by Heather Long
“They’re healing, but you’re still tender. I want you to continue taking it easy.”
“Well, I’m pretty much stuck in this room,” she said, sliding a defiant look toward me. That was better. I liked the fire in her eyes. That defeat she’d been wearing earlier rubbed me raw. “So I suppose rest it is.”
Really? “What do you need to rehab the ankle?”
At my question, she frowned. “Out of this room, clearly.”
“So your little sojourn downstairs to the warehouse was all you needed?” Bullshit. But I made it sound like that was reasonable. “Good, then you’ve rehabbed it.”
“You are so full of crap.”
Doc chuckled. “Hawk’s an ass. But you can tell him what you need. If he can get it, he’ll do it.”
“Then let me go.”
“Can’t do that, Swan, you’re going to have to choose something else.”
“Why can’t you? If it’s a matter of ransom, I have the money. I can pay it. Better me than my family anyway.”
I put that information in my back pocket. “I said no. Now what else do you need?”
Her shoulders dropped, but the heat in her eyes increased. That was better. Be fierce. After seeing the fear on her face that night and her pallor when she woke up at the clinic, I couldn’t shake it. I’d taken it out of that asshole’s hide a few times now. I’d do it a few more until I was satisfied he hurt as much as she had.
Doc ushered her into the bathroom to wash her wrist while I waited. I’d damn near put a bullet in him when I realized she was in that room and he was heading for her.
A huff of her laughter escaped the bathroom, and I frowned. They had to use the bathtub ’cause her sink had something in it. Why the fuck was she laughing with Doc?
“Are you done?” I demanded, and Doc gave me a look as he guided her out with a hand on her lower back. All the humor in her expression dried up.
“Almost,” he told me, and then he dug out a clean splint and reset it in place on her wrist. He secured it with Velcro. “If we go to the clinic tonight and X-ray it, I may put a real cast on it, though I’m not an orthopedic surgeon.”
“I understand. I suppose I should be grateful for medical care at all.”
That little dig landed. “Did you come up with what you need for rehab?”
When she glared at me, some of my unease settled. I didn’t want her attention on Doc. “I need a place to train. To dance. Every day I go without, I’m losing muscle tone and flexibility. I’ve been stretching in here, but this room is too small to do anything resembling a workout.”
“You need to keep it light on that wrist,” Doc said. “Your ribs may not be up for a punishing schedule.”
“This is hardly the first time I’ve cracked them.” The snotty tone she directed at Doc made me smile. “I’m not an idiot. I think I know my body better than any of you. Every day I stay in this room is going to cost me in weeks to get back up to full strength.”
“So you need a dance studio?”
She eyed me briefly, then nodded.
“Like the stage you were using?” I had the full measurements and I knew the layout. “We can’t set up ropes or the silks, not while your wrist is still hurt.”
“I need equipment. Bars. Wooden floors. A mirror would be ideal, but I can do without. My toe shoes would also be good.”
I made a mental list as Doc packed away his stuff. “Put on some socks before we go back down.”
She froze at the words, and even Doc paused.
“Your food is coming,” I said. “You also want out of here. You can come down and eat. You’ll stay with us. Then when you’re done, you can come back up here.”
We needed to clear out the rats. That was fine, Kestrel was still ticked at them for some fucking reason. He’d given them every shit job he could think of the last week or so. Maybe he was just testy in general. Instead of working at the garage, he’d been bringing cars back here.
Probably to be close for her, even when it wasn’t his shift. Rome, on the other hand, had been avoiding all of us more and more. I pinched the bridge of my nose. That was another issue I needed to take care of.
Him and Freddie both.
We had enough problems, I didn’t need them creating more. Doc helped her put socks on and she gave me a wary look when I opened the door.
“What?”
Then she glanced over at the corner where there was a stack of dirty clothes. “What do I have to do to get my laundry done? Or at least access to a washer and dryer?”
