“I’ve got to get out of here,” I muttered as I flipped through the hospital TV’s limited selection of channels.

It had been a few days since Lucy and her father had come to visit me, and since then, I’d resided in my own personal hell of boredom punctuated by near-constant poking and prodding. Along with the rib fractures I’d sustained, I had a few severe friction burns all down my back and arms from where I had slid along the asphalt during my crash, which the doctors wanted to monitor in case of an infection. That was something I was certainly not looking forward to, especially since my back couldn’t be bandaged because of the way my ribs had been broken.

Of course, I’d had all of this explained to me about seven different times by seven different people, every one of them dispensing the exact same information over and over again as if they all had copies of the same script. It was enough to drive me up the wall.

Thankfully, today was the day I had been promised that I’d be able to leave, hopefully before Lucy’s father got here to take me back to his home. I knew that if I spent more than a few minutes in that house, I would wind up murdering him. But whenever I asked about my discharge paperwork I was just flashed a patient smile and told that I would have it when the doctor cleared me to leave.

Right. Looked like Delfino had made good on his promise. I was stuck here until I left under his care. This wasn’t a hospital. This was a prison.

Well, fuck that. I might’ve been a criminal, sure—or at least, I ran with some—but I wasn’t about to be held prisoner like one.

I stepped out of my hospital room and walked over to the nurse’s station. With my clothes practically destroyed from being dragged along the asphalt, I was stuck wandering around in a hospital gown and a pair of boxers that had, thankfully, survived the accident. It wasn’t the most flattering of ensembles, but it would do until I could get myself a pair of actual clothes from out of my bag… wherever that had ended up.

Much to my annoyance, however, the nurses seemed to have guessed that I might have been getting antsy about my forms. Two of them intercepted me before I could even make it to the woman sitting at the station, and they promptly tried to corral me back into the room where I’d been stuck for the last few days.

“Mr. Richards, please stay in your room! The doctor will be with you soon enough,” one of the nurses said, doing her best to sound placating.

“You can’t just hold me here against my will!” I said, trying to keep the two women’s hands off of me. “I have rights!” Whatever Delfino’s influence was on this place, it seemed extensive. But that didn’t mean I was going down without a fight.

“Please, Mr. Richards, go back to your room or we’re going to have to sedate you!”

“Excuse me?” I stared at her, eyes wide, before curling my lip into a sneer. “You’re not giving me any kind of sedative. I refuse treatment. I’m not letting you anywhere near me!”

The two nurses glanced at one another nervously before one gave a nod over to her left. I followed her gaze, finding myself staring at a mountain of a man dressed in a security officer’s uniform.

Shit, I thought, clenching my hands into fists, though I knew it would do no good. This really isn’t going to be my day, is it?

All three of them started to close in on me, and I could swear I saw the glint of a needle in one of the nurses’ hands.

I thought that I was done for, and before I knew it, I would be slack-jawed in my room with drool spilling down my chin. Maybe I could at least preserve my man card by taking out the big guy. I’d only have one shot at it, though, before Nurse Ratched over there jammed the Happy Juice into my body.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Richards, but we have our orders,” the nurse with the needle said as she reached for my arm.

“That won’t be necessary, I don’t think,” Delfino’s unmistakable cool tone came from behind the meathead security guard. “You can step away from the young man now.”

“Of course, Father,” one of the nurses whispered as they all took a step back, revealing Delfino’s long, thin stretch of a smile. All teeth, no lips. Like something out of a Stephen King novel.

“The doctor has given me Mr. Richards’ paperwork and he is free to leave with me,” Delfino said, turning his cold gaze on me. “Our car is waiting at the front doors, Leo. We shouldn’t keep Lucy waiting.”

The silence around me was downright eerie, so thick I could barely hear the machines beeping from inside the patients’ rooms. Everyone in our vicinity had stopped what they were doing, their eyes fixed on my stepfather, as if waiting for their next command. It was like Delfino had created some kind of robot army. I entertained that idea for just a second, long enough for a chill to surge up and down my spine.

