Chapter Eighteen

Jude

Rissa was sitting in the corner when I entered the bedroom. When she saw it was me, she smiled softly. My heart skipped a beat.

It was the same smile Rissa gave me before someone kidnapped her. It felt like I was walking into the past.

Then she pouted.

"I missed you," she said. "Why are you doing this to me? We were always best friends. Don't you like me anymore?"

I moved closer, sitting on the floor within arm's reach of her. "I've never forgotten. We've all missed you. Caspian said he told you about the car wreck and how we thought you were dead."

"Yes." She nodded.

"When we went searching for you, we came upon the accident. You'd run off the road, and the car ran into a tree. The car was on fire, and when Caspian opened the door, he burned his hand. A body fell out. We thought it was you. That you had died in the wreck, but that wasn't you. For five years, we mourned your death. It changed us."

Tears filled her eyes. "It changed me, too. I don't want to be this way." She downed her head, sniffing.

When I touched her shoulder, she jerked back. I dropped my hand. "We'll help you get back to your old self. We won't let anyone ever hurt you again."

"But you are now. My arms ache from this jacket. I would feel better if you would just take it off. Then we can talk about all the things we used to do. Won't you please take it off?"

I reached forward, then quickly drew my hand back, remembering what Caspian had told me. Dammit, maybe Caspian was wrong. This was the old Rissa. The one I remembered. But I'd made a promise, and I never broke a promise to one of my brothers.

"I'm sorry. I can't take it off right now. Not until we know you won't try to hurt yourself or one of us."

Her expression immediately changed to hate, and she launched herself toward me with a screech a banshee would be proud of. I grabbed her shoulders so she wouldn't hurt herself. She tried to bite me, squirming as she attempted to hurt me. She wiggled, finally getting away and scooting to her knees.

I held her face and looked into her eyes. "Rissa, you're in there somewhere. Come back to us. What you're doing now isn't you. This is someone that a madman created. He tried to destroy you so you could destroy us, but we're not about to let that happen. We love you too much."

She jerked away from me, bolted back to her corner, and glared at me. "Lies, all lies. He said you only meant to use me. We were never friends. You and your brothers are demons in disguise. You'll rip me apart after you rape me."

"No, we would never do that. We would never harm you."

"Are you telling me that you never wanted to fuck me?" she spat.

At first, her language shocked me. The old Rissa would never have said the word fuck. But then I thought about what she said. I couldn't help but smile. In a way, she was right about that, at least.

"No, we would have made love. It would have been passionate, and you would've enjoyed it. But rape, no, we would never do that."

"I don't believe you. He showed me videos of you raping and killing people. You're evil. All three of you."

"Who did? Who is the person who did this to you?"

She raised her chin. "He's my friend. He cares about me. He made sure I was fed, and he trained me to take care of myself."

"And the food he gave you, did it taste good? Did you have your own room?" I took a chance. "Or did he keep you in a cage so he could control you?"

She frowned, then looked confused. I had my answer.

I'm no saint. Hell, we grew up in organized crime inherited from our father, and his father before him. Most of our dealings were shady. We'd killed to keep our territory, to stay on top. It was always necessary.

People misjudged me. I was the player, the lover, but that gave me an advantage. They didn't realize how deadly I was until it was too fucking late.

As soon as we found the man who did this to Rissa, I was going to fucking torture him. I wanted to rip his guts out while he screamed for me to kill him. I wanted him to fucking suffer!

When I looked at Rissa, I saw the fear in her eyes. I forced myself to calm down. "I hate what this man did to you. We won't let him hurt you again. Her eyes quickly shuttered whatever she was thinking.

Talking about the future was getting me nowhere, and she wasn't about to tell me who this man was, so I reverted to talking about the past, as Caspian had, and when we first met. She glared at me the whole time and didn't say a word, but occasionally, I would see a flicker of something in her eyes, as if she might be remembering her old self. Ezra had been right. Rissa was in there. We just had to find her.

Gina knocked lightly on the door, then brought the lunch tray in. She glanced at Rissa, her expression one of pity. "If you need anything else, just let me know."

