Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) by Felicia Jedlicka Read Free Book Online Page B

and sat down giving the attendant a wink before turning his attention to her. The smile he gave her was just a leftover of what he had been directing at the attendant, but it made her smile reflexively.
    “Here I thought you had your eye on that cute brunette nurse upstairs.” She said.
    “No one said I didn’t,” he said changing his smile into smirk. “And it was more than my eyes.”
    Cori laughed at that. She had already been shocked once today by Belus’s fighting ability. He had told her once that she was stronger than he was, but she had doubted it. Whether it was true or not, it didn’t matter, since he could apparently kick her ass with death match skills. Now she was being confronted with the image of him as the prison playboy.
    Her laughter faded as she thought about how much she would have missed him if he had not survived her gunshot. How many things would she not have known about him? Her eyes watered just thinking about it, but she concentrated on paling her coffee to a palatable bitterness.
    She wasn’t much of a coffee drinker, but she could hardly stand the childish image of her drinking a soda pop while her mentor drank a coffee. There were apparently many things she would drink just for the privilege socializing with Belus. That thought made her want to cry as well.
    When she looked up with the intention of asking about their agenda, she found him staring at her. It was confusion and sympathy, and just a teaspoon of disgust. She looked away and drank her coffee, which was too hot, but she pretended it wasn’t. “What’s next sensei?”
    “Don’t call me that.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because you’re saying it as a joke. I’ll take respect or I’ll take sass, but not some half-ass version of both.”
    “Yes, sir.” She mumbled, before torturing her mouth with another drink.
    “What were you just thinking about, when you lost your sense of humor?”
    “You,” she answered honestly. “My bullet. My gun. My hand.” She shook her head and growled willing away the grief and guilt that were pressuring her to cry. Why did she always have to cry?
    “That still bugging you? I thought you would have gotten over that by now. You gave it a shot, but you missed. Better luck next time, kid.”
    He intended it as a joke and she knew he did, but it didn’t stop her from glaring at him for it. “I could have killed you. Doesn’t that scare you, or at least bother you? How can you joke about it?”
    Belus rolled his eyes. “Kid, you are too emotional. You criticize me for being a stick in the mud, but you are as tightly wound as a politician on voting night.” He stood up taking his coffee in hand. “Come on.” He nodded for her to come with.
    “Can’t I at least finish my coffee?”
    “No, bring it with,” he said as he headed to the door.
    He led her to the elevator instead of the gym, and they went up one floor to the animal level, which housed the infirmary down its center.
    As they entered the four nurses at their hub station, beyond the four chair “waiting room” looked up at her. They abruptly started arguing and debating who would get whose shift. “I’m not injured.” She rebuked them with a high whine in her voice.
    They paused and looked to Belus. The arguing started again. “I’m fine too ladies,” he said. Their shoulders slumped and they continued to read magazines or paint their nails. The heavy workload of a prison nurse was the time between animals, and human injury. Without television or internet it was an exercise of the mind just to find something to occupy the time.
    One of the nurses, the cute brunette that had been eying Belus the last time he was in, leaned over the counter, showing off her cleavage which was ample. She was not overly tall or slender either, but perhaps that was Belus’s type. Cori could easily draw assumptions about whether Belus was a butt man, or a breast man, but she la-la-la-ed the thoughts away, before she delved into territory that