And this way he could control her care.
Jax tried to tell himself that was the most important. He could hire the best.
If he took Raven to the hospital, she’d be tagged as a welfare case, and she’d be dumped onto the street at the first possible moment.
The lie didn’t make him feel better.
“Wait, Jax,” Stephen said urgently, and placed a hand on Jax’s shoulder.
Erik straightened.
Jax had forgotten his brother was standing in the hallway with them.
“There were rats?”
“What?” Jax asked, unprepared for the question.
“There were rats, where you found her?” Stephen whispered.
Jax nodded.
“Raven has several . . . wounds. I believed they were bites, and you just confirmed it. The antibiotics should fight against any infections the rodents carry. The nurses will keep the wounds clean, but if her temperature does not lower, if the wounds, after a few weeks, do not heal, she will need to be seen.”
“Weeks?” Jax whispered. He hadn’t signed on to take care of her for that long. A few days. A week. Maybe two at the most. But . . .
Stephen sighed. “Talk to your brother, Erik. Jax, if you weren’t prepared to take care of this girl, why did you bring her here?”
Erik arched an eyebrow. “Raven has something Jax wants.”
Jax shook his head at Erik.
Glaring, Erik revealed his teeth in what was supposed to pass for a grin, but was really a disgusted sneer, and Jax tamped down the urge to punch him. While Erik had always been on his side, there were a few times, such as Raven, where they disagreed. Normally, they agreed to disagree and forgot about it, but Jax wasn’t sure Erik would mind his own business this time.
At the front door, Stephen shrugged into his jacket. “What in the hell would that girl up there have you couldn’t buy for yourself, Jax?”
“A divorce,” Erik cut in.
Laughing at Stephen, whose mouth had fallen open in shock, Erik shut the door with a quiet click.
“Do you have to tell the whole goddamn city Raven and I are married?” Jax snapped, angrily trotting up the stairs.
“Who is he going to tell?” Erik asked, stomping up the stairs by his side.
“Our parents, for one thing.”
“You didn’t think you could keep this from Mom and Dad, did you?” Erik’s face hardened. “I know the accident changed you, and I’ve been sympathetic and supportive all this time. But this is just too much. Did you hear what Stephen said? Rats, Jax. She’s got goddamn pneumonia, her temperature topped a hundred and five, and rats. Rats were chewing on her. Forget for just a moment you saved her for her signature, and just think you saved her. She would have died handcuffed to a radiator, and all you can think about is what people will think once all this blows up in your face.”
Jax blinked at his brother. He’d never heard Erik so impassioned. “Did you fall for her?” he asked, trying to swallow a mouthful of jealousy. There was nothing to be jealous about. He didn’t want Raven. In fact, it would help him immensely if Erik did love her. Then he could dump Raven on his brother, and everyone would come out a winner.
Erik snorted. “I know better than to try to take what’s yours. I’ve been learning that lesson since we were kids.”
“Where are you going?” Jax asked when Erik turned away from him. He hoped to ask Erik for a drink in the library. He didn’t want to crawl into bed with Lucia, wasn’t in the mood to be interrogated about things he couldn’t control. Being alone was the only alternative, and he couldn’t be his own company right now.
“I’m going to sit with Raven. She deserves to see a familiar face when she wakes.”
“Stephen has her sedated. You heard him, it could be days before she wakes up.”
“Then I’ll wait.”
Erik disappeared into Raven’s room, and through the closed door, Jax heard his brother greet the nurse.
Jax stood in the dark hallway alone with nowhere to go.
Raven slowly came into consciousness, voices murmuring above her head, a smooth hand brushing her hair away from her face.
She didn’t want to wake up, and she desperately searched for the darkness that kept her safe. But the pull of sleep didn’t take her, and the voices became louder.
A man’s voice.
But not Damien’s.
Damien!
