Page 101 of Feed Your Fiends

“Elle, you have no idea how happy I am to hear that. How happy we are to hear that, right Jay?”

We.

“Jarrett?” I ask quietly, following Jaime into the dark living room. All I want is to bombard him with questions, but his jump at my muted whisper pushes me into a gentler mood.

Patience. Be patient.

I eye Jarrett’s profile. So like Silas’, but something’s gone from his expression. Not just his cruelty, but his seeming awareness. It’s like the awakening of adulthood has left his eyes, and he’s regressed into a child with limited emotions because hormones haven’t flooded him yet.

“Jarett?” Jaime calls again. “Ellie’s here to see you. Can you believe it?”

Jarett just stares at the flashing images of the car program on the TV screen.

“Why don’t I let you two catch up?” she says, her expression falling so fast and hard it’s obvious she’s hiding it as she turns her back on us. “I have some chicken wings to season. Jarett asked, and I couldn’t say no since he’s finally talking a little more now.”

Of course, you couldn’t.But I perk at the update. If he talks a bit more, maybe he could answer me if I prompt him hard enough.

I watch her go, but Jarett doesn’t notice, too caught up in his trance.

“I thought you were on drugs at first,” I say, slipping onto a recliner beside him. “Then I thought the Parrishs had done something horrible to you. Like you always did to me. To us.” I nod to the kitchen, not that he notices. Not that a single word seems to register in his addled mind. “Do you know why I thought you were with your brotherSilas?”

Jarett’s eyes stop following the flickering images. He’s still looking at the TV, but he seems to be listening to me.

“I thought maybe Silas,your brother,” I reiterate, stressing the last words, “was angry with you because you had an affair with his first love,Marisol.You know,Bart Auclair’s wife?My old ballet teacher?”

Nothing. Just blankness as he blinks.

“BecauseHarodfromThe Watering Holetold me that he saw you again with a boy. A tall, blonde boy.Silashas a son who looks like that. I thought maybe you were with him. But why would you be drinking with your nephew if his father abducted you because he was angry with you over a two-year-old affair?”

He blinks, first left, then right.

“And why would Silas keep you for two years? It didn’t make sense. So then I thought, no, maybe Silas was hiding you from Bart Auclair’s wrath because he’s your brother. Maybe, despite the estrangement, he still wanted to protect you. I mean, everyone in Èze saw that sex video. It’s not hard to believe that he saw it, too, and he’s loaded. He has the resources to go up againstBart Auclair…” I turn to face her fully, my elbow digging into the armrest. “But if that were the case, why would you come back home recessed and not healthy? Then it finally clicked. You weren’t with yourbrother,and you weren’t high, laced with some mystery drug fromLast Night’s concertatThe Watering Hole. You were tortured, beaten for informationBart Auclairwanted, right?”

Nothing.

“That’s who you were with for the past two years, right? Bart Auclair?”

Silence stretches on for what seems like hours, but then Jarett’s lips move, and he babbles, “B-Bart?”

I slip in front of him, in front of the TV, so that he’s forced to look at me although his eyes are vacant.

So he does know Gant’s father, but what about Gant himself?

I remember the way Gant had looked at my childhood home when I wasn’t even in front of it. I’d thought maybe he knew my old address from stalking me, but no, he knew the house because he sent Jarett back to it with his father.

The revelation doesn’t move nor surprise me. He said he’d do anything,anythingto drive me straight back into his arms.

“Maybe you were withGant Auclair,too?” I ask my throat so damn dry.

Nothing.

“He’s my tormentor, too.” Just like you were. The person meant to keep me safe. “Every time I think I’ve escaped him, he’s captured me in a cage again.”

“Cage?”

My eyes snap to his. I hadn’t seen a cage, but I’d seen a big empty tank…

“In his penthouse?” I ask. “He put you in a cage?” That would explain his canine behaviour.

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