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The safety I’d promised my precious little fairy.
I wasn’t leaving without their name.
“I-I don’t know nothin’,” Julio stuttered.
I grinned down at him as I stood over the pool table.“Keep denying it.I love it when I have to tear the truth free.”
Fanuco groaned in agony on the floor.Glancing down dispassionately, I shot him again, but only in the leg.He had information I wanted; I could practically taste it in the stale air of the old bar.I just needed a little time with both men to get the answers I needed.
“Jack, man, are you sure you even need me?”Max unrolled his torture kit on the table where the others’ guns were still sitting.“I mean, we haven’t even started yet, and you’re already scaring the piss out of me.”
“Then I suggest you take a leak, cousin.Because I’m about to show Julio what it feels like to be afraid of the shadows.”
Stepping over the bleeding man on the floor, I picked up a scalpel.Looking down at the man strapped to the table, all I could think about was Nishia’s whimpers when she had a nightmare.This man was one of the reasons for her fear.Disgusted, I looked at Nestor’s dead body.I hadn’t been able to stop myself from killing him quickly.Not after I’d heard Julio say Nestor was the one to take Nishia’s innocence.That was one shadow who would never come back to haunt my little fairy ever again.
But Julio, by his own admission, had taken his turn.He’d hurt her too.And now that I’d released some of my pent-up rage, I was calm enough to make Julio feel the full force of my wrath.
Nishia would be safe again.I’d made her that promise, and I was going to fucking keep it.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
nishia
By lunchtime,I was completely exhausted.After breakfast, we had group therapy with one of the counselors outside.A plethora of benches were staged around a fire pit where Suzanne told me they made s’mores during the summer months.It was their favorite place to gather for the group sessions when the weather permitted it.
I didn’t have to speak about my own trauma, but I sat and listened as some of the other residents talked about theirs.My heart ached for them as I heard about what their husbands or boyfriends or another family member had put them through.I wanted to hug them—and hurt the bastards who had harmed them.
But not many of the men who had sent the women on the run from them were still breathing.It was weird that so many abusers had died after the woman they’d beat up physically and beat down mentally arrived at Sanctuary.Yet at first glance, no one else appeared to find the coincidence strange.They put it down to karma.
Part of me couldn’t stop from wondering if karma had help in so many evil bastards meeting their end.But I couldn’t bring myself to care enough about their sudden deaths to ask about it.
After group therapy, Marcy and Suzanne helped me into the mansion again, and I met with the psychologist on staff in her office.Dr.Cainfield promised she wouldn’t push, and for our first appointment, she simply asked noninvasive questions—at least what most people would think weren’t intrusive.
For me, even being asked about school made me feel raw.Every memory led back to my mom, and I didn’t want to think about her.The hurt and anger at the woman who had given me life made my responses to Dr.Cainfield’s question clipped, and I mentally withdrew from the conversation.Sensing my unease, the doctor called an early end to our session and offered to help me back to my room, but someone knocked on the door just as the psychologist stood.
“Yes?”the doctor called out.
Amy opened the door and stuck her head inside, a bright smile on her face.Already feeling too exposed and agitated, the sight of the nurse put my nerves on edge.“Sorry to interrupt, but it’s time for Nishia’s next dose of pain meds.”
Dr.Cainfield raised a brow at her but shrugged.“We are done for the day.I was just going to assist Nishia back to her room.”
“Oh, I can do that,” Amy offered, walking across the room and hold out her hand to me.
I glanced at it for a long moment before shifting enough to look around the nurse at the doctor.“How many nurses work here?”
“We have five,” she answered.“But there are only two to three on-site each day, so they can rotate in order for them to have a three-days-on, four-days-off schedule.Why do you ask?”
“Does that mean there is at least one other nurse here today?”I asked instead of answering her question.
“Yes.I think there are two others today.Deborah is our supervising RN, and I saw Tammy in the kitchen getting herself a cup of coffee right before our session started.”
“I would like to switch my care to either of them, please,” I informed Dr.Cainfield.
I sensed Amy’s tension and anger before I even looked up to see her unhappy face.“Nishia, if I’ve done anything to make you uncomfortable, I apologize.I’m unclear why you’re unhappy with me, but—”
“I don’t feel safe with you,” I interrupted.It was true; I felt uneasy with Amy, but I wasn’t sure if that was my fight-or-flight kicking in or simply because I didn’t like how infatuated with Jack she was.Maybe it was a mixture of both, because as I looked up at the nurse and watched her try to school her anger with me, I couldn’t miss the dislike in her eyes.“I thought Sanctuary was supposed to be my safe haven to heal.If I’m nervous around my own nurse, I feel like that defeats the purpose of remaining here.”
“We do want you to feel safe at every moment, especially behind these walls.There is no need for you to give any reason for your unease with Amy.All that matters is that you do feel unsafe with her, and voicing your fear of anything or anyone is a step in the right direction.”Dr.Cainfield crossed the room and gently nudged Amy aside, putting distance between the nurse and me.“Amy, please ask Deborah to come to my office.”
