5. Chapter 5

5

A lfie tapped the side of his fist to Queenie's door, and he got an immediate response. Alfie no longer blinked in surprise at the voice. In fact, he looked forward to the softer-spoken tone.

"Thanks, Queenie."

He sighed, then stepped up to Nate's door.

"So, what are you wearing, Freshman?"

Alfie smirked and looked down at himself. "Why do you need to know?"

"Just curious, that's all."

"I wear the same as all the officers on day shift."

"Describe it to me."

Alfie snorted and shook his head. "Black work boots."

Nate hummed as if he was savouring something tasty. "I bet they're buffed to a mirror shine, and your laces are done in neat little bows."

Alfie narrowed his eyes at his shoes. They shone in the dull lights, and his laces were indeed tied neatly rather than tucked in like he did with his trainers.

"What else you wearing?"

Alfie sighed. "Black trousers, a white shirt, and a black tie."

"Slow down. Let's take one item at a time. Start with the tie."

"It's a black tie," Alfie said, smoothing his hand over the silk.

"Is it tight around your neck? Is it a small tie or a long one?"

Alfie smirked. "It's not overly tight, and it's long."

Nate hummed. "And your shirt, are all your buttons done up?"

"Yes, believe it or not, I can button my shirt."

"But the top one, is it done up, all neat? I bet it is."

The shirt suddenly felt restrictive, and Alfie tugged his collar before picking at his top button. "Nope, no top button."

"Liar. Every time I've seen you, it's been done up. You've been all tidy and ordered."

Alfie shook his head. "You've only seen me twice."

Nate made a sound like a game show buzzer.

"Wrong, I've seen you before, through the bars of G-wing. Always so focused on your job you don't know what's going on anywhere else. Each time I've seen you, I just want to crumple your shirt, loosen your tie, maybe even tie your wrists with your shoelaces, and get a blush growing on your cheeks."

Alfie's blush bloomed in full force, and he found he couldn't speak or walk away. He gawped at the cell door.

"Do you like that idea?" Nate purred.

Alfie shook his head. Like was the wrong word. He was curious, a little aroused, and freaked out. He didn't know why he was still standing there imagining when he had the option to walk away.

"No, sounds terrible to me," he croaked, then retreated from the door.

His walk was deliberately slow, to the point he lingered on each step.

Marie and Glen were waiting on the other side of the gate, and in the brighter lobby he could see the frowns on their faces. They were wondering why he was taking so long.

The heat at his crotch was the reason, and he thought of Henry and his phlegm-ridden cough just to scare his curious arousal away. It worked, but Marie and Glen still watched him with frowns on their faces as he stepped through the gate.

"O…kay?" Marie asked.

He nodded.

Alfie hated to admit, even to himself, that he enjoyed Nate's flirty side.

The other side of him was dark, the seducer that reminded Alfie of both a purring lion and a coiling snake ready to strike. As soon as Nate mentioned opening the hatch, or the door, Alfie backed away quickly.

He closed his eyes in an extended blink and thanked God it was his last shift of the week. He needed to escape Nate and gather himself for another week of suggestive comments.

"Have you ever noticed the back of Henry's head looks like a face?"

A smile tried to spread itself across Alfie's mouth. He bit into his bottom lip to stop it.

"When he worked on days," Nate continued, "and I was tired, I had a whole conversation with the back of his head, made eye contact and everything."

Alfie stopped the laugh from his mouth, but he couldn't stop the snort of amusement from his nose. Nate laughed too, and Alfie gave up the pretence.

"How can you have made eye contact?" He chuckled, ticking Nate's name.

"The wrinkles are so deep, I swear they look like eyes, and he's got this horizonal one that looks like a mouth. The back of his head looks like a melted face."

"I'll tell him you said that, shall I?"

"You'd need a megaphone," Nate mumbled, and Alfie snorted.

"You're not wrong there."

"I've got something for you," Nate said slowly.

Alfie tutted. "Let me guess, it's two inches long and it's in your pants."

Queenie howled with laughter, and Alfie grinned.

"My dick is a lot bigger than two inches," Nate replied.

He didn't sound raging, so Alfie pushed his luck some more.

"Three inches then?"

He set Queenie off laughing again.

Nate hummed. "Open the hatch, and I'll sho—"

"Nate," Alfie said firmly.

"You were the one that turned this conversation dirty. I only wanted to tell you I drew you a picture in art class today."

There was a rustle at the hatch of the door, and Alfie took a step back with his hand on his radio.

