All Chained Up by Sophie Jordan Read Free Book Online Page A

boy’s head. “Hey there, sweetheart.”
    â€œC’mon, Tyler, don’t knock over Briar.”
    The toddler looked up at her, a big grin creasing his plump apple cheeks. Shelley peeled one of his hands from Briar. “Come on, buddy. Let’s go eat.” Her gaze locked on Briar and she stepped closer before Noah tugged her away. “I want to hear all about your day at the prison. I’m sure it’s better than anything I’ve got on DVR.”
    Briar rolled her eyes. “My life is not that interesting.” An image of Knox Callaghan flashed across her mind. She’d read his file. Knew all about his medical history. He was twenty-­eight years old. Six feet two. Two hundred pounds. Healthy. Surprising, considering the number of times he had visited the HSU over the years. All the result of fighting. “Trust me, it wasn’t like Shawshank Redemption .”
    â€œIt’s more interesting than cleaning ­people’s teeth.” Shelley was a dental hygienist at one of two dentists in town. The other dentist? Her ex-­husband. It made for interesting stories. She stabbed a warning finger at Briar as she moved to the stairs with her kids. “I mean it. I want to hear everything.”
    â€œWe’ll catch up this weekend,” Briar promised.
    Once inside her apartment, she dropped her bag and keys on the side table and headed for the shower. After washing away the day, she slipped into an oversized T-­shirt, claimed her lo mein, and settled in front of the TV. For an hour, she lost herself in mindless television.
    When her sister Laurel called, she didn’t answer, not wanting to justify yet again why she’d volunteered to work at Devil’s Rock. Nor was she in the mood to endure her sister grilling her for a recap of today. Tomorrow would be soon enough to give her an abbreviated version.
    Shelley, on the other hand, didn’t need an abbreviated version. She could handle all the details . . . including listening to Briar confess how uneasy the entire experience made her. Especially interacting with a certain steely-­eyed inmate. You don’t know fuck all about life in here . Her cheeks flamed at the memory and she shivered. Yeah. Her sister would freak if she shared that tidbit with her. Shelley always listened. Without judgment. Laurel was another story.
    By ten o’clock she was crawling into bed. She double-­checked her alarm as she settled into her pillow, her mind drifting again to Knox Callaghan. Her mind tracked over all those scars, big and small, riddling his hard body. She marveled at all the battles he must have fought to earn so many. Not for the first time, she wondered what he had done to end up at Devil’s Rock.
    She glanced toward the dark outline of her laptop sitting across the bedroom on her desk. A quick online search could answer that question. It was a matter of public record.
    She started to push herself up on the mattress but then stopped. Sinking back down, she rolled over so she couldn’t see the dark shape of her laptop, deciding there were some things she didn’t need to know.
    She stared at the dark wall of her bedroom, surprisingly awake, still thinking about her day. What drove men to do horrible things that ended with them getting arrested and locked up? Even if they didn’t care about hurting someone else, who wanted that life?
    Finally her mind relaxed enough and her muscles went limp. She drifted into a troubled sleep, only to wake up gasping in the predawn light, her chest aching hard with ragged breaths. She dragged a hand down her clammy face.
    She had been running through a dark, unending tunnel, passing cage after cage of monsters, all snarling through the bars for a piece of her. At last the tunnel ended and she reached a cement wall. No going forward. No escape. She spun around, her back colliding with the cold wall, her breath crashing wildly in her ears.
    A great,