𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂 ❶

𝟔𝟑. ✭ 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐈 ✭

Nervous. I feel a whole lot of nervousness and a whole lot of something else that I just can't place my finger on, it's simmering in the pit of my stomach uneasily, whispering loudly and softly at the same time. I had never thought motherly instinct would ever be a thing for me because I had given my child away when he was first born. Instinct was an undeniable certainty now as I watch Torey walking around the living-room-type-of-area with our son.

I quell the urge to jump out of my seat and rip the miniature version of Torey out of his arms. Yes, they're large and strong, they know how to inflict malice, but he doesn't seem to be on the same wavelength as me. He thinks the man currently sitting in front of me is trustworthy but there's a nagging feeling inside of me that would severely beg to differ. Something just seems off.

"So Daniela, from what Torey has told me, you've had a rough go of it recently." His tone matter-of-fact.

You could say that again...

I shrug my shoulders, seemingly unbothered by his question. His eyes scan over me in a way that has me swallowing down the feeling of discomfort that'd slowly began to crawl its' way up my throat, just from that flicker of his gaze. It reminds me of all the times I had been reading novels to escape my seemingly never-ending depression and the protagonist said they'd choked on or had to rid themselves of the bile in their throat. But this isn't a romance novel. No, this isn't a fantasy fiction. This is my life. What a shit show it's become in the last few months. Well, if I'm completely honest with myself, I've pretty much been a shit show since I left New York. The only good thing that came out of this entire situation is Brooks.

Brooks...

Images of him lying next to me enter my mind; his soft blond locks and big brown eyes, that sweet smile he gifted to me every morning. If he was here I know he'd feel the same way, sense whatever it is that I'm sensing. Brooks has an affinity for reading a situation, people as well. It is his sixth sense, reading between the lines, knowing what is going to happen before it does and knowing what people are thinking or feeling before they say it. It's a large reason that he's so good with Torey because, let's be real, no one is good with Torey. He's impossible at the best of times.

My mind takes me to the night the three of us spent together. There are parts of my body that are still sore from the experience the three of us shared. Something about being completely used by the two of them had left me hungry for more.

Delicious visuals dance through my mind...

"Dani?" I blink a few times before my eyes land on Torey's massive form standing beside me. He's looking at me expectantly, like I'd been asked a question. By the expression on his face I'd say I definitely had. "Where'd you go there?"

Lost in thoughts of you and another man. A man that should one-hundred percent be here. I can't say that though.

"Oh, uh," my eyes dance quickly to the agent seated across from me then back to Torey. I shrug again not really wanting to give away my answer but also because I didn't know it entirely.

"Do you do that often?" I quirk a brow at the agent across from me in question. "Disassociate. Do you tend to do that often?"

"It's just been a little trying here recently." I fidget with my hands. "That's all." I watch him jot down a couple of notes on a pad of paper I hadn't even seen him pull out.

"When people disassociate it's often because of trauma. As you've said, you've had a trying time recently. I'd venture to say you experienced quite a bit before that."

"Oh." The word barely made it out of my mouth before the visuals of said trauma started playing in my brain.

I look away from him and over to Torey thinking about what I now know he's capable of. I think back to brain matter splattering into my mouth from him shooting someone in the back of the head. The blood that'd been covering him the first night I'd walked in on him doing whatever he was doing with my father; torturing and butchering a man for information. It's hard to believe the man currently cooing and walking around with a small baby could do all of those heinous things.