Page 52 of Torment

15

Jolie

“I don’t knowhow many fucking times I have to ask you, Jolie.”

“And I don’t know how many times I have to tell you I don’t know.” I looked right into Mason’s eyes, daring him to ask me again.

He was standing by the bed with the gray and gold duvet, and I was sitting at the top with my back resting against the cushioned bedhead. Even though a few days had passed now and I’d mostly recovered from the snakebite, he hadn’t yet returned me to the underwater cell. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t openly question it. That would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

I figured it could be because he’d finally realized torture wasn’t going to work on me, though. He thought he’d broken and hurt me enough for me to give up and give him all the answers he was seeking, but he was wrong. While he had hurt me terribly, I still hadn’t given him anything but a pack of lies.

Ironically, I was only strong-willed and resilient in the face of abuse because of him. Before I met him all those years ago, I was a brainwashed, pathetic little wimp. After getting to know him when he arrived at New Eden and subsequently learning the truth of the world, I’d developed a tough outer shell. Tougher than I ever realized until these last few weeks. So if I refused to break all the way, it was his fault.

“Just tell me where they are. It’s not that hard,” Mason said, narrowing his eyes. “Don’t think I don’t know your game, by the way. You’re trying to buy time for yourself.”

I shrugged. “It’s not a game. It’s just that I have nothing to tell you. My father is dead, and so are all the other men.”

He sighed. “So we’re back here again, huh?”

“We were always here,” I said softly. “I never had any information for you.”

“The story you told me last week about your father’s escape plan sounded way too convincing to be fake.”

My eyebrows pinched together with exasperation. “That’s because I was acting my ass off. Haven’t you ever heard of torture victims lying under interrogation and admitting to crimes they never committed just to make the pain stop?”

“Of course I have. But everything you said seemed so genuine.”

“Well, it wasn’t. Sorry to disappoint.” I looked away, pressing my lips together.

“So that’s it? You really made it up?”

I nodded. “Yup. All of it. My father is dead, and you need to accept it. He’s not hiding out in Kentucky or Minnesota. He died in a plane crash and wound up in a gator’s belly, just like all the other men. That’s the truth.”

Mason shook his head. “There’s no way that’s the truth, and I can’t believe anyone would ever think it is. It’s never made any sense to me.”

I sighed and picked at a loose thread on the duvet. “You know how I know for sure that they really died that day in the plane crash?”

He crossed his arms and sneered. “Okay, Jolie. I’ll humor you for a few minutes. Tell me why you’re apparently so sure they’re dead, even though we both know they fucking aren’t.”

I ignored his derisive attitude and concentrated on the thread. “I’m sure they all died that day because it’s been eight years and nothing has happened to me.”

“Huh?”

I looked up at him again. “If my father was still out there, he’d want to get me back somehow. I know I hid myself pretty well, but he and the other guys would’ve tracked me down eventually. It obviously isn’t impossible to do so. I mean, it took you eight years, but you still managed to find my house in the end and write all those creepy notes to me, didn’t you?” I rolled my eyes. “So if you could do that, why couldn’t they? Why wouldn’t they have come for me like you did?”

Mason’s eyes widened. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

I tilted my head to the side, unsure which part he was confused about. “What do you mean?”

“You said something about creepy notes.”

I frowned, trying to remember exactly what I’d said a few seconds ago. “Oh, right,” I finally said with a nod. “I was just saying you managed to find me and creepily stalk me, so why couldn’t my father? Even if it took years.”

“I get that, but I never left you any notes.”

I scoffed. “Yes you did. Before you took me, you stalked me and left me creepy letters for weeks. On my car, in my mailbox, even in my apartment.” I paused for a beat and shrugged. “After you brought me here, I realized it was just you trying to freak me out. Like a cat playing with a mouse before it kills it.”

Mason looked thunderstruck. “Jolie, I followed you, I watched you, I stole your apartment key, and I even bought the fucking house across from you. But I never left you any notes. Not a single one.”

---