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I have no need to call her out of her room. When she hears the door close, she comes on her own. Her face flashes with surprise and then fear when she sees that we have a visitor. The same visitor I tricked her with before.

River smiles at her, juggling an apple between his palms.

"Hello, Isabella."

"You know my name?" she asks.

Her eyes flicker to me, and she bites her lip. She wants him to be someone other than who he really is. A knight come to save her.

She wants to tell him about her monster. How I am keeping her here against her will. About the dirty things I do to her, but not how much she really loves them. The things he has already seen with his own eyes.

"Of course I do," he answers. "My friend Javi here has told me so much about you."

My cheeks heat, and I want to tell her that's a lie. I've told River very little about her. But he is nosy. And this is his way of getting information. I have no doubt he will ask her plenty when I'm gone, while she tries to persuade him to set her free.

"I'm leaving," I announce.

Both of them look at me. River takes a bite of his apple, and Bella's eyes grow wide.

Afraid.

River is watching me carefully as I go to her, but I do not care. I touch her cheek. It has been so long since I've allowed myself to touch her. To feel her. To breathe her in.

I want her. I want her to let me have her.

"You are mine, Bella," I assure her. "Only mine."

It is the right thing to say. Her shoulders relax, and she leans into my touch. It surprises me.

River smirks. I don't care.

"Where are you going?" Bella asks.

"I have some business to take care of."

She doesn't know about Luke. She doesn't know about the trouble he has gone to in order to find her. She also doesn't know that I've been looking for her father myself. And that Luke isn't the only matter I am leaving for today.

"How long will you be gone for?"

Her lip trembles and something wrenches inside of my chest. An urge to comfort her. To tell her it’s okay. But that would be a lie.

She is with me. And it is not okay.

"I will be back soon enough."

"That's what my father always used to say."

She retreats, and I feel the loss of her immediately. My hand is cold when I shove it into my pocket and turn away.

River gives me a nod before I go. One that says everything I need to know.

He will take care of her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

IF JAVI HAD A BROTHER, it could be River. They are alike in so many ways. Both lofty and well built. Masculine. Dark. Mysterious. But where Javi is closed off, River is open.

There is something about him that alarms me. The way he smiles. It isn't normal. I don't trust that he's all there in the head. But then again, I don't trust that Javi is either, really.

And yet, I have started to feel safe with Javi. It is the story my father used to tell, becoming my own. I am the caged bird, adapting to my prison.

The guilt and confusion weigh heavy on my soul. I should want to leave. Before it’s too late. It's a long shot. But I have to try.

River is eating another apple. His third since he arrived. He is at ease in Javi’s home. He is at ease around me. I doubt there is anyone that can truly ruffle his feathers.

"What has Javi told you about me?" I ask.

"Very little, actually," he says between bites. "I was just giving him shit."

"So he hasn't told you?"

"Told me what?"

"That he kidnapped me? That he's holding me here against my will?"

River smiles. Unfazed. "Oh, he did tell me that."

I glare at him.

"So that's the kind of man you are? You're just going to let him do this..."

"Do what?" he asks. "You look fine to me."

"I don't want to be here," I bark. "Please, if you have any morals at all... please just let me go."

He is quiet for a moment. I think he might actually be considering it. Until he laughs.

"Do you know where I met Javi?"

"No."

"In the psych ward," he says, twirling a finger around his head. "That should tell you I'm loco, little Bella."

"You met him in the sanitarium?"

Suddenly, I'm less concerned with my escape and more interested in what he has to say.

"After he killed his mother?"

"Yep."

His reply is matter of fact. Unbothered. And I find myself wondering about him too. If he doesn't seem to mind that Javi killed his mother, I can only imagine what he was in there for.

"You know what I think?" River asks.

"What?"

"I think you like him. I think you like the mystery of him. The dangerous man beneath the hood. Have you seen him yet?"

I open my mouth to deny it. But River laughs.

"Spare me. You can lie to yourself, princess. But you were worried about him leaving you here with the big bad wolf because you feel safer with him."

"I just want to leave," I tell him.

"Do you?" he asks. "Do you really?"

"Yes."

"And go back to what? That glamorous life you hated so much? Your pervert manager who couldn't keep his mitts off you?"

"It's not any different than Javi. I've traded one hell for another."

But even as I say the words, they feel like a lie. I hate it. I hate that I am so confused about Javi. I don’t understand why I feel things when he touches me. Why I dream about him sometimes. Or why I lie awake at night in my bed, listening to see if he will come down the hall to my room.

River can see this weakness inside of me. And I’m certain Javi can too.

"I'm going to go read," I mutter.

River reaches for another apple and nods. But when I enter the hallway, his words stop me.

"How do you know?"

I turn and look at him.

"What?"

"How do you know he killed his mother?"

JAVI HAS BEEN GONE for four days. It feels like a year.

It’s strange without his presence here.I'm on edge, and I don't really know why. I'm lonely and bored and the last four days have left me wordless and anxious.

River doesn't bother me.

He lounges around the house all day, eating apples and listening to music. Today I catch him looking at some of Javi's drawings. Drawings that I have only recently discovered myself. They have the same precision as the ones he used to send me.

I sit down across from River and watch him as he studies the charcoal sketches.

"What do you think they mean?"

River rolls his eyes. Laughs.

"Why does everything have to mean something? Maybe he just likes to draw."

I don't reply.

He's a smart ass. And I don't know why I even thought to bother with him at all.

I stand up. But he stops me again.

"They're tattoos."

"Tattoos?"

River pulls up his sleeve and shows off his own ink. Raises his eyebrows at me like I'm a half-wit.

"I know what tattoos are."

"Congratulations," he replies.

"You're an asshole."

"Never said I wasn't."

We fall silent. Staring at each other. I want to ask him when Javi is going to be back. It's taking too long. And I don't know why it matters, but it just does.

"He draws them," River tells me. "I ink them."

"He has tattoos?"

"You really haven't seen him," he says. "Have you?"

I shake my head. He smiles.

"Won't be long now."

I glare, and he makes a gesture with his hand.

"You can run along now. I'm bored of you."

And so continues the next three days.

River doesn't look at me. Whatever concerns I had in the beginning are long gone now. I know now that he either respects or fears Javi too much

to do anything to me.

We are like ghosts in the house, living together, but not really speaking. Until the seventh day. When even he is on edge, and he comes to the conservatory and finds me reading. He walks around the room, taking in the roses and the books while eating his apple.

Quiet.