CHAPTER 2 — THE SECRET NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO KNOW
Marcus stormed across the yard, furious.
"What did you do to my dogs?"
Ava calmly looked into his eyes.
"I didn't do anything."
The guards tried pulling the dogs away.
None of them moved.
The animals formed a circle around Ava, growling whenever anyone stepped too close.
Even the prison's chief dog trainer looked terrified.
"This... this isn't possible."
Marcus grabbed a metal baton and struck the nearest dog.
The animal didn't attack him.
It only stepped in front of Ava, shielding her from the blow.
The entire prison watched in disbelief.
Then an elderly maintenance worker dropped his toolbox.
His face turned pale.
"I know her..."
Everyone turned.
Twenty years earlier, before Blackridge became the country's most violent prison, the military had operated a classified K-9 training academy on the same land.
Only one trainer had ever earned complete loyalty from every dog in the program.
Her name...
...was Eleanor Carter.
The maintenance worker slowly looked at Ava.
"You have her eyes."
Ava reached into the pocket sewn inside her prison jacket and pulled out an old, faded military whistle.
She blew it once.
Every dog immediately sat at attention.
Not because they had been trained to obey prisoners...
But because they recognized the bloodline of the woman who had saved their lives years ago.
Marcus suddenly realized something much worse.
Ava had never been sent to Blackridge by accident.
Someone powerful had planted her there.
Not to be killed...
But to expose a secret buried beneath the prison for decades.
As prison sirens echoed through the yard, a hidden steel door deep below the concrete silently unlocked for the first time in twenty years.
And inside...
A classified military file carried one name.
AVA CARTER.
Marcus stared at the file, his hands shaking.
May you like
For the first time in his life...
The man who ruled the prison realized he might be the one trapped inside.
