INVISIBLE PRISON (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Read Online Free PDF Page B

mumbled around a bite. “With a dump truck.”
    “Oh, my.”
    So maybe a sentence here and there was the solution to finding a way to eat in peace.
    “I’m curious what you did before you came here?” Kelly’s chin length blond hair danced around her face, as bubbly as she was. “I was a kindergarten teacher.”
    Should have figured that. Right after Pep leader or Buckle Bunny, one of those helpless, hopeless bimbos who chased rodeo stars for a little one-on-one attention.
    I wondered if I should share that most recently I’d been a guest of the Idaho Prison System, then decided that was just mean. So I mumbled, “Hairdresser.”
    “Oh, I bet that took a lot of hard work,” she said, eating like a bird on steroids, lots of small bites interspersed with head nods and smiles.
    I’d never thought of what I did as hard. It was a job, something that allowed me to be independent, get off the farm, and have something that was all mine, not my brothers’ or because of my father’s unspoken position in the community.
    I just shrugged and was very glad when I noticed Ling Mai walk into the room.
    Nothing had to be said, but like twilight cutting short the chattering of birds, the hall hushed.
    I pushed my plate away, my appetite killed by the twisting in my gut. Nearly two dozen women stilled, casting anxious glances before they turned their attention to the director and her shadow M.T. Stone guarding her back.
    She started in easy enough. “Welcome all. I am very pleased you are here.”
    So why did the muscles along my neck tighten?
    “We’ll have a few more recruits joining us in the next day or two, but for the most part we’re all here,” she continued.
    Recruits? More like gladiators faced with a die-or-die option if my case was anything like the others. Though I doubted smiling Kelly across from me could have done anything bad enough to warrant a demerit in Girl Scouts.
    “I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for being here before I turn the floor over to your head instructor, M.T. Stone. He’ll be working with you closely day-by-day and is the one you’ll report to directly.”
    She stepped back as Stone moved to the fore. I noticed the tension increased as I glanced around the room, gauging the reactions of the women scattered around tables. Most expressions remained guarded, watchful, with a few looking frightened. A couple of brave ones did that woman to a hot guy look over.
    Then I caught the Chiquita’s gaze snagging on mine. Both of us gauging the bigger picture, less concerned about our own responses to the set-up as getting a stronger lay of the land. Interesting.
    She glanced away fast enough to let me know I’d been right. She was hiding something, something she feared more than this place.
    Before I could wonder what, Stone cleared his throat.
    “Each of you was brought here with unique gifts,” he started, zeroing in on a number of women who quickly looked away. “And you’re going to need those gifts to get through the program. If you do.”
    Not that I expected a pep talk from this guy, but his words dropped the temp by a good ten degrees. I noticed that across from me Kelly had stilled, her eyes growing wider, her skin paler.
    “We start training at O-six hundred tomorrow morning,” he continued, his eyes narrowing. “By the end of tomorrow a fourth of you will be gone.”
    Asshole or realist? Maybe both, but Noziaks didn’t scare easily.
    Rude as it was among my father’s Shoshone people to look another straight in the eye, a sure sign of disrespect, I made sure that when Stone’s gaze zeroed in on me, I not only didn’t look away, I held it.
    Bring it on, Big Guy. I dare you.

 
    CHAPTER 6
     
    Me and my big mouth. I sprawled across the dojo floor, sure going a couple more rounds with Big Mad Martha would be a piece of cake compared to sparring with M.T. Stone.
    “You think MT means Mighty Tough?” a shifter from Rhode Island gasped beside me.
    I snorted. This guy