His jaw flexed. “I’ve told you. We’re not going to hurt you. You're a protected witness now, remember? Our job is quite literally to keep you safe.”
My eyes narrowed. A few days ago they restrained me to a chair in their torture room. Silas had threatened to hurt me and Knox had put a knife to my throat. I don't know why Silas thought I was suddenly going to just believe I was safe around either of them.
Knox moved then, careful as ever. He slid the refilled glass back in front of me with gentle movements, placing it within easy reach, but not forcing it closer.
“She doesn’t know that yet,” he reminded Silas. “Notreally.”
Silas’s breath left him in a short huff, aggravation bleeding out, but he said nothing more.
I lowered my hands from my head, fighting the urge to fold back in on myself.I needed to try harder not to react. Everything I did, no matter how small, seemed to set both alphas off. Silas became volatile and Knox's eyes sharpened in a violent way, even if he was better at stifling his emotions.
My gaze drifted to the object Silas had dropped in front of me.
He grumbled from across the table, not quite meeting my eyes. “To pass the time. Doc said you needed something recreational to keep you busy.” he said, before adding, “It’s a puzzle.”
I forced my expression into something flat and uninterested, even as my heart began to hammer. It had been a long time since I had access to anything like it. A puzzle. A game. Anything meant to occupy the mind instead of punishing it.
In Marco’s captivity, days had stretched endlessly, empty and suffocating, with little stimulation beyond fear and waiting. Any gift had always come with strings attached, temptation baited with expectation.
Was that what this was?
If I accepted it, would they expect me to give them something in return?
Before my mind could weigh the danger, my eager body reacted, hand reaching for it, fingers tracing the corners of the box with quiet, reverent attention. A small sound slipped from my throat before I could stop it.
Both men noticed.
Their gazes followed my movement, tracking my hand, then lifting to my mouth where the sound had emanated from. Their expressions shifted into something unfamiliar.
Not anger.
Not impatience.
Something else...
Heat crept up my neck. I pulled my hand back quickly, tucking it into my lap as if I had been caught doing something wrong.
“Do you like puzzles, runt?” Knox asked, his head tilting as he studied me.
The question landed gently, but my pulse still raced.
I barely knew whether I liked puzzles or not. The last five years had decimated the person I was before Marco. Torture has a way of doing that. Erasing who someone is leaving a new, unrecognizable person in their place.
But a memory stirred, logged deep in the recesses of my mind.
My mother’s hands guided two puzzle pieces together, the purple edges revealing where they fit. Even though I was no older than eight, I could still remember where to place each piece, the final image of a hot-air balloon clear in my mind. In the memory, I reached for them, arranging the pieces, trying to make the picture whole while my mother watched me with a strange expression.
She often looked at me like that, as if I were something unfamiliar to her. As if the way my mind worked was too different, too dangerous. I used to wonder if that had made it easier for her to sell me.
There was no point in thinking about those things now. She was dead. Marco had made sure I knew, delivering the news with a taunting cruelty. In truth, everyone I had once known was either dead or long gone. The world had changed so much in the past five years. So had I.
But puzzles… I guess I still liked puzzles.
My eyes lifted to Knox’s, and I nodded. Small movements of my head had become a safe, effective way to communicate with them. And when I responded to them, they didn't seem so angry. Especially Knox, who appeared to find a sense of accomplishment in having drawn any form of communication from me.
"Alright, well I'll clear the table and we can put it together before your appointment. Sound good?" Knox said.
I nodded again, more surely this time.