A couple of smartass replies filtered through my brain, but I dismissed them both. At least for right now. I wanted the feisty, fire-breathing danger bird back. The graceful swan who took flight, not the wary and worried woman who kept looking at me like I was a monster.
“I’ll take care of it,” I told her curtly. “And if you need anything else, like the feminine supplies, make a list.”
I should have thought of those. I mean, I knew women had them. But I’d never had to plan for it before. I’d take care of that now. I also made a note to change the sheets on her bed.
“Thank you,” she said after a moment, and I nodded. Doc guided her downstairs, and I followed them, making a mental list of my own. Food waited for us in the kitchen, and most of the rats who’d been around earlier were scarce. Kestrel had a beer and was watching a game on television, but he left it to follow us. So not watching, just waiting.
Doc paused me after she walked into the kitchen and said, “You can’t just keep her here, Hawk.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I told him. “Don’t overstep.”
“What does Raptor have to say?”
I met his stare and kept my expression impassive. “I said stay out of it.”
Not when her life was on the line.
I’d taken her for a reason, and until I was satisfied, she wasn’t going anywhere.
Chapter 13
Emersyn
To my shock, not only did Jasper take me back downstairs with them, but then he and the others ate with me too. There was so much food they’d brought back, most of it wouldn’t fall into any classification of healthy, but then egg rolls were amazing and the moo goo gai pan was delicious, but when Vaughn offered me a bite of his General Tso’s, I was pretty sure I’d fallen in love.
I ate until I was too full to eat anymore, but I worried about the leftovers. Vaughn wrote my name on them though and promised they’d be in the fridge for me. We all ended up in the little living room area sans Doc, who had left, and Liam, who’d just snorted at me before he disappeared upstairs. Maybe to sleep?
I didn’t know.
It was Kestrel, Jasper, Vaughn, and me. There were others who came by, but one of them always got up to intercept. Apparently, they didn’t want anyone to see me. The two times I tried to bring up Eric, Jasper changed the subject, and to be honest, I didn’t care about Eric’s safety that much. I figured they’d watch sports, but Vaughn went down a list of movies they had and I hadn’t seen most of them. To be honest, beyond the occasional reality television show, there hadn’t been much in the way of movies or books.
My life had been dance, dance, and more dance.
Part of the reason not dancing was making me crazy.
“Well, fuck that,” Kestrel said when I explained it. “Sparrow, you need to watch a few more movies.”
They picked pirates for the first binge watch, and it seemed strangely apropos for my kidnappers. At the end of the first one, Vaughn left because he had his appointments and Freddie arrived. Jasper glared at him when he went to sit with me and shifted to take Vaughn’s spot on the sofa. Despite how entertaining Freddie’s arrival was, Jasper’s mood seemed to sour until I focused on the movie instead of him. Kestrel made popcorn and got more beer. I was ready to sleep by the end of the second movie, it was a fight to keep my eyes open.
After days of being with only one of them doing almost nothing, it was exhausting just hanging out and watching the movies. As
it was, Jasper walked me up and we had to go through what I guessed was Rome’s room, but Kestrel followed us and he stripped off his shirt as he headed for the bathroom in there, giving me an eyeful of the tattoo on his back with massive wings flowing off a bird’s body, its talons outstretched. I couldn’t make out more because he didn’t turn on the light before he closed the door.
Jasper opened the door to my room and followed me in. I frowned at him, but it felt almost rude to chide him considering the afternoon. Well, day I supposed. I actually had no idea what time it was or whether it was day or night. That was…aggravating, but I bit back those complaints. At the dresser, I pulled out the last of my clean T-shirts and panties. I’d finish washing the ones I had soaking in the bathroom and hang them up.
Aware of him still in my room, I took my time changing for bed and washing out the stuff in my sink, then washing up before I let myself back into the bedroom. Jasper was absent, and I let out a breath. Of all of them, he seemed the most unpredictable.
