Page 22 of Lamb

I could hear him chewing. Blowing and popping andgnawing. Followed by the sound of whining wheels on polished tile before it was just me and the blinding light again. Sprawled out on a stiff table with nothing but a thin piece of fabric separating me from the cool air that was being pumped into the room on a continuous basis. No different from a piece of meat they were afraid of spoiling.

But this place wasn’t just my icebox; it was my new prison. Not as pretty but just as suffocating. If I was lucky, all they’d do was slice me open. Then again, something told me these guys were more interested in the holes that were already there and less interested in creating their own.

My arms were numb and warm, my feet cold and tingling as I tried to fight whatever drugs were in my system. The ones that were trying to lull me under and keep me quiet and compliant. I was too mad to sleep, though. I was also too stubborn to give in.

I wanted to be awake for everything they planned to do to me. I wanted to feel it. Remember it. Use it to fuel the rage that was directed more inward than anything else right now. At myself.

Because this was my fault. I never should have trusted him to get me out of there. My stalker might have jumped at the chance to kill for me. But it came with a price and that price came with friends. And those friends had more in mind for me than a prenup and a white dress. I could only imagine what that more was. Though I knew it was nothing good if it required drugging me up and stripping me down.

I’d fucked up. I knew that now. And the worst part was admitting to myself that maybe my father was right allthose times he insisted that the devil I knew was better than the devil I didn’t. One might have kept me in a cage but the other made sure to clip my wings so I fell faster into the hellfire. And right now, I was both freezing and burning up.

32

MARISELA

“Good Morning, Miss Cruz! How are you feeling today?” A man with dark—nearly black—eyes and a shaved head pushed through the large metal door that separated me from whatever was on the other side of these padded walls. All four of them. Gray with yellow stuffing and the occasional blood splatter peeking out from the seams.

He was the first doctor I’d seen since I was transferred from the icebox and deposited into this giant used tampon, his way-too-chipper voice and the dramatic swish of his white jacket telling me he must have been dipping into his patients’ meds on the regular.

Part of me was appalled by the idea. Another part was hoping he’d share because my fucking head was killing me.

“Like someone who got run over by a four-by-four and woke up in a nuthouse,” I grunted in reply. I’d figured that last bit out as soon as the blindfold was removed and Ifound myself under lock and key. Bars on the windows and not a shoelace in sight.

The mantskedhis tongue while clicking a bright-red pen against his clipboard. “Now, now, we don’t use that kind of language around these parts, Miss Cruz. It’s insulting to all the good work we do here at Briarwood,” he corrected, and I could only imagine what thatgood workentailed.

I shivered at the thought. At the memory of what they’d done to my mother. At the memory of what I’d done to her myself…

The asshole flicked his pen against my forehead, three quick taps that had me gnashing my teeth and glaring in his direction. I might not have liked the taste of rare meat but not enough to keep me from biting.

His mouth twisted into a snarl and his voice dropped an octave as he squinted his eyes at me. “Don’t make me put you in a collar, Marisela. I promise you it’s not as nice as it sounds.” Then, like nothing happened, his smile was back. “Your father bragged about your impeccable manners. Let’s not make a liar out of him or afoolout of you.”

“My father?” I shouldn’t have sounded so shocked. This was exactly the kind of thing he would do.

“Yes, Hernando spoke very highly of you over the phone. He failed to mention how pretty you were, though.”

I could feel the weight of the fucker’s gaze skimming me from chest to clit. Like he could see through the fabric of this flimsy hospital gown. Truth was he probably could. It wasn’t very doctorly of him, though.

Then again, I wasn’t above fucking my way out of here. The guy was an asshole but it was amazing what you could do when you felt trapped. He wasn’t bad looking either. A strong jaw, those dark eyes, muscular arms that hinted at the tattoos he was trying to hide under the sleeves he would tug at every now and then like he was worried someone might realize the kinky shit he was into when he wasn’t peddling pills.

I was one quick breath away from offering to suck his dick, after he got me out of here because I was smart enough to know to make the fucker pay upfront, when he pivoted on his squeaky shoes and slammed the door behind him. He was still there, though. Lurking in the hallway. I could see his shadow through the little glass window between us.

“Be careful who you play games with here, little girl,” he whispered through the door. “They might just play back.”

Then he walked away, his footsteps continuing to squeak down the hall until all I heard was silence again. Silence and the occasional scream.

33

MARISELA

Istared out the window as the little white dots ran circles around another slightly larger dot. The grass overgrown and wooden crosses looming along the side of the hill, an ominous mixture of the past and current residents. Neither more likely to escape this hellhole than the other.

I huffed out an annoyed breath and started all over again.One… two… three…

Counting was the only thing I had to occupy my mind. Twenty white dots and over a hundred crosses—it was hard to tell the exact number with all the foliage in the way—and more than half were bent, broken, or missing.

The breeze that rattled the cracked glass was nice, though. Especially compared to the stale air of the room. Other than the ants outside and the weird visit from the creeper in the lab coat, I hadn’t seen a single soul. And the lack of human interaction was on the verge of giving me areason to actually belong here with the rest of these nutcases.

Four… five… six…

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