Chapter 9

Second in Command

Alex and Lolly were raking the yard on a warm late summer afternoon. Lolly had been discussing the fluoride conspiracy theory for the past hour, and Alex had managed to keep up with her the first five minutes, then she zoned out of the conversation. It wasn't until Alex noticed Lolly was jumping up and down trying to get her attention that she snapped back to reality. She walked over closer to Lolly to find out what she was so excited about.

"It's the toothpick guy. Look! Look!" Lolly whispered excitedly.

Alex felt her skin run cold. She turned around slowly and saw Aydin standing near the greenhouse entrance. Toothpick in mouth, he looked at her with dark cold eyes. She turned back to Lolly and tried to play cool.

"Yeah, so?" she asked Lolly.

"He freaks me out. Always staring and never saying a word. I don't like him. I think he's definitely here to take you out. He looks like he could be black ops for sure," Lolly explained. "Shit, here he comes. I'm outta here. Bye."

Alex watched as Lolly quickly ran off to join another group of girls by the garden.

"Inmate Vause, I need you to check the tool inventory in the greenhouse," Aydin said walking up behind her.

Alex followed Aydin into the greenhouse. She glanced around the greenhouse and it was empty. She was always nervous around Aydin since she had witnessed him shoot Fahri in that Paris hotel room so many years ago. After Fahri's death he had become Kubra's second in command. Alex had also always felt she was in competition with Aydin. Alex was one of Kubra's best importers and she made him tons of money, but somehow Kubra always seemed to prefer Aydin over her. She figured it was because of her slip after her breakup with Piper and her mom's death when she had a moment of weakness and chose drugs over doing her job. She felt Kubra secretly held that against her.

"So, are you ready to do this, Vause?" Aydin asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be for someone being forced to do something against their will," Alex snapped.

Aydin smiled, "I don't get you, Vause. You should be fucking thankful that Kubra didn't kill you. He's giving you a second chance here, and you better work your ass off to make him some money because there will be no more chances."

"Right. So, how's this going to work? Please enlighten me as to how I'm supposed to sell drugs in prison?" Alex asked.

"Okay, listen up. Each week you will get a new shipment of drugs. You'll be responsible for distribution, obviously, and I'll be here to keep you in check. If any drugs come up missing or any money comes up short, you're done. So you better choose your girls wisely and not pick any junkies."

"Obviously," Alex retorted. "So how are these girls supposed to pay for the drugs? Somehow I don't see Kubra accepting the commissary's finest microwavable meals or plastic flip-flops."

"Obviously," Aydin spat back. "I have an account number that you'll need to memorize. You'll give the customers the account number and an amount to wire to it. Once that money is received, I'll let you know to drop the drugs to the customer."

Alex looked confused, "This sounds complicated. How are these girls going to be able to wire money? I haven't noticed a Western Union around here."

"They can wire money directly from their commissary accounts to pay, or they can have a family member on the outside wire it. Either way. Anything under $500 doesn't get flagged for investigation. People do it all the time in other prisons," Aydin explained.

"Okay, so how much exactly do you expect me to move each week?"

"We'll start off slow and see how it goes. Once you get your customer base established, you'll probably see an increase in product. I have your first shipment," he said handing her a small baggy of a powdery white substance.

Alex had seen enough heroin in her lifetime to know what it was. "This is it? What is this, like a gram?"

"Yeah, it's just a gram. Street value of about $100, but in here you can break that gram into 12 pieces at $100 a piece," Aydin said.

"Holy shit? Seriously? And these girls will pay that, I suppose, because they're desperate," Alex said.

"Yep, they will. Next week I'll bring in more, and not just heroin. A lot of these girls in here prefer meth and some like coke. So you'll be selling all three eventually."

"Okay, makes sense. How am I supposed to pay the girls working for me?"

"You'll get ten percent of what you sell each week added to a prepaid credit card, and you can figure out how to split it with your girls. I suggest you also use prepaid credit cards to pay them too. You'll probably need a cell phone for that. I'll get you one. Oh, and one of your girls probably needs to work in the lingerie department," Aydin said with a smirk.

"You mean Whispers?"

"Yeah, the shipments will be hidden in the bolts of fabric that come in each Monday. You'll need a girl to retrieve the package and hand it off to you."

Shit, Alex thought. None of the girls she planned to recruit worked for Whispers. Two of them worked in the kitchen, one worked in the laundry, and Steely worked with Alex on the grounds crew. She would have to figure something out.

"Okay, I'll make sure it gets picked up each Monday. Anything else I need to know?" Alex asked, looking around nervously.

"Yeah… don't fuck up, or you and your little girlfriend will both be dead. Now here's the account number, memorize it."

Alex quickly memorized the numbers. 4815162342. 4815162342. 4815162342. "Okay, got it."

"Now get back to work, inmate," Aydin said while opening the greenhouse door.

Alex quickly hid the small baggy of heroin in her waistband. She would hide it again once she got away from Aydin. As she stepped out of the greenhouse, Steely walked up.

"Hey, Vause. Was that guard giving you a hard time?" Steely asked eyeing Aydin.

"Nah, he was just having a hard time finding a pair of clippers for another inmate to use," Alex lied.

"He gives me the creeps," said Steely, "he's always staring at me like he knows me or something."

"Maybe he's got the hots for you," Alex said smiling. "I mean you are kind of attractive."

"Kind of?" Steely questioned.

"Yeah, kind of," Alex flirted back.

Alex looked up, past the fence and saw Piper was running the track. She couldn't see her very well, but even with the distance between them she could see that Piper was watching her with Steely. Can't pass up this wonderful opportunity, Alex thought.

"Hey, Steely. I really need to talk to you in private for a few minutes. Come with me into the greenhouse, no one's in there right now," she said as she grabbed Steely by the arm and led her into the greenhouse.


Piper watched in horror as Alex led Steely into the greenhouse.

Fuck. Fuck you, Alex, she thought to herself.

She was so upset and running so hard and fast that she really didn't notice the tied up pair of sneakers someone had left lying on the track. Her feet became tangled in the sneakers, and she fell face first into the track. She could feel sharp cuts on her chin and cheek as she skidded to a stop.

Defeated, she just rolled over and looked up at the clear blue sky. Tears started to come down her face burning into the fresh scratches. She didn't know if she was crying because she fell or because of what she was envisioning Alex doing to Steely right now in the greenhouse. Wait. She did know. She knew these tears were because of Alex. She put her arm over her eyes and kept crying until she noticed a shadow was forming over top of her. She moved her arm and looked up.

"Blondie, what's wrong? Why are you lying on the ground bleeding?" came a thick Russian accent. "And who the fuck is that pretentious whore of a woman in our cube?"

A/N – Thank you so much for the reviews, and for reading and following my story. This chapter was a little shorter than usual, but it has some important setup for the rest of the story. I really hope no one searches my Google history after writing this chapter. Someone would swear that I was about to start running drugs in prison. It was very interesting research, to say the least. Have a great week - J