The Deadliest Secret (The Deadliest Series) (2 page)

CHAPTER
Two

Gwen slapped her alarm clock, angry that
it was interrupting her lascivious dreams starring one of the newest men from her romance novel she had read through last night before bed. It was a story of a vampire seeking to find his love that was stolen by their enemy. What she wouldn’t give to have a timeless romance, a romance so intense it was a standard for other people to judge their love by, she wanted someone to love her like the heroes in her books, but she knew that wouldn’t happen. Fictional characters just weren’t real, besides she had enough evils in her life to deal with, and no prince charming had shown up yet to save her. Gwen had to ask herself, did she really want to be saved from this evil?

             
“Damn clock” Gwen cradled her hand, a bit sore from missing the clock and hitting the side table instead, she groaned as her hand throbbed to the beat of her heart.

             
When Gwen got out of bed slowly, immediately she was wishing she could return to the warm reprieve of her blankets. She ghosted through her normal routine, checked her messages, then went out to her car and left to get a Starbucks before she started the last day of the workweek.  She was dragging and it wasn’t even eight in the morning yet.

             
By the time Gwen got to the pier after the barista took a few extra minutes to make her coffee precisely how Gwen loved it she barely made it to the small vessel in time to go to work. She went to her normal spot on the front of the boat watching the waves crash against it, the sea parting as the boat made its way towards the same daily destination, Gwen started to lose track of time; she was shocked when the whistle blew signaling the imminent docking, she looked up and the took in the site of the prison.

             
“Another day another dollar” she chuckled wryly to herself.

             
She departed the boat as she always did. The dock a little rocky today, but then again the waters were very chopping, the remembered she lived in Washington, there’s plenty of storms to go around and come back again if it so wished to. Gwen passed through the checkpoints easy enough, she had to empty her bag as normal so the security could make sure there weren’t any dangerous weapons coming into the prison, of course she wasn’t exempt from this. She wanted to make sure she didn’t forget something in her bag from the weekend, and if they were checking her, the area had to be somewhat secure right? When the security guard finished checking her bags Gwen gathered her belongings, asked him about his family, then went to her office after the short conversation had concluded, she had a lot of work to do today. It was Friday and she didn’t want to take anything with her tonight. She was going to see her parents for their weekly dinner.

             
The day almost floated by without any incident. She saw her regular Friday patients, the males made their innuendo small talk at first, but she felt like she was able to get through to some of them today. It’s not every day you have a break through and today was one of the regular days, Gwen just sighed after she dismissed her last patient after he asked her to be his conjugal visitor for his incarceration. Monday there would be a new manifest of passengers coming by the ferry for her to help process and do intake evaluations for. Warden Wickam came to her office, he was an older man, but in his day Gwen could see him being handsome, his eyes were kind yet showed they could be shrewd as well. His blue eyes were timeless though, his face may have had wrinkles and showed his age, but the eyes were captivating, they were almost a royal blue, they were impossible. When Wickam came into Gwen’s office he had the new prisoner list.

             
“Bring me more news Warden?” Gwen tried to joke with the warden, he seemed to loosen a bit around her, and his smile was slow spreading yet genuine.

             
“More deviants, the world has gone to shit but at least we can make a few bucks off these poor saps.” He chuckled, a low and throaty sound. “Gwen I wish you wouldn’t insist on seeing these bastards when they’re riled from transport.”

             
She shook her head. “Scott, I will be fine, I take self defense classes and the guards are posted right at the door. Nothing will happen, trust in me and in my history?”

             
“Still don’t like it. But here, we got some real winners coming this week.” He said, his disgust at the new tenants obvious.

             
“Oh interesting ones?” She felt some excitement at the thought of new faces and new problems to help with.

             
“We have sick fucks coming in, one guy works for some mob or gang or something, he’s a murderer, rapist, all around five star piece of shit,” He catches himself and turns a light flush when he realized she was a lady and was just looking at him. “I ah shi…shoot Gwen forgive the language. They are some real messed up men, very violent offenders.”

             
Gwen had to laugh a little at how her boss was suddenly red faced and scrambling to correct his foul language.

             
“Don’t worry Scott, I forgive the language.” She said softly while reaching for the files he was handing over.

             
“They aren’t the full files on that McQueen guy, you don’t need to have nightmares from the pictures. I want extra guards posted at your door. I will order that tonight.”

             
“Don’t please? I don’t want any of them to get the satisfaction of thinking they scare me.” Gwen hated the idea of the men she worked with trying to always watch out for her more than they did each other just because she had breasts and a vagina.

              Scott just looked at Gwen; he was going to have extra guards put at her door no matter how much she objected to them. The guys coming in were dangerous no matter how much she wanted to ignore it or pretend that they weren’t, they were killers and the newest batch were possibly some of the worst, he wondered where the world was heading to. This was not a good sign for the future.

             
“Gwen I don’t like this.” Scott said to the young blonde woman he had come to respect the hell out of because she was tenacious and the only one that had balls enough to call him on his shit as well as take on the bastards in the prison.

             
“Then don’t think about it, this is my job, now go do yours so I can do mine.” She winked at her boss making the situation just a bit lighter with a joke. She kept her gaze level and he shook his head before heading back to the door he came through.

