A small man with disproportionately muscular arms was waving his finger at Aubrey, occasionally making broad gestures at Silus as he talked. He wasn't happy. Silus felt ambivalent. After Aubrey had taken Silus to his bunk, secured a few items for him, and brought him some contraband food, he'd found himself following her around the yard while she excitedly talked about the people and places he needed to get to know. Then she'd gone into detail about what his job description was: hired goon. While Silus was used to giving orders, he was also used to taking them, so this role didn't bother him to much. He needed something to occupy his mind while he was here anyways; plus something about the smooth talking little woman amused him.
The next day Silus had followed Aubrey into the prison yard and watched as she negotiated trades, secured work for herself or Silus, and made general threats regarding owed favors or debts. Silus was the key to enforcing those threats. He'd stand their with his arms crossed, like they were now, glaring at whomever it was Aubrey had an issue with, and so far he'd avoided pummeling anyone. However, the small man with the oddly large arms concerned Silus. He seemed twitchy, like slaves the Legion took in who turned out to be addicted to some chem and prone to acting foolish.
Aubrey rolled her head around on her neck and looked up at Silus. "Can you believe this mother fucker," she said. "I go to the trouble of smuggling in enough Jet to keep his ass from having the shakes, and now he can't be bothered to pay me."
"Sounds like the typical kind of loser you'd expect to find in an NCR facility like this," Silus grumbled, almost forgetting himself and referring to them as profligates. He loosened his arms now, shaking out his muscles in anticipation of having to fight.
Something about the words SIlus had used caused Aubrey to shoot him a strange look, but she brushed it off fast and continued to confront the other prisoner. "So are you done waisting my time, or are you going to find a way to pay me for my troubles?"
"Yeah yeah," The man said, giving Silus a twitchy look. "Six hundred caps right?"
"Seven," Aubrey announced. "I'm adding a fee for being a pain in my ass."
The junkie stared down into the dirt then, obviously drawing all of his courage up into his body. Frustrated with Aubrey's unfairness he balled his fist and leapt forward at the small woman, yelling, "I'll show you seven hundred caps you bitch!"
Closing her eyes, Aubrey prepared to receive the brute force of the man's impact. Instead all she felt was a brush of air as Silus lept from beside her, his foot coming into contact with the center of the man's chest. Silus raised his arms up and brought his fists down on the man next, his muscles instantly remembering all of the times he'd had to beat a solider in this fashion for some minor inconvenience.
The violence freed something feral inside of Silus and that feral beast was filled with the rage and humiliation of having been thrown in this NCR prison. It was a festering anger that had glutted itself on Caesar's incompetence, the Legion's weaknesses made bare in the mind of the Centurion over and over until he just gave himself up. SIlus howled as he reduced the man's face and chest to a warm bloody paste. It wasn't until he heard Aubrey's voice telling him to stop that Silus was able to realize where he was and what he was doing. It was to late, the man was dead.
A blue jacket like the one Silus was already wearing was thrown over his shoulders, and Aubrey took him by the red knuckled hands that were still balled up in front of him.
"I paid the guards to look the other way," Aubrey whispered to him, "but we need to get out of here. Hopefully they'll finger some nutcase for that guy dying... You need to get yourself under control fella."
Inside on of the concrete bunkers that housed the showers Aubrey pealed the blue jacket of off Silus, revealing the spatter from the face of the man Silus had just beat to death. Aubrey reached behind Silus's large body and turned on the water spray and shoved him into it., Silus didn't complain, instead he just stood their watching her as blood trailed down his body into the drain, soaking his clothes in the process.
Regaining his composure instantly, Silus ran his finger through his shoulder length black hair to make sure no tissue had clung to the strands. He looked over at Aubrey who seemed to be watching him, amazed.
"I never realized before that you're mostly muscle under that uniform," Aubrey mused. "I don't think there is an ounce of fat on you."
"It's natural that a woman like you would be impressed by me," Silus responded before he could think. Then to cover up for his mistake, "You were right about me being a solider. I took my training very seriously."
"I can see that," Aubrey smiled. "I think you cured anyone here of trying to swing at me ever again. Good job, Simon."
"Simon," Silus mumbled to himself, looking up at the shower nozzle. Frustrated with how his clothing was sticking to his body in the wetness Silus pealed his shirt off and threw it into the next shower stall. He then looked over at Audrey and seemed to sneer, "Maybe you should fetch me some dry clothes before this starts to look suspicious. I think you'll get in trouble for being in here anyways, it says 'men's' shower outside."
As he spoke Silus was surprised to find Aubrey staring at him with a bit of color to her cheeks. Silus shuffled on his feet a second, he should have probably thought about this harder before he so boldly took off half of his clothing, but being a commanding officer wasn't something that easily wore off. Aubrey put her hand to her mouth for a second and turned.
"Yeah I'll get you some dry clothes in here a-sap," she muttered.
"I know my body is impressive woman," Silus chortled, trying to snap her out of her embarisment, "but please try to control yourself around me from this point on."
Aubrey nodded and fled the showers, and Silus took advantage of the situation to lose the lower half of his clothing. A few minutes later another prisoner came in for a shower. As he disrobed he revealed another layer clothes and a spare towel. The man folded the items and left them on the bench before he walked into his own stall to clean up. Silus grunted in acknowledgement and went over to put the new clothes on, groaning a little as he realized no one could smuggle him a dry pair of shoes.
