Guide To Surviving Prison Is Getting Screwed By General Lily! [BL]

Chapter 60: Dominic’s Arrival, Cullen In Electrical, And Which Ex?

Harolin looked at Dominic for a long moment.

The cuffs were an issue. The clothes were expensive, which meant whatever had brought him here had happened fast enough that he hadn’t changed into anything practical first. His hair was the same. His face was the same.

Harolin did not know yet how he had gotten here. It was not in any report he had seen this morning—no news coverage. No official processing notice had passed through the standard channels.

Which meant someone had been paid. Or someone had arranged something quietly. Either option pointed to the same conclusion.

Dominic was here for Ruaan.

Harolin thought about Ruaan sleeping in the room last night with his face pressed against his chest, about the key on the chain around Ruaan’s neck. About two weeks of a complicated situation becoming something he had stopped pretending to himself was simple.

Ruaan was his.

He had not said that out loud. He was not going to say it out loud right now in a processing room with two other officers present. But it was true the same way most true things were true, quietly and without requiring announcement.

And Ruaan’s ex-boyfriend was standing in front of him in handcuffs smiling like he had arrived somewhere he had been planning to arrive for a while.

Harolin looked at the room. The other officers. The two new inmates were watching with the cautious attention of people trying to understand their new environment.

He looked back at Dominic.

"Stay away from Ruaan," he said with an even tone.

Dominic’s smile didn’t change. "I don’t know what you’re referring to, officer. We’ve never met."

Harolin held his gaze for one more second.

Then he signalled to the processing officer to continue and stepped back.

Oren appeared at his shoulder.

"Who is he?" Oren said quietly.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because you just told a new inmate to stay away from Ruaan in a room full of people and I’m trying to understand what I’m walking into."

Harolin looked at Oren. He considered not answering. Then he considered that Oren knowing might actually be useful depending on how the next few days went.

"Ruaan’s ex-boyfriend," Harolin said.

Oren went completely still.

Not the controlled stillness of a professional receiving information. The other kind. The involuntary kind.

"His ex," Oren said.

"Yes."

"And he’s here."

"Apparently."

Oren exhaled slowly through his nose. "Why are there so many people around him?"

Harolin looked at him. "I should be the one asking that question, not you."

Oren had nothing to say to that. He turned and walked away like a man who had received information he needed to process privately.

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After processing was done, Harolin walked the three new inmates to their cells.

The first one he placed in cell 109. Ruaan’s old cell. Tall, quiet, and hadn’t said a word through the entire processing procedure. He looked at the cell and walked in without comment.

The corner cell at the end of the far corridor was where Harolin stopped next.

He opened it.

Dominic stepped forward and looked at it. Then looked back at Harolin.

"Is this close to Ruaan?" Dominic asked.

"No. Do you think I’d place you somewhere close to him?" Harolin said.

Dominic smiled like this was funny. "I’ll find him eventually. You know that."

"You’ll find him when the facility schedule allows it," Harolin said. "Which won’t be for a while."

"You seem very protective of someone you barely know."

Harolin looked at him for exactly two seconds.

"Go inside," he said.

Dominic laughed and walked in.

The third inmate was the blonde one. Long hair tied back at the neck. A small mole under his lower lip. He had been quiet through all of it, taking in the facility with large careful eyes, standing slightly apart from the other two like he had already decided they were not his people.

He was very beautiful. Harolin clocked it without attachment.

He pointed at the door next to Dominic’s cell. "You’ll be here. Two of you are in this section."

The blonde inmate looked at the door next to Dominic’s. "With him?" fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

"Adjacent. Not together."

"Okay." He looked up at Harolin with a soft, careful expression. "Thank you."

Harolin nodded and turned to leave.

"Excuse me," the blonde inmate said.

Harolin stopped.

"Is there someone here named Ruaan?" he asked. "Ruaan Calder?"

Harolin turned around fully.

The blonde inmate had the expression of someone asking a question they already know is going to land somewhere complicated. He held Harolin’s gaze steadily.

"Why?" Harolin said.

"I know him," the inmate said simply. "From before."

