Chapter 16: Echoes of Control

After the morning shower, Jaime returned alone, her damp hair clinging to her neck like a frail shroud. Relief washed over her, a cool tide against the fever of her captivity, as Captain Torres locked her into the small, familiar cell without Reggie and led him away. Maybe God had finally heard her whispered pleas, etched into the dank air night after night. She prayed Reggie was gone—shifted to another cell or cut loose—a phantom banished from her torment. Her wedding band and engagement rings glinted faintly on her finger, fragile anchors to Steve, and she clung to the hope they’d hold her through this abyss.

Reggie slouched in the Captain’s stifling office, his frame sinking into the cracked leather chair across from the hulking oak desk. The air thickened with strain, a humid snare tightening as Torres leaned in, voice low and deliberate. “Listen, Romeo, you cannot bust her face up anymore.”

The dim room pressed closer, shadows clawing at the edges. “I have to let her see her husband again. She hasn’t told him about you yet, and it’s best we keep it that way for now. You keep marking her face, he’ll start asking questions. I don’t need his suspicions flaring up—it makes things easier for all of us if he doesn’t know you’re fucking his wife. He’ll find out when the time’s right. Do you get me?”