xxxxxx

CHAPTER 2

xxxxxx

The first thing Lorna noticed upon waking up was that she was in quite a bit of pain. She could hear the sound of her own moaning as she tried to remember where she was and what had happened. A shaking noise came out of her mouth as she felt her body trembling. Had her own pained whimpers woken her up?

Morello choked out a sharp breath as she tried to get herself to inhale a full breath and open her eyes. She felt that she was on her back, lying against something solid. Something else solid and warm was on top of her too, crushing her painfully down. It had to be Mendez. She wondered if he was conscious - or even alive. She kind of hoped he was dead... but then, if he was, would she be charged with murder? She had driven off against his orders. She didn't crash on purpose... but would they know that? Maybe they'd assume she had driven the van off the road deliberately in an attempt to kill him... She could get in a lot of trouble for that - even if it wasn't true.

With a shaking, painful inhale, she blinked her eyes open, finding that Mendez was unfortunately doing the same, groaning as he climbed off of her.

"You dumb fucking bitch..." He exhaled as he climbed to his hands and knees.

Her lower lip trembled as more tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "I didn't want you to hurt me..." She whimpered.

"I wasn't going to, you idiot whore." He growled, reaching out toward the radio on the van and grabbing it. "Hey, this is Mendez. We're gonna need a lift back. God damned Morello swerved to miss a fucking deer and ran us into the ditch. Hit a tree and rolled the van." He lied.

She swallowed and closed her eyes as he continued speaking. Whoever was on the other end of the radio said something back. Mendez responded. They went back and forth for a few minutes while Morello's frazzled mind tried to calm down. She couldn't focus on his conversation. She had no idea if he was saying anything she should be paying attention to. She just knew she was in pain, and she was still scared of what Mendez might do. She had distracted him at least. The crashed van was a rather large problem - something else to focus on - something important. Maybe he wouldn't hurt her now - not yet at least.

"Get up." She heard his voice and felt his hands on both of her upper arms, grabbing her hard and pulling her up to her feet. He pretty much dragged her up and out the door and then onto the road.

Morello couldn't help but to sob as she raised her arms up defensively over her face. Her wrist and hand really hurt. She might have hit her head too. She felt so entirely defeated and vulnerable right now. She knew she was hurt, and she was scared Mendez might still not have given up. She had gotten him to stop for a moment, but she was still alone with him - and now she had a further disadvantage - she was in a lot of pain and felt weaker than ever.

"Sit down here, you fucking idiot." Mendez ordered as he practically shoved her down into a sitting position on the side of the road.

Lorna kept her hands up covering her face as she shrunk down, drawing her legs up and trying to make herself as small as possible. "Please don't hurt me..." She whispered, unable to bring herself to look up at him as he squatted down in front of her.

"Aww, fuck..." Mendez groaned as he pulled one of her hands away from her face and ran his fingers over her forehead, brushing her hair up. "You're bleeding."

"I am?" She breathed, reaching up with a trembling hand.

"Got a cut on your forehead. It's not that bad..." Mendez exhaled. "Listen, we need our story straight. You asked me to take the van out with you because you heard a rattling sound the other day."

"I did?" Her voice shook.

He nodded. "You said it only happened while you were driving and we had to take a drive to try to get it to happen again so I could guess what might be the problem. We were just driving around waiting for the rattling sound. That's it. Nothing else was said. Nothing else happened. Got it?"

She stared up at him with wide, tear-brimmed eyes, but nodded her head. "Mm hmm..." She agreed.

"You overreacted. I wasn't gonna do anything." He lied.

"Yes you were..." She whimpered, shrinking down and squeezing her eyes shut. She couldn't forget how he had pushed his hand up under her shirt, how he started unbuckling his belt... He even said she was going to do it.

She winced and felt herself stiffen as his large hands wrapped around her upper arms, squeezing tight as he knelt down in front of her. "Look at me." He growled.

She forced herself to blink her eyes open as she stared at him with a pout on her lips. Her lower lip was trembling too. She couldn't help it.

"I was kidding. I was fuckin' with you." He persisted. "I wanted answers. I tried to scare you into giving them to me. But you can't tell anyone that part. I'm not joking here. You don't fucking tell anyone I asked you shit. Don't say I threatened you or hurt you. Don't tell 'em I even touched you. I'll make you wish you were dead."

"Okay..." She breathed. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she stared up into his eyes. He was glaring back. His hands around her upper arms were holding onto her so tightly. She could feel bruises forming under his hard, long fingers. He still wasn't loosening his grip. "Could you let me go?" She breathed.

