Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Infinitesimally.
“What’s this about?” Riel finally said, sounding mad and annoyed.
That was when the door opened across the room, and another man filed in.
“Sorry I’m late,” the man said. “I’m slower than I usually am.”
Nobody said anything until he finally took his seat across from us, next to Tim.
Commander Mooney was still standing beside the table looking pissed.
“Have a seat, Hayes,” Tim said, pushing a chair out.
Hayes’ head turned to survey the man sitting beside me once he’d taken his seat.
“Shit,” he said once he got his first good look at Riel. “I was there five months longer than you, and you can’t even tell.”
Riel didn’t know what to say to that, so he stayed silent.
“Time to explain, Tim,” Mooney ordered, voice full of authority and something else that I couldn’t quite decipher.
“You’re not Malachi,” Hayes said softly. “You’re Luca.”
Those five words dropped like a bomb.
The room exploded.
“What?”
My shout of surprise was the loudest.
I’d wondered why the commander had allowed me to stay.
At first, I could see his absolute abhorrence at me being there in the first place. But then Tim had introduced me, and something had changed.
That unreadable emotion that had passed over his face had been pity.
And now I knew.
Hayes’ eyes went all around the room, his face closed off as he remembered something, then finally landed on the man beside me.
Luca.
“Malachi and you were held in the same cell,” he said after a while. “Before I was moved to the new facility. For ‘better accommodations’ they said.”
Luca nodded. Riel.
Fuck, I was confused.
The bad thing was, it hadn’t even come to me as a surprise.
If the last two days hadn’t been enough of a warning that Luca… Riel… didn’t know who he was, the last six months had been telling.
I’d known.
My body had known, even if my cognitive mind hadn’t made that connection.
Riel… Luca… he’d always affected me like that. Always.
“The guards gave y’all a choice. One or the other,” Hayes said softly. “They thought you were twins. That it would break something inside of you to no longer have the other to lean on… and it did. I watched as Malachi took his own life so you could live. Because you had Frankie waiting on you at home and he had nobody.”
I felt sick to my stomach hearing the recounting of some of his time in captivity.
Nobody should ever have to experience what Malachi, Hayes, and Luca had.
Nobody.
“When they pulled Malachi’s body out of the cell, him still bleeding out, they tossed his dog tags at you as they took him and left. Hit you right in the face with them.” He winced. “You were so fucked up, though. I don’t even think you realized what was happening at that point.”
Riel rubbed his face.
“Luca,” he said. “For the first time in so long… God. That feels almost… right.”
I’d call him Luca from that point forward.
I didn’t want him to feel wrong anymore.
Though, I’d definitely ask his permission first.
I didn’t want him to do anything he didn’t want to do.
“How did this even come up?” I finally asked, gesturing to Hayes. “How did you know he wasn’t Malachi? How did you know he was even going by Malachi?”
Hayes repositioned himself in his chair, then looked at Commander Mooney as if asking for permission.
Mooney nodded once.
“I was rescued from the hellhole a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “The information was shared on the news, and I got to thinking about Malachi and Luca. We were all really good buddies, and the shit that happened in… yeah. Not going there. But we got tight,” he said. “I wanted to check on Luca. Knew he got out because I overheard the guards saying that he was ‘rescued’ but he’d never be the ‘same’ again. I wanted to make sure that he was okay, I guess. And everyone got all confused when I asked for Luca. One thing led to another, and yeah. That’s how it got to this point.”
Luca still hadn’t said a word.
I looked over at him to see him staring blankly forward.
“I don’t remember you,” he said finally. “I’m sorry.”
Hayes stared at Luca for the longest of times before saying, “It’s understandable. What all you went through…” He stopped when he looked at me, staring at him intently. God, I wanted to know everything that happened. Everything.
But it looked as if Hayes didn’t think that I needed to know those particular details.
“Bomb,” I said, touching Luca’s shoulder where the scars were mottled. “Torture.” I touched a straight slice that bisected Luca’s cheek. “Neglect.”
The table was deathly silent.
“I can guess,” I finally said. “But no, you’re right. I don’t think that I want to be here for that.”
I absently started spinning the diamond engagement ring that I’d yet to take off of my finger since Luca had put it on there.