“Almost eighteen.”
“Are we talking, like a week from being an adult, or like six months?”
What the fuck did that matter?
I shot him a glare. “Three weeks.”
“An adult. Easy. Marry the girl….uh boy? Change his hair, his name and give them a new identity.”
“No.” That wasn’t close to an option. And why the heck did Blaise keep changing the pronouns on Oakley?
“Why not? Simple fix.”
Yes, simple. But that wasn’t a guarantee that he’d be safe. I knew the outcome of a new identity. Most of the time, yeah, people were able to blend into wherever they went easily. But Oakley wasn’t normal. He’d be frightened of everything around him, and that wouldn’t get him to blend in with the world. If anything, it’d make him more of a target wherever he went.
I knew his kind too well. I’ve seen what happens.
“Then keep him tied to your bed for the rest of your life,” Blaise stood, tired of my mood. Heck, I was tired of my thoughts, too. Little did he know, that’s exactly where Oakley was. Tied to my bed. I wasn’t willing to let that info slip through. “Just…remember that person is human. They have feelings.”
I shot him a glare, well aware of that fact. My heart was broken seeing, and hearing, Oakley fall apart in the room after I left him there once more.
“And that book,” Blaise couldn’t help but chime in from the office doorway, “Good choice to leave out if you didn’t want to keep the kid.”
“Get out.” I gritted out. He was not fucking helping one bit.
Blaise’s laughter followed him down the hall.
Looking at my computer screen, work all but forgotten, Oakley was now sitting on the floor, a pillow across his lap and a book resting against it.
Something told me it wasn’t the fantasy book I said he could read. Not sure what type of punishment I’d be able to come up with for not listening, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen.
It’d be easy to speak to him again, which in turn would scare him. But also, I was tempted to see what he’d do when I’d get home, confronting him about doing something I told him not to do. Twice, in fact.
Oakley looked up, staring at the camera as if he knew I was watching. Just like last time, he tilted his head a bit. Could he read my mind from here? That thought was laughable. The boy didn’t know who he was messing with. But I knew I couldn’t be too strict. Not when I had no plans to keep him.
Three days was already taking its toll on me. I needed to hit the club tonight, I decided. Maybe then, my needs would simmer down. Because if not, this boy was going to be the death of me.
Chapter 14
Oakley
After a quick dinner, I was back to being chained to the bed. The only difference this time was that all the books on the bottom shelf were taken out of the room and placed somewhere else in the house.
I kept my place on the bed, legs folded up as I watched Sabastian take three armfuls of the books away. Each time he passed the bed, he didn’t speak a single word to me. He hadn’t spoken at all since he told me it was dinner time.
Maybe the silent treatment was better than being yelled at. Either way, I knew I was in trouble. And I knew what it was for this time.
The book, actually, two books because I was dumb enough to try my luck, were hidden under my pillow. I had expected his voice to come through the speaker when I was back over there by the bookshelf hours ago, but it hadn’t.
Maybe he wasn’t watching me then. Or maybe, it was to test me somehow.
I had plans to move the books tonight when he’d be fast asleep if I wasn’t chained to the bed. I wasn’t so sure at the moment on that, though.
“I’m going out tonight,” he said, taking any books off the rest of the shelves that weren’t deemed appropriate for me to read. Those that were left weren’t ones that I wanted to read anyway. “I’ll be out late. But, I will be watching you.”
Was that a threat?
I didn’t reply, I simply blinked. If he was attempting to make me think about my actions, or use this as a form of punishment, he wasn’t doing things right. And I wasn’t going to tell him so.
