THE SACRIFICE: Secret Society Romance (4Horsemen Series Book 3)

by Elena Monroe

  Birdy was trying to shake off the residue of throwing up in front of me with her eyes still flooded and hands trembling. “You’re going to the hospital.”

  “I’ll get surgery after I take you out. I’m not disrespecting the process and ritual of a woman getting pretty for a man.”

  Taking out her phone she started dialing but not past 9-1 when my body started to freak out even more. “Okay, okay! Fuck. I need your phone. I lost mine. There’s a guy I always see, he’s on Clave’s payroll.”

  Birdy handed over her phone reluctantly and I noticed. Maybe she was seeing other guys or maybe she still had her own secrets that wasn’t ready to share.

  Pulling up the web application, I hacked my way into the Clave website, even though I had a login, just to find Dr. Stewart’s number. He’d been on payroll since the 90’s and has handled every break to my body, every bender I needed to sober up from, and even supplied the goods before I decided to manufacture my own.

  Once I had his number, I dialed it, equally as reluctant.

  One of his nurses answered and took my information down pending my arrival. I was going to need emergency surgery and it was hijacking date night.

  GRACE

  The cold shakes and desire to throw up even though you already did- those were the feelings taking over my body.

  Khaos could charm his way out of a paper bag.

  He wasn’t giving me anything to go on except a hand that looked so brutal I didn’t know how he was functioning. I only knew one person who made broken hands his trademark and I couldn’t fish for answers too much without Khaos connecting the dots from me to him.

  Dove.

  I’ve never seen him physically break someone’s hand, but it was the rumor, the smirk when I asked him, the way Hamilton begged me with his eyes to tread lightly. He didn’t just step up his game, but his punishments too.

  Grabbing onto Khaos’s hoodie, I wasn’t letting him out of this when I walked up his driveway to the gate. “Code?”

  “3425… spells dick,” he wasn’t smirking like normal which was a good start. Maybe Dove awakened some seriousness in him while crushing him physically.

  “Mature. Let’s go. Where is your doctor? I’m driving, obviously.”

  My VW van was hiding down the road, pulled over in some greenery from when I showed up to find Khaos MIA after waiting on the pier for two hours.

  Sliding inside he looked all around the way I knew I was risking. “This is fucking sick! You’ve got a bed back here… I’ll pin that upstairs for when you’re less mad at me.”

  I shot him a glare, starting up my old van and pulling back onto the road hoping I was going the right way. Finally paying attention, he pointed and tried to explain when I gathered it was Cedars.

  I wasn’t a frequent flyer because that draws attention, I don’t need but enough to know its location.

  Pulling into a parking space and grabbing my hoodie, I jogged around the car trying to help him out the best I could even though a nurturing bone was one I was missing.

  It wasn’t lost on me that he traded an entire alphabet willing to take care of him for me.

  Not cold, but definitely not warm.

  Not selfish, but motivated to protect myself first.

  Not emotional, but I still had a beating heart.

  He wanted me to be his Juliet when the Romeo didn’t even know the depths of me… yet. He knew the half-truths and now he was in the crossfire of the actual truth coming for him.

  “I don’t understand, how are you alive? Walking? Talking?”

  “Perks... and it’s not my first rodeo babe. I’ve broken every bone in my body thrice. This is just another one.” He was actually shrugging off a broken hand.

  “Are you going to tell me how this happened? They’re going to ask, Khaos. We need to be on the same page.”

  My palms were already sweating and my heart was speeding up inside my chest. When you want to be a ghost there’s places you avoid: hospitals, police stations, anywhere they ask for your information and jot it down.

  Until now I had lived pretty much off the grid. My phone wasn’t even in my name, it was provided by Dove.

  I was pleading with him to tell me in my mind.

  Even if he came clean and told me Dove did this, what could I do? Apologize?

  “I tripped and fell. Just relax, babe. My last name throws around a lot of weight.” He didn’t care one ounce more than normal; he was casual and collected with no hint of seriousness.

