The World We Live In | 𝚃. 𝙾𝚃𝚃𝙾 ♤

Chapter 16

"You're mine too." Troy went utterly still at those whispered words and, before he could say a thing felt Cristine's hands slowly skip over his body. Troy almost wanted to flinch when she touched him and reflexively grasped either wrist in her hands. His thoughts began to race a hundred miles per hour. The soft, snappy lull of his mother and his darkness battled in his head for dominance. His mother's warning him to deny and that thing claim Cristine's words as promise. He couldn't choose, so Troy did the second best thing that would make him the one in control again the moment he felt her palms skitter across his shoulders.

Troy locked his hand firmly around her wrists, locking them in. "Don't," he managed in gravely tune when Cristine resisted. He needed to think. This was going all too fast, and Troy needed time to process everything. When Cristine confessed the exact words he roared out to her, everything came to a standstill.

Troy's eyes flitted back and forth between the dark irises, wary of Cristine's actions and words. He felt the sting of her nails dig into his uniform and saw the budding rage of confusion grow on her face. Her eyes and Cristine urged in a hiss, "right now, I'm telling you that I'm not leaving you and that I'm with you. Why isn't that enough?"

"Coop and I need to interrogate him." His face remained unruffled, even as Cristine's clawed her fingers deeper into his vest. A look of disbelief and hurt crossed her face. Then, her expression dropped immediately into a blank slate, and Troy felt the irritating scratch against his heart. Cristine forcefully wrung out of his grip, breathed shakily. She seemed to want to say something, bit her lip hard, and brushed past him brusquely. The anger rolled from her body in waves.

Troy didn't turn to watch Cristine leave, but he clenched his hand when the door slammed shut. Sighing, Troy approached the workbench, but just as he wanted to touch one of the containers, he swiped the items from the surface. The things fell to the ground with a clatter, and he was heaving over the table with equally confused rage that needed to be released, or else he was going to do something he would regret later on.

This wasn't how this was supposed to go. It was not what Troy had in mind or how he wanted any of this to unfold. He didn't understand why things were more challenging and complicated than before he and Cristine became closer?

"Because once you give her what she wants, she'll leave the Ranch. She'll leave you like she did the first time something like this happened." The croaky voice of his ill mother whispered gratingly in the crevices of his mind. Or maybe it was that dark, simmering thing that kept Troy in its clutches since he was a child. Whichever it was, there was a lot of truth to that claim.

This situation was exactly the same when Cristine went on a run with him and his militia. When she fought for her life, got beaten up like hell, and was saved in the nick of time by a streak of luck. Then, she got her retribution. Troy beat Willy's ass on her behalf, vouched for her with his father, and then left not shortly after what he did for her. Even with his and Cristine's relationship at a completely different stage, Troy couldn't be sure the exact same thing would happen because he saw so many similarities right now. He was protecting Cristine, and it was frustrating she couldn't see that. Troy moved his tense jaw; the pressure on his gums and teeth was strong enough to hurt. If there was an inkling of truth to his suspicions, Troy had to correct that. He nearly severed his connection with Cristine more than once, and Troy wouldn't risk entering a situation where he couldn't control the results to his benefit.

For that, Troy needed a clear mind to put everything in perspective and decide his best course of action to make sure this wasn't going to be a repeat. Troy needed to vent. His dark blue gaze flicked to the back of the shut room where they'd imprisoned Vince. Luckily for him, there was one last person he personally needed to see suffering. Silently, Troy walked towards the fallen drugs, bend down, and gathered the items in his hand, and waited for Cooper.

-

Hailey was on her way back to the reception area with Nick. The two were conversing in leisure after scraping through the last few offices. It wasn't much, but Nick had bumped into the younger medic, who was clearly angry about something. Nick didn't pry and just offered to scavenge to keep their mind off of things. They would stay for the night anyway, but no one could rest with the interrogation still going on and the last few dead trickling from the campus ground. The two stopped in their track when they heard several things fall. The disgruntled cuss that followed after was sharp and intense. The frustration that clung around the person was visible from miles away. The two stared at Cristine reorganizing the supplies into the containers. She wasn't delicate with storing the items either. Hailey looked at Nick, who gave her a quizzical shrug, and the two decided to approach her.

