Unlock and Bind: (Maya Strom Series - Book 2)

by A. B. Marie

  “Can I help you?”

  “Hi, I’m wondering if there are any updates for Troy Strom?”

  She gives me a small smile and pulls up his chart on her tablet. “No other news yet. Looks like the doctor is scheduled to go in and see him within the hour. Just sit tight.” I make my way back to the guys and see that Graham is passing out some breakfast sandwiches and coffees from a restaurant. I tell them what the nurse said, and we sit and eat while we wait.

  I look over to Ross. “Did Amelie answer?”

  He’s still scowling at his phone. “No. Nothing from her. Her phone is off. This better be a fucking coincidence.”

  “Family of Mr. Strom?” We look over to the nurse that is walking towards us.

  Ross stands and walks closer to her. “Yes? How is Troy?”

  She gives him a warm smile. “The doctor came by and said he can have up to two visitors at a time. He’s been placed into a medically induced coma to ensure he stays asleep, and we did some new scans this morning that we are awaiting results on. Would you like to go see him?”

  Ross nods and looks over to me and takes my hand. We follow her through the sterile, white hallway and are led into a dimly lit room. Troy is lying motionless on the hospital bed with some blankets covering up most of his body. His dark, brown hair is unkempt and unruly. Fuck, this is awful. I look over at all of the machines that make no fucking sense to me and collapse into a chair next to his bed. The nurse leaves us in here and we just sit here staring at him, like he’s going to miraculously wake up. Too bad we can’t just leave here with him and let Beatrice heal him. With how many cameras that are around the halls, the monitoring equipment, all of the staff, plus the paramedics and police… there’s no way I could make it like we were never here.

  I take a deep breath and just hold onto Troy’s hand. I look across the bed and look at Ross. He’s clenching down hard on is jaw and has his eyes closed. “You stay here, Ross. I’m going to go grab Mark so he can see him.” He nods at me and I walk back out to the waiting room. Mark gives me a kiss and makes his way back. “I’m going to try calling Amelie. See if the stupid bitch has anything to do with this… Maybe she was just ignoring Ross’s calls.” I walk outside into the sunshine and call Amelie. Unfortunately, it goes to voicemail, just like Ross said. I tap my phone on the wall next to me and think about what to do. I send a text to Penny and ask her if she could bring me a change of clothes when she can, along with some toiletries so I can wipe myself down. I take a seat on a bench next to some grass and just stare out into the trees.

  “Maya? What are you doing out here?” I hear Graham say from behind me.

  Looking over to him. “Just thinking. Have you gone back to see him?”

  He nods and takes a seat next to me. “Yeah, he looks rough. I’m going to call the local police for any information they have. Maybe there were some traffic cameras.” He takes out his phone and starts making phone calls. I make sure to call Gerard to make sure all of the familiars are okay, sounds like he’s been updated about everything from one of the guys, probably Mark. Graham hangs up his phone. “Nothing yet, he says they’re still going through everything. I gave him mine and Ross’s numbers to call back. Ready to go back inside?” I nod and we go sit back down in the waiting room. Ross is back out here with Mark, so I assume that Collins and Nolan are in Troy’s room.

  “Hi. Can I get you anything?”

  Ross shakes his head at me. “No, just sit with me. Why don’t you all go home and get some rest? He’s going to be asleep for days, probably.”

  I shake my head at him. “No. I have Penny bringing me some things. Maybe Gerard can bring more. You all waited for me when I was hurt, we aren’t leaving Troy.” He just nods and stares back to the walls and doesn’t talk after that.

  It’s another week before the doctors think it’s safe to lower the sedation to wake him up. “The swelling on his brain has gone down enough that I’m going to try to wake him up over the next few days. As soon as he’s able to eat, drink, and walk on his own, he can be signed over to your private doctor.” Ross and I are in the room with her, so we nod and sit back down on the sides of him. She looks over his monitors and chart and gives us a small smile and leaves.

  “How long until he’s awake, do you think?” I ask Ross.