“You were trying to leave early, I see,” he said. After a slight tilt of his head, the two nurses and security guard returned to their business, practically doing an about-face before they marched away from me. “I told them that you might. You’ve never been one for following orders, not even when it’s for your own good, have you?”

“That crazy bitch almost sedated me!” I scowled. “Was that part of your instructions, too?”

“Mind your tongue,” he muttered as I felt the sharp pain of his fingers digging into my arm. He swept me toward the doors. “I will not tolerate that manner of talk in my presence, Leopold.”

“I told you not to call me that,” I snapped, pulling my arm away and out of his claw-like grasp. I wasn’t some delicate young woman he could grab hold of and hope to hold onto. I had enough biceps that simply flexing would have propelled him away from me. Dude was getting off easy.

“Lucy is waiting in the car,” Delfino said, ignoring my complaint once again.

The old man and I walked the rest of the way downstairs in silence, neither of us giving the other a second glance as we rode down in the elevator. I couldn’t quite get a read on what but something had certainly changed about Delfino since the last time I’d come to Pleasant Lakes. Where he has once been a quiet man who had spoken rather softly, he was now authoritative and commanding, even over people who he shouldn’t have any authority over. Nurses and doctors—hell, even meathead security guards—seemed to cow to his demands. But why?

Outside was his same old ‘57 Chevy that he’d been driving back when I’d first come into town. Lucy was waiting in the backseat, sitting in the same old spot she’d sat in when I’d made the connection between her and Delfino. She was just as beautiful as the day I’d last seen her, her hair all done up in an intricate braid at the back of her head and wearing a white dress that made her seem just like an angel as the afternoon sun streamed in through the windows.

“Get in,” Delfino said flatly as he walked around to the driver’s side door and got in himself. The engine roared to life as I put on my seatbelt beside Lucy, careful to avoid straining my limited range of motion, though she barely seemed at all inclined to even spare me a sideways glance. Had I done something to upset her the other day?

“You will need to understand the rules of our home,” Delfino murmured tersely. “Most of which may come as a hardship for you, given your usual style of living…”

“You really don’t need to take me in,” I tried to protest. “Really, I can just find my own place to stay; maybe that motel near the outside of—”

“No,” he said. And in a way that told me that was the end of the matter.

Any other time, I might have argued. But the way Lucy looked at me from the corner of her eye—it said “don’t.” And so, for her sake, I kept my mouth shut. I figured it was the least I could do.

It was about that time that I began tuning him out. I hated these kinds of rants on what it meant to be a good person, a good follower, and I certainly didn’t want to hear about all the fucking rules he had in his house. Most of them seemed to revolve around obeying his word like it was the goddamn Gospel, though he seemed to have a few things to say about music too, demanding that only a few selections of classical be played in the house—God only knew why.

I felt the gentle touch of Lucy’s fingers running across my hand, drawing my gaze back up to her soft, green eyes. I still remembered the way she’d looked at me as she drew her body against mine, naked flesh like velvet against my own. Her lips had been so hot and pliant, so eager for the kisses that muffled her gasps as I stole her sweet innocence from her. That night had been everything that I’d ever dreamed of, finally having sex with the one woman, the only woman, I’d ever actually loved. It was the best night of my life, and the sudden surge of memories and sensory recall hit me so hard and so fast I had to pull my hand away before I twined our fingers and pulled her into my arms.

I still remembered the agony of leaving her, and it was something I never wanted to live through ever again—or put her through, either. I’d taken more away from Lucy than just her virginity that night, and though her gesture was a comfort to me, I knew she hated me for it.

I hated me for it, too.

My host’s eyes in the rearview mirror confirmed my suspicions that the hatred of Leo Richards was a widespread phenomenon. But if the old man was no big fan of mine, then why all of the hospitality? I knew that there were some evangelicals out there who would open their home to a criminal, but I’d never once heard Delfino say a word about God, or even his faith.

So then what was the motivation? Why was he doing all of this?