Mendez scoffed and rolled his eyes as he squeezed his hands tighter.

"Ow- You're hurting me..." She whimpered, biting her lower lip as more tears sprung to her eyes.

"You tell me what happened here. Repeat it back - what you'd say if anyone asks." He demanded, still squeezing her arms in a death-grip.

"I uh..." She hesitated, looking around herself as she tried to remember what he'd said into the radio earlier and then what he said out here just a moment before. "I heard a noise in the van and you... And I wanted you to check it. It didn't happen unless the van was movin', so we drove out here and I hit a deer and-"

"No!" He growled, shaking her by her arms.

She whimpered and shrunk down, closing her eyes as more tears dripped down over her cheeks.

"You didn't hit a fucking deer. Do you see a deer lying anywhere nearby? Do you see deer hair or deer blood on the fucking van?" He was practically screaming.

"I don't know... That's what you said..." She gasped.

"You swerved to miss a deer." He corrected, his voice frustrated. "You didn't hit it. Our stories gotta match, and they've gotta make sense. This won't work unless we're on the same page. There's no deer out here. There's no evidence that we hit a deer. So we missed it. You swerved to miss it. Got it?"

She nodded shakily, swallowing as she looked at his shoulder rather than forcing herself to look him in the eyes.

"Say it back. Try it again." He demanded. "What happened?"

She closed her eyes and exhaled. "We drove out here to check a noise in the van. I swerved to miss a deer, and we hit a tree and rolled the van."

"That's it. That's exactly right." Mendez nodded with a small smile.

"Great..." She breathed, looking up at him. "Now can you let go of me, please? You're hurting my arms..."

He inhaled and exhaled slowly, but finally loosened his grip and stood up. She shrunk down and focused on breathing as she stared down at the ground.

She wondered how much trouble she was in here. It seemed like he was willing to lie to cover up a lot of what actually happened - but surely that was for his own sake - not hers. She didn't do anything wrong here. All she did was defend herself... That didn't mean she wouldn't suffer for it though. Prisoners got in trouble for defending themselves all the time - especially when they had to defend themselves against a guard.

"You know..." He started as he began to pace around a few feet from her. "I can't believe you fucking did that..."

She stared down at the grass and dried leaves on the edge of the road. He still sounded agitated. It took them ten or fifteen minutes to get out here, which meant it would be at least that long before someone came to pick them up. She wasn't safe yet - not even close. He still had at least five or ten minutes to do whatever he wanted before there would be a witness. Hell, depending on who they sent, he might have even longer.

"That was really bold. Really defiant." He went on.

Lorna swallowed, still staring down at the ground. What had he expected? He attacked her. He was shoving his hand up under her shirt. He said he was going to rape her and he started unbuckling his belt to do it. Was she supposed to just sit there and let that happen? Did he really expect that?

"Why did you do that?" He asked, kneeling down in front of her again.

She shook her head and swallowed nervously. "I was scared... You were attacking me..." She whispered.

He laughed and closed his eyes, shaking his head. He blinked his eyes back open and narrowed them down at her. "You really thought I was gonna rape you?" He smirked.

She shrunk down and looked away.

"You thought I really would?" He asked in a lower voice. She could hear him smiling. His voice betrayed that he thought this was funny. It certainly wasn't funny to her.

She still refused to look at him, but couldn't help but to whimper softly as he brought his hand up to her cheek. She avoided eye contact with him as she felt his fingers brush over her throat, down into her shirt, over her collarbone.

Not knowing what else to do, she reached up and grabbed his wrist with both of her hands, even the hurt one. "Please don't..." She begged, hearing her voice shaking with tears.

"Don't what, Babe?" He laughed, pushing his hand further into her shirt so that his fingers moved under her bra strap and around her shoulder.

"Don't hurt me... Don't do this... You said you wouldn't..." She whimpered.

"That was before you fucked up the van." He laughed. "I was kidding with you before... And now you wrecked the fucking van. I'm lying to protect you here... Least you could do is let me get something out of it."

She shook her head and started to sob. There wasn't much she could do here. If she fought back, he would overpower her get her in trouble. She had no power here, and she was hurt. Her wrist throbbed and she was certain she had hit her head twice while the van was rolling.

"Shhh..." He urged as he reached out with his unoccupied hand and put it against the back of her neck, pulling her toward him, against his chest.