It wasn’t until I crawled into bed that I realized the stack of laundry in the corner was gone. Also, the sheets on the bed had been changed and there were fresh pillow cases. Huh. The door opened while I was still processing that, and Kestrel shuffled in wearing a pair of gray sweats and a T-shirt while carrying a sleeping bag and a pillow.
He shut the door, then dropped the stuff down in front of it. The dark hair on his face had begun to fill in the harder angles and softened his expression. He gave me a long look. “Do you need anything before you sleep? Meds? Water? Heating pad?”
Surprise flickered through me. “You have a heating pad?”
“I can get one. Do you need it?”
I opened my mouth. I should say no. I was pretty relaxed at the moment, and that was helping the cramps. In fact, I’d kind of forgotten about them over the last few hours of movies and beers and popcorn. Not to mention all the Chinese food. “Please? And I can get a cup of water.”
“Just stay there, I’ll get you a thermos. It’ll keep the water colder, and you can fill it more than that puny cup.” He shot me a quick smile, and then he was gone again. It took me a full minute to process the devastating effect that smile of his had on my system.
The flutter in my gut had nothing to do with cramps. I was still turning that over in my head when he came back in. The door hadn’t locked either time. He plugged the heating pad in before he held it out to me, and I was careful of his fingers when I took it.
“Ice water in here.” He set the screw-top reusable water bottle down. “And I got these.” He held up a couple of different kinds of pain relievers. “Doc said you might need them if it gets too uncomfortable, and he’s coming back tomorrow with different supplies for you.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded. “Get some sleep, Sparrow. I’ll be down here.” By down ‘here,’ he meant right in front of the door. I curled up into the pillows and hugged the heating pad against my stomach and turned it up.
“Do you need the light?” I asked.
“Nope, I’m good. Sleep, Sparrow. I’ll be here if you need me.”
I snapped off the light and lay there for a long time. His breathing never evened out. I kept waiting for him to go to sleep, but I finally drifted off before he did.
The next few days followed a new pattern. One of the guys was always in my room again, at night. Like Kestrel, they would sleep on the floor in front of the door. Apparently, they didn’t want me taking any more sojourns out of the room without them.
One difference, however, was they let me out of the room itself. Every morning, I’d go down with whomever had slept in the room, and we’d have breakfast and coffee. The coffee was crap some days and better on others. I had a feeling it depended on who made it. It was coffee, I could drink tar if they had it.
Most of the time, the food came out of boxes. Sometimes one of the guys cooked. Freddie, as it turned out, was an amazing cook. There had to be other people around, I’d seen them that one day, but not as many showed up when I was out of the room.
Rome appeared again. At least I thought it was Rome, his silence spoke volumes. He didn’t talk so much as sketch in one of his books. I was curious about it, but I didn’t ask and he didn’t show. Liam was there once or twice, but there was friction between him and Jasper. More than what was between Jasper and Freddie, and colder.
Most of the guys showed deference to Jasper. Figuring out the dynamics there took a little time. Kestrel and Vaughn deferred to him less. Vaughn didn’t seem to argue with anyone, and when he was around, I relaxed more. Maybe it was because like Freddie, he made an effort to talk to me, but unlike everyone else, he didn’t seem to act differently when I was there.
If anything, he just seemed to include me. I actually liked the nights he spent in my room more than the others because there was no discomfort. He talked in that soothing voice until I went to sleep. I swore he told the best stories too.
Jasper had taken my laundry that evening, and it was back the following day. Each week, the laundry would vanish and it would return the next day, usually by evening. Also after that first day, they took me to the clinic to get my wrist X-rayed, the one and only time I got to leave the clubhouse—their word for the huge warehouse.
Doc said it was healing properly, which was a relief, and to keep taking it easy, but he didn’t think it needed a cast. The trip was a short one, but it was good to see Doc and he promised to see me later that week. He dropped by every couple of days, and it was always good to see him.
