There were two of them, identical. We had pissed them off. William showed a dominance they weren't accustomed to. The brothers were ready to teach William that lesson.
“Fuck.”
It was pathetic, even for a whimper. Fear and adrenaline made my throat so dry I couldn’t scream for Dizzy.
I shrunk into the corner of the room as the back door creaked open.
The other brother was in the house. He wasn't even trying to walk quietly. His voice rang out, high in pitch and deep with intent. “Hello? Anyone home?” he taunted.
His silhouette paused in the doorway. I prayed the room was too dark for him to see me. I pulled my knees up to my chest, my hands still blindly trying to find protection.
I gripped the warm neck of a glass bottle and pulled it to me, trying to hide it. I knew if I announced that I had a weapon he'd have it from me in a second.
He stood so still I thought I must be hidden well. I held my shaking breath, terrified he would hear.
He lunged.
He knocked me to the ground with a pained groan, trying to grasp my arms. He caught one as I reared the other back. I swung the bottle down. The sickening thud it made against his skull shot fear through my veins.
“Bitch!”
He rocked on his knees. In the dark, I could see the sheen of blood running down his face but it wasn't severe. It had done nothing but piss him off.
He climbed to his feet and I spun, trying to crawl away from the monster.
I was pissed, too. I had expected the thing to break. I was out of options but to fight an already lost battle. He kicked the bottle out of my hand. I heard it roll away, useless, as he grabbed my ankles and yanked me back.
I twisted to see him before his fist crashed across my cheekbone.
Muffled laughter seeped through the window. The creeping brother watched and giggled. There was an odd roll of light behind his head.
I looked up in time to see a foot coming at my face.
I rolled but his heavy boot collided with my ribs. I tried to gasp in air. He crashed on top of me, pinning me easily with one fist as the other rained down. I could do nothing but turn my head as the brutality became eternal.
I pulled up my knees, aiming for his crotch but he laughed and leaned forward, crushing me with his weight on my legs. I bucked back, refusing to give in.
I flung my skull as hard as I could. His teeth pierce into my hairline. His fist came across my face and my head repeatedly until it felt like my mind was breaking against the hard wooden floor.
The pain was nauseating. I wanted to give in to the quiet part of my mind, beckoning my conscious.
My eyes fell to the window, praying for death. A gasp rattled through my bleeding mouth as I caught sight of my beautiful liberator.
An angel of death hunted the brother at the window. The wondrous figure towered behind him. The moon and stars seemed to ignite at that moment.
My angel looked too much like William.
My shirt tore open. A blade cut into my chest under my left breast. I barely acknowledged the pain.
A blinding light flooded the room. My eyes glued on the angel. A pale arm grabbed the brother around the base of the neck. The sheen of a blade struck up into the brother’s throat. His eyes widened and his face flew up with the force. He slid down the angel for a fraction of a second before my protector threw him off.
The twisted expression of disgust was glorious.
As I watched the brother die I was vaguely aware that the fists raging against my body had stopped. Reese rushed in the front door, connecting my mind with the present and pulling me closer to the earth.
My head rolled as I tried to recapture my logic among the pounding in my skull. Above me hunched a massive, growling figure, hovering above me in protection. A knife protruded from his leg, handle deep above his knee.
The room spun as Dizzy pulled me out of the way. William held the second brother’s throat in one hand, the other balled and flying into the brother's face repeatedly. His face was distorted in a rage that was ferocious and truly exquisite.
Reese was kicking the brother in the back of the head. Dizzy grabbed the man from their grasp and flung him into the wall. His body cracked the plaster before he fell to the floor. His eyes were opened but unseeing, blank as they stared back at me.
✷✴✷
I vomited off the edge of the bed and rolled off into it.
“Ruth?” Hands shook me until my teeth rattled. My head was being cradled and I smelled blood.
