Page 72 of Unspoken Lies

“We did some of the hard parts,” I remind her. “Now we’re getting to your apartment, and it being dark out will help.”

Shutting my door, I think about how to keep her distracted as she snuggles into my side. The garage door interrupts the silence as it opens, and Rachelle yawns wide.

“How do you sleep?” Lili asks perceptively.

“I have a sleeping medication in my bathroom that helps,” Rachelle murmurs. “It always leaves me groggy though. I want to see if there’s something else I can try, but my therapist appointment isn’t for a few more days.”

“Hmm,” I say, but it’s not my place to butt in. Even if I hate how much medication she’s on.

Rachelle is fine as we drive, and is almost asleep by the time we arrive at her apartment. Lili and I share a glance as we get out of the vehicle, and I carry her upstairs.

“She fell asleep really fast,” I say as we walk.

“I noticed,” Lili says, brows furrowing. “I know she has a problem, Ignacio. I do. However, I’ve seen her at some of her lowest moments and she wasn’t on all of these medications then.”

“We just came back into her life,” I say softly. “We can’t mess with everything.”

Sighing as we arrive at her apartment door, I turn so that Lili can grab my kit. She can unlock the door as easily as I can. If I can tuck Rachelle into bed without her waking up, then that’s my mission.

Maybe she’ll sleep better. I just hope she doesn’t wake up to nightmares. I remember how bad they used to be. If I was greedy, I’d say let’s grab her meds and leave, but that also wouldn’t be fair to her. I won’t move her into Lili’s house until she’s ready.

A second later, the door is unlocked, and I step inside to see a cold, unfeeling apartment. Shuddering in revulsion, I wait for Lili to close the door before I walk to the bedroom and turn on a small lamp. Rachelle doesn’t so much as twitch as I lay her into the bed, and Lili makes a beeline for the medication on a table.

Taking photos of the labels, she moves to the bathroom to see what else is there while I pull the covers over Rachelle’s body. I hate everything about this place. There’s no light or memories. It feels sad and empty.

It would honestly make anyone sad and depressed.

“Ignacio, let’s go,” Lili whispers, pulling me away with her voice.

“It’s so hard to leave,” I sigh as I walk.

“Let’s come over for breakfast?” she suggests. “We have errands in the afternoon. I want to see how she is. She had three other meds in her bathroom, and one is an antipsychotic.”

“What?” I ask, eyes narrowing.

“Let’s put your research skills on this, baby,” she says as we leave. “Something isn’t right.”

ELIJAH

“Do you think she’ll show up today?” I ask, almost bouncing on the heels of my shoes.

We put hidden video cameras up so we could watch her work. Getting in her face at the shop is counter productive, so we decided that we’d walk her home. I don’t know if Lili and Nacio will insist on doing that.

I hope not.

The journal has revealed some really interesting things. Rachelle has mentioned certain medications that she’s taking, and how she feels fuzzy when she takes something called Haldol. We didn’t see that medication on her table, which means we missed it.

Theo noticed that when she takes that medication, her writing gets very random and her thoughts will stray. I wonder if it’s an older prescription that she isn’t taking anymore. Either way, I don’t like it.

“She’ll show,” Jared murmurs. “I don’t think she wants to be hunted again, and her stepfather said she should continue working at the shop.”

“There she is,” Theo crows, showing us the video feed of her walking through the door. “Let’s get to work, boys. We’ll be able to check on her throughout the night.”

Sighing, I stick my hands in my pockets as I head downstairs to the dungeon. Halfway through the night, in true fashion, my ear comm is dangling on my shoulder, and my earplugs are in place as I watch over everything. For being a sex club, it’s pretty easy going.

I am easily desensitized by my surroundings, and while my earplugs are in, they only block out the background noise. I can easily hear my managers or the people closest to me.

Before I know it, everyone is leaving, and I leave the closing down of the dungeon to the lead manager when I’m not here.