When we came back, I shot a look to the room I’d seen Eric in, but Jasper just led me back inside.
Two weeks of this new routine later, I’d watched more movies than I had in my entire life, learned how to play pool, figured out one of the arcade games they had set up and beaten the pants off Vaughn, Freddie, and Kestrel at poker.
That was one game I did know.
Funnily enough, they assumed I didn’t. They wanted to call it beginner’s luck, and I let them.
But I was so fucking bored.
I did stretches every morning and evening. I’d taken to watching the movies on the floor doing the splits. It didn’t matter, it was getting harder to sleep at night. I’d read every single book they’d brought me. Twice.
Jasper started bringing me new books on the nights he stayed in the room. Fuck, those nights were uncomfortable. I was aware of every breath he took, every time he shifted, and each time his gaze rested on me. Yet not once had any of them done anything threatening. If anything, they’d been solicitous and kind.
They still wouldn’t tell me what they wanted or how long they planned on keeping me. I’d actually given up on asking.
One morning, Vaughn guided me down to breakfast, then leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “Be good today, Dove. I’m at the shop until late, but I’ll bring you back a surprise.” Then he was striding away.
The whole room froze, not just me. Rome and Liam were both at breakfast, and Liam just smirked as he poured white gravy over some biscuits. My heart thudded painfully at the ease of that motion and the fact I’d actually smiled. I couldn’t fucking help it when he said he’d bring me back a surprise.
Vaughn was a tattoo artist. One evening, I’d finally asked him about all these appointments he had. I mean gang member, kidnapper, and living in this box with no windows, and he had appointments?
“I work in a tattoo shop,” he told me. The smile curving his lips had my heart doing that weird flip thing again, as did the way he winked. “Where do you think I got all this ink?” I hadn’t seen all of it yet, but I’d gotten a look at some. It was as eclectic as he was.
But after Vaughn left, Jasper slammed out of the room without a word. Kestrel had just sighed and made himself coffee to go. “Be good, Sparrow. I have a feeling today is gonna be a long day.”
He took Freddie with him, despite Freddie’s protests.
Then I was alone with Rome and Liam. Not that Liam stuck around. The twins never said a wor
d to each other. It was kind of unnerving. Liam just bumped his fist to Rome’s shoulder and left. When I followed him with my gaze, he paused at the door and shot me a wink, then he was gone and it was me and Rome.
Rome who never talked.
“You done?”
The two words surprised the hell out of me, and I glanced over to find him watching me, head cocked to the side. He was dressed like he always was—dark jeans and a gray hoodie half-zipped. Most of the time, he didn’t have a shirt under it. Today he did. It was dark blue like his eyes.
I glanced at my empty plate and coffee cup, then nodded. I carried them over to the sink. As rundown as parts of the place was, at least they kept it mostly clean. The linoleum was probably thirty years old and the dirt so deeply ingrained it had become a part of it, but it always seemed swept.
“Leave it,” Rome told me as he stood.
“I was just going to rinse them out.”
“Leave it. The rats can clean up later.” He jerked his head to the door. “C’mon.” Then he headed out as if expecting me to just follow.
A part of me wanted to argue and be stubborn, but the rest of me was kind of curious. Rome had just said more words to me in the last five minutes than he had in the last three weeks.
Three weeks. Or that was how long I thought it had been. At least two since I’d made my abortive escape. A week or more prior to that I’d been here. Or was that two? It all seemed to run together. I hurried when I found Rome almost all the way down by the stairs going up. Usually, this was when we’d go watch movies or play games or whatever, but he took the steps two at a time.
“Do you have shoes?” he asked.
“Um…I guess. In my stuff.” Not that I’d looked. “Why?”
“Go grab them and a jacket.” He pushed open a different door. This one right on the other side of my room, and there was a door on the far side. One that looked like it went into the room I stayed in. The room itself was a wreckage. There were boxes and cans everywhere. The bed was also disheveled.