My thoughts dazzled me. My ragged breathing surrendered to more hacking. I couldn’t inhale until I threw up more. With every heave, my brain seemed to think a little clearer but I still didn’t understand my surroundings.
Not fully comprehensible, I called Dizzy- my demon of rage who sacrificed himself to pain to save me from mine. I called for him, but there was no response.
“She needs to go to the hospital,” William’s soft tone and quiet voice screamed that something was wrong. He was scared.
“They'll take her away from you,” Reese was still there. Maybe he knew where Dizzy was hiding. I had to make sure he was safe.
“She could die, I'm not worried about my loss right now.”
There was a new sound in the room, like raw, rough feet scurrying on the floor. Sounds from an empty mouth and a swollen tongue assaulted my tender mind. What was it saying?
Why was no one answering me?
I was frustrated and angry. I tried to pull out of the grasp of William's rocking body. Relief flooded me as my eyes finally found him. Dizzy understands the voice, he heard it too.
He looked me in the eye and grabbed me from William. We rushed through the house.
I thought he was putting me in a shorn, frigid coffin. No, I don't want this. I tried to speak but they couldn't hear me. My hands trembled with the effort of trying to shake my head. Nothing was working right.
A blast of cold helped the shriek in my throat escape.
A pruned, beautiful face leaned close to mine. She whispered and chanted. She held something under my nose. I retched again with the smell.
I leaned forward, shivering and sobbing. I called out for William to save me.
His hands were there. His voice. His lips pressed to my bleeding face. He was wet and icy cold. Were we dying? Was he coming with me?
My body seized with the agony. I wanted to go back. I wanted to be the me that was in this body moments before. I would rather fall down ten flights of hard, marble, grand staircases.
I shrieked into his hair.
Granny’s voice was there, too. Her fingers gripped my cheeks as she pressed my head back, dropping a bitter liquid down my throat. I tried to spit it out as she forced her palm over my lips.
My muscles relaxed as the pain swept away. “Thank you,” I tried to tell her as I slumped against William, exhaustion settling into my bones until I couldn’t see.
Chapter 22- Prune
I pried my eyes open against the agonizing light. Dizzy sat on the couch as Granny sewed up his leg. I tried to move but my head was too heavy. Reese hovered above Dizzy, smoking a blunt. His hands shook as his eyes darted rapidly around the room.
Hands clutched mine. William's head rested on the bed, his knees on the floor as if in prayer.
I inhaled the scent of his spiraling curls and tried to focus on the soft wisps on my face. He lifted his eyes to mine as if he could feel me coming back to life.
His eyes were swollen and red as tears raced along his cheeks.
“It's almost time, baby. Hold on.”
I tried to roll onto my back. His eyes widened as my shoulders twitched. He leapt to his feet and hovered above me, his hands quaking.
Reese rushed forward and yanked William back. “She can't move yet,” William’s eyes screamed as his hands flew to his hair, his long fingers already beginning to tug.
The air scraped my raw throat as I tried to speak. “Why?” I couldn't hear my own voice but William saw the
movement. He knew what I was trying to communicate.
His eyes closed as his body sagged with relief. He crashed to his knees so hard I thought they must have cracked.
“Ruth?” Reese leaned closer, worry in his face. “Don't try to move. Be as still as you can.”
“Why?”
He smiled. He was happy to witness me coming back into myself, even if I couldn’t feel much of anything. “Granny had to drug you pretty good. You could hurt yourself or bust the stitches. She says you have a few broken ribs, too, so take it easy.”
The visions of the night flooded back to me. William. He had returned home in time.
My lungs rattled as I took a deeper breath. My body was too heavy to jolt with the sharp pain in my back and side.
Everyone stared at me as if they thought I still needed the hospital- everyone but Granny. She simply smiled.
William lifted my head gently. His clothes and hair were still drenched as he pulled a pillow beneath my own damp hair. I searched the room, unable to turn much, for the dead man. There was blood on the cracked wall but no corpse.
