Only one thing was worse than the cold; being in prison in the fucking cold.

There was a dusting of snow in the otherwise dirt-covered exercise yard. The white melting into the brown under what little winter sun there was. This would likely be the last reprieve from the weather until the new year, so I had to make the most of it, which was easier said than done, considering my situation.

And I didn't mean the prison part. I meant the specifics of this exact moment.

The woman in front of me was one of the newer inmates, who hadn't yet found a group of women to take her in. I tilted my head to the side as I took in the plastic toothbrush in her hand. The toothbrush she had taken the time to sharpen into a weapon. While I should have been focusing on the shiv and thinking about what I should do if she ran at me with it... her fingers were the part that piqued my interest.

Her knuckles had turned white from how tightly she gripped it. Whatever reason she was targeting me for, she didn't want to be. I could use that.

Step one: work out why she had singled me out in the yard.

There had to be a reason, but for the life of me, I couldn't think of any good ones. Was I a dick? Of course, everyone in here was. It was the prerequisite to getting free accommodation in a place like this. I even had an 'allegiance' with people in here, which meant I should be protected.

Although, that could be it.

The woman who ran the lovely group I had integrated into may have worked out I wasn't as invested as I'd implied. Was that a good enough reason to kill someone, though? To me it wasn't, but if she thought that lack of commitment could lead to me switching gangs in here... shit.

Maybe I should get some confirmation before I go too far down that road.

"If you don't mind me asking..." I pulled my hair back into a ponytail as she shifted her weight from side to side, her eyes flicking around the circle of women that were keeping us from running. "What exactly is this about?" Her eyes looked me up and down, landing on my left wrist and staying there.

"Do you like the tattoo?" I asked as I turned my wrist to give her a better view of the black outline of a crown inked on my skin. "You know what it means?" I took a step closer and her body tensed.

"It means you're the right target."

"She speaks!" My reaction gave me a few seconds extra to think, to put together the information I had and what it means. She either knew what the tattoo meant, and I was in more danger than I thought, or it was just a unique feature that someone gave her.

My eyes narrowed; which meant I was thinking, trying to work things out. However, she misunderstood and took it as a challenge. Or, that's what I gathered since she rushed at me with the shiv. I guess the motivation behind what she was doing no longer mattered, because I couldn't stop her.

I angled my body so her swing would miss and caught her forearm. The look in her eyes told me she regretted her decision to attack. Good. I then pulled her arm behind her back and tightened my grip on her wrist until she let go of the weapon in her hand.

"You'll have to try harder than that to kill me. I've been through worse, love." I said. The women in the surrounding circle shouted names and atrocities, a response to the excitement of the fight. All of them except for Nikki, the woman I was supposed to be loyal to. She had pure murder in her eyes, which was unsurprising given that's what she's in here for.

"What the hell is going on here?!" A figure in black cut through the sea of orange, his boots crunching on the snow. "You." He said, as his eyes landed on me. I continued to smirk and hold on to the arm of the woman who had just attacked me. "Why is it always you?"

"Because the people here want to dim my shining personality. It won't work." I said, as I looked back at Nikki. "It was self-defence. This woman here attacked me with the lovely shiv that's on the ground."

"Am I supposed to believe that?"

"It's the fucking truth, Kaiden, so yes." I said as I pushed my attacker away from me and into the circle of women around us. To say that I had dealt with this guard once or twice would be an understatement. He was probably the best friend I had in here; if best friends treated each other like feral animals and spoke only in sarcasm.

"We'll let the warden decide on that one, shall we?" He said as he walked towards me.

"I'm telling the truth. The cameras will show that."

"That would be a first, Hyde." Ouch. That was harsh, but fair.

I held my hands towards him and allowed him to put the cuffs on.