  This was the nice hospital Justice told me about after she got with Vic. She knew I was going somewhere in the Valley where they don’t ask for insurance, IDs, or even care. They fixed you up and sent you on your way.

  I was too scared to go here for any real medical treatment. Ghosts do better without the investigation and questions.

  Walking in towards the desk, I pulled the hood over my head and zipped up my hoodie trying to hide in plain sight. A nurse behind the desk greeted him, “Krosby. Oh my lord, what happened? You didn’t say all that on the phone.”

  Krosby? Sounds like a real name to me.

  The nurse rounded the desk and demanded someone to page Dr. Stewart when I looked down at my shoes trying to stay out of the way. Another woman came to my side, “Sweetie, you can go with him, come on.”

  Khaos was already in a wheelchair being escorted and doted on the way he loved. The room they brought us to was private but resembled a doctor’s office with all the same bells and whistles.

  I didn’t bother to sit; I paced along the window and kept my eyes down. This place was enough to keep me quiet and more awkward than normal.

  I probably looked like a goddamn suspect in the crushing of his hand.

  The nurse wrapped his arm and found his vein, stopping before she drew his blood. “You know the drill, I have to ask…”

  “Perks. Molly. Pot. Swigs of vodka. Nothing crazy.” Khaos admitted everything illegal without batting his eyes. He was a burner phone you use and don’t throw away like you should.

  “Khaos,” my voice rattled with a demand for him to watch what he says.

  Patting the bed next to him I unwillingly sat down after he threatened to not let her draw his blood. His hand rubbed my bare thigh where my romper’s hem ended, “I have to tell them so when I get drugged up for surgery, they don’t kill me. She’s not calling the cops on me, right, Darlene?”

  “No, but Dr. Stewart is going to give you the third degree,” she said before packing up everything and leaving us alone.

  “Krosby?” I wanted to smile but didn’t, I didn’t want to give him any ideas in not taking this seriously.

  “Krosby Henry Arthur Otis Sebastian the sixth… K.H.A.O.S for short. Don’t laugh. Weird how fate works, huh? Guess I was always meant to be this guy.”

  Seconds later a doctor walked into the room, middle aged with graying hair and in shape for someone wearing scrubs. “Khaos. What happened here?” Wheeling a tray table over he gestured for his hand.

  “I tripped and fell…” he gave the doctor on his payroll the same bullshit story.

  Weird.

  Did Dove really scare someone like Khaos?

  His doctor looked up at him with a popped brow, “If you’re in trouble I can keep a secret. Does this have to do with the drug intake? It’s worse I hear.”

  The doctor gave him a shot that was supposed to numb everything below his forearm when I flinched. Ignoring the doctor’s concern, he turned his head in my direction, “You okay? You don’t have to stay.”

  He was asking me if I was okay when his hand looked like that.

  Shaking my head no, my hands grasped onto his, holding it in my lap for my sake when he seemed perfectly fine.

  Finally answering the doctor, he said, “Nah. Wrong tree. I’m doing a lot of emotional growing and falling in love, which requires a lot of aids.”

  The doctor laughed while he cleaned the wound enough to see the damage, his fingers were so swollen I didn’t recognize them to b
e a part of his body. The doctor tossed a hospital gown on the bed and told him he’d be back in ten to bring him in for surgery.

  I automatically started helping Khaos get the rest of his hoodie and shirt off without hurting or touching his hand. He was perfect in every way and I let Dove try to break that perfection.

  This was my fault.

  I should have warned him, gave him a reason to be scared, told him the truth and let him hate me.

  Hating me would be worth him being alive.

  Standing up, he undid his pants and pushed them down, “Quicky?” He was smirking and eyebrows dancing while struggling to get them down all the way with one hand.

  “Why didn’t they ask you more about how this happened?”

  Helping him with his shoes and pants, I needed a nugget of truth. I was officially a hypocrite, wanting truths I couldn’t give in return.

  Exhaling heavily, he said, “Clave and my last name - DuPonte. I’m part of four elite families. The Clave protects me, they cover shit up, bank roll mistakes, and I have to answer to them.”

