The Deadliest Secret (The Deadliest Series) (28 page)

             
He almost growled the words, how could the warden have given him such a shit schedule so soon?

             
He burst into the office without knocking, it looked like the warden had his feet on the desk, and Scott did some contortions midair before finally collecting himself and stopping his flailing.

             
“What the fuck Ford?”

             
“My thoughts exactly.” Torrian almost growled like a feral animal.

             
“What?” Scott was confused; Torrian obviously disrupted some deep thought.

             
“This fucking bullshit.” Torrian threw the crumpled paper at the warden; still seething from the first time he read the thing.

             
The warden read the paper slowly, once, twice, three times and remained silent. Torrian was still standing, refusing to sit so long as his anger was through the roof. Everything about McQueen’s name next to his own pissed him off beyond all belief. Torrian had never been this angry, except for the attack that happened so recently.

             
“I see.” The warden said after contemplation.

             
“That has to be some fucking mistake.” Torrian knew arguing with the boss wasn’t the smartest idea, but this was an insult to injury.

             
“No it isn’t. Torrian, you are my best guard, the only one that I can trust around this fucker. I’ve had many complaints about him already.” The warden thumped a stack of papers on his desk surely they were all related to McQueen he was an asshole after all, “Torrian, I need you to not spit in his food and just deliver it today, he has scared the others off, the shit he says is just pure evil.”

             
Torrian finally shook off his anger enough to notice his surroundings. The warden’s knuckles were white, he was gripping them hard, and something had knocked the shit out of him. Not quite literally but the warden was nervous, and not his usual kind. This was something big.

             
“What happened?” Torrian asked suddenly sounding calm even to his ears, he sounded eerily calm.

             
The warden locked eyes with Torrian, “It’ll all come out soon son, just have to realize, sometimes our hands are tied by higher powers and we have to just fall in line. You feel me?”

             
Torrian hesitated on his answer, this did not sound good. “Yes sir.”

             
“Good, now I’m really depending on you, so get out there and take care of the bastard, I don’t like this any more than you do but even I have my arm twisted on this one.”

             
Both of the males stood and shook hands, Torrian hated the thought of serving food to the bastard that attacked his woman, but by law McQueen needed food. He would have to deal with McQueen today, but the best part was McQueen would have to listen to him. This may be somewhat beneficial for working out his anger, he mused about what he would say to the asshole on his way to the kitchen to get the meals for the people in solitary confinement, by the time he unlocked the private corridor leading to the confined area he had a general outline ready, with plenty of choice words.

             
Torrian walked the line, handing out the meals to the locked away convicts behind the heavy doors.  His skin prickled, he got closer to the end of the hall where McQueen was kept, and his knuckles were ghostly white by the time he reached the end of the line. His voice was curt when he spoke.

             
“Convict McQueen here is your food.” Torrian set the tray in the bin to be transferred inside the cell and closed it; he turned quickly and began to walk.

             
“Have you tasted her yet?” Kody’s voice came from nowhere, and immediately Torrian saw red.

             
“Watch it convict.” Torrian spoke with contempt.

             
“I have, I’ve licked her sweetest tears, and kissed her most tender lips.” Kody’s face was pressed against the door of his cell.

             
“You may have done that in the past, but funny thing is. You’re in here till the day you do us all a favor and die you waste of fucking oxygen and despite you trying to destroy her we’re engaged and going to get married, and I taste her every fucking night. Enjoy thinking about that when all you have for your dick is your hand and tears for lube.” Torrian walked away, glad he said what he said, and McQueen needed the reality shock.

              Gwen saw men leaving Scott’s office earlier in the day, they were both dressed very well, most likely lawyers coming to him about an appeal, she shrugged it off and went about her schedule. Her first client was her long one of the day… make that week. It was Gabriel Amstera; he was the son of an engineer and a housewife, and also one of the most heinous people she had to listen to. It had taken nearly a month for him to begin to open up, and that was only when Gwen applied her lip-gloss once during a session, this was her in. That was when he began talking about the deeds he had done, and she cringed every time he relished on the details.

             
“That is the wrong color for you.” Gabriel noted

             
“Oh?” Gwen wondered what was wrong with her appearance today; he always found something that wasn’t right about her.

             
“The white washes you out, you should wear cream, how many times do I have to tell you that? You listen less than Addison did.” He looked at his cuticles as if he was bored already by their conversation.

             
Delving deeper into his reasoning was Gwen’s job, so she bit at this. “Addison didn’t listen? When didn’t she listen and why?”

             
He turned and looked at her, Gwen had started slowly buying him makeup, he seemed fascinated by it, and he put it on himself, tested the colors and would be vocal when Gwen bought the wrong colors, during one session he admitted to being transsexual. “Addison didn’t listen about a lot of things, but she defied me on the son issue, I could not be the father of a boy, I killed it because she was an adulteress and the bastard child did not belong in our world.”

             
“What world was that?” She asked.

             
“My world of family, I had.” He stated simply with a shrug, he didn’t care.

             
“Why didn’t a boy belong in that world, boys need family too.” Gwen was speaking softly.