  “Knowing him, he will know we are waiting on him and will just sleep for another week.” I move over to the other side of the room and pick up the sponge bath items and clean up his face and neck, and wash and brush his hair. I haven’t shaved his face at all, and he actually looks damn handsome with his scruff grown out. I give him a kiss on the cheek when I’m finished and hug Ross.

  “I’m going to let one of the others come back.” He just nods at me, so I make my way to the waiting room where we have our area set up. The staff let us move around the chairs to be more comfortable, and Gerard and Penny brought us a bunch of blankets to be more comfortable, along with duffel bags filled with clothes and toiletries. There’s a shower in Troy’s ICU room, so we take turns using that. Collins and Nolan have go back to campus tomorrow, I can’t believe it’s already August. One more month for Mark to figure out what he wants to do about school.

  Mark gives me a kiss on the forehead. “Any news?” I smile at him and let him know what the doctor said and how he should be awake within the next few days. “Good.” We go for a walk outside and sit on the grass underneath a tree. I take out my Kindle from my bag and start reading. From murder books to parenting books – both of them want me to commit murder. I click out of it and pull up a serial killer show on my phone instead. Much better. Mark looks over to me and rolls his eyes. “Are you going to ever read any of the parenting books?”

  I scowl over to him. “Why? Those authors are fucking nuts. I also have six other people to help me, we’ll figure it out. All we need to really know is to keep weapons and sharp shit away from the baby. The pool house is in a fucking building and we can babyproof the estate next month, even though she isn’t going to crawl or walk until sometime next year.” I look back down to my show and feel like I should be taking notes. At this rate we are never going to get back to Seattle and kill the other two fuckwads that murdered our parents. Mark and I had a shitty plan when we were living there – basically stalk a council member and ask questions – great way to get killed, right?

  Rolling my eyes to myself I watch the woman legit slitting throats with her long, pointed nails. Looking down at my nails, I decide on adding some fake, pointed tips next time I get my nails done. That’s a great idea. With how blunt my nails are, it was hard to rip out that councilman’s throat a few months ago. Not that I remember much of it, but I do remember how hard it was to scrub all of the blood that was still left in my nails over a week later when I woke up. Oooh, now she’s severing spinal cords with a blunt knife to the back of the head. Gnarly.

  Mark moves closer. “What are you watching so intently?”

  “How to become a better murderer.” He mutters under his breath and goes back to whatever he’s doing on his phone.

  Chapter 6

  Maya

  ________

  “He’s awake!” Ross calls down the hall from Troy’s room. We all scramble up and make our way in.

  “Two at a time!” The nurse tries yelling to us, but we ignore the bitch and go and see Troy. Holy fuck, he took forever to wake up. It was really only less than two days, but it feels like weeks. She just gives up and helps Troy sit up and asks him some questions. He groggily answers but keeps trying to take sips of water in between her nagging.

  “Hey, can you shut the fuck up so he can drink?” She looks over at me with narrowed eyes but keeps her trap shut. “It’s okay now, Troy. You can drink your water.” He gives me a big smile and relaxes into his pillows.

  “How long was I out?” He rasps as he looks us over.

  “About a week and a half. What do you remember?” Ross asks him.

  Troy pointedly looks over to the nurse. “We’ll talk about i
t later. Am I allowed to get up and take a piss?” The nurse nods and helps move the pillows around so he can sit up.

  “You’ll either need to be wheeled to the restroom or have someone help you walk.” She gives us all a pointed look and leaves the room.

  “Well, you’re too big and heavy for me, so one of the others can help.” I walk up to him and give him a hug and a big kiss. “Don’t ever fucking do that again.”

  He grimaces at me. “Yeah, because getting chased down, my car getting spell after spell thrown at it, and dodging fireballs is something I want to do on a daily basis. And before you all ask: no idea who it was. The vehicle was a sedan and there were at least three people in the car. I saw one man and I think I heard a woman’s voice. They didn’t even try to talk to me, just tried to fucking kill me.” We just sit in stunned silence for a few long moments. “Well, who’s helping me to the bathroom?” Ross helps him up and forces him to sit on the toilet.

