Page 62 of Unspoken Lies

“Same,” Theo and Jared say.

We don’t have a car, but the night is beautiful and we could use the exercise.

“I feel as if a brainstorming session is in order,” I say. “It’s a long fucking walk.”

CHAPTER 15

IGNACIO

“Hey,” I murmur, pulling her up so I can snuggle better. My finger catches the tear trailing down her cheek. “Now that they’re gone, there’s no pressure here.”

Liliana resets the house alarm from her phone before nodding.

“I’m hungry, and am really feeling like tacos al pastor. Will you two hang out with me in the kitchen?” she asks tentatively.

Fuck me, that was effortless. Here I was worried about how to ask her if she was hungry, and Lili just shifted the spotlight off Rachelle. I would have messed that up completely.

“I would love to,” Rachelle murmurs with a nod.

Helping her up so she doesn’t crush anything sensitive with her movements, I get up as well.

“Can I ask how you got out of prison?” she asks as I follow them through the house. “Wow, Lili. This place is beautiful.”

“I’ve been in a really bad headspace, and this was how Mr. Emil and my dad chose to get me out of it,” Liliana admits. “It’s really safe.”

“I love everything about it,” Rachelle gushes before her gaze moves to me.

Well, here goes nothing.

“Prison was a self-imposed punishment for me,” I confess. “I refused to let my dad help, and I went with the flow of the court proceedings. There was a disgusting amount of self pity.”

“If you didn’t have to go, you shouldn’t have,” Rachelle says mildly. “Lili needed you.”

“And we both need you,” Liliana adds. “It’s the three of us or bust.”

As much as Lili and I have been enjoying our reunion, she’s right. We need Rachelle. She softens our edges.

“My head was all fucked up,” I admit. “Liliana wrote me letters, never letting me believe I was alone. I didn’t know what to write to her. Prison was hell, and I had to learn the rules. Solitary confinement was welcomed because I got to dream about a world that had both of you in it.”

Rachelle sits at the island, while I lean against it as Liliana gets to work.

“You were gone, and I felt like I didn’t do enough to save you,” I sigh. As Rachelle’s lips open, I shake my head. “We should have stayed in the safe room at Liliana’s.”

“And we can’t play ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda,’” Liliana reminds me.

Yeah, I guess.

“Anyway, I ended up in solitary confinement, only to find that I was getting let out early,” I tell Rachelle.

Liliana loudly closed a cabinet door before glaring at me, and Rachelle’s lips twitch as she glances at me.

“Do you think that you possibly skated over something there, hot stuff?” she asks with a giggle. “Nacio, you said that so fast, I’m certain you’re forgetting to tell me something.”

“Alright, alright. There’s so much more. I may have wanted to punish myself for letting you die when I went in, but it only took a year for me to realize my mistake. While I wasn’t sentenced to death because that wasn’t an option in Oregon, I was looking at life in prison. I missed my life,” I admit. “I started to think about how Liliana was going to move on one day, and it made me scared to open her letters.”

Liliana makes a strangled sound as she cooks, but doesn’t say a word, while Rachelle puts her hand on mine and waits.

“I went into the exercise yard the day I went into solitary confinement, not expecting to see someone I know by his photo,” I say. “Rachelle, it was Colton.”