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“Fucking bitch,” Grayson mutters. “So while all of this was happening, what did other people do?”

“I kind of lost touch with reality for a while.” Silla winces. Patricia gets up, and I notice she’s pulling a bag of saline. Along with shock, my girl is probably also really dehydrated. “I remember Michael dropped to his knees, Ayden attached clamps to the recruit’s nipples in the name of science and redirection, and I can still hear the suction of Michael’s mouth as he was sucking Sidney’s cock. I know that’s a really odd thing to remember.” She sighs.

“Your mind holds onto things.” Patricia shrugs as she puts up the IV bag. “It’s totally normal. I want to treat you for shock and dehydration, so I’m going to hook you up to this, okay? It’s mostly saline, but I’m going to add extra electrolytes to help with your shakiness.”

“Thank you,” Silla says, barely flinching as the nurse puts the needle into her vein.

“Adding to what you said,” I tell her, turning to Grayson whose eyes won’t leave Silla. “Andrya was a mess when I saw her. I lost my shit for a bit, so don’t be surprised if she puts in a complaint, and maybe has some bruises around her neck.”

Grayson shrugs as if he couldn’t possibly care, and Patricia pretends not to hear.

“She told me that the classroom got really chaotic after Silla went into the vent. Several recruits had to be escorted out because they wanted to help her escape, Ayden couldn’t focus and ended up hitting the remote so many times that Michael passed out as Sidney was fucking his face. They dismissed class early, leaving Andrya to listen to Silla.”

“She didn’t attempt to get her out?” Grayson snarls angrily. His face is so red, I’m a little worried he may pop a blood vessel.

“The furniture was too heavy for her to move it, so instead she sat there so Silla wouldn’t be by herself, or so she says,” I explain.

“The three of them love to feed on people’s pain. I don’t believe that she felt badly. It was awful in there,” Silla croaks out, shuddering as she remembers. I hate that she’s so suspicious of everyone now.

“Hey, they’re not my priority right now. I will be dealing with them, because things went too far. Those three have free rein within limits, and too many people were affected by this tonight,” Grayson says.

Silla nods, closing her eyes as she loses the fight in controlling her emotions for now. Huge tears roll down her face, and she attempts to turn away to hide from us.

“Patricia, can we have the room, please?” I ask quietly, attempting to preserve Silla’s dignity.

The way she hides when she’s feeling big things, and her eyes always being averted, makes me think losing control is a big deal for her. Silla Tremaine despises appearing weak, and today may have broken her a little.

“Yes, I’m going to go grab something to eat,” Patricia says, standing. “I always work through it.”

Silla chuckles weakly, and my lips part in wonder. What could possibly be amusing?

“Does the Warden give you shit when you skip meals?” she teases.

Gray barks out a laugh, startling Patricia. While the man is kind, he isn’t someone who readily laughs. She stares at the three of us in shock before she shakes her head.

“The Warden worries about everyone,” Patricia says with a small smile. “I’ll be back to check that IV, Silla.”

Waiting until the nurse has left, locking us in, I crawl into bed with Silla. Fuck it, the nurse already has her own assumptions about us.

“Isaac,” she protests as I arrange myself so that I’m cradling her body.

“‘Isaac’ nothing,” I tell her, my nose burying itself in her neck. Her hair smells musty from the vent, but underneath all of that, she smells like mine.

“Did you just growl ‘mine’?” Gray asks, standing to grab a chair. I chuckle as I realize that I must have.

“I’ve never felt more helpless than I have today,” I confess, my hand squeezing her hip. “So yes, she’s fucking mine. We haven’t talked about it, and this is fast, but I can’t help myself. It’s obvious that things happen fast here, anything can change in a moment, and I know all of the important things about you.”

“Like what?” Silla asks sleepily. Today took a lot out of her, and I know she needs rest, but I’m going to have nightmares about today for years. There’s so many things I want to do to eliminate the dangers that surround Silla, but I have to plot things out very carefully.

I won’t do anything that will get me forcibly removed from her presence: like getting caught committing murder.

“I know you smell like jasmine and a hint of sunshine. I don’t understand it, but that’s what you smell like to me. I know how you beg when you need to come, and I know how damn strong you are, Silla. Everything else, you’ll tell me in time. I’m not fucking going anywhere.”

Grayson blows out a breath, his hand dwarfing Silla’s as he covers it. “I have a lot of groveling to do,” he rumbles. “I can’t say that I want to have a place with you until I get my shit together, and part of that is making things safer for you.”

“How do we do that? I mean, outside of the fact that I’ll be paying Andrya a visit soon enough,” I threaten cooly.

“I kind of remember you calling her Drya… do you know her well?” Silla asks, and my heart starts to pound.