My Everything, page 23
A push to my back made me stumble forward. And as the man shoved me through the door, and slammed it shut, I didn’t try to fight.
“Why are you doing this?” I whispered as Johnny, too, was pushed inside. “What do you want with us?”
The guy gave me a once-over before turning two dark eyes on Johnny. “Why do I recognize you?”
Johnny scoffed, and I got the feeling he wasn’t the type who’d use his star status as leverage, even if he could.
“Where’s Marc?” he asked instead. “What did you do to him?”
The guy shot him an annoyed look, then they both turned to leave. Their footsteps disappeared up the stairs, and my hope sunk with each fading step.
We both paced the cell like caged animals, dripping water on the stone floor. Johnny didn’t speak, and from the hard look on his chiseled face, I didn’t dare to break the silence. He must be hating me so much right now, and he had every right.
My thoughts were with Marc, and even though I clung to the hope that this was a just a big misunderstanding, I couldn’t help but picture him locked up in a place just like this, or worse. They had no use for him. He was nothing but a nuisance. Someone to get rid of before he brought on more trouble. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill him, and if it stood between that and torture, I hoped for the former. At least he wouldn’t hurt any longer.
I stopped pacing and squeezed my eyes shut as the images tormented me. Taking some sick comfort in the pain, I let it rage, filling my head with nightmares. If Marc had to go through it, it was only fair I did, too. Stumbling over to the wall, I leaned my forehead against it, letting the cold stone soothe my clammy skin.
I stood like that when footsteps came back down the stairs. Jerking upright, I spun around so fast I almost stumbled and fell.
A man came strolling down the stairs. Dominic. Something in my head whispered. I never saw him. But I didn’t need to. The power he radiated was smoldering. The way his eyes roamed over us made me wish to melt into the wall. His gaze was hard. Cold. Dead. I gulped. He had the same Hispanic features and Mr. X and Alex. Raven-black hair and eyes, and skin that looked like he spent months soaking up the sun. But instead of wearing a suit, as I expected, he was casually dressed in dark sweatpants and a black tank top that showed off muscular arms, covered in tattoos—and sweat.
My eyes flickered over the length of his strong body with one realization clear in my head. He was not one of the men in the car. And why was I surprised? He had people for that. For the dirty work. While he… what? Sweated it out in a gym?
He crossed the floor in a few long strides, stopping outside the bars. Then he unlocked the door, walking straight over to me. “Sorry about the rough welcome.” He spun me around, and soon my hands were free, and the cuffs dangled in his tattooed hands. I read the letters on his knuckles.
F.u.c.k.
H.o.p.e.
How encouraging.
“You and your friends are free to go.” He moved over to Johnny, setting him free as well. “But,” he continued, flashing a white smile that looked more predatory than friendly. “You’re welcome to stay. You’ll be stay safe as long as you remain my property.”
Did he forget an on in that sentence? Or was that what we were? Property. I shuddered under his harsh stare.
“Yeah, fuck you,” Johnny snapped, no doubt picking up on the word as well. He brushed past him and toward the stairs. One of Dominic’s hands shot out, abruptly pulling Johnny to a halt. Before I could scream, Dominic had a gun pressed to Johnny’s throat.
“Say that again,” he hissed.
“Wait!” I called out, moving toward them while keeping my eyes on the gun.
“He didn’t mean it,” I breathed. Pinning Johnny with a sharp look, I added, “Let’s hear him out.” My eyes darted to Dominic. “Let him go. Please.”
He chuckled, but nodded, holstering the gun, and stepped away. “We don’t trust anyone,” he explained. “Had to make sure you’re legit.”
“By kidnapping and hurting us?” I couldn't help but ask. “What makes you better than Mr. X?”
Dominic let out a cold laugh. “I’m not taking a risk letting strangers into my home without a background check. Especially who claim they come from my brother.” His voice dripped poison, and the way his features darkened at the mention of Mr. X fed the little hope I clung to. Alex was right. He hated his brother with a passion. I heard it in his voice. Saw it in his eyes. We had a chance.