  “You already have one brain injury; I don’t think your poor brain can handle another one. Just sit and deal with it.” He huffs and walks out. Troy calls out that he’s done, and Ross helps him walk back into the room after taking him to the sink to wash their hands.

  “So, what’s everyone been up to? I take it the others are back on campus?” He settles back into bed and gets comfortable. He pats the space beside him for me to lay with him.

  “Yeah, a couple days ago.” I answer him. He moves his arms around my belly and rubs it. “Was that everything you remembered from the crash?” He nods his head and closes his eyes. The doctor eventually comes in and tells him that he should be okay leave by tomorrow. All of his recent scans have come back and the swelling is almost gone around his brain. We thank her and Graham leaves to go pick up dinner with Mark.

  I stayed with Troy over night while Ross slept in a chair by his side, while Mark and Graham went to the estate to take all of our duffel bags home and get settled. When we wake up in the morning, Beatrice comes by and signs some paperwork to get him released to her care, and we all head back to the estate for her to finish healing him up. He falls into a peaceful sleep when she finishes, and we do my maternity visit right after. Everything is perfect with the baby, so she takes her leave and heads back to campus.

  The next couple of days are filled with naps and relaxing while Troy makes phone calls and sets up interviews for the new hires at the new club. He hopes to start training next week and have it open by the end of the month. The familiars are all over Troy for several days, his owl has been extremely anxious and won’t leave his side.

  “Hey gorgeous.” Nolan says as he walks up to me and gives me a kiss on the head. “How much more do you need done in the nursery?” He’s at the estate for the weekend after being on campus all week.

  “Everything is pretty much done, just need the stroller put together. All of the bigger items for when she’s older are still in the boxes in her closet. All of her clothes have been cleaned and put away. The bedding is in the crib. We still have two months to go, I’m not worried about it.”

  He gives me a nod and sits next to me on the couch. “Why don’t we go car shopping today? You’ll need a bigger vehicle to fit a car seat.” I grumble at him and pull out my phone to look at different SUV’s that will fit all of us. I agree with him, but will miss my purple Bugatti after the baby is born, that’s for sure.

  “What about this Escalade? It has extended cargo and even has an entertainment system in the back.” I show him my phone and he looks through the photos.

  “Nice. Eight seater. Why don’t you set up an appointment to go there and test drive it in a few hours? I’ll go see what Malek has planned for lunch.” I nod over to him and close my eyes to take a nap after calling the dealership and setting up an appointment. He wakes me up a bit later, and after lunch he drives us to the Cadillac dealership.

  I wonder when Troy will get a new car, he’s been using Collins’ car this week since he left it at the estate and carpooled with Nolan to campus. Thinking it over, I tell the salesman that we will take two, one in white and the other in black after test driving one. Nolan gives me a strange look as I’m filling out the paperwork and smile sweetly at him.

  “What? Ross and Troy need a new car, and they basically go everywhere together, so they can have the black one. They shared their Mercedes SUV.” I shrug my shoulders and I finish up. “I’ll drive the white one home. Can you have the black one delivered today?”

  The salesman nods. “Of course, Ms. Strom. Let me go see who can come drive behind me and I’ll follow you to your home.” We walk outside and Nolan gives me a kiss before I get into the driver’s seat.

  “See you at home, babe. I’ll grab dinner and drinks for the others.” I wave him off and the two salesmen are ready to go. We pull up to the front and they shake my hand after I thank them. I honk the horn a few times after they leave and wait for the guys to come out front. Collins and Mark make their way down with confused faces.

  “Hey baby, did you have fun shopping today?” Mark asks while looking pointedly at the two new SUV’s. I smile at him and ask where the twins are. “They’re on their way down.”

  “Ross, Troy, here are the keys to your new car. Enjoy!” I kiss them on the cheeks and ignore everyone else while I make my way inside laughing to myself.

