Protection Read Online Free PDF Page A

watching an angel tempted into sin – delicious, painful and impossible to witness without suffering almost equally in the process. As Cooper smoked, Gabriel looked at the floor, silently reciting Mrs. Lavin’s multiplication tables until his crotch was decent again. Then Gabriel stood, gave Cooper a smile and said, “See you tonight. Remember – I’ll expect that kiss.”

     
    * * *
     

     
    B y the time Joseph Cooper returned to his cell, just minutes before reconfinement, Gabriel had already made himself at home. He had precious few possessions – a Bible from his sister Maureen, a packet of personal letters, and a signed photo from the Marlene Dietrich Fan Club. This last had served him so admirably when it came to his late-night needs; he wasn’t ashamed to admit he’d obtained it by writing a fan letter. Marlene, though every inch a woman, had the verve, courage and hardness of a man. Kissing Lonnie’s mouth might do nothing for Gabriel, but kissing it while imagining Marlene’s flawless legs in those delicate stockings was surprisingly effective.
    “What – what are you doing here?” Cooper stopped dead, hands curling around the bars behind him and squeezing until his knuckles turned white. “They told me I’d be alone until a cellmate was assigned.”
    “And here he is.” Gabriel restrained himself from laughing in the other man’s face. “Didn’t I say I expected a kiss before bed?”
    Wentworth’s guards, in their infinite, cosmic wisdom, chose that moment to begin reconfinement a full five minutes early. They strode down each long hall in turn, slamming cell doors and locking them tight. Once the all-clear was asked, confirmed and shouted back, the main switch was thrown and the overhead lights snapped off. As F-block went dark Gabriel sprang to his feet, a long-fingered hand closing around Cooper’s soft white throat.
    “This is where you say yes or you die,” Gabriel whispered in Cooper’s ear.
    F-block’s only illumination came from a single battery-powered square, glowing faintly near the ceiling in case of emergency. The light bounced off the cell’s shaving mirror, revealing Cooper’s compressed lips and wide, desperate eyes.
    “Yes,” he breathed. “Just kill me first. Do anything you like, but kill me first.”
    The plea lodged in Gabriel’s stomach like lead. The damned fool was serious. Cooper’s pulse beat frantically beneath Gabriel’s fingers like the wings of a trapped bird, but his voice was steady.
    “Jesus, boy.” Releasing the younger man, Gabriel pushed him onto the bottom bunk. Dropping down beside him, Gabriel caught Cooper’s head in the crook of his arm, as he might have done to a younger sibling. Pulling Cooper close, he planted a kiss on the other man’s forehead, then let go.
    “One kiss paid up. You’ve earned yourself a quiet night,” Gabriel said, feeling in his top breast pocket for cigarettes and matches.
    Cooper sucked in his breath, staring at Gabriel. The look in his large gray eyes was hard to take.
    “Have one.” Gabriel shook a Pall Mall out of the box.
    Looking like he didn’t know what else to do, Cooper took it. He held it steady as Gabriel lit it. Then Cooper’s eyes brimmed over and he began to weep, gaze downcast, tears forming and dropping down each full white cheek.
    “Oh, for Chrissake,” Gabriel muttered, looking away. “Some wrongs can’t be undone. There’s no going back, only forward. Don’t sit there bawling. It won’t bring that poor woman back to life, nor her babe.”
    “I didn’t—” Cooper began, and stopped himself. He made a sound more like choked laughter than tears. “It doesn’t matter. God knows it won’t matter to you.”
    “Perhaps not. I’ve never cared for doctors and that’s a fact. But if you’re innocent, go on,” Gabriel said. “Tell the tale. Mind you, every man inside is innocent. I’d find a guilty man’s story more diverting.”
    Cooper mastered himself. Drawing in a double