Page 157 of Unspoken Lies

“What else? Keep talking. I don’t want you to pass out.” His eyes are gentle despite the hardness of his words. He’s worried.

The words flow from me as fast as possible, tumbling out as I begin to sob. Mr. Cruz stands in the middle of the room so he can observe and listen to everything happening.

“I don’t want you to go to prison,” I finally sob out.

“Why would I go there?” Emil asks, his brows knitting. “Is that what he told you?”

“I call him Tiny Dick in my head,” I blurt out, making my stepfather sputter.

“I don’t know what to do with you,” he mutters.

“Join the club,” I whimper, feeling some of the barbs being dug out of my skin. “He’s been setting you up. Making people think you’re the one responsible for the drugs.”

“Is that why you thought it was your people dealing?” Ignacio asks behind me.

“Yes,” Emil grunts. “It was the way that the drugs were being distributed. It felt too well planned. It’s why I thought it was Maurice’s son. May he rest in peace.”

Wincing, I remember the warehouse that was blown up.

“He’s setting you up,” I breathe, feeling myself start to drift. It hurts too much, my mind is struggling to wrestle control back from me so it can protect me.

I can hear Emil saying something to Liliana, and then Tiny Dick begins to scream louder. There are actual words attached to the screams, and my body lists to the side, deciding to check out.

“Rachelle,” Emil growls, straightening me.

“Go Rachelle somewhere else,” I mumble, no longer making sense. “My head hurts.”

“I know. Your face is all bruised,” he sighs. “How’s it looking, boys? She’s about to pass out. It’s unfair to keep her awake much longer.”

“Almost,” Ignacio mutters. I can hear the wire clippers being put to work, and a shiver rushes up my spine when I wonder why Mr. Cruz had them so readily available.

“We came as soon as we could,” Jared says, his voice pulling my head up from where it’s beginning to droop again. “Liliana needed her weapons and we needed to throw on clothes. If we could have come straight over, I swear we would have.”

“I happened to be stopping by the house,” Emil sighs. “I wanted to see you, and found the worst had happened. It’s over now. You’re almost free. Do we know Tiny Dick’s actual name?”

The question is directed over his shoulder, just as Liliana drives the knife into the man in question’s pants covered dick.

“Christian Rodriguez,” Liliana replies. “The pigs are too fucking good for him.”

“We’ll drop him alive into a vat of hydrochloric acid, Liliana,” her father says easily. “Finish playing with him. You’re going to want to be there for Rachelle when you’re done.”

“You’re right,” she says. “Anything else I need to know, asshole?”

Tiny Dick tries to spit at her, leading to her kicking him in the face. She almost does the splits from where she’s crouched by him, his head snapping back.

“Cool,” she grunts, grabbing him by the hair and pulling his head forward before digging the knife that was pinning one of his hands deep between his vertebrae. “Mr. Emil, he won’t be moving any time soon. Would you like to question him?”

“Yo lo harè,” Mr. Cruz says, moving to interrogate him. The wire comes loose finally, and Emil lifts me up into his arms. My head hits his chest and I let the flood of voices take me away as my eyes shut.

It’s loud, and I can’t tell if they’re inside or outside of my head. I should be worried about that, but I can’t be bothered. Everything feels so heavy and it all hurts so much…

CHAPTER 35

JARED

I’m sitting on a couch next to Mr. Reyes as we gaze at Rachelle on the couch. Ignacio is on his way home with Liliana after helping her, and I asked Theo and Elijah to give me a few minutes with Rachelle’s stepfather.

Every second that I gaze at my wife, I get angrier. Her swollen shut eye, the IV slowly dripping into her vein, and the bandages on her arms from the barbed wire. Who fucking uses that to tie someone up? Damn idiots, that’s who. He could have sliced her wrists completely.