Chapter 32 Asylum #2
Theo’s hand paused over his nose and mouth, and he eyed Lucas as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was dealing with. He shook his head and sat. I plopped into a chair when Theo motioned us to sit, but Lucas perched ramrod straight at the edge of his, hands resting on his knees.
“What do you want from me?” Theo asked.
Lucas shrugged one shoulder. “Ask her. I’m only throwing myself on your mercy because it’s the best way to keep her safe.”
Theo hummed. “Your motives, at least, speak well for you.”
Lucas said nothing, but his potent desire to roll his eyes practically washed over me.
“I want to know the whole story. I’ve known this girl from the day she was born, and I’ve never seen her care about anything the way she cares about you.” He paused. “You. A chauvinist with a penchant for killing anyone different than you.”
My mouth fell open. “Theo!”
Unapologetic, Theo crossed his arms while Lucas set his faint smirk in place, reminding me of the killer I’d met on day one. He stared at Theo a moment, then turned to me with danger glinting in his eyes. “How much would you like me to tell him?”
“Tell him everything.”
So he did. Lucas told the entire story—starting with what happened to his sister—from his point of view, and it was…
eye-opening. He thought I’d lied about my name, that I used his sister’s name to get in his head.
He kept waiting for me to turn on him and analyzed every facet of our relationship until he fell in love.
Then he stopped caring about my motives. Instead, he just wanted me to live.
His voice was atonal; his expression flat.
Hopeless and in love. That’s what he was.
The story unfolded, and Theo’s posture unwound. He had to snap his mouth shut when Lucas finished.
A needle of hope unknotted the icy fear in my chest. “I told you.”
“I can’t believe this.” He leveled a stare at Lucas. “I’ll have to discuss this with Williams. I don’t know what she’ll think.”
“She’ll think I’m a moron and he should die,” I muttered.
Theo did not disagree. “I assume you’re carrying weapons?”
“You assume correctly,” Lucas said.
“You’ll need to surrender them.”
Lucas nodded.
“I’ll have to place you under arrest.”
I shot to my feet. “Theo—”
He raised a hand. “He is a colonel in the NSF, Sophia. He cannot roam free in Defiance headquarters. Not only is it against every rule and regulation within the Articles of the Defiance, but it’s also for his safety. He wouldn’t last the night, and that would put you in direct danger.”
“I don’t care—”
“I do!” both men snapped, and I wanted to growl at them.
Lucas stood and began removing the weapons from beneath his clothes. Theo’s jaw clenched, but he came around the desk and took me into a gentle hug, putting no pressure on my back. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”
I hugged him back, burying my face in his chest. The faint scent of coffee clung to his shirt along with the familiarity of Theo, and I breathed in deep, relief squeezing out tears.
“Please don’t hurt him,” I whispered.
Theo sighed. After a moment, he murmured a soft, “Thank you.”
I thought he was speaking to me until Lucas responded. “I didn’t do it for you.”
“Yes, well, you aren’t the only one who loves her.”
“You do a shitty job of showing it.”
Theo released me, brown eyes boring into Lucas like knives. “Anything you want to say before I call in the guard?”
Lucas glanced between me and Theo, eventually deciding on the latter. “Don’t let her be alone. She’ll need someone, even if she says she doesn’t. And a doctor needs to look at her back as soon as possible.”
For the millionth time, tears flooded my eyes. He was about to be imprisoned, and still, all he cared about was me.
How had I earned this place in his life? This pedestal?
His gaze dropped to me. “No matter what happens, you’re going to be okay. Do you hear me?”
Salt dripped down my face. “You said you’d stay with me.”
“I will,” he said, wiping my cheeks again. “Until I die.”
I’d known this was coming, and yet I still hadn’t believed it. When Theo called in the guards, panic took hold, but I tried to stave it off.
The two men froze in the threshold when they found Lucas. Their hands flew to their weapons.
“There’s no need for that,” Theo told them. “Colonel Scott is turning himself in. He will go peacefully.”
Hesitantly, one man pulled out flex cuffs from his pocket.
He approached Lucas as one would advance on a feral dog, but Lucas submitted to the zip ties without resistance.
As soon as his hands were bound, my mind filled with images of him being marched to the gallows, and I lost it.
I leapt at the guard. “No!” I screamed. “Take them off!”
Expecting it, Theo was quick to restrain me. “You can’t!”
“Sophia,” Lucas said, voice calm. “Look at me.”
I met his steady gaze.
“Tall trees. Warm rain. Smell of cypress.” His brows rose. “Picture it.”
Wrestling from Theo’s grasp, I threw my arms around Lucas’s neck. I kissed him hard, in full view of all three men. The guards would probably spread this story through headquarters before I even fell asleep that night, but I didn’t care.
Lucas’s hands were bound in Defiance fetters, and I had no faith he’d ever be free of them.
“You promised,” he whispered when I pulled back from the kiss. “You promised you’d let them take me. You promised you’d stay safe.”
“I lied,” I said with a sob.
“Sophia,” Theo said with his stern general voice. “Let him go.”
My hands obeyed even though I didn’t want them to.
“Take him to the stockade,” Theo said. “Back entrance. Private cell. Don’t let anyone see you if you can help it. And his presence here is classified, soldiers. Do you understand?”
The soldiers nodded. “Yes, sir, General.”
Tears flowed as I watched Lucas be taken from Theo’s office, his gaze on mine until the last second. When he was gone, I crumpled to my knees.
“I’m going to call for Dr. Akbari,” Theo said, though the words echoed from far away.
Lucas had been right all along. I was so sure that Theo would honor the exoneration, but did I really expect that Lucas would be allowed to walk freely amongst us?
“This is what is safest,” Theo’s voice murmured from somewhere above me. “Please trust me, Sophia.”
But I trusted nothing.
Not even myself.