Page 134 of Born for Lace

A painful smile slides across my lips as I wonder how many times he snapped the restraints around his wrists before they realised he needed more. A lot more. All the way up his arms. He is just so… remarkably strong.

His blank stare breaks my heart.

Slowly, I walk over to his bedside. He doesn’t turn his head, eyes fixed on the ceiling—open, white, and void. The nictitating membrane over his eyeball looks thin and glossy, with a translucent sheen that is as beautiful as it is frightening.

I look him over. White material bands his head, covering a wound that I can’t see, leaving his blonde-brown knot of hair in a gap at the back. His neck and shoulders are perfectly aligned and stiff. The sight of his bare chest absolutely destroys me— it breaks a dam inside my gaze, blurring the vision of all those new scars and slices. They are already healing, but in parts, the tendons and muscles are only covered by thin, clear tissue—scar tissue.They skinned it, skinned him, or…

I cover my mouth but fight to stay strong. Wiping my face, I glance down at tubes snaking beneath the restraints, passing fluids. One of the tubes pulses with blood, and one drips with something clear. That’s good.

They are caring for him.

He will get better.

Instinctively, I reach for his hand, and my heart drops when my skin meets his. Sensation buzzes through me. His flesh is so warm and hard and still as if he is a mere heated stone.

“Lagos…” My voice wobbles. “Brute?”

What did he call himself?

Six?

I ignore the way my chest aches at the fact he won’t look at me, won’t acknowledge me.After that.After what happened.

He must be asleep, but it is hard to tell with his third eyelid closed. Another predatory trait to filter the sand and debris and to stalk. I understand why they aren’t allowed in the community. They have unfair engineered and evolutionary advantages.

“Oh,Dahlia.” Tomar’s voice soars around me, and I stiffen with rage, glaring at him over my shoulder, at the man who lied to me. “What are you doing here?”

“You knew,” I hiss.

He shakes his head. “I had?—”

“You knew, and you lied!”

“Dahlia,” —he thrusts his hands toward the bed—"I needed you to run from him. Not look for him. Not go to him. I saw that you’re pregnant, and I just… I had to think quickly. It wasn’t like I planned this on the way up here, but… I needed to keep you safe. As I was holding you…” He looks at his hands. “Holding your unborn child. At that moment, I thought only your hatred was powerful enough to shatter your love.”

“It wasn’t…”

I get a flash of a white coat as Robert enters from behind me, and I turn my cheek to look at my catatonic brute.

“Tomar was trying to protect you,” Robert says. “Don’t be too hard on him.”

“I’ve been following him since he left the compound two weeks ago,” Tomar admits.

The truth slices in deep. “You were never going to tell me, were you?” I scoff with anger. “If he didn’t come to me.”

“I was trying to protect you from this.” Tomar is still gesturing to Lagos, maybe assuming the sight of him will have me cowering. He has no idea how much I love that man. “From all of this.”

“I don’t give up on the people I love. There are so few of them!” I admit, squeezing a stone-like hand. I love him.I swallow hard, emotions lumping in my neck, the swollen column struggling. “What is wrong with him?”

“He’s…” Robert sighs as if stifling hollow words. “I want to be honest with you. It’s called Brain Interruption or Mind Washing. Basically, torture and conditioning.”

“Why won’t he look at me?”

“At the moment, he is sedated,” Robert answers. “I’m using a lot of Community resources for this. We’ve just removed his coil, but his brain has been through a shredder, and I am not that kind of doctor. I have never removed a coil before. It’s an entirely different kind of surgery, and I wasn’t trained for it.”

“They let him leave,” Tomar states, “And I just knew… I knew he was sent to finish this. I know a man who knows a man who is a Trade Tech. He told me that they sent a spy to get a stolen Trade baby. I lied and said I heard a man lost control and killed a runaway Lace Girl and a baby in the Common Community. He seemed too interested in that story. Hopefully, that gets back to The Trade Master.”

“And you think they’ll just forget about us?” I shrug. “Isn’t Spero a weapon? Isn’t Lagos worth something to them?”

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