Chapter 118 Coban’s POV
The corridor was still chaos, guards barking orders, radios crackling, the medics weaving carefully as they strapped Sarah onto the stretcher. I watched, jaw locked so tight it ached, blood sticky on my fingers and smeared down the front of my shirt.
I hadn’t let go of Margot yet. Her body was warm and soft against me, her trembling breath hitting my neck where she’d buried her face. For a moment, it kept me grounded. For a moment, I almost forgot where we were. Almost.
“Alright, that’s enough gawking – back to your cells,” one of the guards snapped, cutting through the fog of noise. “Clear the hall. Now.” The order wasn’t negotiable. Not here. But the tone of it pissed me off. “I don’t more than you lot, fucking useless!” I raged back, leaving the guard speechless and standing down. Pig.
Margot stiffened in my hold at hearing my tone, as Cara peeled herself away from Leo just long enough to stumble forward and wrap her arms tight around Margot’s shoulders – breaking her from my contact. Their foreheads touched side to side, a desperate little moment between them in the madness. “I’ll catch up with you tomorrow,” Cara whispered, voice cracked but firm, her hands squeezing Margot’s arms like she needed her to believe the words. “She’s going to be okay… she has to be.” Margot’s eyes were shining, her lower lip trembling, but she nodded fast like she couldn’t trust herself to speak.
Leo’s hand came down heavy on Cara’s back, steering her gently but firmly away. He muttered something low in her ear that I didn’t catch, but it was no doubt an attempt to ground her. She clung to him as he led her down the hall toward their block, her shoulders shaking all over again.
I let them go without a word, my attention sliding back to Margot who had fallen back into my arms. She hadn’t moved, her eyes darting helplessly toward the cell where the medics were now maneuvering Sarah carefully onto the stretcher. I caught just a glimpse of her from where I stood, white as a sheet, blood still matting her hair, the towel I’d used already stained black-red and now tossed aside. It was a fucking crime scene from a horror movie if I’d ever seen one… Margot’s breath caught in her throat, tears spilling over her cheeks as the stretcher wheeled into view. Guards barked orders to make room. “Is… is she still breathing?” she asked, her voice breaking suddenly as I began to move us across to our own cell.
Her tears cut through me sharper than I expected and I felt terrible for what she had to go through all of today. She wasn’t cut out for this… I slid my arm around her back, turning her and pulling her flush against my side so she didn’t have to look at Sarah’s broken body for any longer. “She was,” I said, my tone rough but steady. “Barely. But she’s with the right people now. They’ll help her.”
The words tasted bitter in my mouth, because I knew the truth: in this place, “the right people” didn’t always mean safety. But right now, it was what she needed to hear. And this wasn’t a prisoner they were dealing with, it was a volunteer for the project. If they let her die on their watch, then things wouldn’t look good for them…
As we reached our room, I glanced back one last time. The stretcher was halfway down the corridor, Sarah’s limp hand hanging off the side before one of the medics tucked it carefully under the blanket. That image burned itself into my mind. Newman’s face flashed in the same second – red, spitting, wild-eyed as the guards dragged him off earlier from the canteen. So far, all I had was pieces to a puzzle I couldn’t yet solve. Why was Newman furious in the canteen? Why did he shove that other guy? Why did he strike Sarah like he did? Why did he then leave her there to fucking die?
I clenched my free hand until the blood that had crusted on my knuckles cracked and stung. Solitary wasn’t going to fix this. Not for her. Not for me. I tightened my grip around Margot, pulling her inside with me, kicking the door over to envelope us in the fresh silence of our own space.
“It’s going to be okay, Bella.” I spoke strong and true, turning her as she collapsed into me for comfort again. Her body melted into mine like she had no strength left to hold herself up anymore. The sobs that had been tearing through her earlier now came quieter, smaller, muffled against my chest as I braced her in my arms. I tightened my grip around her, one palm spread across her back, the other cupping the back of her head as if I could shield her from every nightmare in this fucking place. But how would that be possible when at times, I was the whole nightmare…
She fit against me too well, fragile in my hold, her breath stuttering against my skin. My Bella. Her fingers clutched at my shirt, not caring that it was still stiff with Sarah’s blood, her need for comfort outweighing the mess of it. Slowly, her trembling eased, her breathing starting to steady again.
I pressed my lips against the top of her braid – barely a touch, almost more of a breath than a kiss – but it was enough to ground me. She shifted slightly, tilting her face up, her tear-filled eyes locking with mine. My chest squeezed tight at the sight. “You did good,” she whispered hoarsely, her voice breaking at the edges but steady enough to understand. “Coban… I’m proud of you. You stepped up and did the right thing.”
The words hit me like a sucker punch to the damn jaw. I’d heard people scream my name before – judges, guards, men in the yard calling for blood, my father… I’d heard insults, warnings, curses… But proud? No one had ever said that about me. Not once in my life. I blinked, staring down at her like I wasn’t sure she was even real. “Don’t say that,” I muttered low, my voice rough, uneven. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
But she didn’t flinch at my tone. Nor did she stop hugging me. Instead, her hand rose slow, trembling, brushing up against my jaw, smearing a faint streak of dried blood across my skin. “I do know,” she whispered firmly, her eyes unyielding even through the sheen of tears. “You didn’t have to help her. You could’ve just stood back. But you didn’t. You fought to keep her alive. That’s not the man everyone here thinks you are. That’s the good in you.”
Her faith in me was more dangerous than any fist I’d ever taken to the face. I let out a harsh breath, torn between shoving her words away or pulling her closer until she disappeared into me completely.