             
“Boys are sinful and dirty. My beautiful women deserved better than a filthy boy, boys are not chosen by God.” He used the excuse he had been taught all his life boys are dirty and unworthy.

             
Gabriel’s mind was warped, wrong was right, truths were lies. Gwen pinched the bridge of her nose; Gabriel was busy with the mirror. “Your women? Who were your women?”

             
“Everyone that followed me, I had many wives, all of them were beautiful younger women, and all mine.”

             
“Who was your favorite wife?” Gwen inquired.

             
“Addison until she disobeyed me about the child, then tried to attack me, the savior of the race.”

             
Now he was comparing himself to a savior. “You consider yourself the savior?”

             
“Yes, I am and my females were to serve me.”

             
“What happened to Addison when she stopped wanting to serve you?”

             
“I killed her. She wasn’t of use to me anymore so she had to be disposed of, I kept her though.”

             
“What do you mean you kept her?”

             
“Well I kept her body, then when that started to decompose too much I cut her skin off, it was just the right time because I started to miss her a little, so my other wives would wear the skin to make the savior happy.”

             
Gwen had to repress the shudder that threatened to show her disgust and her gag reflex. He was truly one of the most intense patients she had to deal with, she checked her watch, only a few more minutes and her notepad was full, and her tape recorder was still going. “They wore the skin, that is different Gabriel. How young were some of your brides?”

             
“The wives varied from age ten to thirty five, the women that aged over that became the grandmothers for the younger children. Teach them.” Gabriel was applying his favorite liquid eyeliner, his hand moved in fluid movements.

             
She swore the only reason he came to the sessions were the makeup, but he did open up when she brought the box out. Time was almost up, then her day would be easier, she could stop gritting her teeth. Sure most of her patients had a depraved indifference towards human life, but Gabriel was alongside Kody in his evil ways.  The bell chimed in the background signaling that the time was up.

             
Gwen stood, Gabriel looked at her, he did look good when he did his makeup, and she did have to give him that. If he would have taken a different path he may be a Hollywood makeup artist, but instead he went the way of a psycho killer. Great. He would return to his cell, and spend the day admiring his face, and possibly seek a new partner. That wasn’t her problem; it was the guards’ problem. Gwen rang the bell and Justin came to get the prisoner and transport him back to the block. Gwen used the free time to escape her office and go to the water cooler in the break room to refill her bottle.

             
Her ears were on alert, listening to everything everyone was saying, most of the chatter was about the men in suits, hedging bets on who they were and why they wanted alone time with the warden and why the warden hadn’t come from his office yet today. Gwen thought that was odd, normally Scott would make rounds, and make sure everyone else was working, even if that meant him slacking off a little bit more. She crossed the building and knocked softly on the door, before opening it a smidgen.

             
“Scott, are you in here? What’s going on?” She asked and pushed her way into the room.

             
The warden’s sapphire eyes pierced into her; behind them Gwen could almost feel the pain. The warden swallowed hard and spoke slowly as if he was weighing each word before he spoke. This couldn’t be good.

             
“Gwen I know you heard I had visitors today.” The statement was true; Scott and Gwen both knew how fast the office gossip spread.

             
“I was going to ask about that, who were your visitors? You seem rattled.” She pointed out the obvious.

             
“They were feds Gwen,” he paused for a moment and used his monogrammed handkerchief to wipe the sweat beading from his forehead, “they expressed a dire situation that they feel only you can help with.”

             
Gwen’s eyebrows shot up but she remained quiet for a while, the silence was thick between them, it killed her she needed to know what it was. “What favor?”

             
“They need Kody to confess, there’s more bodies popping up with the same M.O. as his, and the attack on you… they want capital punishment. It would all be under the table of course, but they’d move him to Walla Walla and do the deed. They feel the only way he’ll confess is if he talks to you and you coax him into it.”

             
A pregnant silence loomed once more; Gwen had to replay the situation and what the warden was asking her, what the government was asking of her. “What if I refuse?”

             
“Then I tell the agents that visited and they remove the problems in the way, they will only ask once. Next time it would be a direct order.” Scott’s voice sounded like he was a bitter, scolded child.

             
Was the government asking something illegal of her? Yes. Immoral? Yes. Taking advantage of her position? Hell yes. Would she do it? She didn’t know. The way Scott spoke it was as if their jobs depended on her complying with the whims of the government. Gwen felt as if forces were working against her today to ensure it did not end well.

             
Gwen spent the next hour talking to the warden, they exhausted every option they could think of, but every time it came back to her. There were too many possibilities for things to go wrong if she wasn’t the one in the room, gently steering him towards what she needed to know. She had to face the realization that she was the object of Kody’s obsession; he would be more likely to share about his victims if she were around.

             
She combed her long fingers through her blonde hair and spoke. “ I’ll do it.”

             
“What?” The warden looked shocked.

             
“I’ll do it. He won’t open up to the others like he does me, he wants me so bring him to me, but I’ll need to have protection and I will record as usual.” Gwen was laying her ground rules.