William’s fingers on my skin, gentle and testing, made me turn my gaze. He inspected my body and I wished I could see what he was witnessing.
It can’t be worse than the marks when I fell down the stairs.
The pain in his darkening eyes sharpened the more he searched my body. My heart sunk deeper as his emotions twisted into guilt and self-loathing, regardless of how he fought to hide his thoughts.
His gaze refused to meet my own. His jaw clenched as his eyes reddened with the effort of not crying. His heavy breath and sharp, mechanical movements pierced my mind with paranoia.
He was thinking hard about something, trying to strengthen himself and obtain bravery. He was preparing for something cruel.
“Look at me.” His eyes barely met mine for a second before he pretended not to have heard me. He closed my shirt back over tight binding restricting my movements. “Look at me.” My teeth clenched with painful effort.
William's gaze clashed with mine. I saw nothing but rage. It was excruciating. “Get some rest.”
His voice was distant, barely recognizable. He kissed me gently on my lips, the sole part of my being that didn't feel swollen.
He turned away. My eyes squeezed closed as my fingers inched up the sheet, trying to reach to wipe the tears tickling my nose.
When he turned back, hope swelled in my heart. He couldn’t forsake me. My lips twitched as the breath fled my lungs in relief.
He flinched at my expression. The pain in my body didn’t compare to the crushing fragments of my heart. His thumb wiped at the tear lingering by eye, but his other hand lifted, too.
I tried to pull back, to turn my head. He shushed me like a child as the dropper of medicine kissed my lips.
The bitter liquid rolled over my tongue, damning my mind into a drowsy bliss as his forehead pressed to mine.
✷✴✷
I woke in intervals, each time more aware than the last.
My eyes remained closed. I didn’t want more medicine. I couldn’t risk William seeing me in pain. I had no idea how long I had been in bed, what time it was, or even what day.
“You can't do that to her,” Reese’s anger heated the room.
“She won't do it herself.” William’s defensive tone cracked.
“It's her choice.”
“SHH!”
Reese huffed in frustration. “She doesn't want to go. I'd be pissed if Dizzy did that to me and you wouldn't want her to do it to you.”
“It's my job to protect her. I can't let her get killed living this life.” William's voice broke with a sob.
“It’s your job to be her partner, not her dictator. Wouldn't you risk your life to be with her? Don't you do it every single day?” Reese no longer cared that he was shouting. I fought not to smile at the logic of his arguments.
William's soft groans sounded muffled. I peeked through slit eyes to see him crumpled and clinging to Dizzy. Even our gentle giant had tears streaming down his cheeks.
The realization of what William was fighting for awakened my mind more. He wants to send me home?
The pain in my heart numbed the pain in my body. Slow and discreet, I tightened every muscle, one at a time, to see what would have the most trouble moving.
“I have to do it now.” William's voice was barely audible. Dizzy shook with sobs, his eyes on Reese as if begging for help. William's tirade of mourning continued, “I have to get her to a hospital. I have to drop her off and they will take her and they will recognize her and she will wake up safe- far away from me.”
His knees buckled. Dizzy shifted to hold William's weight. I couldn't keep my eyes closed any longer. My heart broke with every passing second in ways I didn't know possible.
I slowly lifted my legs. They felt full of iron but moved. I pushed up and almost fell over with the dizzy pounding against my skull.
Reese and Dizzy stared at me, fear in their expressions. William continued to cling to Dizzy, his face in Dizzy's large chest.
I brought up a shaking finger to show Dizzy to be quiet. His eyes turned hard and he gave me a short nod. I motioned for Reese to grab a pair of William's jeans. He rushed over and quietly helped me into them. He took one of William’s button-down shirts and helped me into it before giving me a hand to hold as I stumbled to the door.
“Ruth?”
The soft voice froze my veins as I halted. I turned to see William, his brows twisted and his eyes narrowed. Dizzy lifted his hands in innocence and backed away.
