Page 80 of Peaceful Chaos

Answers

Sin

Javier drivesus straight to the gym so we can be present when Jenna finally wakes. Marks leans against his car waiting for us as we pull in front of the building.

"I knew you had to show up soon," he says, pushing away from the car and strolling to the door of the warehouse.

"We don't need you today," I tell him as I move past.

"The fuck you don't," he snarls back at me. "I warned you last night. I'm trying to protect you, but you need to help me. Torturing a young woman is not helping me."

I turn on him. "Is that what you think of me? Has Holbrook convinced you I'm a psychopath then?"

Marks grabs my elbow and yanks me closer. I growl a warning to him, and he drops my arm. "I think you are a young man who's been through too much in twenty-one years. No one helped you all that time you were held captive by that monster, and you found a way to survive when most would have rolled over and died. Grant was the first person in authority you trusted with your story, and he should be protecting you. Instead he's using your own words to lock you up."

"So, he's going ahead with filing charges against him?" Raven asks.

Marks nods. She glances over her shoulder at Lucien. "What about my brother?"

He looks away, and I get a better sense of how fucked I am. "He's laying it all on you, Sin. I would like to think he's trying to protect Natalie, since she's the reason we're both in law enforcement, but I think he just doesn't like the optics of his nephew being tried as a multiple murderer."

I swallow hard as every detail I shared with Holbrook flies through my mind. "It doesn't help that I admitted to being the one who made every kill."

"We aren't giving up, but you can't go around enacting your own justice now. Not when it's clear the DA and Grant want to make their careers off the case they're building."

Ford hands me the keys and I open the door, signaling for Marks to go ahead of me.

I turn to our group assembled behind us. All of them, except for Ted, looking like they aren't sure what they are supposed to be doing. "You don't need to be here."

"We want to help you," Shane says.

"I appreciate that, but you could go back to the complex and start working with the Chaos trainers. That would be more helpful than standing around here watching us question Jenna," I explain.

"He's right," Ted speaks up. "Might as well get started today."

Tessa steps toward Javier. "I want to be trained too."

He glances at Amber and Jen. "And the two of you?"

They both nod. "Good. The better you can defend yourselves, the more secure we'll all feel." He turns to me. "I'm going to take them back. Can you catch a ride with Marks when you're ready?"

"I'm staying," Raven asserts.

I open my mouth to argue, but Lucien shoots me a glare. It says we're a unit, and he's right. Besides, I don't want her to think I'm hiding anything from her, especially when it comes to this situation. "Okay," is all I can manage to say as we go to face the only truth that might break us.

Jenna is shaking hard when we enter the room. It's been kept cool to keep her comfortable, but now that the drugs are finally releasing their grip over her she might be cold. It's hard to have sympathy for her when she sought to take away my reason for living, but maybe I’m not as unfeeling as I thought.

I grab a blanket off the back of a chair and hand it to her. Her large amber eyes stare up at me as if I just offered her an engagement ring.

"It's been a long time, Jenna," Lucien speaks, directing her attention away from me.

"What is she doing here?" Her mouth pulls into a sneer. Once I thought she was pretty, but I fail to see anything remarkable about her now.

"She's my wife," I state. I manage to keep any hint of anger from my tone.

My plan had been to scare her into telling me what I need to know, but with Marks observing, adjustments have to be made. It's probably for the best, because gauging by the fanatical way she's looking at me I think she'd do just about anything I ask her to do.

"I know you were forced to marry her, but Damien told me it was a mistake. He asked me to come here and fix it for him," she explains. Her tone suggests she thinks I'll be happy to hear this.

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