Page 67 of Cruel Cravings

The truth would probably cause her to have another breakdown. Her deep bouts of paranoia have actually been justified. She’s been right to feel watched. Monitored.

Tracked.

All patients at the Brighter Days Psychiatric Hospital receive them—an implant behind their ear that serves as a tracking device for the doctors, staff, and anyone else they want to have access.

I have always known where Jael is because I have always known about the trackers.

I have watched from afar as my father and his employees implanted them in drugged patients who didn’t know the grass from the sky. They were often unconscious, and if awake, they were delirious enough to believe they were dreaming.

The same had been done to Jael.

She had been sedated. My father and his favorite assistant, Nurse Hinkley—or Big Bird as Jael called her—snuck a sedative in her food.

When she retreated to her room early, claiming she didn’t feel well, they waited until she passed out in her bed and then sent orderlies to collect her. They folded her left ear up and then placed the piercing gun at the delicate patch of skin.

Tiny beads of blood surfaced. They wiped it off like nothing before transporting her back to her room.

She woke hours later in a cold sweat, screaming and crying about the buzzing in her ear. Nurse Hinkley put on a fake sympathetic smile and patted her on the shoulder.

“There is no buzzing, Jael,” she said. “It’s all in your head.”

And when Jael refused to quiet down, she was given another sedative. She was told over and over again she was imagining things.

I knew the buzzing all too well.

I had experienced the same… except my father made it known what he was doing to me. He put my implant in under the threat he would withhold my pain meds—the one weakness he always had to expose—and made sure I understood if I took it out, he would know.

The day Jael was discharged was the day I ripped mine out. The gash behind my ear bled for hours.

But my father would no longer be able to track me. His control was dwindling. I had stolen enough pain meds to last meat least a few weeks. Long enough to go without his blackmail and manipulation tactics.

Jael wasn’t so lucky.

Her whereabouts have been known the entire time. If my father wanted to capture her, he could easily do so. He could turn her into the authorities and send them to arrest her.

It’s what clued me into McGrath and Dudley.

He had sent them.

Not in an official capacity, which was why the rest of their department didn’t know about Jael’s crimes or her whereabouts, but he had bribed them to collect her.

Bring her back to him and the hospital.

As night approached and she returned to the cabin, I knew I had to get to her before my father sent others. He would regardless, but if I got to her first, she would be safe. I could protect her.

I tended to her when she woke up. She protested, fought, and screamed until she exhausted herself. She hurled insults and cruel words at me, desperate to make me angry or push her away.

It worked.

The rage broke free and I gave her what she wanted—I made her feel pain. I made her feelgood.

I showed her how easily I could take control and inflict what I wanted on her. My hand closed on her throat and I returned her glare as I squeezed. Her throat muscles flexed against my palm and she jerked her body.

She spit in my face and I slapped hers.

I elicited the same fear she had sought to draw out of me the night before. The pistol was the twisted reminder of what she had done to me. But as shock shone in her dark gaze, so did desire. Her whole body trembled, nipples beaded, as I slipped the cool metal barrel inside her.

My blood was beating in my veins. My cock harder than it’s ever been.

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