Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry, Jasmine,” I hear her father mutter. “Please, forgive me.”
“Of course I forgive you!” she exclaims. “You made a mistake, Dad, that’s all. We all do because it’s only human. You’ll see. You’ll be out in a few years and then we can put this incident behind us.”
Suddenly, Willy sits up, his eyes alert.
“You should leave,” he says, glancing around the room. Has he also detected something off?
“Why do you keep saying that?” Jasmine asks. “We just got here, Daddy. It’s fine.”
“Please,” he insists, his eyes darting around the room shiftily. “Just trust me.” This confirms it for me. I stand up, my hand grasping Jasmine’s elbow.
“Come on, baby girl.”
“Wait, what are you doing?” she gasps as I literally pull her to her feet. She’s stunned and surprised, but there’s a nasty vibe in the air, and I don’t like it.
“We’re leaving,” I growl through clenched teeth, my eyes darting from inmate to inmate, who are now rising to their feet. The other visitors look around, confused. Some of them are trying to speak with the inmates, but they’re not answering. Instead, they ignore their friends and family, their eyes alert. Then, the guards start ordering the inmates to sit back down, but of course, it’s no use. Something’s brewing, and it’s bad.
Jasmine’s eyes grow wide as she looks around the room, catching on that something is seriously wrong.
“What’s happening?” she gasps. “Dad?” But her father is backing away from us, shaking his head. “Logan?” she whispers. “What’s going on?”
I’ve locked eyes with an enormous tattooed prisoner standing a few feet away from us, and I don’t answer. I’m a large man, but this giant is several inches taller and considerably heavier. His body is tensing as his fists clench into two angry hams, the veins in his neck popping. He’s breathing heavily, teeth gritted, and he’s about to attack me. My body responds immediately, adrenaline crashing through my veins as I feel a guttural growl start deep in my system.
Andre the Giant launches himself at me and I forcibly shove Jasmine to the side, out of harm’s way. I’m vaguely aware of her surprised scream and somewhere deep in my psyche, I’m pained by the thought of accidentally hurting her. But protecting her is more important.
Meanwhile, the huge inmate crosses the yard or so between us in just a few strides and collides with me, knocking me backwards into some tables and benches, crushing me under him. Instantly, a siren tears through the entire building as chaos erupts all around us. People scream and begin to run, sending tables and chairs flying. A woman starts to batter at the door with her fists, but it’s locked. Meanwhile, I can’t focus on anything except the asshole attacking me. Jasmine lets out a shriek from somewhere over to my right, but I can’t see her. With a grunt, I push the mountain of violent muscle off me, and the inmate goes crashing into some benches. I launch myself at him, gaining the upper hand and pinning him beneath me, serving him a volley of punches to the face.
“Unnnh!” he cries, holding both hands up to his bloodied nose. “Shit!”
I manage to raise my head for a split second and see Jasmine on her hands and knees on the floor, feverishly scraping together what looks like loose pieces of paper and stuffing them into her handbag with trembling hands. What is she doing? Her face is as white as a sheet, and she looks petrified, but then Jasmine catches my eye and jumps to her feet. But before she can take two steps, another inmate intercepts her, lifting her into the air, preparing for a body slam. Oh shit, my girlfriend’s about to be transformed into scrambled eggs.
“No!” I roar, and instantly abandon my fight with the giant. But he pulls me back down, smacking my body painfully into the floor, knocking the air from my lungs. I can hear Jasmine screaming and pleading with her attacker. Fueled by nothing but adrenaline, I force myself to flip over onto my back, kicking the giant in the crotch just as he launches himself onto me, and he falls to his knees, gasping and choking with pain. From somewhere in the room, the electric sound of a taser tells me the guards have managed to stun at least one of the inmates. But they’re powerless against the teeming, seething mass of chaos, and I lose track of my girlfriend.
By the time I pull myself to my feet, Jasmine’s gone. And so is almost everyone else, including the prisoners. The door swings crazily on its hinges, and the only people left in the visiting room with me are the two guards, dazed and bleeding; the one inmate who was tased; the injured giant I incapacitated; and Jasmine’s father, who sits cowering against the wall.