Free Jekyll, an Urban Fantasy by Lauren Stewart Page B

she blurted. “A cage?”
    Both men flinched at her outburst. Carter shook his head, his eyes wide, while Justin looked at her like she was stupid.
    “What?” he asked.
    “Do they put you in a cage? When your Hyde comes out. Where do they put you?”
    He glanced at Carter, confused. “Why would they put me in a cage?”
    “He doesn’t know?” she asked Carter, her breath shallow. When he put a hand on Justin’s shoulder, she wanted to smack it off, feeling an immediate protective desire to keep every asshole away from him. But Justin didn’t cringe or grimace. He wasn’t afraid. In fact, the look he gave Carter was more like one of friendship, trust. The poor, deluded kid. If he only knew what she did. Not that she actually knew all that frigging much.
    “She’s never been here before,” Carter said, “so she doesn’t know how it works.”
    “Oh,” Justin said. “I go to sleep in a bed. They even give me a pillow,” he said, his eyes flashing wide as if it was a joke, smiling as if it was completely normal. “Once I’m asleep, they strap me up. Or so they tell me. And in the morning, I wake up. No straps. Ta-da!” He shook his hands, exposing wrists without scars or scrapes.
    “And that holds you back? You don’t break out or anything?”
    A shadow crossed his face, and he glanced at Carter who nodded. Was the nod giving him permission to talk about it, or encouragement to admit something he didn’t want to talk about?
    “They tell me it might get harder,” Justin said. “That the straps will get bigger as I get older, and he gets more powerful. But hopefully, they’ll figure something out before that ever happens.”
    “Can you really leave if you want to?”
    “Yeah, but I don’t very much. All my stuff’s here. They do force me to go to school though, and that sucks.”
    “You go to school? Like, a regular school?”
    “Unfortunately,” he muttered.
    “Tell her about your life before you got here, Justin.”
    He gave Carter another look that matched the last. “Do I have to?”
    “She’s not here to judge. She’ll understand. Eden and I grew up in a group home together.”
    She glared at him. “Don’t say another word about that.” He was no longer allowed to speak of her past. Or her present, or future, or use any word that would put them in the same thought.
    He took one step backwards, his hands up submissively. “Okay. I’ll wait outside. To prove to you that there’s no coercion here. No one is out to get you, Eden. Not here.”
    Not here? What the hell did that mean? She subdued the impulse to snap at him, demand he tell her what he’d meant. All she’d be asking for was another lie. She’d get more truth by interrogating the minor. Because by the time someone becomes an adult, they know how to lie and lie well . Eighteen—the legal age for impenetrable deceit.
    “So, you think this is all some kind of plot to mess with you?” Justin asked.
    “Something like that,” she said distractedly as she watched Carter walk outside, closing the door tightly behind him.
    Justin flopped back on his bed, junk bouncing around as he landed.
    She sat down in the chair he’d swept off earlier, feeling more at ease than she had since she’d woken up. With only the two of them in the room, even the air was different. An intangible force binding them, as if they already knew each other. Similar to—but not nearly as powerful as—the attraction she felt towards Mitch. Thankfully, the force wasn’t sexual. Because Justin was way too young for her and way too not-Mitch for her. Was that their power? Their Abnormalness being drawn to each other? Or was it Chastity’s inability to be within twenty feet of testosterone without chucking more wood on the fire?
    “Okay. So here’s the low-down,” Justin said, seemingly unaware of whatever was happening between them. “My mom used to think I just had ‘anger issues’, and then she decided I was insane. So when The Clinic found me,