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He swallows hard, shaking his head. “It makes no sense.” Nathan looks back up at me, eyes shining with pain and tears. “How am I supposed to tell my mother what I’ve done? The cops only let me go because I agreed to go back for an interview as soon as I got you settled here.”
Fatigue drops over me like a heavy blanket, starting at my toes and working its way up until it’s over my head. I let my eyes flutter closed and open them again with a start. “Shit, Nate.” A big yawn escapes me. “I don’t want to go to sleep. I’m too hungry.”
“I can reheat it. It’s no problem.”
“No, I—I’m hungry. I just—” My heart is beating too slow. Too slow to even lift my head fully off the arm of the couch. My stomach still growls. It doesn’t know that I’m about to sink back into a deep, deep sleep. It calls to me, that darkness. It wraps its arms around me and pulls me down so gently. So sweetly. I could just sleep right now, sleep forever—
“Here. Taste this.”
Nathan’s fork floats in the air in front of me. He would do this—he would feed me. He’s all I have left, other than Rome. I pick up my head an inch and try to concentrate on Nathan’s hand. The mac and cheese, which I desperately want.
The silver fork.
The scarred bite mark between his index finger and thumb.
Recognition, cold and brutal, stabs into my gut.
I’m tied to a chair. I’m starving. I’m dying. One of the captors crouches in front of me, guiding a fork to my lips. I don’t fucking want the food, don’t want to take it, but my body betrays me until it gets enough calories to fight back. I have one chance and I take it. I bite. I bite him, right at the soft, fleshy part of his hand, between his finger and his thumb. I get him good. I break the skin.
No. No no no. He can’t be.
But he is.
He’s the second captor. I bit him.I left a scar.
I snap my lips shut, but I don’t have the energy to drag myself away. I see the light change in Nathan’s eyes as he follows my eyes to that spot between his thumb and forefinger, as he realizes thatI know.
“Nathan,” I whisper. I can feel my heart breaking.
The world is crumbling, falling. My heart struggles to find its rhythm. Nerves on fire, trying to get me to run, but I don’t. I can’t. My limbs are too heavy and my mind is too tired. Those weren’t Tylenol he gave me, were they? I’ve been drugged.
“I wish you hadn’t found out like this, Aves,” Nathan says, his voice devoid of emotion. “I wish you hadn’t found out at all.”
He’s a fucking sociopath. He’s the man in the mask–one of them, at least. He’s my cousin, my best friend, my confidante.
My kidnapper. My torturer. My rapist.
“But Ilovedyou,” I protest mournfully.
Nathan leans over me, reaching gracefully to the side to put his plate back on the coffee table. Then he gets close. He must know my vision is already blurred and wrong. He waits until I’m looking into his eyes. “Well, now you’re going to love me like I’m your husband. As far as the world is concerned, at least.”
Adrenaline gives me one last rush, one last burst of energy, and I leap off the couch.The door, get to the door.My legs aren’t working, but I try my damnedest, one step after another, I can still get there, there’s still a chance—
A weight slams into me from behind, knocking me off my feet and taking me down to the carpet.Oof. He’s stronger than me, and heavier. Nathan wraps his arms around me down on the floor and squeezes.Tighter,I think, but he’s not Rome, and he’s not trying to save me. I kick my feet, a weak parody of an escape attempt, as Nathan forces the last of the air from my lungs.
“Shhh,” he says, his voice almost gentle.There is a tenderness in violence. “Everything will be okay.”
The night closes in again.
And this time, I’m not sure if the sun will ever rise.
* * *
