Page 82 of Nest Of Lies

My fingers tighten in her hair, and I duck until we’re nose to nose. “This is your home. If you return to that museum of hell, I will burn it to the ground.”

She shivers. “What are you saying, Zaden?” she whispers.

“Lia, I’m only going to say this once more, and then if you make me repeat myself again, I’ll get Ianto to get his tattoo gun out and he’ll tattoo our names on your ass. You. Are. Ours. There is no going home. This is your home. There is no one else for you. We are your pack. You are the Mirakill MC switch. And if anything tries to come between us, I will destroy it. If someone tries to hurt you, I will bury them. If someone even questions it, I will break bones.”

She doesn’t look nearly scared enough.

“Zaden,” she whispers. “You don’t understand.”

I let out a fierce growl. “Lia-”

“What if my mother is right? What if I am sick?” Lia says in a pained rush.

“Lia, for fuck’s sake.”

“I’ve got this, Zaden,” Ianto says from behind me.

I climb off her, letting her go as Ianto sits beside her on the bed. He pulls out her medical files and shows her everything the doctors ever wrote. All of them. His voice is calm and low as he shows her everything they’ve ever written about her.

“See, you’re perfectly healthy.”

A tear runs down Lia’s cheek, and I want nothing more than to grab a baseball bat and go and break the legs of everyone who ever made her hurt.

He pulls out another file. “This is your mother’s file. Now, if you look here, you’ll see that she has been diagnosed with several mental illnesses. She’s refused to take the medications. Several of the times she’s been absent, she’s been in a psychiatric ward. There are photos of China sick, screaming, being arrested. Testimony from exes, a few staff that she physically assaulted.”

“But-”

My Lia sounds so lost and so confused.

“Your mother has been really, terribly ill, Lia. It’s not your fault, and there is nothing wrong with you. This is your mother’s illness, not yours.”

Lia bursts into tears. Ianto pulls her into his arms, rocking her while our eyes meet over her head.

I can’t destroy what hurt her. But we can make sure it never happens again. When did she worm her way inside me? When did she become more important to me than my next breath?

“Zaden?”

I glance back and find Ranger there.

“We have a problem.”

Chapter twenty-nine

Ranger

Sometimes I think sheknows that we’re lying to her. Maybe it’s the way the truth sits heavy in my gut so large that I think she must sense it, she must see it. The lies are eating through me.

Ianto’s telling her the truth. Well, part of it. Will she hate us? Part of me is desperate to stay, the other part wants to run until it’s all over.

I shake my head, focusing on the problem at hand.

“Tell me what happened again?”

“Several of ours got into a brawl with the Despair MC.”

Zaden spits a curse and shakes his head. “Worst possible timing.”

“I know.”

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