Page 96 of Unspoken Lies

“Wife, huh?” she asks finally when the sun hits her hair after a few steps. The strands appear dull, the light not reflecting the way it should.

“Mmhmm. You’re officially mine,” I say with a small smile as the car comes into sight in the parking lot. So close to making our getaway.

“I don’t think it works like that,” she says mildly, looking around.

“Everyone is waiting at home, even your stepfather,” I say quietly.

“Are you going to tell me where home is?” she asks, watching as I open the back door to the SUV and toss the bag and paperwork back there.

I figured this would be the more comfortable vehicle of all of them. Opening the passenger door next, I lift her into the seat. She just looks confused as I also pull her seatbelt on.

“I am capable of doing that,” she reminds me.

“I know,” I state. “I wanted to be sure you were buckled in before telling you that you’re living with me. While we finally got a judge to agree to get you released, it came with stipulations. One of them is that you have to live with me, your husband.”

Closing the doors, I walk around, knowing the tinted windows won’t allow me to see her expression until I’m back inside.

“That can’t be a thing,” she says as soon as I open the door.

“This is a really odd town,” I sigh, getting in the vehicle. “It’s totally a thing.”

“Ugh,” she mutters. “As long as I don’t wake up tied to my bed, I guess it’s better than this place.”

My body freezes as I glance over at her.

“What the fuck?” I ask, gaping at her.

“That’s how I woke up today,” she answers, watching me turn on the car before looking pointedly at my still open door.

“I’m getting to it,” I say, even though I completely forgot it was still open. I shouldn’t even be surprised about anything that’s happened at this godforsaken place.

As soon as Elijah clocks out for the last time today, we’re having a bomb threat called in to evacuate the facility and then destroying it. Mr. Reyes already has federal agents prepared to step in and relocate the patients after a complete investigation into their medical condition.

It took way too long for us to be able to get the right people to pay attention to our concerns. I expect there will be more red tape to deal with, but the photos Elijah was able to take and the conversations helped more than anything else could have.

“No one will ever tie you to anything unless it’s to fuck you senseless,” I grunt, putting the vehicle into reverse.

“I very much doubt that,” Rachelle murmurs, rubbing at her wrists absently.

While still driving, I take her arm and glance at her arm as I hit the brakes. It’s too thin and there are bruises mottled over the skin. Forcing myself to take a breath that resembles an angry ogre, I gently press my lips against her wrist before releasing her.

I know I’m confusing her. We’re going to be changing so much about the rules she thinks exist between us, but life is too damn short to play fair. I’ve never enjoyed keeping a level playing field, so I don’t intend to do it now.

Elijah was very adamant about wanting to keep Rachelle, and threw the gauntlet down in front of Ignacio and Liliana the other day. Ignacio threatened to let Lili take him apart with her knives if any of us fucked Rachelle over.

Despite our history, I believe Nacio wouldn’t hesitate to kill us if we hurt her. I’d rather see what it takes to put her back together so she can rule with us than pull her apart. We already did that.

It’s not at all as satisfying as I thought it would be.

“You’re all acting really weird,” Rachelle says, gazing out the window as I resume driving. “I’m not nearly as breakable as people think.”

“No, you just coded after their stupid isolation room,” I grunt.

“Elijah didn’t tell me that,” she says, twisting to look at me with a wince. “I have a feeling he is keeping a lot of things from me.”

“His mission was to get you the fuck out of there without freaking out,” I say, biting the inside of my mouth. It’s a fairly new issue I have, and if I don’t stop, I’ll end up with sores. “Elijah was exposed to a lot of traumatic shit while he was working here, and I have a feeling he’s keeping things to himself.”

“I figured you told each other everything,” she says with a yawn as I finally put the facility in my rear view mirror.