Page 79 of Stitches

“He didn’t want to do it. They threatened us with her,” Stitches said, pulling away and wiping at his eyes. “He tried hard to protect her too.”

“Who?” Church growled.

“Don’t make me say it. Shit’s bad enough,” Stitches said, his voice so low I had to lean in to hear him.

“We need to know, Malachi.” Church glanced over at me.

“They were going to hurt her if he didn’t. They were going to do it if he refused. They made me hold her, but they’d already done electroshock on her as a way to show us what they were capable of. It’s why she’d had a seizure. From the shocks. They forced us to-to watch it. I-I can’t tell you names. Don’t make me.”

Nausea washed through me, mixing with my rage as I flipped my lighter open and closed on repeat.

“She wasn’t really conscious by the end of it. She was in and out of it,” Stitches continued. “I-I told her I was sorry and that I love her. It wasn’t enough to save her from it, but he was gentle with her. He-he made sure she was covered so the monsters behind the window couldn’t see. He vowed we’d get the names of every monster and kill them all. He’s broken with us. I-I trust him. Deep down I do.” Stitches wiped at his eyes.

Church sat back wordlessly and stared down at Stitches on his knees.

“Where’s angel?” Stitches begged. “Tell me she’s upstairs sleeping. That she’s here.”

“She’s with Cady,” I said. “For tonight, that’s where she is.”

“We need to go to her—” A wild look took over Stitches’s face.

“Not now,” Church said. “We need a plan because she’s in danger.”

He launched into telling Stitches everything right down to Stitches belonging to him as a gift and Sirena being sold to Everett.

“Fuck,” Stitches rasped. “Fuck.”

He got to his feet and clawed at his face and paced the room.

“I said we should let her go,” he said, stopping to face us.

“What good would it do?” I asked, my sadness seeping into my words. “It’s not us that’s the problem really. If Everett owns her now, it’s him who is the problem.”

“What does he want you to do?” Stitches looked to Church.

“He didn’t give me specifics. Only said to come when he called and basically be his bitch when he requested something. Past that, I’m in the dark.”

“Then we need to get Sirena. We need to be watching her,” Stitches said, continuing to pace.

“We need to see Asylum,” Church murmured. “He knows things. He’s the one we have to talk to. I know hesawall of this coming. He talks to voices and shit. We need to see what he knows.”

I nodded. “I agree. Let’s start with him and see what he says. We can go from there.”

Stitches’s throat bobbed as he looked to Church. “Dante?”

Church slowly looked at him.

“I’m really sorry for everything. I am.”

Church got to his feet and dragged Stitches against his body and whispered something into his ear that I couldn’t hear. Something that made Stitches sob softly and cling to him.

If I had to guess, we were going to murder someone else.

And I was OK with that.

ASYLUM

Itook a hit from the sugar stick I had and leaned back in my chair and blew out a ring of smoke while Sin smoked on his own.

---