief stint in the hole for this, but there was no help for it.
    He had to get to her in time.

 
    EIGHT
    T HE MOMENT THE two new inmates arrived, unease bubbled like acid in the pit of Briar’s stomach. God . Working here was going to give her an ulcer. Would she never get used to it? Hopefully, they would find a full-­time doctor soon and she wouldn’t have to.
    Wiping a loose tendril of hair back from her forehead, Briar eyed the newcomers over the laptop where she worked as they entered the room with all the boisterousness of two ­people arriving at a party. Like this wasn’t a prison. Like they weren’t inmates at all—­or sick, for that matter.
    Her disquiet deepened as one of them leveled his gaze on her and elbowed his companion. As Murphy frisked them, they looked her over from across the room.
    Finished searching them, Murphy returned to his chair. The wood legs creaked beneath his settling weight. Josiah motioned them to a set of beds nearest the