I thanked her, but I noticed Rissa looked at her with more than a touch of curiosity. I realized Gina might come in handy—sort of a woman-to-woman thing. Gina was sweet and kind. I guess her to be around thirty-four. I didn't think she even had a boyfriend. That was a shame. She was a nice person, which is why it always surprised me that she worked for us.

I fed Rissa while I continued to talk about the past. She seemed more interested in the food. Caspian was right to wonder what she'd been fed while she was gone. I noticed that she tried not to show emotion while eating, but occasionally, she would close her eyes and savor the taste.

She kept eyeing the strawberry ice cream in the dessert dish. I knew ice cream had been her favorite—she was almost obsessive about it. I decided we needed to make sure it was brought to her every meal, including breakfast.

She was waiting for the next bite almost before I could get one scoop to her mouth. I began to talk to her about how much she used to love ice cream. Her eyebrows drew together as if trying to remember, but then she glared at me again.

For just a moment, I'd gotten through to her. We only needed to make those times last longer than the others.

I helped her to the bathroom and saw Caspian was right again. She showed no embarrassment. Rather than letting her return to her corner, I had her sit on the stool in front of the vanity. I picked up the brush and began to run it through her hair.

"You used to beg me to brush your hair." I chuckled. "You said you would chop it off if I refused. You had a way of making us do things for you, but you were never obnoxious about it. I don't think you would have cut it off, either."

I met her gaze in the mirror and saw the confusion again. Then she looked at her reflection as though she was trying to figure everything out.

"Your hair is shorter now, but it used to reach down to your waist. I like it short, too." I ran the soft bristles through her shoulder-length hair until she yawned.

When she would've gone to her corner of the room, I shook my head.

"No, there's a soft bed for you to rest on. No more cages. No more floors."

She hesitated, then crawled up on the bed. I knew the moment she dozed off. I realized it didn't matter if she was on the floor or in the bed, she still curled on her side. I had a feeling her cage wasn't very big.

When Ezra opened the door, we stepped outside so we wouldn't wake her.

"How is it going?" he asked.

"She wanted me to remove the straitjacket. That was the first thing she tried to get me to do." I ran my hand down my face. "Man, she was so fucking much like the old Rissa. You know, all soft and cuddly. All I wanted to do was pull her against me and hold her close. Rock her and tell her everything would be okay."

He cocked an eyebrow. "But you didn't remove it, right?"

"No, and then she lunged at me. It was all I could do to get her to calm down."

"I'm guessing that you did calm her down."

"Eventually."

"Good."

"Caspian was right when he said she hadn't eaten regular food in a long time. She tries not to show any emotion, though. When she's eating, it does come through that she's enjoying the meal." I couldn't stop my smile. "She still loves ice cream."

"Then we'll make sure she gets it every meal."

"My thoughts exactly."

Ezra studied me. "You discovered something, didn't you?"

"You're not going to like it."

"Just tell me."

"I think he kept her in a cage."

Ezra muttered a curse. "That's what Caspian thinks, too."

"She seems comfortable on the floor. When she started to get tired, she curled into a ball. Then she did it again when she was in bed. I think that's the way he controlled her. He gave her a little more leeway if she did what he wanted. Maybe a blanket or a pillow."

Ezra's gaze narrowed. "Did she give you his name?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "But she did refer to the person as he again. She wouldn't give me his name, though. I think the more comfortable she becomes, and when she realizes we're not going to hurt her, she'll open up more. I talked to her about the past. I think she connected with some of it. Like when I brushed her hair. I knew she liked that. We can only hope that she'll come around eventually."

Ezra nodded. "I'll take over for a while. Take a break."

"Go easy with her."

"You didn't need to ask."

"Yeah, I know." With a sigh, I went back down the stairs and straight to the patio. Rissa was in there someplace. We just needed to find her again. And we would.

I drew in a deep breath, then exhaled. We knew one thing. It had definitely been a man behind all of this. That's what we had already figured out, though. I only hoped she would slip up and say his name.

Then we could hunt him in earnest and kill the bastard.