Page 46 of Pretty Poison

“He has the information I need, Liana. Until I get it, he stays there. Now come with me.”

“No!” she shrieks through a sob.

Giving her no time to argue further, I grab her wrist and pull her from the cell as she tries her best to stand her ground.

Taking her further down the corridor, I push open cell A1 and walk over to the man in the middle, yanking his arm to face her.

A heart-wrenching sob escapes her and she runs to him, her arms wrapping around his torso tightly as the man tries to rid himself of her touch.

“Shhh,” she whispers, burying her head into his neck. “Don’t strain yourself.”

“Liana,” I say in a commanding voice. “Who’s this one to you?”

She freezes on the spot before turning around to face me, no emotion or recognition in her eyes. “His name is Apollo. Apollo Moretti. My brother.”

Twenty

DARIO

It’s been ten minutes since Liana finally let sleep consume her and gave in to the sleeping pills Kat forced down her throat.

When I refused to let her stay with her brother, she protested and in turn, forced my hand. It took me, Maze and Remi to carry her out as she thrashed against our grip on her. I locked all six of us, including Red, in my room until Kat convinced her that after some rest she’d be better, and relinquished her fight.

“How is this even possible?” Maze whispers, his head in his hands.

“I don’t know,” I sigh, rubbing my forehead. “Liana knows two of our longest-kept prisoners. The more suitable question is ‘why’.”

“Repeat it again,” Red asks. “What were the exact words she said to you?”

I huff out an exasperated sigh. “I can’t say it verbatim because it’s been hours since we were down there, but she recognised the tattoos before anything. I mean, she couldn’t have recognised their faces because Silas is a sick and twisted fuck. Not even their family would recognise them in the state they’re in right now.”

“This changes nothing though, right?” Remi asks with desperation in his voice.

“It changes nothing,” I agree. “They’re here for a reason, and until we get an answer, they’ll stay here.”

Kat scoffs, drawing my attention to her. “She gets no say in this?”

I shake my head. “Whatever she knew about them back then… it doesn’t matter. Her brother, if he even is her brother, has been here for four years. We know he was in cahoots with the second guy and they both tried to make our compound crumble, but they failed. Until we find out, she can hate me all she wants, but they’re staying put.”

“Then let her talk to them,” she counters, firing her words like bullets. “Let her talk to them. She knows them and they’ll listen to her more than they ever did you or anyone else.”

“You don’t understand, Katerina. You didn’t see how she reacted. I won’t be the one to put her through that kind of pain again.”

“No, you don’t understand,” she whisper-yells as if trying to keep her voice low to protect Liana’s sleep. “She knows they’re down there now. If you don’t grant her entry, she’ll do it anyway, whether you like it or not.”

I sigh and run my fingers through my hair; my annoyance is evident.

I know she’s right—I mean, that’s what I would do. If someone tells me not to do something, I’ll do it without hesitation. But something tells me that I shouldn’t let her down there again, or in the soldiers’ house at all. Then again, it’ll cause a never-ending argument if I don’t. She’s a feisty, stubborn little thing, and if I keep her away from them, she’ll only grow to hate me and hold one hell of a grudge, one that she’ll carry to her grave.

∞∞∞

Everyone’s still here, in my room—Kat’s worried for Liana and sympathetic to her situation, still refusing to see my side. Maze’s sole purpose is to comfort his wife, afraid it’s too much stress for her to handle. Red’s been asleep for two hours, clearly not as wound up as the rest of us. And Remi has been pacing for a lengthy amount of time, replayingthatnight in his mind like a broken record on repeat. He’s trying to break it apart piece by piece to ensure he didn’t miss or overlook anything. No matter how much I reassure him, he refuses to terminate his train of thought; it’s how he always gets when he puts his mind to something.

“Remi, you’ve got to stop that, man. I can’t focus on anything with your irradic pacing and when you’re mumbling to yourself like a lunatic…,” I trail off, stopping him in his tracks.

“It doesn’t make fucking sense,” he replies, coming over to sit next to me on the floor beside the bed.

I refuse to take my eyes off Liana. The fear that if I look away for even a moment, she’ll be gone is real. It’s a strange feeling, but all I know for sure is that I can’t let her out of my sight. Not now, maybe not ever. It’s as if she’s become a beam of sunshine to thaw my icy heart, and it’s making me rethink absolutely fucking everything I ever thought I knew.

---