Rattle His Cage: The Baxter Boys #4 (The Baxter Boys ~ Rattled)

by Charles, Jane

  “Okay,” I finally say.

  “Mary, right?” the girl who was talking about scarves asks.

  I nod.

  “Mia.” She grins.

  “Let me introduce everyone,” Kelsey says.

  “Joy.” She points to a girl with dark hair and brown eyes. “She’s a florist horticulturist.”

  “Alyssa.” Kelsey nods to a girl with brown hair, striking blue eyes, and bright red lips. “She is an actress.”

  “Struggling,” Alyssa corrects.

  “And bartends at The Poison Apple.” Kelsey nods to the next girl. “Kate, a musician and nanny.”

  A woman with dark blond, wavy hair gives me a shy smile.

  “Zoe and…”

  “Freddy.” The blond picks up a small terrier and scratches behind his ears before putting him back down.

  “She walks and trains dogs,” Kelsey explains.

  “And she better not be feeding it beneath the table,” Dylan warns.

  “No people food for animals,” Zoe assures him then looks at me. “I prefer dogs to most humans. Nurse, right?”

  “Student. I graduate in May.”

  Her light eyebrows draw together over her nose. “You work in the ER though?”

  I shrug. “All part of the learning.”

  Alyssa’s blue eyes light up “You are the one who was with Alex when he passed out,” She laughs. “I would have loved to have seen it.”

  For a tattoo artist, Alex doesn’t do well with needles or blood and almost passed out when his was being tested and then actually passed out at the blood bank. He claims it is different and that it isn’t the needle but the long needle going into a vein that freaks him out.

  Alex shoots Alyssa an irritated look and frowns.

  “I’ve got pictures.” Ryan reminds them.

  “Until your camera and laptop disappear,” Alex warns.

  Ryan just laughs before taking a bite of his pizza.

  “Stone wants to take me to a club,” Mia announces.

  Every guy at the table stills and Dylan snaps his attention to her.

  Who is Stone and what’s the big deal?

  Unless she’s dating one of the guys. I glance around the table and mentally count. Six guys. Six girls, me being the 7th. Are these all couples? If so, who goes with whom? I know Alex and Kelsey are together, but they aren’t sitting next to each other, so that doesn’t mean the girl next to a guy is involved.

  And, by the way Dylan reacted, I have to wonder if he and Mia aren’t together. Why else would such intensity, almost anger, flood his grey eyes as he straightened and leaned toward Mia? It would explain why the others reacted too. A girl just announced she’s going out with another guy to a room full of people that may include the guy she’s currently dating.

  Or maybe they had dated and Dylan doesn’t like being reminded about another guy. He wants her and doesn’t like the idea that someone else was going to tie her up with silk scarves?

  My stomach tightens as I sit back. I’ve never been so out of place in my life. Instead of a third wheel, I’m a 13th.

  “What kind of club?” Ryan asks slowly.

  She shrugs. “You know, the kind with leather.”

  “No!” Zach’s tone is firm and crisp.

  ”Don’t worry, I’m not going to go,” she assures them. “It’s one thing to be tied up with silk scarves in the privacy of my bedroom, but I’m not into the idea of being in a club full of strangers.” She shakes her head. “Besides, I don’t think he really gets what is involved with that kind of relationship. He thinks it’s about power, humiliation and pain. He said he read a couple of books and said he could get into that, totally missing the whole point of the trusting and loving relationship.”

  The guys relax back in their chairs. “So, when are we going to meet this guy?” Zach asks. “Stone!” he says it like he’s making fun of the guy.

  Mia shrugs. “Probably never. I’m ending it tonight.”

  “Why?” Alyssa asks out of curiosity.

  “Something isn’t sitting right.”

  “Follow the gut,” Christian says.

  “Yep,” Mia agrees, then grins. “Even though I’ve had a lot of fun with Stone, warning bells are going off.”

  Dylan and Zach lean forward.

