He ignored me.
“Did you...drug me?” I licked my lips, the numbness spreading.
“I can’t do this anymore.” Scrambling to his feet, he grabbed something from his trestle. He placed a bottle of paint beside me while holding his palm open by my face. I couldn’t make sense of the small black dot in the centre. “I can’t keep making you believe the worst.”
I struggled to focus.
“I wasn’t going to tell you this.” His voice stayed low as if afraid monsters would hear. “You need to believe this is real...just like you believed the breakup at school was real.”
I laughed coldly. “That was real. You broke up with me and never spoke to me again.”
He shook his head, his hair a wild, untamed mop. “I meant to apologise that night and fix us. But you never went home, and then...I couldn’t.” He cleared his throat. “But this is different. I won’t keep you in the dark like I did that day. I need you to know, so I have the strength to finish this.”
“If the breakup wasn’t real...but it ended up being true...why do you think this will be any different? You think by telling me you have a plan, it will stop me from getting killed?” My thoughts scrambled again, unable to stay cohesive. I swam in question-filled quicksand. “Wait...why did you break up with me if it wasn’t real? I don’t understand.”
His jaw worked. “It was for her. I thought she’d back off if she saw I was no longer into you.”
“Yet it only left you wide open to be pulled into her bed.”
He winced. “She knew I loved you regardless that I broke your heart. It was because I loved you that she managed to keep me on a leash.”
My eyes unfocused again. “That sounds like you’re blaming me.”
“Fuck no.” His hands shook, still holding up the black dot. “I know I’m to blame. For all of this. I know I’ve broken everything between us. I know you’ll never love me after—”
“I’ll be dead. How can I love you?” My tongue tried to slur, battling whatever thickness swam in my blood.
“You won’t be. I won’t let you die.” He once again shoved the dot into my vision. “This must stay secret. You can’t let him know this is on you. Act as terrified and as enraged as you were before.”
I couldn’t keep up with his tricks. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I’m going to paint you, deliver you, sacrifice you, but it was never my intention to abandon you. Not again. Never again.” He nudged my chin up with his knuckles. “I’ll be with you every step, O. I’m not leaving you.
“What do you mean?”
Bending, he very gently pulled the waistband of my lacy knickers until a small gap formed between lingerie and skin. Placing the black dot against my hip, he let the tightness hug it close.
It burned my flesh with iciness.
“That’s a GPS tracker. It’s synced to my phone.” His voice cracked again, a fresh tear trickled over thick eyelashes. “I love you, O. With all my goddamn heart. I can’t bear to risk you, but I also can’t leave Olive in his control. This is my last chance.” He swiped at his nose with the back of his hand. “He’s asked me to drop you off...painted in camouflage. I’ll do what he’s requested. He thinks that by taking you—by taking the only other person I love—it will make me far more obedient than I have been. But...what he doesn’t get is, this has pushed me to my limit.” His fists curled. “He can’t have you both. He can’t keep hurting those I love. This ends...tonight.”
The warehouse no longer acted like steel and concrete but liquid and air, loose and floating. My mind was drunk on fatigue. My tongue twisted into knots, making conversation harder. “Wha-What are you going to do?”
He tucked a curtain of hair behind my ear. I didn’t have the energy to swat him away. His lips caressed my cheek. “I’m going to kill him.”
My heart picked up a panicked beat, shooing away the sleepiness. “How?”
Gil let me go, turning to his paints and brushes. Placing more on the stage around me, his mouth remained grim and resolute. “I’ll follow where he takes you. He’ll take you to Olive. Once I know where she is, I’ll kill him.”
My mouth turned dry. There were so many holes in that plan. So many things that could go wrong. “What if...he doesn’t...” I blinked, fighting harder against the urge to snooze. “...take me to Olive?”
He dropped a glass jar holding sponges. It clanged on the stage, making both of us flinch. “He will.” His teeth sank into his bottom lip. “He has to.”
“What if he kills me first?”
“He won’t.”
“What if he kills us all?”
Gil unwound the hose for his airgun. “I won’t let that happen.”
My head was too heavy to hold up. I sagged forward, my spine rolling. “You might not have a choice.”
His warmth settled into me as he sat beside me on the stage. His arm wrapped around me in both comfort and threats. “Sleep now, O. It’s better that way.”
Dreams dragged me down. Dreams of darkness and torment.
A single green olive in a martini glass appeared in the blackness, crystal liquid sloshing with rainbows. A cocktail stick speared the olive.
It screamed.
“Wait...” My fingers grew claws as I fought back to the surface. “I need to know something.” A question danced out of reach, frolicking with sheep, begging to be counted. There was something about Olive that was important. Something about Olive that I didn’t understand.
Olive...
“Hush.” His lips pressed against my temple. “Don’t worry. Everything will be over soon.”
Tallup...
A blackboard with chalk.
A teacher with evil eyes.
Olive and Tallup.
A little girl in front of class.
A child who looked like our teacher.
His daughter!
“No!” I shot upright, blinking slow, my mind a black cloak of exhaustion. “Olive...she-she’s your daughter.”
Gil went statue stiff beside me, understanding the rabbit I chased. “O...don’t. Please don’t ask things I can’t answer.”
“Tallup raped you.”
He trembled. “Go to sleep now, I beg you.”
“Please tell me...” I forced my bowling ball of a head up, searching for his eyes. I met them. I held them. I knew. “Olive—”
“Don’t.” Gil’s entire face cracked and crumpled. The lines around his eyes deepened. The crags in his forehead shadowed. He looked as if I’d killed him just by guessing the biggest secret he’d been hiding. The only secret that mattered. “Don’t.”
Our gazes tangled.
His denial blazed against my unspoken conclusion but the truth burned brighter.
Sleep tried to claim me again. “Olive...she’s hers.”
Gil shuddered as if he begged for any other solution than my life as currency. Any way to stop me from figuring out what he’d kept hidden. His head hung. His breath caught. He was trapped. “Olive is hers. But she’s mine too. I named her...for you.”
Tears beyond my control rained heavy and hard down my cheeks. I was allowed to hate him. I was meant to curse his very existence. I had no trust where he was concerned. No obligation in any form.