She couldn't help but to continue crying into his shirt as he hugged her close. She didn't want his hands on her in any capacity - not even if he was pretending to be comforting.

"You're alright, Honey." He cooed as he held her against his chest. His other hand was still in her shirt, rubbing up and down her shoulder and arm, snaking down toward her breast. "I know you're scared. Car crashes are scary... You'll be okay..."

"Please..." She whimpered, pressing her hand uselessly against his chest. "I didn't mean to crash the van... I was scared... You were hurting me. I just wanted you to stop..."

"Oh. Well, this part won't hurt." He promised, moving his hand up out of her shirt and running it down her side toward her waist. "I think what really scared you was the thought of my big, thick dick ramming your tight little pussy. Right?"

She breathed in a sharp breath and squeezed her legs together tightly as she shrunk down as much as she could and stared down at the ground.

"Well, I won't do that part, okay? Can't risk being in the middle of that when backup arrives anyway, huh?" He laughed. "So just lie back and let me get in a couple fingers. No one will ever know. It won't hurt you... I'll get at least something out of this fucking mess... We'll all be even and no one has to suffer."

Morello shook her head and pushed her hands against his chest. "No..." She squeaked.

"No?" He scoffed, leaning back enough to look down into her eyes.

"No." She said again, scowling up at him.

She breathed in and out as she stared up at him and as he stared back. He was frowning. She was certain she was too, but was mostly focused on trying to read his expression.

Morello let out a small, started scream as Mendez suddenly reached out and grabbed a fist-full of her shirt in his hand, pushing her back rather hard against the asphalt road.

"Stop!" She whimpered as she reached up with both hands and grabbed at his arm. She squeezed her eyes shut in pain as he held her down firmly with the hand over her chest and reached his other down toward her pants. "Please!" She sobbed.

She squirmed under him as he wordlessly grabbed the front of her pants pulling them down about an inch before electing to just push his hand down the front of them instead.

"Please don't!" Morello sobbed, grasping uselessly at his arm and trying desperately to pry it away from her.

Mendez panted as he pushed his fingers down past the waistband of her pants, struggling to weasel them down into her panties.

Lorna whimpered shakily as tears streamed down her cheeks. She tried her best to thrash under him. "Get off of me!" She cried.

"Hold still." Mendez breathed as he forced his hand further into her pants, sliding his fingers down over her skin until he reached the top of her panties. "I'll be gentle if you just hold the fuck still." He growled.

She wouldn't help but to break down into shaking, breathless sobs as she grabbed desperately and uselessly at his arm. He was so strong. She couldn't move his hand away - not even with both of hers desperately grabbing and pulling at his forearm.

He glanced to his left, obviously hearing the sound of an approaching vehicle long before Morello did. She couldn't focus on anything but her own pain and fear. She hadn't heard a thing. She just knew one second he was violently forcing his hand down the front of her pants. The next, he was swearing under his breath, adjusting her pants and pulling her back up into a sitting position.

Morello couldn't help but to sob as she felt Mendez pull her into a hug. "It's okay. You'll be okay." He said as the sound of slowly-moving tires cracking over loose asphalt pebbles and a few dried leaves filled the air around them.

She kept her eyes closed as she heard a car door close, followed by footsteps approaching.

"She's scared. She hit her head and she's bleeding. She's been pretty upset. I've been trying to calm her down." Mendez explained. "We'll get you to the doctor, Sweetheart. You don't gotta cry."

"Damn. You really did roll the fuckin' thing." She heard Luschek's voice next.

Morello sniffed back tears as she pulled back from Mendez as much as the man would allow and looked up at Luschek, trying to tell him with her eyes that she wanted him to get Mendez away from her, that she wasn't comforted by his hug - that he wasn't being caring - he was being creepy. She couldn't actually say it. She couldn't tattle on the man. It would just mean more pain later.

"Wow. Yeah. She might have a concussion." Luschek noted as he stared down at her. "Let's get her in the car. You hurt, Mendez?" He asked the other man.

"Nah. I don't think so. Nothing significant. Maybe a couple bruises, but I'll live." He laughed.

"I told 'em we shouldn't let the inmates drive - not in a women's prison." Luschek smirked.

Morello frowned as Mendez put his hands on both of her upper arms and pulled her to her feet. "We'll get you all taken care of." He whispered, faking compassion in front of the other man.

She swallowed and let him lead her toward the car, climbing into the back seat and exhaling as soon as Mendez closed the door behind her and chose to sit up front rather than to further harass her.

xxxxxx