Raven sat up in bed, tried to make her eyes focus. She searched the room for the guy who’d taken her in in exchange for work delivering drugs. He would kill her if she wasn’t there to make the drops.
Something pulled at her wrist, and she clutched at her hand. Handcuffs. No, it was tape. She scrambled at it with broken fingernails. She had to get out of here.
Her skin burned, but not the way it had been. This pain radiated from her legs, and she thrashed under the smooth sheets.
Her vision zigged and zagged, like a TV unable to find reception.
Tears flowed down her cheeks.
“Hey, hey. Calm down, you’re safe, love. Calm.”
Raven braced herself to be pushed back onto the bed, for a hot, rancid mouth to cover hers, but soft, comforting hands only patted her back and cupped her cheek.
“Raven, look at me love. Look at me.”
She knew that voice. Somewhere she’d heard that voice before.
Sweat ran down her back, and she tried to breathe.
“That’s right, love, that’s right. Breathe.”
“Do you want me to—” a concerned female voice asked.
“No, it’s okay,” the man said, resting his hand on the nape of Raven’s neck, “let her try to calm down first. She doesn’t know where she is. Raven, can you focus on me, love? You know me. We met a long time ago. I won’t hurt you.”
Raven tried to swallow, but her throat burned, and she gnashed her teeth against the pain. She stared at the plain white bedspread and tried to control her panic. No matter where she was, it would be better than where she’d been.
“The light, please,” she whispered, unable to lift her head, her hair giving her a much needed curtain away from the blinding sunlight. She’d spent days and days in the dark, and the light streaming from the windows drove icepicks of searing pain through her skull, competing with the throbbing in her ears.
“I’m sorry, Raven, I didn’t think.”
A pause, and then, “Will you close the blinds, please?”
Raven tried to make herself relax when the room dimmed. Where she’d been, the dark held secrets and pain. She was familiar with the dark, and the misery it brought with it was just as familiar and possibly, not unwelcome.
Pain reminded her she was alive, that she could still feel.
Even if there were days she didn’t want to.
“Lydia called and told me she was awake,” a voice said.
A voice that made the blood in her veins turn to ice.
A voice she never thought she’d hear again in a million years.
“No!” she screamed.
Her heart beat like she’d taken a hit of the coke Damien sold. Fast and furious.
She had to get away.
With new urgency, Raven ripped at the tape at her wrist, but her hair blinded her, and her hands trembled too badly; she couldn’t swipe it out of her face.
“Raven, calm down, please, love,” the other voice implored, but Raven recognized it now.
“What the fuck is wrong with her?”
Angel and devil.
Brothers.
“You’re going to have to—” the angel said, but not to her. No, to someone Raven couldn’t see through a cloud of tears and hair. Someone comforting, someone who smelled of lilac.
The angel wrapped his arms around her, trapping her. Depleted of strength, she couldn’t have moved another centimeter even if she had wanted to. Instead, she sobbed in the angel’s arms, and he smoothed her hair, murmuring things her fear wouldn’t allow her to hear.
But his vo
ice was magic, and her heart calmed, a lightness filled her limbs. Raven wept into the angel’s shirt.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” the angel promised.
But he lied. Raven knew he lied.
For no one could protect her from the devil.
No one could protect her from Jaxon Brooks.
The next time Raven opened her eyes, it was to the dark room. But dark because it was night, not because the woman who smelled of lilacs closed the blinds.
She lay still and mentally tested her body. She wiggled her toes, slightly bent her knees. She needed to shave, though she was rarely afforded the time or the water to do so. Once a week she tried to stop by Elle’s salon, and there Elle would let her bathe and wash her hair. Raven moved her legs against the soft sheets, and something kept catching against the material. Bandages. She had bandages on her legs.
Raven continued the assessment, her mental eye roving from her hips to her breasts. Nothing. But that was a good thing. A woman who woke up sore but couldn’t remember why wasn’t in a good situation. She took a deep breath thankful Damien hadn’t touched her.