“Where’s Marc?” Johnny demanded. “The fuck did you do to him?”
“He’s fine. Getting fixed up as we speak.” He must have seen the doubt on my face, because he added, “Listen, I didn’t know he was injured. If I knew, I would have had my people handle things differently.”
I doubted it. He didn’t look like someone who knew the meaning of the word gentle. Let alone how to treat someone like a human being.
“What do you mean, fixed up?” My distrust made him chuckle and clarify.
“We have our own doctor with us. My twin sister, to be exact. Your friend is in good hands.” He looked us over and added, “You all are. Enemies of my brother is friends of ours.”
If I got a penny for every time I woke up in a strange place and didn’t know where I was, I’d be fucking rich. I looked up at a dark vaulted stone ceiling and tried to focus. My mind was fuzzy, like I woke from a deep sleep. I couldn’t have, though. I never slept like that. I heard every sound, if someone breathed in the room, I heard it. The sensitivity never went away after Julie, and it was both a blessing and a curse. It was like my mind never wanted me to miss a chance, ever again, but it did the opposite. The lack of proper sleep, and constantly being on edge, destroyed me in so many ways.
“Welcome back, querido.” A woman’s face appeared above me. Dark hair that looked almost blue in the strange cold light was pulled into a knot on the top of her head, and her eyes were just as big and dark as Johnny’s. She wore a long-sleeved nurse’s coat above something tight and black, and a smile adorned red lips.
“Where am I?” My voice was just a rasp, and the moment I spoke, my throat began to itch. I swallowed that uncomfortable dry sensation and tried to focus. Given the odd stone structure of the room, this was not the typical hospital. But the medical equipment and machines lined up against the wall said something different. So did the bed I lay in.
My body was heavy. My senses light and floating. And there was no pain, not even a twinge. I couldn’t move my arm. As I thought of it, I couldn’t feel my body. An uneasy feeling spread within me. “What did you give me?”
She smiled a sweet smile that made my insides crawl. “Don’t worry about that.”
I scoffed. Fucking easy for her to say. She wasn’t the one waking up paralyzed. I tried again, willing my body to obey, to fucking move, even a twitch. But nothing. An angry beeping somewhere behind me only increased the growing dread. I was hooked up to something. The sudden beeps matched my speeding heart, leaving no doubt what she was monitoring.
“I need you to calm down,” she said.
My head cleared with the burst of adrenaline, and Kaylie’s face flashed through my mind. With her, the rest came back. The men approaching. The blinding headlights. The handcuffs, the twisting my fucking shoulder into nothingness. After that, everything was black.
The uneasy feeling turned to cold dread. I was back there. This time with no means to escape. I couldn’t even move to kill a fly, let alone fight my way out of this place. What were they planning to do to me? I was alive. And I dreaded it. It spoke of nothing good.
“What did you do?” I hissed. “Where’s Kaylie? Johnny?”
“Calm down,” the girl repeated. “Or I’ll have to put you under.”
Fuck. Breathe. Sucking in one ragged breath after the other, I tried to still my racing pulse. This wasn’t me. I never fucking panicked. I was trained to handle situations worse than this. It was my fucking job.
PTSD. Something in me whispered. You’re fucking screwed.
“If you hurt them, I swear I’ll kill you.”
She grinned. “Good luck with that, honey.”
I locked my eyes on her face, channeling all the anger and hate into my stare. If it could kill her, she would have dropped dead long ago. She didn’t flinch, and for some reason, it only fueled my anger.
Footsteps approached, forcing me to tear my gaze off the woman and roll my head around to see a man enter from a low arched doorway. He had to duck to fit through before rising to his full height again. He reminded me a lot of the crazy bitch who kept me trapped in this bed. The same dark hair and eyes. The same tanned skin. The same fucking cold smile on full lips.
