Page 136 of The Masks She Wore

?Was it worth it?

?Ten minutes later, I was walking down the steps to the basement. The scent of copper was overwhelming, but not something I wasn’t used too.

?Twice since bringing her down here, we sedated her, unchained her, cleaned up the shit and piss, woke her up enough to use the restroom, and brought her back.

?For real prisoners, we would have let them sit in their excrement, but I couldn’t do it, not with her.

?I think Greyson had rubbed off on me. Would I ever let any of my brothers know that? No. Fuck no. I wasn’t weak, I just didn’t like pushing her in this way. Nobody with a solid mind would like punishing their spouse like this. Nobody.

?Rae’s head was bowed. She was completely naked, covered in blood, as if she had bathed in it. Her hair was a matted mess, some cuts stitched up, others still festering. I had been giving her antibiotics in the water I was giving her to keep her from getting infected, but fuck, this was getting…it was more difficult than it should have been seeing her like this.

?Malachi would be disappointed. Hell, I was disappointed. I wanted another assignment just to prove to myself that I wasn’t going soft, that it was just Rae. That she was the exception.

?“Give me a minute,” I told Zo.

?“J,” she said, her voice softer than usual, which annoyed the living shit out of me. “We have to keep goin—”

?“A minute,” I snarled, finding her eyes.

?She searched mine before nodding and heading for the stairs. As she passed me, she grabbed my arm and looked up, her blue eyes burning. “I know it’s hard, but you have to remember that she wanted this.”

?I didn’t have to do fucking shit.

?I waited until I heard the door shut before I walked up to her. I worked my jaw, my lip curling. Seeing her like this, I fucking hated it. I hated it more than anything else in the world, andIhad done it.

?I wanted to kill whoever had tortured her, yet I was doing the same, to what end?

?How was this going to affect us when we were done? She was mine, always, but would I still be hers?

?I crouched down in front of her and gently took her chin, lifting her head.

?Her amber eyes were still bright, but exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes, a couple of cuts, but not more than that. I had stayed away from her face. Away from her nails, from damaging her hair, her bones. Nothing permanent, save, I suppose, for the psychological affect this would cause her.

?Whatever I had to do, I would fix it. I would fix this.

?“Princess,” I whispered, “you have to let your mind break.”

?Her throat bobbed, her head fully leaning into my hand. “Are you breaking, Jack?” she asked, her voice hoarse. She clicked her tongue. “And here I thought you were the strong one,” she cooed hoarsely.

?I didn’t think anyone was as strong as she was. Not anymore. She had broken me in a way, I supposed. Altered what I thought true strength was. “I’m giving you a choice,” I told her evenly. “Please take it.”

?She searched my eyes, the hardness in them flickering. Her throat bobbed and her bottom lip trembled ever so slightly. “He says we don’t kill the innocent,” she whispered, her eyes filling. “We only condemn the guilty.”

?My brows furrowed at the statement, the pain in her eyes. I recognized that now. I remembered it. Of course I remembered it, how could I not? “But the guilty,” I went on, tears dripping down her cheeks, “are to be decided by us.”

?“And us alone,” she finished, trying to sniff, but the blood and snot clogged her sinuses. “I remember,” she whispered desperately. “I remember.”

?It wasn’t her father who told her that. Only pieces had broken through last time and her mind tried to make sense of it, but this? This was fucking bullshit. “What the fuck,” I breathed out, letting her go and pushing myself to a stand, a roaring sounding in my ears. “What thefuck, Rae.”

?She shook violently as she tried to keep her head up, tried to keep her eyes on me. “Marla and Malachi knew each other for a reason.”

?“I wasthere, Rae,” I shouted, my heart hammering.

?A cracked sob shook through her. “They were more than just friends.”

?“He would have told me,” I said, running my hands through my hair. “He would have told me.”

?“Mom didn’t tell dad because there was no reason to. A year? That was nothing. Nothing.”

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