After procuring a dry uniform for Simon, Aubrey walked over to the south side of the prison and slammed her hand against the fence repeatedly. She knew the noise would draw attention to her, and luckly the person she wanted to talk to was on the other side of the fence.
"Hey warden Daniels!" Aubrey called out.
"Do you need something Ms. Childes?" The warden asked, walking closer to the chain link fence.
"Yeah, I got some questions about your new boy," Aubrey said.
"Simon Lamonte?" The warden responded with a grin, "I'd heard you'd been associating with Mr. Lamonte. You always did have an eye for scum Aubrey. What about him?"
"What can you tell me about him?" Aubrey questioned.
"Legally?" Warden Daniels responded. "Nothing."
"What are you going to tell me out of a fondness for my childlike mischief?" Audrey flirted.
"Hah. Tell you what," The warden stepped closer to the fence, "I'll fill you in on what I remember from his file. Simon Lamonte, mid-thirties. Ex-Solider, Captain I think. Transferred from Camp McCarran. Seems like he was dishonorably discharged for something or another. I think he pushed some of his men to hard. Whatever. That area's a mess, and so they took away his pension and kicked him here."
"Why are they sending a solider through reeducation training?" Aubrey inquired.
"Between you and me kid?" The warden said as he made sure his guards were far enough away not to over hear his conversation. "McCarran just fished out a Legion spy. Now I know that spy ain't Simon Lamonte, but I have a funny feeling he might be affiliated. Like maybe he knew and didn't say anything, or was just close enough to make his CO uncomfortable."
"Nah, he's a weirdo, but I don't think he's a Legion spy," Aubrey said. "He isn't the sneaky type, to direct. You should hear the string of shit that man can cuss up when he thinks no one is listening."
"Say Aubrey," The warden asked, rubbing his head with a kerchief to absorb the sweat forming on the balding scalp. "You wouldn't know anything about the dead man we just had to pull out of the yard?"
"Nah, no idea," Aubrey lied, "Probably some punk who owed a debt to someone and finally got his what for."
"I doubt their will be much of an inquiry," The warden said. "He was in here for life, but you knew that didn't you?"
"I don't know nothing about anything," Aubrey dodged, looking away from the warden like a guilty child.
"Be careful Aubrey," The warden said as he returned to his associates, "I don't want you back in here after you get out."
Aubrey had no response to this, so she nodded her head, jammed her hands in her pockets, and walked away from the fence. She closed her eyes for a second and the image of Simon with his shirt off, his back and torso covered with scars of varying lengths an thickness, came back to her.
Sure, Simon's body looked like a well tooled instrument, but there was something about the way it had been abused that made the warden's story seem a little fishy. Still, the way the water had caused his pants to cling around his sizable package was nice, but she couldn't afford to think about that. He was a handsome man, the kind that made you feel safe standing next to him, if only because he was a big mother fucker. Aubrey liked it, but she also did not want to distract herself from taking care of business, especially with her release date so close on the horizon.
"Hell, ain't no one her who doesn't have a reason to be here," Aubrey mused to herself as she walked back towards the center of the yard where she knew she'd meet Simon eventually. As she stood there under the desert sun she looked around the dirty circular area marked for prison recreation. Most days, after time spent in hard labor, the prisoners were allowed to idle here until evening when they would be expected to eat dinner and go to bed. This was where all of the seedy goings on of prison life occurred, and Aubrey had her niche in this little society. It had been a hard fought position, and it made Aubrey nervous to think about going back out into the real world where she didn't have any connections.
As she pondered this a dark shadow fell across her own, and she turned to see Simon towering over her, his hair still wet. She smiled at him for a second, shielding her eyes from the setting sun, and reached forward expectantly.
"Lets see how bad you fucked up your hand," She softly ordered.
Simon's face changed when she asked about his wounds, a mixture of anger and confusion.
"I just want to make sure you're okay," Aubrey assured.
Slowly Simon extended his hands, palm down, hiding the abrasions. Aubrey, took his large muscular hand in hers and turned it over, revealing the red from punching the inmate repeatedly. Her soft fingers caressed his knuckles, and she swallowed a little as she realized how callused his hands were. The thickened skin was probably the only reason his hands weren't putty. She traced a finger slowly along the underside of Simon's hand, the gentle tickling gesture causing him to stir for a moment and rip his hands from hers.
"Don't do that," He growled with a threatening tone that made the hairs on the back of Aubrey's neck stand up.
"I think you'll live," she said, dismissive of his threatening tone.
"No one said that I wouldn't," Simon responded, still defensive.
"Chill out man," Aubrey yawned, "I just wanted to make sure my number one thug was going to be able to use his hands again if I got in a pinch. Those are some hands you have there Simon. I bet you could make a girl crazy with those hands."
Something glowed in Simon's eye for a second, making him seem more snake like than he normally was. Normally those yellow eyes always seemed to buzz with a dangerous inelegance missing from most people, and the way he was looking at Aubrey, the way he was obviously holding himself back from lunging on top of her, made something inside of Aubrey burn. Simon was a dangerous man, the warden was right to warn her to be careful, and she felt herself drawn to that part of him even though she knew it might lead to her own distruction. When Aubrey looked into Simon's eyes she felt like she was trapped somehow, between the devil and the deep blue sea.