Page 43 of King of the Cage

Sol sat on the couch, as still as a statue. No matter how much I spoke to her or called her name, she was silent.

She just stared at the wall.

Declan, Bran’s main henchman, sat in the kitchen playing some kind of card game with another guy, one whose face was black and blue.

Bran’s friend, Keiran, or Doc, as they called him, examined Sol, and Bran watched them, his expression tense. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I couldn’t do either with the Irish audience, so I paced.

I lingered in the doorway of the kitchen, eyeing Declan when he tried to light a cigarette.

“No?” he wondered.

I shook my head.

“Fine. Your turn,” he said to the guy with the heavily beaten face.

He winced, touching his nose as it if pained him.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“Bran,” was all he replied.

“Aren’t you on his team?”

The guy let out a laugh that could have been a cry. I turned away and went back to Sol.

“So, what’s going on?” I asked Doc nervously.

He took his stethoscope off from around his neck and folded it into a leather bag. “She’s been given a powerful substance. I can’t be sure without checking it against the sample from Quinn, but I think it’s the same.”

“Quinn?” I echoed.

“My sister.” Bran’s voice was hewn from granite.

“What does it do? It’s a date-rape drug?”

Doc nodded, but his expression was troubled. “Yes, but more than that. It’s a datecontroldrug.”

“Meaning?” I snapped. I was exhausted and scared, and it was making me shrill and brittle.

“I’ll demonstrate for you, wee one, with your permission. It’s not an easy thing to explain,” Bran said heavily.

“Fine, demonstrate and stop being so dramatic about it, and just let me see.”

Bran nodded and turned toward Sol.

“Solaria, look at Giada,” Bran instructed in a clear voice.

Sol’s eyes turned immediately to me.

“Stand up,” Bran continued.

Sol stood up immediately. The blankness on her face was chilling. She was utterly devoid of expression. Like a doll.

“Stick your tongue out,” Bran said quietly.

Sol obeyed.

“Sit down again,” Bran said.

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