“Did you fix him?” he asked, shooting me a look that made me grit my teeth. Oh, she fixed me all right. She fucking fixed me. I was helpless. Numb. I almost laughed at the irony. Wasn’t it what I wanted? To be free of the goddamn pain. To catch a break.
“Fixed,” she confirmed with a grin. She looked at me with those black doe-eyes, adding with a wink. “Now I don’t know what to do with him.”
The man chuckled, and all I could do was glare at her. What she wanted to do was not so fucking hard to figure out. Not with the way she eyed me. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded. She was beautiful, wickedly so. But I couldn’t look at anyone and not see Kaylie. She ruined it. Ruined me. And I didn’t want to go back.
“He’s not a stray, Izzy.” The man said, “This one’s claimed.”
I couldn’t hold back a scoff. What was I? Some fucking dog? I did like the sound of claimed, though, even if it fucking terrified me, too. I was hers.
“Release him. He’s free to go.”
She pouted those red lips in regret, then they broke into a grin as she returned her focus to me. “Sorry for the scare.” She patted my thigh, and I tried not to panic as I saw her hand land on me, but the pressure never followed. She moved around the bed, and I heard her nails tap on a screen. Then she appeared in my line of vision again. “Be careful with that shoulder,” she said. “My dear brother did quite some damage.” She shot the man a look, and he sighed, addressing me.
“You could have told me you were hurt.”
“Would you have listened?” I muttered.
He chuckled. “Probably not.”
“Dom never listens to anyone.” The woman, Izzy, said with a grin. “But hey, now when I know you’re not the enemy…” she paused, eyeing me up and down before settling on my face again. “I don’t need to kill you.”
I scoffed. How comforting.
“As I told your friends, I couldn’t take any chances. You, of all people, should understand the importance of security.” The man, Dominic, obviously, said.
I eyed him, finally having a face to the name. He looked… younger than what I imaged from a brother of Mr. X. But he looked just as cruel.
I didn’t bother to ask how he seemed to know everything about me. It wasn’t relevant. “Are they safe?”
“Yes, of course.”
His words did nothing to ease the worry. They could be dead for all I knew, and these people could say anything they pleased. Unless I saw for myself—
My thoughts abruptly cut off as two figures appeared in the door.
“Marc!” Kaylie crossed the room in a flash. “I thought the worst.” Her hands were on me, stroking my face before leaning down to kiss me. She straightened just as fast, and I stared up at her, wanting more. Needing more. I fucking craved her mouth on mine. The sweet sample was not enough.
A grin played on those delicious lips. Did she know what I was thinking?
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”
“So am I, in case you’re wondering,” Johnny muttered from behind her, and my eyes swept to him.
Dominic spoke up, gesturing toward me with a jerk of his head. “Iz, release him, for fuck’s sake.” He turned to Kaylie and Johnny. “I want you all gathered at the circle in an hour.” Darting his eyes back to Izzy, he added, “Can he make it?”
She patted my leg, nodding. “He’ll be as good as new.”
*
The feeling came back, and it wasn’t until she removed the needles strapped to my arms and allowed me to sit that I truly started to accept it. Those people were no threat. If they were, they’d had plenty of time to eliminate us. Me, especially.
“Be still,” Izzy demanded.
I groaned. It was fucking easier said than done when she moved around me, adjusting the slinged arm to the right position before securing it against my stomach.
“How did you even get here?” she asked, and I couldn’t help but catch the admiration in her voice. “From the way you were patched up, you were in the ER. Did you escape?”
“Of course, I fucking escaped. Those bastards would have killed me if I stayed.”
She laughed, shrugging as if it was nothing new. “You’re a fighter, aren’t you?” She adjusted the sling, then stepped back to admire her work. Or me…
“I don’t think Kaylie will appreciate those dirty looks,” I muttered, and she grinned.
“Sorry, but you’re eye candy.”
I huffed, and she stepped aside. “You’re free to go.”
