Locked Together (In Chains) by Michelle Abbott Page B

slide all over each other.” I bite my lip as my whole body shivers.
    “What the hell are you doing?” My eyes snap open, the guard’s standing in front of me. “Are you getting off on this? Pervert,” she yells. I look down at the floor, I can feel my face burning up and my arms are shaking with the strain of holding up these fucking buckets. I beg my body to keep going, please hold out, I can’t do another hour of this. I can’t. The guard sits back down and I decide I’d better focus, I wish I knew how much time I had left. I could be holding Savannah right now. I hate this place. No matter what, I’m never coming back here again.
    It seems like forever before I hear the words, “Put the buckets down.” Oh thank God. They clatter as I drop them to the floor. I wrap my arms around my body to try to stop my muscles from shaking but it don’t help. She has me empty the sand outside and put the buckets away and then leads me to the laundry. Damn, I forgot I had to wash everything over again. I’m expecting her to tell me to wash the laundry we dropped earlier but instead she points to a basket of clean laundry. “Take that outside.” I’m not gonna argue with her, I just want to get this done so I can be with Savannah. I wheel the basket outside. “Tip it onto the ground.” What? “Tip it onto the ground. Now.” I do as she says. “Tread on it. Rub it into the mud, get it good and dirty.” Oh just great, she’s gonna make me re-wash this as well. As I use my feet to rub the sheets into the mud, I want to cry, which I know is pathetic but it’s gonna take me most of the night to wash this. I won’t get any time with Savannah. If that prick Reece has hit on her I’m gonna beat the crap out of him.
     
    My arms feel like lead weights, they won’t work properly and my muscles ache. I need to put pressure on the board to scrub the laundry, this is gonna take forever. I hear the door close and I turn my head, the guard has gone. I stop scrubbing and rub my arms to try to get some life back into them. I hear the door unlocking, so I get back to work.
    “Kade?”
    I recognise that voice.
    “I never thought I’d see you back here Kade, how are you doing?”
    I haven’t seen her for eight years but she hasn’t changed much. She’s still got short, spiky, red hair and big boobs. I remember she was about ten years older than me, so she must be about thirty-six now. I look down at her hands; she’s still got those long red fingernails. An image comes into my mind of her clawing them down my back; I lower my head and look at the floor. “I’m okay ma’am.”
    “Ma’am? Since when did we get so formal? You can look at me you know.” I lift my gaze from the floor. She’s crossed her arms over her chest and she’s smiling down at me with one eyebrow raised. “What did you do to get sent back here?”
    “I killed someone.”
    Her eyes open wide and she laughs. “Wow. Did you kill them with those bare hands of yours?” She licks her lips, she’s one sick bitch. “Who did you kill? What did they do to you?”
    “It’s a long story.” I turn around and get back to the laundry. “I’ve got work to do.”
    “Yeah, I was told I was supervising someone who was being punished for dropping laundry. That doesn’t sound like you Kade. You were never the clumsy type.” I don’t have anything to say to that, so I say nothing. “So, who are you protecting? You’re taking the blame for someone else.”
    “Bailey, I’m tired. I just wanna get this done so I can go to sleep.”
    She squats down beside me. “You used to be a lot more fun.” She strokes her fingernail along my bicep and puts her lips to my ear. “Take a break,” she whispers, “I can make you forget all about sleep.”
    I lean away from her. “I’ve got a girlfriend now.”
    She shrugs. “So.”
    “So, I don’t wanna cheat on her. I love her.”
    She throws her head back and laughs, then she slaps me on the arm. “Whipped