  It sounded like a gang, only we don’t do royal or elite. We have a hierarchy and ranks.

  “It’s like-” I wanted to ask more but a nurse came in ready to prep Khaos for surgery when he hadn’t even put the gown on yet. Laying back on the bed he crossed his ankles with his arm behind his head.

  “Should I stay here? How long is the surgery? Is there material on care after?” My head was pumped with information, spinning, yet I was asking for more.

  The nurse he called Darlene touched my arm, “Krosby over here doesn’t go under after a bad reaction one time. Now he does nitrous oxide so you can be there to hold his hand if you want and we’ll go over care after, okay?” She was warm like the sun heating up the sand, comforting.

  Khaos tapped the bed for me to jump on for the ride. The nurse shook her head smiling, “Hop on, beautiful.”

  Everyone in his world was so nice. No wonder he didn’t take anything seriously.

  He could do no wrong.

  I could simply say the wrong thing and get punched in the face.

  No one was nice in my world, we were all starved to get what we were fucked out of: money, family, security… at any cost too.

  I had never been in an operating room; it was so starkly white and clean that it only made me feel dirty and I had actually tried to scrub my skin before our date like a proper girl. Somehow, I still felt unworthy and out of place in his lap of luxury and freedom.

  The nurse stopped the gurney and I hopped off standing there awkwardly again when Khaos got comfortable like he was preparing for a massage and not surgery. I felt myself getting nervous when a rush of emotion cascaded over me and my vision got blurry. I was pushed in between a wall and the desire to cry.

  I never cry. Not since I vowed never to give people that kind of power over me.

  Swallowing back the unshed tears, Khaos tilted his head back trying to find me upside down while huffing in the gas that was going to have the whole room spinning when he raised his arm, the good one, giving me his hand. The mask muffled his words, but I could still make them out, “It’s going to be okay. Pinky promise.”

  Wrapping my pinky around his I leaned in to kiss it even though he couldn’t. It wasn’t our pinkies or the promises that were unbreakable but us.

  The nurse’s hand on his chest, waiting to interrupt us, her eyes smiled. “Ready, Krosby?” The doctor stepped into the room and cued the rap music playing in the background like he knew Khaos better than anyone.

  Once the surgery started on his hand and metal sounds clanked every so often, I stilled not wanting to be the reason he ended up even more broken. Khaos was deranged, laughing, and not paying any mind to the surgery happening to his left. His hand searching for mine, I was afraid to touch him, he whispered, “You’re not wearing a bra, are you? I saw your nipples earlier. Come on, lose the hoodie.”

  Giving him a warning glare, he laughed trying to reach the zipper on my hoodie himself.

  Another minute went by when he tilted his head back again, “You’re beautiful even upside down.” He was tempting me to smile but I couldn’t take my eyes off of the doctor working on his hand like I would be able to spot a mistake even if he made one.

  One of us had to take this seriously.

  The doctor was in a groove placing metal in his hand and rocking out to the music playing quietly while Khaos laughed off everything. My fingertips touched his shoulder hoping this would be over soon for both our sakes when he grabbed my hand laying a kiss on my palm.

  “I’m hopelessly in love with you, Birdy.”

  My heart seized in my chest, not sure what to do or say, I liked him enough to be here, but love was a word I wasn’t sure I was comfortable with. That was the thing about emotions, people are always demanding you define them more than feeling them. They want hard truths when the world is full of gray areas that help you define everything as you go.

  Why does it have to be black and white when life isn’t?

  Smiling down at Khaos, I didn’t know what to say when he stole the words from me. “It’s okay, you don’t have to say it just because I did. I know you love me too.”

  He was a little shit for thinking he knew me better than myself, but I wasn’t going to deny it… I felt something I was unwilling to define. Something that had my frosty outside defrosting.

  Hours went by and finally Dr. Stewart clapped his hands, “Done. Give it six weeks and you should be good as new. Darlene will go over the post op care with you guys in the room once the drugs wear off.”

