Blood

Twenty Six

Faye

I stared at the door as Daisy left. The small glimmer of hope that I had with her here vanished as the door closed behind her.

I liked Daisy. I felt like I could relate to her. I knew with her in the room I would have someone else on my side.

But I had to let her go.

She needed to find Eli. He needed her more than I did.

My heart was pounding in my chest, I was certain that Finley could hear it in the now silent room. I felt trapped, suffocated.

I needed to get out.

The cuffs around my wrists clinked as I adjusted my position. I wanted to scream as I stared at them, begging that I would see a weakness in them, but Finley knew me and in this moment I hated him for it. The cool metal was digging into my skin, I could feel my fingers tingling as my circulation was being cut off. He had purposely secured them tightly, knowing that with even the slightest of gap I would easily get out of them.

I didn't want to look at him. I wanted to be angry. I wanted to hate him fiercely, but I couldn't, not when I knew that he was only doing this because he wanted to protect me. Even though I disagreed with him, I knew he only had the best intentions.

But he knew how I would feel by doing this. He knew what my freedom meant to me. And he didn't care, not if he thought I was safe.

He sounded like he was in physical pain when he said my name. My heart broke and I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and looked to him. "Faye, please, you know I don't want this-"

"I can't guarantee that I want this even less than you, Finley," I said softly.

"God, Faye, I know. I-"

"There's nothing you can say that will change how I'm feeling right now," I said. I wiggled my fingers and winced from the tightness of the cuffs. "What are you going to do? Keep me locked up until I'm safe?"

He hesitated and I titled my head, giving him a disbelieving look.

"Sweet," I sighed, "I will never be safe. Never. Not with Julian looking for me. I've accepted that and I'm living with it. You need to accept it as well. You need to trust me. I can't hide for the rest of my life, that's not living."

"I do trust you, Faye," Finley snapped. "It's him I don't trust."

"Trust me to stay off of his radar. Do you think I want him finding me? You know how much I hated that life. You know I want nothing more than to stay away from it. Do you think I ever plan on him finding me?"

"Of course not," Finley sighed. "But I'm not risking it."

"You're risking me," I said. I raised my hands. "By doing this. Finley, please."

"We'll sleep on it. You need time after last night. You'll stay here for today. We'll reassess this tomorrow."

"Finley." My voice was firm. "I do not need to sleep on anything. You do not get to tell me what I need to do. This doesn't need reassessing. You're going to uncuff me and I'm going to get back to work."

Finley shook his head. I knew by the firm set of his lips and his furrowed eyebrows that he was not going to budge. "No."

I let out a slow breath, anger searing inside me but I pushed it down. I couldn't let it control me. "Don't do this," I pleaded.

"You'll go to my quarters," Veronica spoke up. She was watching the two of us with a frown. In that moment she looked so much like Finley, even though they weren't biologically related. "And like my son said, we'll readdress this tomorrow, Faye. You know it's the wise choice."