"Don't do whatever it is you're doing," he said in warning, but the crinkle of paper continued. The folded piece slipped through the edge of the hatch and fell to the grated walkway.

Alfie hesitated before crouching to grab it. "What is it?"

He was expecting a hastily drawn picture of a cock and balls, but he froze at the picture of himself. There was no coloured detail; it didn't have his brown hair, or his green eyes, but he could tell it was him by the shape of the face, the spacing of his eyes, and the narrowness of his nose. Nate had used biro and easily recreated the texture of his hair. There was one feature missing from the portrait, and Alfie raised his eyebrow.

"This…this man has no lips."

"Man?" Nate chuckled. "You know exactly who that is, and I couldn't remember how they looked. Thought you could help me out. Open the hatch, let me see you smile."

Alfie shook his head and rested the picture on his clipboard. He glanced over the edge of the walkway and saw Marie and Glen staring worriedly through the bars.

He drew the biggest pair of Botox lips he could, then shoved the paper back through the edge of the hatch.

Nate laughed, then hummed in pleasure in a low voice.

A shiver rattled Alfie's spine, and he stood quickly, then rolled his shoulders. He felt Nate's hum vibrate through his whole body, and his heart hiccupped.

"Blow job lips, big, moist blowjob lips," Nate drawled.

Alfie took a step back, glaring accusingly at the door. He had been hooked and pulled in by Nate's allure and was left floundering at his crude comment…again.

Alfie didn't say another word. Instead, he turned sharply on his heels and marched across the landing to the stairs. Disappointment stung, and Alfie didn't know whether it was at himself, Nate, or the fact roll call had finished. He enjoyed the slow hiss of Nate's voice and the tingles it invoked, and he enjoyed Nate trying to make him laugh in their brief encounters, but he shouldn't have. All he had to do was click the next page of Nate's file, and he knew he'd never want to speak to him again. He would grimace and shudder at his name like everyone else. Alfie didn't want that, and he hated himself for not being strong enough to end whatever it was between them.

Flirtation. Fun.

Were they really so terrible?

He hadn't crossed any lines, not really.

But he's a murderer , Alfie's conscience screamed at him.

Nate killed people, and Alfie was too cowardly to read about what had happened.

Henry startled awake when he slammed the door of the office.

"What the hell?"

Alfie rolled his eyes. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

Henry snorted and shook his head. "I wasn't asleep, was resting my eyes, Fish."

Alfie tapped his foot to the floor with a grimace. "Does Nate go to an art class?"

Henry narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I hate to say it, but some of his stuff's pretty good. You can actually tell what he draws, unlike the rest of them, where it's a complete mystery."

Alfie huffed and dropped his gaze.

Henry's limbs groaned in protest as he stood and stumbled toward the coffee machine. "You'd know he did art if you read his damn file."

Alfie raised his head and looked at Henry. He immediately spotted the wrinkle eyes on the back of Henry's head. The threads of white hair looked like un-styled eyebrows, and the horizontal crease at the base looked like a mouth. Alfie struggled to hold his laugh and turned to stare out the window.

The twins were pacing the lobby, fingers twitching at their sides and heads lolling on their shoulders. They were already craving their next cigarette after returning moments before in a cloud of smoke. Marie and Glen were together either in the toilets, storage cupboard or outside in the smoking area. They liked to mix things up.

While Alfie tried to control his chuckle, he realised Nate was his own rule break. The twins spent more time smoking than working, Henry spent more time sleeping, and Marie and Glen spent more time cleaning themselves up in the toilets.

He looked forward to roll call just to hear Nate speak.

It was his own way of dealing with the boring graveyard shift. As soon as the moment passed, he sagged, and the last few hours dragged by, digging their claws into Alfie's eyes until they watered with the need to sleep.

He laughed when Nate said Dan and Ben reminded him of Playmobil men with their matching mullets and facial features. He listened with a disbelieving gasp when Nate swore Marie had got with all the men on G-wing's day shift and that was why she was moved to nights.

When he mentioned Ryan's strip of facial hair looking like a smeared arse crack, Alfie didn't try to muffle his laugh and Queenie joined in too. The good feeling of being around Nate always came to an abrupt stop when Nate told him to open the hatch or steered the conversation towards sex.

Alfie told him his sex life was none of Nate's business and strolled away. He said to himself if he ever opened the hatch at Nate's say so, then he would have to quit.

That was the line.

He swore never to open the hatch.