Page 87 of Dangerous Deviance
Had Wil taken care of me?
I pressed my palm into the bark of a tree, waiting for it to imprint my skin, as if that could demonstrate what Wil had done to me. Wil had been brutal at first, but another side had come out when he saw how much trouble I was in. He treated me like an object to be fondled and played with, but he also cared about me. Had a need to give me safety. A need to make my headaches stop. A desire to end Bates’s voice, so that I could listen to myself for once. My own voice.
And what did that inner voice say? What did it want?
Through the brown branches, a flicker of red hair caught my eye. I went towards it like an insect drawn to a flame. The woman backed away, her eyes glancing over me. Then she started running. I ran too, jumping over the loose branches, my feet disappearing into the ivy covering the ground.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Wait! Stop! I just want to talk to you!”
And suddenly, she stilled. I knew it wasn’t from my words, but from him; Bates’s voice was telling her to stop. I walked slower as I came towards her, her back bumpy and pink, like the surface of candle wax that had been destroyed by prying fingers. A body like my own. The woman faced me, a scar on her jaw, a cut that had healed on the surface, but was still red, still burning beneath.
Her eyes traced me, going back and forth across my face, trying to read what was there. Her bare shoulders were scratched with the same lines dashed across her breasts. She moved her lips, but no words came out. I recognized her. Had we seen each other at the Skyline Shift? Or was it before that, at Women’s Elite?
“What do you need?” I asked, a question Wil had asked me so often before. Strength surged inside of me then. If he could help me, then I could help her.
No. That was wrong. I could have helped her all along; Wil just showed me how.
“I want to help you,” I said.
Her eyes were bloodshot, her lips trembling. “Who are you?” she asked, her voice accusatory.
“My name is Ellie,” I said, my tone confident.
She closed her eyes, searching within, fighting the control taking over her mind.
“Cassandra,” she said.
There was so much in Cassandra that was close to me, and so much of her that she likely couldn’t access. She was probably a shell of her former self, just like I had been.
“Do you hear a voice?” I asked. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t move. Didn’t tell me what she heard. “I heard it too,” I said. Until Wil found me. Until he introduced me to Dr. Mercia. Until I realized that the voice couldn’t control me forever. “But I fought it,” I said. “And you can fight it too.”
Cassandra held her forehead, pinching the bridge of her nose. One wrong move and I knew she would fight me. Maybe even try to end my life. But I needed to do this. For her. For myself. For the Adlers. For Wil. To make sure that she knew what was going on.
“That voice,” I said. “It’s Dr. Bates. He ran the Skyline Shift.” A subtle shudder ran through her. So she knew, then. The memories were coming back. “But whatever he said about finding your sister, mom, or daughter,” I shook my head. “It’s all a lie. They aren’t out there.”
Her lips quivered, but she didn’t speak.
“My sister was dead by the time he released me for my final task,” I said.
“So they killed her,” she said.
She must have meant the Adlers, but I didn’t dare say their name.
“I’m not sure who killed her,” I said, “but it wasn’t who I thought it was.”
“It was them.”
Them. The brothers who had spared my life. The man who had given me shelter and protection when I had nothing but a stranger’s voice in my head.
I pulled a shirt, jeans, and an extra pair of shoes out of my bag, then handed them to her.
“Not sure about your size,” I said, my shoulders lifting, “but it’s better than nothing.”
She gazed at me, her mouth open. But after a moment, she took the clothing and put them on. They hung loosely on her body, but it was better than running naked.
“Who are you?” Cassandra asked, her eyes blinking rapidly. “Why are you doing this?”
It was such a familiar question, and yet I couldn’t explain. I had been just like her. And yet now? Now, I was someone else. I had always been this same Ellie, but I had survived what could have been described as a mind control program. And I had then been abducted, gifted to a criminal who wanted me. Who let me out of my captivity. A man I trusted. A man who I wanted, even now.