  “Has he hurt you?” Dylan demands.

  “No,” she’s quick to assure them. “But he’s getting pushy, that’s all.” She tilts her head as if in thought. “Maybe not pushy,” she says after a moment. “More like a short fuse. He got pissed the other night when the waiter didn’t come to our table quickly enough. The place was packed, we had drinks, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. He’s just used to getting what he wants, when he wants it, as if the world revolves around him.” She shakes her head. “It was a real turn off and when we got back to my apartment, he got pissed because I wasn’t in the mood for sex. He was a jerk and I don’t fuck jerks, so he stormed out after telling me to watch myself. I don’t have time for that shit and I’m going to tell him tonight.”

  “Be careful, Mia,” Dylan warns.

  She waves away his concern. “He isn’t going to do anything to me.”

  “Maybe you should text him instead,” Kate suggests.

  “I’m not breaking up over text. It’s going to be face to face.”

  Zach is staring at her. “Be careful.”

  “Geez” she rolls her eyes. “I should have never said anything. I’m a big girl and can take care of myself. Besides, Stone needs to be told a thing or two. Like how to treat people.” I glance around the table. This is a tight group and even though I’ve been invited to the table and they’ve been friendly enough, I still feel like an outsider.

  I also still don’t know who is dating besides Kelsey and Alex, and I’m pretty sure Dylan has a thing for Mia. He’s the one who is most concerned about Stone. Has he been waiting for her to break it off with this guy so he can swoop in and date her?

  The others are interested in what’s happened, but not on the same level as Dylan and Zach. I don’t care if it’s Zach who wants to date Mia, but I’m pretty sure that it’s Dylan who wants her, and it sucks that she’s going to be free so he can pursue her.

  4

  As much as I try to sleep, I can’t. I’m too anxious. Tomorrow I head to child services to find Nina.

  They’ve got to tell me something.

  I’ve done what I can to go around the system but can’t find any of my siblings on social media or anywhere else. Either they aren’t on the various sites, and I am on all of them, or their names have been changed. If that’s the case, were they lucky and got adopted? I doubt Mom and Dad would have fought to keep their rights. They’ve been in prison for a long time now and have another ten years to go by last count.

  Closing out Facebook and Twitter, I stare at the words on the screen of the chapter I wrote before I got on social media.

  I know I should try to sleep, and I have, but my mind isn’t shutting down. If I’m not thinking about tomorrow, I’m thinking about Mary, which I’ve got to stop doing. If it’s not the image of her in the towel, then it’s the image of her earlier tonight. Before she got up from the table, after eating the pizza, she stretched and that robe she was wearing fell open revealing her t-shirt, molding her boobs and outlining her taut nipples.

  Thank God I was still sitting at the table because there was no way in hell I could have hidden my hard-on.

  My phone lights up and I grab it. I don’t know the number, but since my siblings are still out there somewhere, I answer every call that comes in.

  “Hello.”

  “Dylan?”

  “Yeah, who’s this?”

  “It’s Mary.”

  There’s a catch in her voice. She works in an ER and as much as I wish this was a friendly call, I doubt she’d be making it at two in the morning. “What’s wrong?”

  “They’ve brought Mia in.”

  My heart stops before it speeds up. “What happened?” I ask as I jump
out of bed and pull clothes from my closet.

  “She’s been beat up pretty badly.”

  What the hell? “Stone?”

  “Yeah.”

  He’s going to wish he’d never met Mia once I’m done with him. “Did you call her mother?” Mia has a mother in town. If it was one of the other girls I wouldn’t be surprised since they don’t have parents. At least none that they are in contact with.

  “She begged me not to tell her, but somebody needs to come here and will need to take her home.” There is a pause. “She’s afraid of what the guys will do, but after I told her that I had to call someone, she decided that she wanted you and gave me your number.”

  “Why not one of the girls?”