She fluttered her fingers. A pain pinched her right hand, and licking her lips, she lifted her hand in front of her face. The tugging of her skin made her wince, but she blew out a sigh of relief. It was only an IV. Like in a hospital.
“How are you feeling, love?”
Now Raven could put a name to the voice. Erik Brooks. The man who had walked her down the aisle. The memory was sharp: the church, Jax. And . . . after. When a husband and wife stole a few moments to themselves to enjoy each other before celebrating the rest of their lives with friends and family.
Cheeks burning, she sat up. The sheet fell from her torso, and Raven ran her hands down her breasts. She’d been dressed in a silky nightgown. A floral scent caught her nose, and she ran her fingers through her hair. No knots. Smooth. Silky. Someone had given her a bath.
Clean wasn’t a feeling familiar to her, and she lifted a lock of hair to her nose and took a deep breath.
“Raven?”
Erik sat in a chair near the bed, and he leaned forward. “How are you feeling?” he repeated.
“My throat and ears hurt.”
“You’re very sick. Do you know where you are?”
“Am I at your house?” She prayed she was. She didn’t want anything to do with Jaxon Brooks. To be in his house, under his care, would be almost as bad as being with Damien again.
“No. You remember me, don’t you, love? I’m Erik Brooks. My brother Jaxon hired you to pose as his wife. That was some time ago. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t remember.”
She laughed bitterly. “Hired? Is that what you call it?” Maybe Erik wasn’t as kind as she made him out to be.
“I was trying to be . . . polite,” Erik said.
Though it was dark, and she could barely see his face, Raven knew he was smiling. He hadn’t forgotten what his brother had done to her. “Why am I here? How did you find me?”
“Jax looked for you for a long time. Days. But that’s his story to tell, not mine.”
“I don’t want to be alone with him.”
Erik sat on the edge of her bed. “You don’t have to be. We want you to get well, and then we’ll figure things out. But I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
Raven wanted to believe him, but she’d been brought here for a reason. Jax hadn’t looked for her out of the kindness of his heart. He wanted something from her, though she couldn’t imagine what. If he thought he’d fathered a child the afternoon he’d taken her against the church window, and it only now occurred to him to look for his son or daughter, he would be mistaken. She’d been on the Depo shot for so long she didn’t even have her period anymore. “There someone else here. Last time . . .”
“Jax hired a nurse, or nurses, rather, to watch you around the clock. You have pneumonia. The doctor who looked at you said you almost died. That’s what the IV is for. Antibiotics. Vitamins and minerals. Fluids. You were in pretty bad shape, Raven. No matter how much you hate my brother, he saved you.”
“Maybe I wanted to die,” Raven whispered, but she didn’t mean it. No matter how tough her life was, she’d never been tempted to kill herself. She couldn’t do that to her parents. Though she hadn’t seen them in many years, they at least knew she was alive, somewhere.
It was better than nothing.
Erik lifted her chin and made her look at him.
Her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, and again, she marveled at how different he was from Jax.
What had she thought when she’d been so panicked the first time she’d woken?
Angel and devil.
Never before had her mind been so accurate.
“Nothing is ever that bad,” Erik chastised. “Jax has been through . . . well, again, that’s not my story. But don’t pretend to know my brother, Raven. Even with the way he treats you. We all have our demons, don’t we, love?”
Blessedly, he released her, and she turned away.
Erik sighed. “I’m here because Nichole went on a break, and I said I would watch out for you. But you seem to be in a better place than the first time you woke.”
She wasn’t in a better place. Just because she knew more of what was going on didn’t mean she was in a better place. It just meant she could look out for herself. Erik may say he’ll never let her be alone with Jax, but Erik was Jax’s brother, and family stuck together. She would never let herself believe Erik would choose her over Jax.
But for now, she could take the comfort he was offering her.