"You need help with that?" Nick asked and set the items between his arm on top of the reception counter. The line of irritation in Cristine's eyes was hot, but Nick didn't take it to heart. She was annoyed with something else, and he guessed it must've been Troy like it usually was. It was no secret the two were like water and oil. Nick didn't wait for the older woman to answer and went through his hunches to help. "We swiped most of the place clean... some rooms were locked, for a good reason, but we're ready to move these to the laboratory building." While Nick gave her a brief explanation, he noticed that Cristine was distracted and listened with half an ear.

He glanced at his other friend standing near the counter. Hailey was watching her sister like she didn't know what to say or do. Sibling fights weren't any fun, which only siblings could mend and not a stranger. But Nick could give a right nudge, "I'm going to get some of the guys to help carry these." Big blue eyes darted at him, and Nick, not so subtlety, jerked his head at her sister. He mouthed something along the lines of, "go talk." When he got to his feet, and he patted Hailey on the shoulder and left.

Cursing Nick's nosiness, Hailey sighed gently before rubbing her hands on her pants and went through her knees to help sort the last supplies. It was quiet, and just the sound of rattling and items got stowed away was audible. Biting on her lip, Hailey brushed her hair behind her ear and scratched her throat. She wanted to at least start this conversation as casually as possible, "Nick told me that questioning is progressing... we have a lead."

Cristine grunted her answer, "yeah, details of a hideout. It might solve our water issue." Cristine answered curtly, signaling she wasn't in that much of a mood for a conversation. "We're planning to check it out tomorrow morning."

"That's good." Hailey handed Cristine the toolbox and peeked from the corner of her eyes. "How are things going with Aaron?"

Cristine shrugged, but her blunt answer shocked Hailey, "I don't know exactly, but Troy predictably lost his temper and beat him so bad he knocked him out cold. So now Cooper and Troy are going to question Vince."

"Oh." Hailey didn't know what to say to that, so she decided to listen.

The rest of Cristine's answers were callous and casual, "so far, I think Blake made the most progress. Her brows furrowed together. She pushed her tongue against the sides of her teeth and remarked, "your suggestion for Vince was sharp. I think he'll talk once they start." Cristine looked at Hailey and saw her younger sister flinch when those big blue eyes peered straight back at her. "Don't worry about it; they'd have figured it out sooner or later that he's an addict. It's what Troy and the militia do when they process people."

"You mean when they were doing experiments?" Cristine never outright said anything about it, but there were rumors. Then, Mike explained it vaguely to her, and she got the blunt truth from Nick and Alicia. Their militia killed many people under Troy's orders and labeled it as science to protect the Ranch. They almost killed Nick's girlfriend, and stepfather too. Hailey didn't know how to feel about that, but she didn't feel guilt or remorse for suggesting her discovery to Troy today. She felt terrible for one reason. Hailey offered something so specific because Nick had shown her the scarring on his arm. He admitted that he was an addict and told her bits and pieces of his life back in Los Angeles. Hailey recognized them on Vince. In a way, she was relieved Cristine caught her. It was difficult to look her friend in the eye, knowing she used something like that for this purpose.

"Yeah," Cristine answered absently. "but don't let it bother you. I'm a hypocrite, and you were right to call me out on that. It's dangerous to keep babying you when everything's all... messed up."

Hailey frowned and asked, "Cristine, are you okay?"

"I don't know, it's Tr-" Cristine didn't finish her sentence, shook her head, and said, "forget it."

"You know, I did notice that after the Nation, the two of you were on the same wavelength and argued a lot less. Like by a lot, even the guys were surprised by it." Hailey almost missed the flaring flash of hot anger twitching across Cristine's face and had words on the tip of her tongue but decided against the last moment to retort. It was a reaction she hadn't witnessed from her sister in a while regarding Troy. The two of them had started off on the wrong foot the day the militia found her sister in the desert and brought her back to the Ranch.

The swift shifting in Cristine's facial expression was more substantial than any verbal comment, and Hailey pried, "is it that bad?"

"Troy's in over his head," Cristine spat angrily. "He clearly beat Aaron unconscious because that asshole was running his mouth on purpose and to stall. He has nothing to left to live for. He knows it, and so does Troy and everyone else."

"I don't get it," Hailey said.

"Troy literally just laid out to me in detail how he is going to torture these guys but doesn't want me involved. He knows Aaron is only going to talk when I'm present, and he doesn't want that."