The Prison Project

Chapter 68 – Full Control

Coban’s POV

The cell was empty when I got back. Silent. Too fucking silent.

As I felt my temper flare, my eyes locked on the small notebook still sitting on the desk, finding it closed now, not the way I’d left it.

She’d fucking read it. She’d seen the damn note I’d left.

“Don’t leave the cell… how hard was it to understand? I think she enjoys this… enjoys tempting me to rip out her fucking hair…” I muttered to myself, shoving the book from the desk – sending it hurtling across the floor.

Clear. Unmistakable. Not a fucking suggestion. And she’d just decided to ignore it anyway.

“Stupid little bitch,” I hissed under my breath, my teeth grinding as my hands balled up into tight fists at my sides. The fucking nerve of her to keep doing this to me…

Nobody had ever disrespected me more than once and gotten away with it, yet here she was, doing it again and again as though I was nothing more than a weak man…

After everything I’d done for her last night too? After the meeting this morning where I’d stared down three guards and a camera feed defending her?

I’d trusted her to listen today. To follow orders. Yet, now she was gone!

I tore out of the cell, moving through the corridors like a storm in motion, my steps slamming the floor in a quick pace. I stopped two guards outside the block. “You seen my little blonde? The girl I’m always with? The one who looks like she wouldn’t last two minutes in here without someone holding her fucking hand?”

One of them blinked, startled. The other, a woman, gave a small nod and gestured with her chin. “I’m certain I saw her go in for lunch, Santorelli,” she mused.

Lunch?

My jaw tightened so hard it cracked. That wasn’t even our designated time slot for lunch either…

So not only did she leave the cell – she did it outside of schedule? Up for a new challenge today, it seems? Fresh fucking meat?!

“Who was she with?” I growled, but the woman shrugged. “Didn’t see, I only noticed her.”

I didn’t say thanks to them, because I didn’t have any time for polite. I was already charging toward the cafeteria.

Blood boiling. Heart thudding.

If she came here alone just to eat something, I swear to God…

I shoved the doors open and strode inside, eyes immediately scanning the room. Different faces today. Different colors everywhere.

This wasn’t our rotation. This wasn’t the group that knew by now to stay away from her. If she got mixed up with the wrong crowd without me here, then it could be worse than just bad!

And then I saw it.

Not the deer-caught-in-headlights that I’d been braced for. Or the tiny scared girl stood in a corner somewhere, panicking over her poor choices…

No… Just a fucking hand. Waving at me.

She was sat at one of the back tables like she owned the place, tucked between Leo and the other girl, Cara, with a damn grilled cheese in front of her like it was a picnic date.

At least she didn’t fucking come in here alone like a fool…

Leo’s presence dulled the rage by a thread, but not nearly enough to stop me from stalking toward them with fury bleeding off every step.

They saw me coming, of course they did. Leo turned, always too casual for his own good. Cara blinked like she’d just seen a ghost. Margot’s whole body jolted, shrinking into herself the moment I locked eyes with her.

Good. She should be scared.

I wasn’t happy.

“You out of the dog house already, Santo?” Leo smirked like this was some joke, like I wasn’t half a second away from flipping the goddamn table upside down.

I ignored him, my stare fixed only on her.

“I told you not to leave the fucking cell,” I snapped, my voice sharp enough to slice through the whole damn cafeteria.

Margot stiffened, eyes wide, lips parted like she wanted to defend herself but couldn’t find the words. Good. Maybe that meant she knew just how badly she’d fucked up already.

Before she fully attempted to mumble anything, Leo leaned back to face me, calm as ever.

“Fortunately for her,” he said, “I went to your cell to figure out why you skipped the gym – thought you were just being lazy. Little Bella here told me you’d been at a meeting with the guards, so I brought her with us for lunch so she wouldn’t miss another meal. She hasn’t been walking around anywhere on her own, don’t worry.”

He held my gaze, not challenging, just firm. Leo was the only man in this place I tolerated talking to me. He had been my closest friend since we were kids. The one who’d put his neck on the line and had gotten caught alongside me – landing us both in here.

Still, I didn’t speak right away.

I let the weight of my silence hang. Let her squirm a little more while I studied them both – the guilt on her face, the concern on Cara’s, and the casual, near-bored ease on Leo’s. He never gave a shit.

Finally, I let out a short grunt. “Guess I better go grab something then before they kick us out.”

I turned and walked to the front of the line, of course I did. Nobody in this place was going to tell me to wait behind them.

I didn’t care that the guards called me in this morning to tell me that surveillance saw her get hit. That the girl had attempted to make a complaint against me.

Snitches get stitches…

I sniggered at the thought, piling a tray with two grilled cheese sandwiches and fries, knowing that even the guards didn’t care about what I’d done.

I’d risked everything – even a potential day in solitary, all because some bitch thought she could lay hands on my girl.

And Margot had repaid that by ignoring the one instruction I left her?

Still… she hadn’t gone far and at least she’d gone with Leo… That was the only thing keeping me from dragging her out of here by the back of her neck.

As I returned to the table, I didn’t look at her. Not yet.

Let her sweat a little more. Let her think about what she’d done.

But deep down, beneath the fury, something else was boiling. Not rage. Not quite.

It was that twisted, familiar itch that came with her. The part of me that liked knowing she was scared of what I might do to her… The part that liked knowing she wanted to make it up to me…

She wanted me to reward her. To treat her decent. To kiss her. To let her sleep on the bed with me.

I had full control already, and I liked it that way…

The notebook was still to be brought up too… I was saving that.

She had no idea how much trouble she was really in. Not yet…