  “She’s afraid,” Mary says and my gut tightens. “Mia wants to go back to the brownstone when she’s released, where she’ll feel safe.”

  Grabbing a pair of shoes I sit down on the bed. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Dylan.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Don’t bring anyone else. She doesn’t want to face everyone at once.”

  This stops me. I had intended to wake the guys who are home, which is only Sean and Alex right now. “Okay. Just me.”

  “I’ll let her know you are on your way.”

  After pocketing my phone, I go back into Mia’s room. She’s on her side while a doctor stitches up a deep gash in her back.

  “Can I get you anything?”

  She just shakes her head.

  “Dylan is on his way in.” I sink down onto the chair beside her bed so she doesn’t have to look up at me.

  Her green eyes fill will tears.

  “They can’t see my injuries. They can never know.” She grabs my hand and squeezes.

  The guys are going to have a good idea when she can’t lay on her back or sit. “They are going to see the bruises on your face.” Those can’t be hidden.

  “But not the rest. Promise me.”

  That’s going to be difficult because someone is going to have to change the bandages and apply ointment, or whatever the doctor prescribes. She’ll have a really hard time doing that herself. Of course, that person could be me. I’ve already seen everything. “I promise.”

  Mia blows out a breath. “Thank you.”

  The doctor starts wiping her back before bandaging it while giving Mia instructions on care.

  Her eyes are boring into mine, panicked almost.

  “I’ve got it,” I tell her.

  She gives me a weak smile and closes her eyes.

  “Okay, Miss Marin, we just need to wait for the x-rays to come back.”

  There is some concern about fractured ribs from the bruising around her ribcage.

  “Thank you,” she whispers.

  After the doctor leaves, I lean in. “The guys are going to want to know what happened.”

  She winces.

  “I know you don’t want them to know all of your injuries, but do you really think they will let it go?”

  A tear slips out of the corner of her eye and over her nose as she turns to bury her face in the pillow.

  “I just can’t talk about it,” she mumbles. “It’s so embarrassing.”

  I clutch her hand tight. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” I insist.

  “I was so stupid. My gut warned me but I let him talk me into a little parting fun.” Tears wail in her eyes.

  “Look at me.”

  She turns her head slightly so I can finally see her eyes.

  “You did nothing wrong. So what if you had sex with him one last time. He’s lucky he got that parting gift. But that didn’t give him the right to do this when you told him you wanted out of a relationship that wasn’t working for you.” My voice is firm because I don’t want Mia to think that any of this is her fault.

  “I know.” She sighs. “You can tell Dylan because he’s going to demand answers. I just don’t want him to know I fucked Stone first.”

  Why would Dylan care, unless there is a relationship there? Or there was one once? Or, maybe Dylan’s part of the reason Mia decided to break up with Stone, other than he’s an abusive fuckjack.

  Of course, none of that is any of my business. Dylan hasn’t shown the slightest interest in me so I might as well give up hoping he ever will.

  My only concern right now is Mia. She’s going to be in a lot of pain for the next few days, and maybe longer if her ribs are fractured. Plus, there could be emotional and mental fallout from tonight. What can’t be seen may not emerge right away, and those who are close to her will need to be prepared to help her through everything that fucking asshole did to her.

  5

  The nurse points me in the direction of Mia’s room, and Mary steps out just as I get there.

  “Can I see her?”

  Mary steps aside and I go past her. Mia is curled up on the bed, covered in a blanket, and an IV’s in her arm. Her jaw is darkening with a bruise, as is her left eye. I fist my hands but lock them at my sides before I hit something or someone. It took me years to get control of my anger, and this is the first time in a long time that I’m close to losing it.

  She opens her eyes. They’re kind of glazed so they must have given her drugs for the pain.

  “I’m not talking about it.”

  “Okay.” I sit in the chair next to her bed.

  I get that she may not want to talk about it now, but I will find out what happened and then Stone is going to be in a world of hurt. Even though I’ve learned that most things can be solved with words, written or spoken, this is not one of those occasions. Stone is going to be sorry he ever met Mia.

