Chapter 35 – Blood Shed

Margot’s POV

The guys spoke over our heads, casual curses and rough laughter as I took note of a different side of Coban… the more relaxed side.

Although I felt somewhat safe, I couldn’t fully relax, not after hearing how those guys spoke about their assigned girls. Was that what this project mostly was? Girls coming here to please the inmates?

Cara gave me a look, part concern, part ‘what the hell just happened,’ before lowering her voice.

“You doing okay still?” she asked quietly, leaning in so only I could hear her. Her bright eyes flickered behind me to where Coban’s hand still rested loosely against his thigh, rock steady.

“Yeah… we had a sort of good chat in the room,” I admitted. “But hearing those men, that was insane.”

Cara exhaled through her nose and nodded, frowning. “They saw Leo on the way out and followed us. They seemed to know him well, though… maybe they work with them or something, if you get what I mean.” Her voice was barely above a whisper now. “I even tried saying hi to the girls… and nothing. Just blank stares.”

She looked genuinely rattled. I hated that. Cara didn’t get rattled easily.

I leaned in closer, my voice low. “They’re probably all just…”

“Assholes?” she offered, trying for a small laugh.

“Yeah. That.” I smiled back.

We lapsed into a brief silence, both of us pretending to listen to Leo and Coban talk over our heads, though neither of us were really paying attention anymore. My heart was still racing, and something in the pit of my stomach still wasn’t settling as I looked around the courtyard…

Leo suddenly went stock-still mid-sentence, eyes narrowing over Coban’s shoulder. His voice exploded through the still air like a grenade.

“What the fuck’s he doing here?!”

Gravel cracked and shifted as both Leo and Coban stood at the same time, fast and sharp like striking vipers, rising up on either side of us in perfect sync.

“Looking for another fight, clearly,” Coban snarled, and his voice wasn’t casual anymore. It was cold steel. Murderous.

My stomach dropped.

“What’s going on?!” I hissed, voice caught somewhere between panic and disbelief as I looked to Cara for reason.

Her eyes were wide, mirroring mine, and without a second thought she reached for my hand. We clutched onto each other tightly, fingers locked in a panicked grip.

Then I saw who they were looking at. Three men. Standing just beyond the far side of the yard, whispering amongst themselves. Their postures were rigid, movements subtle, but their expressions were pure venom. Their eyes never left Coban or Leo. One of them even had a half-smile pulling at his mouth, as if this was funny to him.

There was tension, thick and sour in the air. Something unspoken but old.

History.

Bad history…

I barely had time to process it when I heard Coban’s voice again, a hard tone that snapped me back into the present.

“Bella!”

He didn’t even look at me. His eyes were still locked on the three figures.

I jolted slightly. “Y-Yeah?”

“Go walk over to the fence behind us with Cara, and bring us two of the largest rocks you can find.”

My brain stalled. “Wait–” Had I heard him wrong? “What?”

He didn’t like that I didn’t move. His head whipped toward me, eyes flashing.

“DO IT!” He snapped.

His voice cut through me like a whip and suddenly my legs were moving, Cara’s too. He didn’t have to tell us twice.

We scurried behind the bench like rabbits bolting for cover, eyes scanning the cracked ground near the fence, desperate for anything that looked remotely large.

“What the hell is happening?!” Cara hissed again, but I could barely speak.

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully, breath short, “Maybe he’s trying to distract us so him and Leo can talk… maybe it’s nothing…”

It didn’t feel like nothing…

The gravel was useless, mostly pebbles that were too small. But just near the leg of the bench we’d been seated on, I spotted a larger, jagged rock, palm-sized and solid. I snatched it up without thinking. Cara found one too, slightly smaller, but still heavy.

We turned and rushed back – but before I could even take a full step toward him, Coban was suddenly there.

He grabbed me – not hard, not painful, but fast and firm, dragging me right into his chest like a shielded fortress. I gasped, caught off guard, but his arms locked around me with purpose.

His mouth was by my ear again, hot breath against my skin.

“Give it to me and stay right behind me.” His voice was all grit and command. No room for questions.

My fingers shook as I pressed the rock into his palm—it looked laughably small in his hand—and in the next second, he was moving me behind him with a single push of his arm.

I peeked around his shoulder just in time to see the three men moving toward us fast now, their pace no longer casual, their faces dark and twisted.

How had the guards out here not noticed a thing yet?! I thought, eyes scanning to count the shocking number of them compared to the inmates…

I couldn’t breathe.

And very quickly, things erupted.

“You thought we’d let you get out of these walls alive, Santo?!” one of the men shouted, just before fists flew – no more words, no more build-up.

They clashed like a wave, as I watched Coban smash the rock against the head of the one who spoke first, drawing immediate blood, and I jumped and slammed my eyes shut for a second in horror…

The sound was chaotic: gravel crunching, bodies slamming, the guttural grunts of grown men fighting with no rules, no hesitation, before the whistles began to blow loudly – alerting the guards.

Leo tackled one of them hard enough to knock them both off their feet, fists already hammering down, while Coban ducked a punch and swung his rock-clenched fist into the side of another man’s skull.

It made a sickening crack—the kind you don’t forget.

One of the men tried to grab Coban’s shirt, but he twisted, yanked him down by the collar, and kneed him hard in the ribs, so hard I felt it from where I stood.

I wanted to scream. Or run. I didn’t know.

Cara was frozen too, clutching me with one hand clamped over her mouth.

Blood was everywhere on all of them. Someone’s nose was gushing. Another was coughing and spitting into the dirt.

And yet… neither Coban nor Leo seemed winded.

Not yet.

They moved like predators. Fluid, fast, practiced. Like they’d done this before. Many times.

It was terrifying to witness them so violent, causing my eyes to water from the scene.

Guards eventually flooded in, just as my eyes caught one of the inmates retrieving a small makeshift blade, swinging it at Coban and ripping his shirt.

“He has a knife!” I gasped loudly, as Cara suddenly seemed to be losing control of her emotions entirely.

Before we could watch on, rough hands were on us, causing us to shriek, before realizing that it was a large guard. “Let’s go, ladies!” He yelled, hauling us both towards the door to go back inside as I fought to look back at the messy scene behind us.

Many men had gathered to witness the fight, making it harder for the guards to flood in to put a stop to it.

“One of them might die?!” I cried, as the guard only tugged us onwards.

Coban could die?!

But without another second, the door closed, taking us both away from the violence completely…