Chapter 5: Brenda's Offer
Two days passed without incident.
Lexi worked her assigned kitchen duty, kept her head down, and watched.
She watched which guards lingered near the administrative corridor.
She watched which inmates moved freely between areas that should have required an escort.
She watched Brenda — where she sat, who she spoke to, who she avoided.
Brenda avoided one guard in particular.
A tall man named Officer Strick who worked the evening rotation.
Every time he entered a room, Brenda found a reason to leave it.
That was useful information.
On the third morning, Brenda sat down across from Lexi at breakfast.
She didn't bring anyone with her.
She came alone, which was unusual enough that two women at the next table quietly picked up their trays and moved.
Brenda set her coffee down and looked at Lexi directly.
"I want to talk."
"You're talking," Lexi said.
"I want to talk without it going sideways." Brenda's voice had lost the performance quality it usually carried.
She sounded like someone who had made a calculation.
"What happened in the cafeteria — I'm willing to call it even."
"I wasn't keeping score."
"Then we're fine." Brenda wrapped both hands around her cup.
"I need to know what you're doing here."
"Serving my sentence."
"Don't." Brenda's eyes hardened.
"I know what a person looks like when they're just doing time.
You're not doing time.
You're doing something else.
I want to know what."
Lexi looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because people who come in here with a purpose and don't tell me about it — they tend to create problems for everyone." Brenda leaned forward slightly.
"I'm offering you something.
Protection.
Access.
There are places in this facility you can't get to without help.
I can get you there."
"And what do you want for that?"
"I want to know whose side you're on."
Lexi picked up her fork.
"I'm on my own side."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
Brenda was quiet for a moment.
Then: "Hargrove thinks you're a problem.
He told me to handle you."
"I know."
That stopped Brenda.
She studied Lexi's face.
"You know."
"I know he sent you to the cafeteria.
I know why.
And I know that you sitting here right now, alone, without any of your people, means you've decided he might be a bigger problem than I am."
Brenda said nothing.
"I'm right," Lexi said.
It wasn't a question.
Brenda picked up her coffee.
Set it down without drinking.
"Hargrove has been making promises for three years that he hasn't kept.
I've done things for that man—" She stopped.
"I'm not going to keep doing them for nothing."
"What did he promise you?"
"Early release recommendation.
He has the connections to make it happen.
He's been saying six months for two years now." Her voice was flat.
"My daughter turns eight next spring.
I've missed four birthdays."
The cafeteria noise moved around them.
"If I help you," Brenda said, "and whatever you're doing actually works — does Hargrove go down?"
"Yes," Lexi said.
"All the way down?"
"All the way."
Brenda looked at the table.
Something moved across her face that she didn't try to hide — not quite hope, but something adjacent to it.
Something worn and careful.
"There's a room," she said quietly.
"Sub-level.
Below the laundry.
Hargrove uses it for storage.
Nobody goes down there without his say-so." She paused.
"I've been down there twice.
There are filing boxes.
Locked cabinets.
A laptop that's never connected to the facility network."
Lexi kept her expression still.
"Can you get me down there?"
"Not without a reason.
Not without it looking like something else."
"Then we find a reason."
Brenda nodded slowly.
She picked up her tray and stood.
"If you're playing me," she said, "I will find out."
"I know," Lexi said.
Brenda walked away.
Lexi watched her go, then looked down at her breakfast.
She took one slow breath.
The sub-level room.
That was where Dani had hidden it.
May you like
It had to be.
But getting there meant trusting a woman who had spent years as Hargrove's enforcer — and who had every reason to report this conversation back to him before dinner.
