Page 28 of The Vow Thief

The next day, the food tray came with gray beans and carrots that appeared to have been formed from rubber. I ate half and left the rest. When he passed later, he paused in the doorway.

“You eat?” he asked. God, this man was always so gruff.

“Yes.”

“All of it?”

Who was this guy, my father?

“Half.”

His gaze dropped to the tray and then lifted back to me.“Why not the rest?”

“Because the carrots bounced.”

“You don’t waste food.”

“I’m not wasting,” I told him.“I’m editing.”

The corner of his jaw tightened.“All of it. Next time.”

“Or what?”

He leaned just close enough for his voice to slip through the bars like smoke.“Or you’ll find out what happens when you waste what you’re given.”

Holy shit, why had that just turned me on? I dragged my nails along my thigh in slow arcs, deliberate enough for him to notice.“You make threats sound like foreplay, Officer.”

His stare didn’t waver.“Quiet.”

“Make me.”

For the briefest moment, his eyes darkened. Then he stepped back and walked away, boots echoing down the corridor, leaving me vibrating with a need I decided to take care of when it was light out.

By Thursday, I had turned it into a ritual. I waited for the rhythm of his boots. I breathed with them. When he arrived, I leaned forward on the cot, twirling a lock of hair around my finger.

“You always this unfriendly?”

He stopped. Folded his arms across his chest.“This is me being friendly. Back against the wall,” he barked.

I gave him a confused look and slowly complied. He opened the cell and motioned for me to step out. He didn’t cuff me. He led me to a room that smelled like old books and paint. It was their poor excuse for a library. But it wasn’t my cell and I wasn’t cuffed. I wouldn’t try to escape or break any rules. I needed this.

“No talking. You are being supervised.” He pointed to each camera in the corners.

I walked to the first bookshelf and dug in. I pretended not to notice him watching me. He didn’t hide it either. He took a seat on a nearby table, and his eyes never left me.

The next morning, I tried something new. When he paused at my cell, I leaned forward and whispered,“My safe word is lethal injection.”

His eyes sharpened, cutting straight through the joke. He didn’t even blink.“Your safe word is silence.”

The words were a sentence handed down in court. A verdict. A promise. And the worst part was that some part of me ached for him to mean it.

Chapter 14 - Decisions

Matt's POV

The house was quiet when I stepped inside, the kind of quiet that made me think of possibility instead of punishment. Charleston had left me buzzing, standing taller, remembering what it felt like to be good at something again. I carried that energy through the door like a gift I couldn’t wait to give her. Sarah was at the table with a basket of laundry, folding one neat square after another. A small lamp glowed at her elbow, softening the edges of her face. For a second, I saw us the way we used to be: her building a home around me, me walking in to meet her there.

“I closed it,” I said.“The Charleston deal. It’s done.”