Harolin looked at him.

"What’s your name?" Harolin said.

"Lev," he said. "Lev Calder."

The corridor was very quiet.

"His cousin," Lev added, when Harolin didn’t respond.

Harolin looked at the door to Ruaan’s old cell where the tall quiet one had been placed. He looked at Dominic’s door and looked at Lev.

He turned and walked away.

He needed to find Ruaan before dinner. Now more than before.

That thought lasted approximately forty minutes before the director’s office called.

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The meeting had been running for over an hour.

Investors. Senior officers. The biweekly game proposal still being discussed. Harolin sat in the chair nearest the door and contributed when required and watched the clock and thought about the fact that Ruaan was somewhere in this facility having a normal skill day Monday with no idea that three new inmates had arrived, one of whom was his ex boyfriend, one of whom appeared to know him personally, and all of whom Harolin would very much like to keep on the opposite end of the building indefinitely.

He looked at the clock again.

He had to get to Ruaan before dinner.

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The electrical classroom had descended into something that could generously be called a situation.

The master craftsman had been making good progress. Everyone was paying attention for once, which was notable enough that Ruaan had actually taken out the small notebook Seo had found for him and started writing things down.

Then Cullen arrived.

He had walked in twenty minutes into the session, found a seat directly beside Ruaan without asking, and immediately started talking.

"You smell nice," Cullen said.

"Please be quiet," Ruaan said.

"What did you use? Is it from outside?"

"Cullen."

"I used to use something similar. Before I came here."

Seo, on Ruaan’s other side, said without looking up, "Can you not talk during class?"

"I wasn’t talking to you," Cullen said.

"You were talking loudly enough that all of us could hear you."

"Then cover your ears."

"Cover your mouth."

"You shut up—"

"You shut up—"

The master craftsman stopped mid-sentence.

He looked at the back row.

Ruaan looked at the front of the classroom. Then at the ceiling. Then at the space where he had been sitting, which was now occupied by two people having an argument that was escalating with impressive speed for a Monday morning.

He stood up.

Neither of them noticed.

He picked up his notebook and walked out.

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The corridor was quiet and he stood in it for a moment and breathed.

Three days until Thursday. He had been top one for less than a week and already the anxiety of the next game was sitting in his chest. He had gotten lucky. Genuinely lucky. Finn had handed him that result and next Thursday there would be no Finn shooting himself and whatever the game was, Ruaan would have to actually earn his position.

He grabbed his own hair and groaned at the ceiling.

Then he started walking toward his room because at least there was a fridge there and cold drinks were a form of coping.

He turned the corner.

Oren was in the corridor in full uniform, walking in the same direction.

They almost collided.

"What are you doing here?" Ruaan said. "Isn’t electrical today?"

"I left," Oren said.

Ruaan looked at him. "You left."

"Two people were yelling at each other in the back row and the class had effectively ended." Oren kept walking. "I have better uses for my time."

Ruaan fell into step beside him. They walked for a moment without talking, which was specifically comfortable.

Ruaan thought about Thursday.

He grabbed his hair again.

"Stop doing that," Oren said without looking at him.

"I’m thinking."

"Think without pulling your hair out."

Ruaan put his hand down.

They walked.

Then Oren said, "There’s something I should tell you."

Ruaan looked at him.

"Harolin probably hasn’t had the chance to tell you yet," Oren continued. He kept his voice even and professional. "Three new inmates arrived this morning."

"I know," Ruaan said. "Seo told me."

"Did Seo tell you who one of them is?"

Ruaan looked at him properly now. "What do you mean who one of them is?"

Oren glanced at him sideways.

"One of the new inmates," Oren said, "is your ex."

Ruaan stopped walking.

He stood in the corridor and slowly tilted his head.

"Which one?" he said slowly.

Oren looked at him with the expression of someone who had not expected that response.

"Which one?" Oren repeated.

"I’ve had more than one," Ruaan said. His voice was completely flat. "Which ex specifically"

Oren opened his mouth and closed it. Then he opened it again.

"How many exes do you have," he said.