cket and perused the EOMIS system to gather intel about the inmates he’d be housed with.
Priest’s file had been a last minute addition to the staff’s stack, and no picture had been available. He’d read the file, read the report of the incident that had left her wounded and on medical leave for three months. After seeing her in the flesh, he could well imagine what had only been hinted at in the sparse words of the report.
She’d been surrounded, trying to get to another officer who’d only served as a decoy for the true target of the attack. Her.
The other officer had quit after the incident—the injuries to the tendons in his arms too deep to ever recover full strength. Priest had fought hand-to-hand, administered pepper spray in a fruitless attempt to ward off the prisoners pressing closer.
She’d gone down and would have been raped if the Emergency Response Team hadn’t been quite so quick to respond to the report of the riot erupting in the housing unit.
Vlahos was frankly amazed by two facts. One, that she’d been willing to return to duty. And two, that the warden had put her right back on the floor with the general population. Word of the attack had to have spread throughout the prison system, guards, and prisoners alike.
She was a walking target. Speculation would be rampant about what she might have done to invite the attack.
Now, he thought maybe she hadn’t done a damn thing. She’d just been too attractive to mingle among a hundred horny men and not risk being the object of their lust.
Gabriel lifted a shoulder and awkwardly wiped the sweat from his cheek with his jumpsuit. Better put those thoughts aside. During her shifts, he couldn’t show her any interest. But he’d haunt her dreams. He hoped like hell she was strong enough for what was coming. She’d need her wits and willpower to get through this.
A key turned in the lock, and he straightened. As soon as the broad-shouldered figure entered, he relaxed, grinning at Billy Hedron.
Billy stood in the door for a moment, his gaze raking him.
“I know you have to be enjoying this,” Gabriel muttered.
“Buddy, you have no clue,” Billy drawled.
“Close the door, will you?”
“Still got cameras in here.”
“Which are being disabled as we speak.”
Hedron’s eyebrow lifted. “Got someone else inside?”
“Just close the goddamn door.” When it shut, he leaned back against the cinderblock wall behind him. “Priest brought me through the doors. Did you know?”
Billy grimaced. “She came in this morning. Figured Petrakis had something to do with that. Wouldn’t want you wasting away in here.”
Just as he’d thought. “So, tell me about the dig.”
Billy leaned against the door and took a deep breath. “You know the grounds are bordered on the north by the river.”
Gabriel nodded.
“The land edging up to the water is pretty swampy, but there’s a rise this side of the swamp. The prison’s expanding. Surveyors mapped out a place for another tower, but as soon as the first backhoe dropped a shovel, they found a burial mound.”
“It dates back to when the other artifact was forged,” Gabriel said, “the conquistador’s sword hilt.”
Billy frowned. “Yeah, but I don’t get why you think this is linked. That one had Aztec markings all over it. This is a Caddo Indian site.”
“It’s not the tribe that’s important—it’s when the weapons were made.”
“You’re not expecting to find forged metal in a Caddo burial mound, are you? They were hunter-gatherers.”
“We aren’t expecting anything. It’s a hunch. The carbon dating on the mound, the prison breaks where convicts are disappearing without a trace…” Gabriel lifted his gaze to Billy’s. “And there have been whispers about demons...”
Billy rubbed a hand over his shaved head. “Fuck. Kalicek contacted his brother in the San Antonio Police Department as soon as we started suspecting something might be going down here. ’Bout fell out of my chair when they said they were sending you. Small damn world.”
Gabriel smiled. “I knew you’d be here to watch my back. Makes it easier since you already know what I am.”