Page 62 of Dark OZ

“There was this one guy. I never knew his real name, but I called him Silver Tooth. He had one shiny tooth that peeked out of the corner of his mouth whenever he smiled, and he only smiled when I cried.”

Dorothy stopped the hand that was still stroking her arm and laced her fingers through mine.

“He loved it so much that he chained me to the radiator at the back of his office. He didn’t care that it got hot or that it made my chains and manacles burn.”

I held up my wrists to her where, beneath the fresh welts, older, nearly invisible scars still lingered. She traced her finger along it before raising the old wound to her lips.

“The day they raided the commune, Silver Tooth never logged me onto the intake form. To the world, I ceased to exist the second he closed those cuffs. I spent…” I let out a long sigh. “I don’t even know how long I was there. Weeks, maybe months. He’d throw down scorpions when he found them. The fucking desert is full of them, and they terrified me. Once he figured that out, Dodge The Scorpions became his favorite game. The asshole timed how long it took me to kill them. He’d punch me for every minute I took and caned me for every time the little bastards nipped me.”

A silent tear cascaded over her freckle-stained cheek. I caught it with the back of my finger.

“Those were the good days. It was worse when I couldn’t kill them. and he had to do it.” The scared little boy, who never really left that room, wanted to hide. He didn’t want Dorothy to see the weathered pain, but hiding wasn’t an option. Not anymore. Not from her.

“One day, he got drunk and fell asleep at his desk, just close enough that I was able to hook my fingers around the keyring. I got out of there and ran like there was no tomorrow because if Silver Tooth caught me, then there wouldn’t have been one. When I made it to the highway, a car pulled over. I was afraid it was Silver Tooth come to drag me to my grave. But it wasn’t him. It was a school teacher who was alarmed by a lone hitchhiking eleven-year-old. She took me to a police station. I told Child Services about the raid and my captivity. None of it mattered. Emily Rosen was untouchable, and I was labeled as just another orphan. They sent me to the North, and I was put under the supervision of an old woman who insisted I call her Granny. That was the last I spoke of it. The world rewrote my reality, and I let it erase the boy I once was.”

The tears were streaming more freely from her eyes now. She choked back a sob, bringing our joined hands before her mouth to stifle the sound.

“Shhh.” I cradled her cheek, brushing the tears from her eyes with my thumb. “I’ve made peace with my time in captivity. It hardened me, taught me the truth of the world we lived in.”

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Dorothy said on a shaky breath.

My eyes distantly focused on the crack in the wall behind Dorothy. “The Morphan didn’t bring back those long days and bone-chilling nights. That isn’t what still haunts me. It made me see the look on Dahlia’s eyes when they grabbed her…the scream that left Daffodil when they tore her dress off… and the way my mother pleaded formylife, and not hers, when the gun was put to the back of her head.”

Dorothy was beginning to shake. I looked back down at the way her eyes were swimming with grief. How many times had I imagined shoving a gun down her throat while I told her the truth, making her taste the steel of the barrel and teaching her that its bitterness wasn’t close to what had taken root in my heart that day? Vengeance. I’d wanted to exact it on that pretty flesh until there was nothing left of her.

I was a coward. I had always been a coward.

“I did nothing, Dorothy.”

“You were a child,” she whispered, so low I could barely hear her.

“I was old enough. I peered through the slats, paralyzed by fear. I didn’t even let Daisy in to hide with me. There was enough room for us both. She was barely a year older than me and practically half my size. I stood there and hid behind my cowardice.”

“Danny, I… I’m so sorry. I can’t... I..” Dorothy broke. Whatever fragile strength holding her together shattered, and she collapsed onto my chest, sobbing.

In all the times I’d pictured telling her about that day, I never thought her heart would break for me. She’d be sorry, but she’d be sorry for finding herself at my mercy. There would be tears, but not ones borne from her childhood torment mingling with mine. The inky blackness of my guilt lifted from my heart as she shouldered the burden with me. Her slender hands curled into fists, taking the cotton of my shirt with her.

“I hate her so much.” Her tortured voice cracked into a growl. I was wrong. Her heart wasn’t breaking with sadness, it was exploding with rage. “No, hate isn’t strong enough.” Her lips moved against my chest. I felt them peel back as she gritted her teeth. “I will burn it down. I will dismantle The Farm brick by brick. I will strip the beams and build a pyre unlike Oz has ever known. Then I will strap her to the fucking center and drop the match. I don’t care if I have to take the whole goddamn world with me.Em. Will. Burn.”

Fuck, this girl was speaking to the very center of my cold, black heart. I lifted her chin and brushed away the tears from her hot cheeks, kissing the moist skin beneath my fingers. “I will be right there with you for every second of it.”

“And I’ll bring the marshmallows.” Crowe lifted his head, resting his chin on the dip of her stomach.

Dorothy turned. “I didn’t know you were awake. You should have said something.”

“And miss that fucking glorious declaration?”

Her eyes dipped, embarrassed of how thoroughly she’d dropped the mask. But then, I dropped mine, too. I’d let that thing fall so far I didn’t know that I’d ever find it again.

She propped herself up on her elbow, pressing against me for leverage as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I’m…” She raked in a long and unrestrained breath. “Does that tub in the bathroom over there work?”

He nodded. “Yeah, gimme a sec, and I’ll start it running.”

A couple of minutes later, the IV line and bandages were removed, and Crowe was easing her into the warm water. It was intimate watching the way he so thoroughly cared for her. The only bodies I’d ever seen him lower into tubs were the kinds being dipped in hydrochloric acid. This was…loving.

Crowe returned and leaned against the bedpost. “We’ll find them.”

“So you heard everything?”

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