  “The doctors are waiting on x-rays,” Mary says. “If all is good then she can go.”

  I nod, not looking at her but watching Mia. It kills me to see her like this, and I hate how helpless I feel. She’s like another kid sister, and I wasn’t there to protect her, just like I haven’t been there for Nina and Jade. One of us should have insisted on being there when she broke it off with Stone. Her gut warned her that something was off with the asshole, and one of us should have insisted on being with her.

  “I’ll check back in a bit,” Mary says as she slips out of the room.

  “Mary can tell you,” Mia finally whispers then closes her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Okay.” It’s all I can do not to jump up and go get my answers, but Mia needs me here right now.

  That bastard is going to pay, somehow and someway, and I hope to hell they have him in the smallest cell at Rikers with guys who know that he beat up a woman.

  Mary comes back in and gives me a cup of coffee. “She’ll probably be out for a bit.”

  Mia’s breathing is deep and even.

  “Let’s talk in the hall,” she says. “You’ll hear Mia if she needs you.”

  Mary’s right, and I set my coffee down and follow her out.

  “What happened?” I ask quietly, when I really want to fucking yell.

  “Mia broke it off with Stone. He didn’t take it well.” Mary says.

  “Apparently he is the one that calls an end to things, not the other way around. She asked him to leave. He wouldn’t. She went for the door. He backhanded her. When she tried to get away he grabbed her and decided to teach her a lesson as he put it.”

  I can’t wait to fucking teach Stone a lesson. One he will never forget...”

  “She never wants to go back to her apartment,” Mary adds.

  “Did he rape her too?” I whisper. Bruises heal, but some things are impossible to recover from.

  “Just beat, though that’s bad enough.”

  That should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. “What all did he do?”

  Mary glances back at the room and then up and down the hall. “Can I tell you later? Not here?”

  I glance around. There are patients in every room and at least one person is with them. Some are listening. I want to make Mary tell me everything, but it’s nobody else’s business ei
ther. However, I will make Mary tell me later and then I’ll be waiting for that fucking asshole when he walks out of jail.

  Mary places a hand on my arm and immediately I start to calm. “She’s going to be okay physically.” Her blue eyes are boring into mine as if she wants to make sure I understand.

  “I know.”

  “She has you and the guys, so she’ll get through this.”

  “She shouldn’t have to get through this at all.”

  Her fingers press into my forearm. “Don’t you dare go in there casting blame on her.”

  I pull back, locking my eyes with hers. “I’d never do that.”

  Her hand loosens. “I just wanted to make sure.”

  Warmth spreads from her fingers up my arm. She doesn’t even really know Mia, but Mary is out here, warning me and protecting her. It’s unusual that anyone has our backs outside of the house. Our lives have proven we only have ourselves and the few people we trust enough to let in. I’m getting why Kelsey has let Mary in.

  “Mia’s afraid Stone will come after her once he knows she called the police,” Mary adds. “That’s why she wants to go back to your place.”

  As if I’d let her go anywhere else. When the guys hear about this, half of them will stay to guard her while the other half go after Stone.

  “Wait? He hasn’t been arrested?” My blood boils.

  “She got away from him, left him unconscious in her apartment after hitting him with a lamp, but by the time the cops got there he was gone.”

  “But they have his name, right?”

  She nods, her lips tight.

  I need to let that go for the moment. Right now Mia needs me. After she’s settled and back at the brownstone, then I’ll deal with the rest. “Thanks for calling me.”

  “I kind of had to convince her to let me make the call.” Mary winces. “Mia didn’t want anyone to know, but I made her realize that she couldn’t just ask to stay with you guys without some kind of explanation.”

  “One look at her and the guys would be circling and demanding answers.”

  “Then forming a posse like the Wild West?” She snorts.

  “Something like that,” I mumble.