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Javi picks up his fork and cuts a piece of fish, then brings it to his mouth. He chews like it’s the most disgusting thing he’s ever put in his mouth, then he picks up a piece of broccoli from the plate and looks down at me.
“Eat,” he says.
I lock eyes with him and take the food straight from his hand, letting my lips ghost over his knuckles on the way back.
We’re in this together, I say with a glance.
He seems to take strength from it, continuing to eat, even when we know the horrible truth. The fish they catch are feasting on corpses. It hits me with another wave of nausea, my stomach roiling, my heart pounding.
I can stay silent, but I know they can sense how afraid I am.
“That’s right, Esther,” Gideon says. “We wanted you both to know what happens to girls who disobey our rules here on the Rig. I’ve tried to be nice, but if you keep sassing us—”
“She’ll behave,” Javi grits out. “I’ll make sure of it. No more disobeying, no more speaking out of turn. She’ll be the model of obedience…isn’t that right?”
It shocks me for a second.
Obedience—what Gideon called my mother.
I just nod, tears in my eyes as I stare down at the floor.
I hope they didn’t get to Javi, but my father is a master manipulator. If he can’t coerce him, he’ll scare him instead.
And every day that we’re here is another day that Javi might get so scared he decides he’ll just fall in line.
?
We don’t talk as we head back to our room, Javi leading me with a hand around my collar. I’m itching to talk—to ask him what happened and to tell him about our impending rescue—by the time we get inside, but Javi silences me with a finger to his lips, rage in his eyes.
I can’t tell if it’s at me or someone else…and that scares me more than anything.
“We can’t keep acting like this,” he says.
“I…”
“Shut up,” he says.
I shut my mouth, my chin trembling. No…they got to him…
“From now on, you keep the collar on at all times,” he says. “You wear dresses like a proper lady—and you don’t speak.Ever.”
I take a shuddering breath and a choked sob lodges itself in my throat. “Javi,” I whisper.
He lunges forward and pushes me against the bed, boxing me in. I struggle against him and let out a yelp, then his lips are at my ear, his breath hot against my neck.
“They’re always listening,” he whispers. “They know everything.”
I go still, gasping and keeping my voice just as low as his. “How?”
“Must be masking their scents,” he murmurs. His knee wedges between my legs, sending a jolt of pleasure through me. Even when I’m scared—even in that second I doubted him—I can’t resist him.
At least we have this, when in every other way, we’re prisoners.
I turn my head to meet his eyes, finding them red around the edges. He looks rough, haggard, like he’s been through the wringer.
“What happened?” I breathe.
He tells me terrible things, all under his breath—bodies in the water, Gideon’s threats, Abel’s taunting. We stay lying in bed, speaking in whispers, not knowing who might be lurking outside the door or listening from the other side of the wall.