“Will you stay with me?” she asked. She’d been alone for so long; emotionally hollowed out. Her heart and soul longed for intimacy. It was why she’d fallen for Jax’s touch so quickly. A touch was a touch.
Even neglected children would rather have a spanking than nothing. She seemed to recall something like that in one of her short rehab stints during group therapy. But the therapist had been talking about them, too, not just little kids. When you’re neglected, any touch, good or bad, was a chance to be seen.
“May I?” Erik asked, the mattress dipping as he leaned forward.
“What do you want to do?” Raven asked, moving away, though she was only a few inches from her own edge of the bed.
“I’d just like to kiss your forehead, if that’s okay.”
Kiss her forehead? The concept seemed so foreign to her she almost laughed.
“It’s been so long for you, hasn’t it, love? So long since you’ve been shown any kindness.”
By a man. The words hung in the air even though Erik hadn’t spoken them aloud. And that included his brother.
They both knew it.
“It’s okay,” Raven said, and she froze while Erik pressed his lips against her forehead. Chaste. The kind of kiss a brother would give his sister.
Tears welled in her eyes. She was usually good about the tears, allowing her anger to control her emotions. With anger she didn’t have tears. She had fury. And hate.
“Your IV has sedative in it. Lie down now, and go back to sleep. It’s one clock in the morning,” Erik said, nudging her shoulder.
Falling back to sleep sounded heavenly, but she didn’t want to be alone. “Stay,” she invited again and tugged on the lapel of his jacket.
Raven tried not to think about what was next in store for her.
Erik could try to protect her.
But from what she knew of Jax Brooks, the man always got what he wanted.
It was beginning. Jax knew it was just a matter of time. Raven had been under his roof hardly forty-eight hours, and it was already starting. Not that he should be surprised.
Erik had always been more charismatic.
Jax shifted on his feet outside Raven’s door. Nearing seven in the morning, he wanted to see how she was doing.
Quite well by the look of it.
She lay on her back, her black hair splayed across the bleached-white pillow. Erik lay next to her, one
hand resting on her stomach, moving up and down with her breathing.
He didn’t know what Erik saw in her that made him so drawn to the pale, thin, woman.
Hardly pretty, Raven was too skinny, but Jax pushed aside the fact it was probably because she didn’t eat on a regular basis. Lucia was thin too, almost to the point of looking sick, like Raven. But it was more appealing to him she did it to be fashionable.
The way Raven lived disgusted Jax.
But Erik apparently didn’t mind it.
Jax tapped the tube of rolled papers against his thigh. He wanted them signed. Now.
He pushed the door open, and the young black nurse who had just taken over for the day nodded at him. Stephen would call today to check on his patient, but Jax didn’t plan to be the one the doctor spoke with. As far as Jax was concerned, Raven’s time in his house was already approaching an end. If she needed more care, she could go to the free clinic. Or perhaps Erik would bring her home. He seemed to care about her welfare.
Jax did, too. Only up until she signed the papers. Then what Raven did or where she went was no matter to him.
“How is she?” he asked.
“The overnight nurse said the patient woke around one this morning,” she whispered. “Mr. Brooks was here, and she said the patient has been sleeping since then. I texted the patient’s vitals to Dr. Monroe just a few minutes ago. He said we could ease off the sedative, but to keep an eye on the patient’s temperature.”
His brother had spent the night with her. The information soured Jax’s appetite. He’d been in the mood for a decent breakfast. Not anymore.
“Thank you,” he said, dismissing her. This one was at least dressed in scrubs.
Jax nudged his brother’s shoulder. “Hey. Wake the fuck up.”
Erik rolled over and blinked at Jax. “What time is it?”
“It’s seven. I’m going to the office, but I wanted to see if Raven was up to signing these.” Jax forced himself to smooth out his tone.
Swiping at his eyes, Erik sprang from the bed. “She hasn’t been here for a full two days, you heartless son of a bitch.”
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