I stood, trying to pretend the room didn’t sway and spin around me, and that my legs didn’t feel like uncoordinated logs. I gulped. I could do this. I had no fucking choice.
“It’s normal to feel strange. You’ve been heavily medicated. Hell, you still are. If I were a normal doctor, I’d not let you out of this bed.” She grinned, adding, “Lucky for you, I’m not. And you’re needed upstairs.”
“Fucking perfect,” I muttered, and she laughed.
“Don’t take this the wrong way.” She wrapped an arm around my waist to steady me as we walked. “But you look like you need it.”
I couldn’t deny it, but I’d never admit it either. She guided me through the brightly lit medical room and down a dark corridor until a flight of tall stone steps appeared ahead of us. I groaned, already knowing climbing them would be hell.
“Come on, tough guy,” she urged me on. “If you can survive these last weeks, you can do this.”
I shot her a dark look, and she winked.
“If you weren’t already taken…”
I scoffed at her suggestion.
“All the sexy guys are either taken, or gay,” she went on. “You don’t happen to have a brother, or some other Hollywood hunk following you around?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. She already met Johnny. Of course, she did. She wouldn’t have missed the opportunity. Too bad for her he was no longer single, or she could have had her fun.
Those days were gone, for both me and Johnny, and I was fucking glad.
“I don’t,” I mumbled, needing to save my energy to make it up the stairs without stumbling and falling back down.
“How long until I feel normal?” I asked, and the playful grin on her face vanished. She stopped as we reached the top, and I tried not to show how out of breath I was. But she knew, and she waited until I caught my breath enough to focus on her words.
“You want the sugarcoated version, or the cold hard truth?”
“Just fucking say it.”
“The cold hard truth it is then.” She stepped away from me, lifting her dark eyes to mine, and the sudden sadness on her face made something in me clench.
“You’ll never be normal,” she said, and even though I somehow sensed it, the words stung. I clenched my jaw, refusing to show any of the feelings that ripped me apart from the inside.
“Your shoulder will heal. You’ll be able to function normally, but I doubt you’ll ever recover full mobility, and the pain, given the nerve damage, it’s not going to just go away. It will be better, though. But with the wrong movement…” she trailed off, laying a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry.”
“No, that’s fine,” I gritted out. “I didn’t expect anything else.”
“You’re not the only man my brother destroyed,” Izzy muttered under her breath, and I couldn’t help but ask, trying to piece together how they were all connected.
“Dominic?”
She nodded, eyes flickering to the empty hall. I followed her gaze, catching the worry in those dark irises.
“What he did to him…” She sighed, and it wasn’t until then I understood. I got it backwards. Dominic wasn’t the bad guy here. He was the victim. I wanted to ask, but something told me it was far from my business. But it cleared one thing. What Alex told Kaylie. How Dominic hated Mr. X. Well, we had that in common.
“You okay?” Izzy asked, snapping me back to the hall. I gave her a curt nod, and she gave me a sad smile in return. “You’re a strong man, Mr. Maddox.”
She winked at my scowl, placing a hand on my back. “Let’s get you to your girl.”
We gathered in what looked like a medieval conference room at Dominic’s command. The round slab of polished stone surrounded by black leather chairs fit perfectly into the whole stone-caste theme he had going. The walls were stone, here as in the rest if the mansion. A fireplace lit up the left wall, casting an orange glow on the shiny, dark surface of the table.
Trying to focus on Dominic while keeping my eyes on Marc was hard. I found myself drifting back. Eyes and mind. Dom talked, his deep monotone voice that surely had any other girl in a deadly grasp, faded to a background hum as my eyes drifted back to Marc. His face was locked into a mask of unreadable coolness. He was hiding behind something, and I needed to know what.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, not caring if I cut anyone off or if I appeared rude. Marc was the only thing that mattered. The rest could wait, and from the way he clenched his jaw, he was not okay. “Talk to me.”
Dom cleared his throat, and I shot him a look. I lay a hand Marc’s thigh, gently squeezing.