“What are you doing, Reese?” The accusations in his gravel tone turned Reese to stone.
“It's her choice.” His voice held fear but even more determination.
“William-” his expression faltered at the sound of my voice, stronger than it had been but still weak. “I'm not leaving you. If I have to hide until I am fully healed and then come back, I will always choose you.”
His head shook as his lips tightened, determination wilting in his eyes as they began to gleam. His hands raked through his spirals, always too rough. My lungs stiffened as I waited for his answer.
He stumbled toward me as tears blinded his golden-brown eyes.
His hands cradled my face, gentle and soothing as his lips swept across my own, “You're so stubborn.”
✷✴✷
It had been two days and I desperately needed a shower. I asked Dizzy to help but William refused to let him. "It's not like he's going to look at me," I chided in disgust at his jealousy.
"No, but I need to." The caring, crooning tone made me ease into the agreement. I would want to help him heal, too.
Nausea crashed into me at the sight of my own reflection. The swelling in my face had receded but little black strings protruded from my hairline where Granny stitched me up.
William unwound the bandages from my ribs. More sutures littered a long gash where the maniac had sliced me open.
I watched William as he took in my wounds. I had kept myself covered, remembering the way he had looked while I was healing from falling down the stairs.
His black eyes sparkled with malice as he glowered at my marks. His hands shook as he tried to push the curls out of his face.
Every inch of my naked body was lumpy, red, black, and blue.
William's sanity slipped away as his chest began to tremble, his breath heaving and ragged. His dangerous eyes danced over every bruise as he reached for me. He dragged me to him and held on as if to save my life.
His muscles solidified, taut and quaking. I backed him up to the wall. My heart pounded. I didn't know what to do to help him. I tried to pull away to see his face but he clung tighter until my ribs and neck protested.
His words tumbled, “I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.” I rubbed his shoulders and face until I couldn't breathe from the force of his hold. I tapped wildly on his chest and he jerked away.
I kissed his lips, tasting tears. I leaned close, reminding him I was al
right. Because of him, I was healing. He had saved me.
I couldn't tell him how he had saved me. From the moment our eyes clashed on the first bright day he had saved me. In every moment after, with each new realization, safe word, sly grin, and loving touch he had brought me a new life. He didn't need the specifics of it all right then. He already knew.
He shook his hair and peered down at his feet, his forehead lingering against my own.
He helped me wash my hair and back in the shower. The hot water running between our naked bodies helped to ease the pain. He held me from slipping and we prevailed in the steam until the water ran cold.
We didn't share words, but I wasn’t oblivious to the worry in his eyes. We dressed in the tiny bathroom. Steam escaped when he threw open the door to distant banging.
Flashing blue lit up the front room through the red, makeshift curtain. Reese and Dizzy stood in the kitchen with turkey sandwiches drooping toward their mouths.
I stumbled toward them, wishing I could run faster- to flee and hide and keep them safe.
“Are they looking for the brothers? Where did you hide them?”
Dizzy shook his head as if it wasn’t possible.
Reese's expression fell. He set his sandwich on the counter as his slow, meaningful turn made my throat close.
He hugged me painfully tight before turning to William. My confusion settled into a low ache as William squeezed Reese.
He had failed his drug test. He wasn't going to get a second chance.
“No.”
The unfamiliar voice startled me. We all stared at Dizzy. Anger sharpened his features.
Reese whispered something in William's ear. He nodded in agreement.
Reese stood on his toes and pulled Dizzy's face down to his. The parting in their kiss was too agonizing to watch, too beautiful to look away from.
Movement caught my eye. William was dragging his belt free from the loops.
The banging at the door became incessant. Reese called out that he was coming, caressing Dizzy's face one last time before turning away.
Dizzy flung out in rage to halt Reese. William threw the belt around Dizzy’s shoulders. He yanked back as though taming a wild horse.
Truth: Book Two of the Taboo Series Page 14