             
“Just be careful Gwen, you know you’re the heart of this place for a lot of us old fogies.” He looked back over his shoulder then left.

              After she was alone Gwen closed the door and collapsed back into the chair at her desk. She looked through the files covers first; she had a firebug, a rapist/murderer, a pedophile, and a lifetime thief. Nothing she hadn’t seen before, but she picked up the file on top about the thief, then the firebug, the pedophile, by the time Gwen finished the other files she had the one about the rapist/murderer left. She just left her hand on the cover. For some strange reason she couldn’t open it for some time.

             
She stared at the name. Kody McQueen, he was a murderer and rapist. She had dealt with many before but for some reason this one touched her, just his name sent shivers down her spine. When she finally cracked the file open Kody’s sheet was longer than her arm. His life of crime started young, all violent crimes Gwen had to be shocked that he was not placed into jail for life before now.  She shuddered and decided this file was best kept for Monday.

             
By the time she glanced at the clock her nine-hour Friday shift was done, she had to collect her things fast or else she would be waiting at the pier for about an hour before she could start on her way, and the traffic heading North to her parent’s home was never nice and flowing at this time of day, she was lucky if she got up to thirty miles an hour most the way.

             
Gwen grabbed her purse, case file bag and looked over her office before closing it and sprinting out of the office area so she wouldn’t be stopped on her way home. Gwen saw the gossip queen of the administration area walking her way, she cursed internally before grabbing her cell phone then speaking as if someone had called her.

             
“Hey dad, yes I remember dinner. I am just leaving work now.” She gave a wave to the gossip hound named Alison and kept walking pretending she didn’t want to interrupt her non-existent caller.

             
“I will pick that up on the way dad.” After she stepped into the elevator and the doors closed she closed her phone and gave a heavy sigh of relief. She didn’t dislike Alison but Gwen just did not want to be associated with all the drama and gossip that seemed to happen between most the females in the administration building, it was almost like a high school turf war. Gwen just was over that stuff and would not return there. She left high school early because she couldn’t stand that crap, why would she do it in her adult life?

             
She barely made it to the docks in time, by the time she sat down she was out of breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly, she sat down and just ignored the world around her while she waited for the ferry to trudge its way through the stormy waters and dock on the other side where she would be able to get in her car and listen to her music all the way to her family’s house.

             
Gwen loved her Lexus RX 350, it smelled like new just like the day she purchased it, and the expensive Starbucks roast she favored in the morning. Out of habit she locked the doors and started driving immediately, it didn’t take her long taking the back roads through Steilacoom and DuPont to get to I-5 North, but she did hit the Fort Lewis traffic, soldiers just got off and many were leaving to celebrate the weekend.

             
“Damn it” She cursed loud as she gripped the wheel, Gwen loved to drive fast so this gridlocked, and the slow-crawl traffic was grating her nerves. Normally, Gwen suddenly wished she had something to put in the front seat that could fool others into thinking she was allowed to use the HOV lane, but sadly there was nothing, plus Gwen dealt with the wrong side of the law every day, she didn’t want to become one of the people that belonged on that side as well, even if it was just a little traffic infraction.

             
By the time Gwen got to her mom and dad’s house she had several missed calls and texts from them both. She shook her head and her hair fell loose and walks into the house she called home for most of her life. The smell of her mother’s famous spaghetti meat sauce danced in her nose and tantalized her taste buds.  She closed the solid door behind her, locking it out of reflex.

             
“Mom, dad I’m home.” She announced herself, the friendly Rottweiler Mayhem came running towards her, he jumped the last steps of the grand staircase and barreled into her knees, Gwen fell to the ground and the dog held her still while he cleaned her face and tried to nibble on her.

             
“Enough Mayhem OFF” Her father’s voice a gruff command to the dog.

             
Mayhem immediately listened to his owner; he happily trotted over and sat to the left side of Gwen’s father, panting with a wide smile on his face. Gwen sat up and wiped her face off on the sleeve of her coat and continued to laugh.

             
“Hey dad, I see Mayhem hasn’t changed still.” She was breathy at this point.

             
“No he will always be like this, a bundle of damn energy.” Steven extended his hand to help his daughter off of the hardwood floor.

             
Gwen took her father’s hand and stood up and moves into a shallow embrace of a hug. “So dad how’s business?”

             
“It’s good, I wish you would join us instead of dealing with the miscreants at the prison.”

             
“It is a little early for that talk, isn’t it dad?” Gwen asked and looked at her watch to emphasize her point.

             
“Yes but what you do is dangerous Gwen, we just worry about you. Please think about it, really what is holding you down there besides that job?”

             
“Don’t know dad, but let me go talk to mom for a bit before we start?”

             
Gwen’s father brushed her off. He worried terribly for his daughter but she was as pig headed as her mother always was, chasing an impossible dream, her dream however was so much more dangerous to her health.  Steven petted the massive beast at his side on the boxy head of his. His tone softened as his emotion started to shine through. “Come on Mayhem, she will see eventually let’s go outside and play ball.”

              Gwen slipped into the kitchen and snuck up behind her mother, and grabbed her sides. Marie jolted from the shock of being grabbed, she turned around expecting to see her husband and instead saw her daughter, her beautiful daughter Gwen.