Page 4 of Mind Maze

“What’s wrong, love?” he asks, voice low and concerned.

It’s fake.

He really is a fake.

“I…I…” I stammer, fumbling over my words and thoughts, unable to grasp onto any of them. “He…”

His eyebrows furl and he looks away. “Missing. You remember.”

Missing?

My dream dances on the edge of my consciousness. He didn’t go missing. Gareth was thrown overboard into Lake Erie—after Caius effortlessly broke the neck of a man much larger than him.

“You…killed…” I swallow down a ball of emotion as I’m hit with an onslaught of the rest of my memories.

Gareth’s cologne infiltrating my nostrils, making me gag.

Gareth’s brute strength rendering me completely immobile.

Gareth’s rage and hatred toward a woman he barely knew.

Caius’s fingers grip my jaw and he leans forward until his nose brushes mine. “He’s missing,” he says, voice cold. “The police are looking for his body in the lake. He’d been drinking and the decks were covered with ice. There’s only one possible conclusion, and it’s one that will crush our family.”

Crush his family?

His emotionless, apathetic features deny that claim. He doesn’t care.

Question is, why doIcare?

Because Gareth was a person. A human being. A father, brother, son. Now he’s dead.

But. He. Raped. You.

Fear of it happening again is squashed. I find comfort in knowing he’s dead. I hate that I do. Murder is worse than rape, right?

Try telling that to a victim of the latter.

Caius’s lips press to mine, cold and firm, and yet I find comfort in the chaste kiss. I want nothing more than to unbuckle and crawl into his lap so he’ll hold me. The ache for him is intense and all-consuming.

“He most likely fell,” Caius murmurs against my lips. “There’s no surviving those temperatures. It’s devastating. I know he was your friend. It’s okay to be sad, love.”

I burst into tears because I am sad, but not because of the lie he’s feeding me. Because of the truth. I was violated in the worst way. Everything is confusing and I’m way out of my depth. I’m a captive in this family, and yet, I find solace in the monster beside me.

He pulls me to him, hugging me tight. His large hands rub circles over my back as if to urge me to cry out all the pain and hurt. I do just that. I’m sure there are others around witnessing my breakdown, but right now, I don’t care.

I need to release this pain.

My tears soak Caius’s suit jacket on the shoulder. I’m pretty sure I’m getting snot all over him. For as put together as this man is, he doesn’t seem worried in the least. If anything, he appears to crave comforting me every bit as much as I need him to do it.

“Do you want something to take the edge off?” he asks, voice tickling the hair on my head.

And to forget everything again?

To drift through another confusing fog?

“Yes,” I find myself murmuring even though I know it’s the wrong answer.

He pulls away long enough to place two bitter pills on my tongue and then offers me a bottle of water. I swallow them down and sink back into his embrace. As promised, within moments, my bruises don’t hurt, my head doesn’t spin, and myheart doesn’t feel like exploding. All thoughts in my throbbing head turn numb.

---