Page 86 of No Asylum Here

“I think I’m hallucinating. That or this is one big, stupidly vivid dream,” I admitted. “Maybe your father’s Treatment is what’s extending your life. There has to be a scientific explanation. The drug could regenerate cells or⁠—”

“How long are you going to deny the truth right in front of you?” His deep timbre—rife with challenge—shook me to my core.

All my life, I’d been methodical, the seeing-is-believing type. God wasn’t real, and science was everything. Now? If I accepted any part of what he was telling me as the truth, that would put so much of who I was as a person into question. How could I take that leap?

“I need something more tangible, Mal.”

“Think about it. Do you remember how you got here?”

“No. I… I just chalked it up to the pills.”

“Have you gotten a check for your salary?

“Rook signed a paper check a week or so ago. I haven’t gone to town to cash it yet. I haven’t really had the urge to leave. We’re out in the middle of nowhere, and there’s no signal. And the operator on the phone was incredibly unhelpful when I tried to call for a taxi.”

My stomach twisted into tight coils. “My cell doesn’t get any service either… But I just chalked that up to being in the boonies. I guess I could walk into town.”

Mal’s jaw tightened, making the leather strap of his mask strain. “There’s no town for you to walk to.”

No town to walk to. Now that was just silly. Was I supposed to buy into the idea that St. Bart’s was just an isolated island in another fabric of reality? Hard sell.

“Maybe I should take a stroll. See for myself.”

“Careful, Tuesday,” he warned, the urgency in his growl making the hairs on my nape stand. “There’s dangerous shit out there. Demons far more unpredictable than what’s allowed to live within these walls. And you’ll only end up back here anyway. After a very painful lesson.”

I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t professional, but I’d just fucked this man, whatever he was, for information that sounded like something he’d ripped from a paranormal thriller novel?

“Don’t lie to yourself. You didn’t just fuck him for info. You love him, you twit.”

I nearly dropped my coffee at the loud voice in my ear. It almost sounded like my own.

“L–Look… Rook might be an evil bastard, and this place might be a hellhole, but I’m not trapped here.”

“You’re in denial. I get it. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t believe it either until I saw it with my own eyes. And you will. I just hope your first lesson isn’t as brutal as mine.”

Uncertainty burned through me, making it so hot it felt as though my skin were on fire. I could barely breathe. And I couldn’t even blame it on the hydrocodone anymore. I was having a simple, old-fashioned anxiety attack.

A harsh knock at my office door had me lurching out of my chair with a yelp.

“Fuck!”

I flung a glance at Mal, and his demeanor blackened as his glare moved to the door. “It’s him. Don’t answer it.”

It wasn’t much of a solution. It’s not like he’d just walk away. “We can’t hide in here forever.”

I glanced in the mirror and straightened my outfit as best I could. Thanks to my long white doctor’s coat, the crusty skirt was well hidden, as well as my ripped blouse. I quickly crossed the room to stuff Mal’s member back into his pants, wiped any remaining cum off my face with the hem of my jacket and moved to answer the door.

“Tuesday, no!”

Steeling myself, I ignored Mal’s protests and slipped outside to greet the facility director with a faux smile. “Hello, Dr. Rook. Can I help you?”

Outside, I played the part of the oblivious subordinate he expected from me. While I wasn’t the best actress, it wasn’t a stretch considering that’s what I’d been the last time I’d seen him. Inside, I was fuming.

I fucking hated him.

It took several intense seconds to realize he hadn’t come alone. Behind him were half a dozen orderlies, huge ones. In Rook’s hand, he carried a leather doctor’s bag.

Fat beads of sweat peppered my brow as dread devoured me in one gulp.