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wall. Wasn’t that what they did with escaping prisoners? But I wasn’t. I was in a cot. The room was sparse, no real personal touches. Was this what passed for prison cells now?
    I sat up, blinking, and checked out the rest of the room. Two armchairs angled toward each other sat in one section of the room, with a small circular metal table between them. A dresser sat on the other side of the bed from that, but had doors instead of drawers.
    No one else was in the room, which confirmed that maybe the voices I’d heard had been in the next room. My bandages had been redressed while I was asleep, I realized. How long had I been out? I lifted my hand to my cheek, gingerly touching the swollen cheekbone. What was it about the face? It always felt worse than it really was.
    “Glad to see you’re awake.”
    I gasped and jumped off the bed, flipping my body in the direction of the voice. My heart pounded with the strength I drew from my fear. 
    Murphy was in the doorway, a fierce scowl on his face. I didn’t relax at all. I was furious and terrified and my leg hurt and I wasn’t going to let him have the upper hand again.
    He pointed to my leg. “You should stay off that leg. You’ll pull all White’s sewing out.”
    His lip twitched in the corner, like he was amused but didn’t want me to know it. His icy eyes glittered in the dim lighting of the room, like twin disco balls. Murphy wore loosely fitted jeans, even further from a uniform than what he’d been wearing earlier. But the brown tee remained. I’d never seen anyone that filled out a t-shirt the way he did. He hadn’t always been like that. Growing up, he’d been more wiry, skinnier. This muscle thing was new… and distracting.
    He shut the door behind him and walked over to the armchair in the corner, across from where I stood. At least the gun was gone this time, though I wouldn’t dare to presume he didn’t have another way. The dude was a living weapon, after all.
    “What are you doing here?”
    Was he here to finish what he’d started in that room, when he’d practically had me creaming in his hand without even doing anything sexual with me? My heart fluttered with hope until he replied, “My shift.”
    Then hope sank into the abyss. He was only here to babysit the prisoner. The scowl on his face was proof of that. He didn’t want to be near me.
    He sat down, leaning forward, so his elbows rested on his knees. “I don’t like having to chase down wayward girls, particularly ones that are at risk to bleed out if she exerts herself too much.”
    I glanced toward the door he’d entered from. It was the only door. No doubt that was on purpose. This room didn’t even have a bathroom. He followed my gaze. “That will just take you into the common room. This room was a storage room. Chris cleaned it out and got the furniture. We set it up while you were with the doc.”
    “Why?”
    “Because we’re not heartless?” Murphy gave me a look like I was dumb for asking the question. “Obviously, we knew you’d be staying for a while. There’s too many questions to answer about you. We’ve been chasing Giroux Enterprises for a long time. And then suddenly, you were there.”
    “Maybe I don’t want to be here.” I sounded like a sulky kid, but I couldn’t help it. I ignored the throbbing in my leg as much as I could. But maybe I should have acted as if I were less mobile.
    “You’re not a prisoner here.”
    “Sure feels like it.”
    “Look, you just can’t leave yet.”
    “Yeah, that’s called being a prisoner.” I pointed out that fact with much sarcasm, which he obviously didn’t appreciate. He looked frustrated with me. Good. I didn’t want to make anything easy for them, not to mention I was so embarrassed at the way I’d fallen apart in front of him. Sure, it was probably the drugs they’d slipped me, but still. 
    “We have protocols. The Giroux family has been on our radar for a long time. Alex—” Murphy hesitated, his