All lies.
He hated the lies that came from her even as he realized it made him a hypocrite.
After making sure the IV was working properly, he moved away from the bed.
It was time to leave the two of them alone. Her gaze shot to him and he could see the confusion on her face.
“I have things to do.” Turning, he stalked out of the room and leaned against the wall. Shaking, he drew out his phone and sent a message through his secured app. The one that he buried deep in his phone.
N:We need to meet.
There was no replystraight away. Not that he expected there to be. But he needed answers.
And he needed them now.
The Collective might have rescued him from an orphanage and given him the skills he needed to survive.
But he had paid his debt to them.
No more dancing on the end of their strings.
25
Angie stared after North as he left.
Why did she feel the urge to ask him to stay? She was being ridiculous.
What she should do is tell Jared to go with him. But she didn’t think she could be here on her own with an IV line in. Weirdly, Jared made her feel safe.
“I think that you’re telling lies. You might think you’ve eradicated your Little, but you have two soft toys that say otherwise.”
“Lots of people have soft toys,” she pointed out. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“True. But you can’t just wipe that part out of your life. It’s a part of who you are.”
Fuck.
He wasn’t wrong. And she knew that her Little was still a part of her.
“She’s still inside you.”
“She won’t come out,” Angie told him, hearing the frustration in her voice. “Not when I want her to. Only when I’m ill or scared. For so long I had to hide that part of myself from Fergusso he didn’t use it against me and after . . . I don’t know. It’s like she’s locked behind a wall.”
He shifted her around carefully so she was facing him. She immediately missed his touch. Wanted his arms around her. She started to shake and he frowned, then he reached down to grab a throw from the end of the bed, wrapping it around her. “I want you to look at me.”
She’d reached the end of everything she could take, she really had. Angie didn’t think she could discuss anything else.
Jared tilted her chin up, studying her face. “If you ever want some help setting her free, I can do that. While you’re here, that is.” That last bit sounded like an afterthought.
Did he want her to stay?
No. You have to be imagining things.
“Are you a Daddy to North?”
“No, North is my sub. Not my Little. Although that’s not something that many people know.”
“About him being a sub?” she asked.