  I walked behind the gurney as Khaos was pushed back to his room when the phone in my hoodie pocket buzzed, fishing it out I read the text from the contact with the dove emoji holding an olive branch. Ironic, huh?

  DOVE: Met your boyfriend. Send my condolences, that hand looked pretty nasty. Maybe now you’ll focus better on the task at hand.

  He’s never texted me so many words or acted irrationally like he was now with Khaos. He was threatened and I was basking in the glow of not responding.

  KHAOS

  I felt like Grimm when I blew off work for a week, letting Birdy take care of me when she wasn’t surfing or skating. Something I could be doing, but the ache in my hand was enough to keep me couch and bed ridden.

  I shouted over the Drake playing in the background, “Siri, FaceTime Abigail!” Wandering around the kitchen, I found a pint of Ben and Jerry’s for breakfast as the iPad on the island attempted to call her.

  I was basically a stay-at-home wife right now, so we had that in common.

  Abigail finally picked up holding my goddaughter, Daisy, in her arms. “Khaos… I see you haven’t gotten a phone yet. You know he’s worried right?”

  Talking around a spoon full of ice cream I spoke, “Worried for what? I’m basically on vacation.”

  Abigail put Daisy down and held her phone closer to her face so I could see how it twisted into something more serious. “You fell off the face of the planet without so much as a warning. I’m down to keep your secrets if it doesn’t hurt my husband. Why can’t you just get a new phone and text them that you’re okay? Don’t be stubborn.”

  “They know where I live and no one has shown up yet. I’m the fuck up, Abi, get on board with it before you expect too much from me too.” Piling more ice cream into my mouth I tried to not think about how much my fake friends were weighing on my conscience.

  Fixing relationships is like a wildfire, hard to put out and unstoppable, the only thing you can do is prove them wrong. That’s what I was doing now: standing on my own, handling my own mistakes, and not needing them.

  Before you get any ideas, I wasn’t leaning too much on Birdy either. I was on my own as a full-fledged grown up now. I was still watching Doug and eating Pop-Tarts, but an adult, nonetheless.

  “Khaos…” Abigail’s voice petered off into worry, “Don’t say that. None of you are exactly model citizens. You blend right in. Look at Grimm for example,
pretty sure he just killed someone because he’s showering now and I saw a lot of blood. You aren’t a fu-fudge up.”

  Laughing at her censoring herself, she didn’t get it. I couldn’t blame her, no one got it except for Birdy, I was sharing every inner thought and she was taking my side every time.

  It didn’t matter how bad they were or weren’t - they behaved, sat pretty, and did their bidding without any trouble. No questions asked, no thinking for themselves, just blind fellowship.

  “They’re fudged up and I’m a fudge up. There’s a difference. I’m tired of playing twister with boundaries, Abi.”

  “Okay, okay… you win. You know, you and Vic are a lot alike for two people who can’t even be in the same room for too long.”

  “Take it back!” Standing upright, I gave her an oscar winning performance of being insulted. “We’re nothing alike. I gotta actually go shower and shit for my rain check date.”

  “Still not gonna tell me one detail, huh? Name? What she looks like? Nothing?” Abigail had been bugging me all week on our daily FaceTime sessions ever since she heard Birdy’s voice when she came back with burritos.

  I’m domesticated, but not exactly house broken yet.

  I was keeping her a secret until I knew what we were, I guess. Having her meet them, any of them, made her a target and if she wasn’t marrying in then I was going to be forced to do a blood oath with someone that I was going to have to let go.

  We needed time to be us before I threw us to the snake pit.

  “Nope. Guess you’ll just have to wait and see. Kiss Daisy for me,” puckering my lips into the camera I hung up the call and did a little happy dance. I was determined to make our rain check finally happen after begging her and showing her for days that I’m fine.

  Granted, the perks helped and when those ran out I would just move onto whatever else I had. I was a pain free pharmacy.

  Like clockwork Birdy arrived, without knocking, granted I gave her permission to my entire being. She came over in the mornings to make sure I was up, not abusing my meds, hadn’t cut off my cast, and well, that I was alive.