  “What?” I hear Ross ask and he looks at me like I’m crazy when I look over to him from over my shoulder. I walk in the foyer to hand Gerard the keys and let him know there’s two new cars in the front. He just nods at me and makes his way out there.

  I spend the rest of the night dodging the twins and hiding in various rooms in the house. It’s fun to hear them try to find me and grumbling. I end up falling asleep in a guest room and wake up to someone picking me up and taking me downstairs to dinner. “You have to eat, baby, then you can go back to sleep.” I flip off whoever is carrying me, and I hear him chuckle. I open my eyes and see that it’s Troy.

  “Do you like your new car?”

  He glares down at me. “Ross and I were looking at cars, you didn’t need to do that, babe. We had good insurance that would have paid out. We’re already in your damn house and you’ve paid towards so much for the clubs. You’re crazy.” I just smile up at him and give him a kiss on the cheek.

  “You love me.”

  “Of course, I do, and I love the car, too. Thank you.” He gives me a kiss on the head, and we sit down to eat. Mmm, cheeseburgers and grilled vegetables. After eating all of my food and a few bites from Collins’ plate, I go upstairs to shower and head to bed with most of the guys tonight. It’s still dark outside when I hear loud banging coming from outside of the bedroom.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?!” I hear one of the twins yelling. I get out of bed and pad my way down the hall towards the stairs. I look over the railing and see Amelie standing inside the front door with her arms crossed over her chest.

  “I’m fucking family, how could no one tell me about your accident?!” She yells back over to Troy. I look around and don’t see Ross anywhere and I don’t think he was in bed.

  “You dense bitch! Both Maya and Ross said that your phone was off, what the fuck else were they supposed to do? Track your demented, entitled ass down?”

  “They’re lying! Maya is trying to take you away from me! You need to come home so we can be a family again and help me with your fucking house!” She tries to walk closer to him and he steps back.

  “No, Amelie. You need fucking help. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but this is the last straw. You have two weeks to find somewhere to live and we’re selling the house. Maya already bought out the loan and it’s in her name, so technically it’s her house. We were being nice and waiting for you to calm the fuck down, but it just seems like you’re getting worse. Two weeks, you hear me? Get out of here.”

  She just stares at him with her mouth gaping open. “Do you not see what she’s doing?! She’s taking over our lives. Now I’m going to be homeless because of that whore?! F
uck you all. You’re all going to fucking burn for this.” Thankfully she leaves and slams the door before she does anything else. Troy just shoves his fingers through his hair and paces around. I make my way down to him.

  “Are you okay?”

  He startles and turns to look at me. “Fuck, I’m sorry if she woke you up. Let’s go back to bed.” He starts walking upstairs and keeps a hand on my lower back.

  “Where’s Ross?”

  “He went to the pool house as soon as Gerard woke us up and let us know that Amelie was at the gate. It’s fucking three AM. Doesn’t she have better shit to do?” He continues to mumble to himself as we get settled back into bed. I try to stay up for Ross to come back in, but I assume he’s too worked up and is doing laps or some shit.

  On Sunday, we relax around the estate and at night the guys all head out for a drink at Killian’s. I stay in to have a girl’s night in with Penny and to finally meet her girlfriend Danika. They show up right when Malek finished dinner and Gerard shows them into the living room. I get up and give Penny a hug and hold my hand out for Danika.

  “It’s so nice to finally meet you!” I smile at her and notice how gorgeous she is. Wow, go Penny! Danika is TALL, like, close to six-feet tall, and has legs for days. Her white blonde hair is braided to the side and her wide green eyes are sparkling.

  She smiles back at me and pulls me in for a hug. “Finally! I was wondering if you were imaginary or something!” She giggles and we walk over to the kitchen to eat some dinner at the island.

  “So, Danika, tell me about yourself.” I smile at her and take a sip of my water.

  “I’m an exchange student from the U.S., I go to the university in the city for Psychology. I will graduate with my master’s degree in next year. Other than that, I have a boring life. My family is all back home in California.” She shrugs and drinks some wine.