It made sense, but I’d never gotten to cook a day in my life, so I wouldn’t really know that strawberries didn’t stay on top of the muffin if you just dropped them in while they were still batter.
I broke off a piece of the muffin and hesitantly took a bite, pausing slightly once the morsel hit my tongue.
“Good,” I said softly.
That was a lie.
It was beyond good.
Exquisite, honestly.
I broke off another piece and handed it to him.
He took it and threw it into his mouth as if he hadn’t just gotten a piece of food given to him by someone who was practically a murderer.
Though, maybe he didn’t know why I was in here.
Maybe he was never told.
But I highly doubted that. Liner was pretty hot. The nurses wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from telling him why a patient was in here.
And a few of them were catty bitches who hated me—I was apparently a problem patient—so they wouldn’t waste a second telling Liner what kind of person I was. Or was supposed to be.
Whatever.
“Actually,” Liner said as he licked his fingers. “It was really good. If they have any left after I leave here, I’m getting another one.”
I smiled and felt a pang of sadness hit me. I wanted another one already.
I also wanted to be able to leave.
I’d been out of this place twice and twice only over the last five years.
Once when Tara needed me to be her for a couple of hours, playing the ‘doting mother’ and once more when I went to Matias’, Tara’s son’s, funeral.
Both times were godawful.
Both times I’d contemplated running away and never looking back.
Both times I’d dutifully returned to my cage, all because I couldn’t take the chance that by leaving, my daughter would be left unprotected.
At least this way, if I stayed in my cage, I knew that no harm would come to Linnie. I knew that my family would leave her alone.
Because, as long as I was at their beck and call, she was safe.
That’d been what they said, anyway.
I was never really one to take them at their word, though. So I’d made sure of it in other ways.
One, Tyson protected her.
Two, I would protect her until my dying breath.
Three, I had a ticking time bomb. If they fucked up, the entire world would know about their true colors in about two seconds flat.
“You’re quiet today,” Liner said. “You were much chattier yesterday.
I made a humming sound in the back of my throat as I took another bite of the muffin, this one straight off the muffin itself.
It smelled divine and tasted even better.
I couldn’t help but groan.
“I need a glass of milk now,” Liner said. “Do you think they have any here?”
I snorted. “Getting anything here when you want it is a joke. You’d have more luck walking back over to the bakery than you would getting anything from the staff.” I paused and looked at him. “Though, saying that, you might get what you want based solely on your good looks.”
He grinned. “My good looks?”
I shot him a look that clearly said I thought he was stupid, causing him to laugh.
“If you say so, darlin’,” he teased, then sobered. “Do you like it here?”
I thought about that.
Did I like it here?
I liked it better than living at my father’s house where he, as well as my siblings, were free to torture me. Which was how I’d spent my entire life up until this point. But, saying that, I didn’t like it here, either.
“I don’t belong here,” I found myself saying.
He frowned, about to ask me in more detail what I meant, but then a commotion had us both turning to see a combative patient screaming at the top of his lungs that he wanted his mommy.
“That’s interesting,” the man beside me said.
I sighed and started to stand up, causing Liner to help me up to my feet.
His strong hands caused little tiny bolts of lightning to shoot down my arms where his hands connected with mine.
The rest of my strawberry muffin fell to the ground, forgotten, as we stared into each other’s eyes.
But before he could say another word, an angry voice interrupted the moment. “Time to go, Ms. Threadgill.”
The worst nurse of them all, Nurse Patty, glared at me.
I sighed and stepped back, feeling how weak my legs were. “Yes, ma’am.”
Liner frowned and looked like he was about to argue, but I held my hand up to stop him. “It’s okay. It’s protocol for all patients to go to their rooms if one turns into that.” I motioned with my hand to the man that was still struggling. It was taking four nurses and two orderlies to hold him down. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
He looked up at the sky that looked a little darker gray than it had a second ago, and frowned. “I don’t know…maybe.”