***
I open my eyes with a moan. My head pounds and my ears ring. “Where…?” I slur as I try to look around to see where I’m at. Nothing is visible. Just cloudy shapes and blurred colors.
“Oh, finally,” I hear a male’s voice say happily. “I thought I had killed you. And that’s not what we decided on.”
“What …?”
My head falls to the side. I realize I’m lying on the floor. On a hard surface in the kitchen. Tile? Robert’s back is toward me as he grabs something from the countertop. He then spins around, and there’s a knife in his hand.
I close my eyes as dizziness takes over, and I feel I may vomit. “Oh, no.” I hear the sound of a hand slapping a face then my cheek burns. I open my heavy eyes. “I want you to stay awake for this,” he says as he bends down to straddle me.
I try to talk, but my tongue is heavy, and I feel like the room is spinning. He picks up my limp arms and places them above my head. He pins them right below the wrists side by side to the cold tiled floor. And then he leans over me. “This may hurt.” He smiles as he lifts the knife.
“What … are you …?” Then I scream.
***
“She’s lost a lot of blood …” I hear a voice say in the back of my mind.
“A knife ...” another says.
“Has she done this before?”
Done what before?
“Yes. One other time. In the bathtub …”
Bathtub? Who is talking? What are they talking about? I can’t keep up with them.
I open my eyes, and I instantly close them due to being dizzy. I open them again, and I feel lightheaded. I whimper from the pain I feel deep down in my bones, and I look around aimlessly trying to figure out why I feel like I’m moving so fast when I seem to be lying on my back. I focus on the bright lights above me as they pass by one after another.
“Oh, thank God.”
My head falls to the left, and I look up to see Robert running beside me. “Thank God, baby.” He grabs my hand, but I barely feel it. Why do I feel so numb? “She’s alive.”
I close my eyes from the bright light trying to make sense of what is happening. I take deep breaths in and out, and I feel like I’m wearing a helmet over my head. You know when you can hear yourself breathing loudly. I lift my right hand and feel a mask over my nose and mouth. I go to remove it when my hand is grabbed and pulled down, and I can’t even fight it. I’m so weak. I try to lift my head, but it just falls to the other side. “That needs to stay on,” I hear a woman’s voice say and then blackness takes me again.
“She needs to be admitted,” I hear a woman say through the fogginess. “She is going to be all right, but she needs treatment.”
“Anything that will help her.” I hear a familiar male’s voice say, but it’s not Brecken. Where is Brecken?
I open my heavy eyes and try to sit up. “Oh, no.” Two hands land on my chest and I’m shoved backward. A woman stands beside me as she looks down at me then to my arm. I follow her eyes and see a needle in my arm as it fills a tube with blood. I try to pull my arm away, but she holds it down. “We need restraints,” she says.
I open my mouth to argue but nothing comes out and my eyes close again.
When my eyes finally open again, I feel spacey. Like I’m floating. I try to move, but my body doesn’t want to work. “Robert?” I ask as I see him leaning over me. I look around to see I’m still in a hospital bed, but I can’t see anything. I’m flat on my back, and I can only look straight up to the ceiling.
“Yes, baby. It’s me,” he says and then starts petting my head as he leans over me.
“What’s …going …on?” I slur. I feel drunk, my eyes closing multiple times. “Where’s Brecken?” My voice is slurred, and my tongue feels as heavy as my eyes.
“Who’s Brecken?” a woman asks to my right.
“I called him. He’s on his way.” Sounds like Robert’s response. He’s lying. Why is he lying?
I shake my head quickly, and I moan at the pain that it creates in my neck and face. “She needs more meds,” Robert orders. “She is in pain. Give her more meds,” he snaps.
“No,” I say sluggishly, closing my eyes. They’re just so heavy. “I’m flying,” I find myself saying not knowing really what I’m talking about.
“That’s great baby. Keep flying,” Robert says softly.
“Sir, we need you to sign these in order to hold her.”
“Hold me?” I slur and then lick my lips as drool runs down it. What is happening to me? Did he drug me like that other guy? Did I take something?
I open my eyes enough to see Robert standing to the left of me and the nurse that stands next to him gives me a look of pity. “We’re gonna get you help,” she says softly. “You were lucky.”
“Lucky?” I slur, but no one answers.
Robert finishes writing on the clipboard and then hands it to her. She walks out, leaving us alone. He stands up and leans over my bed. He comes in and out of focus as I stare up at him. He leans down and kisses me on the cheek. “You know what, she was right. You almost did die. I guess I got a little carried away.” He pets my hair as he smiles at me. “Just like I did with Tiffany,” he adds, and somewhere through the fog, mentioning Tiffany reminds me that I had gone to his house. I had tried to shoot him. Then I remember the knife.
“What did you do to me?” I ask slowly because my mouth can’t talk as fast as my mind is thinking at the moment.
His hand continues to run down my hair. I try to move my head back and forth to shove him off, but I don’t have the strength. “I didn’t do anything to you, baby. You confessed that you killed Tiffany, and then you tried to commit suicide.”
My throat tightens. “No. I didn’t …”
He removes his hand from my head and reaches down to my hand. He goes to lift it but then it comes to a stop. I look down the best I can to see a bandage wrapped around my wrist and then a buckle like leather strap wrapped around my arm, and I realize I’m tied down to a hospital bed. Oh, God! No! “I just signed the papers, babe. They are gonna transfer you to the psychiatric ward for a seventy-two-hour hold. And then you’re going to go to jail.”
“No,” I say as tears sting my eyes. I try to fight the restraints, but that fogginess keeps me sluggish. “You can’t do that ….”
“Yes, you are. And yes, I can. Don’t you remember, baby? My father owns this hospital,” he argues. “I just tell them what to do, and they do it,” he whispers.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, licking my dry lips. I’m so thirsty.
“See, some very bad people want you dead, my dear. But I thought this would be much better.” He leans down and kisses my forehead. “Much more rewarding.”
“Bad people?” I ask horrified.
“Oh, yes, baby. It’s amazing who you can meet through mutual friends,” he says with laughter. “You never told me that you were running from a past that wants to destroy you.”
Luca! “No …” He’s found me.
“Just accept it, sweetheart. Lord knows you can’t win against him or me.”
I take a deep breath and close my eyes. When I open them, I scream. I scream as loud as I can, and I use what little strength I have to pull against the restraints.
“Go ahead and scream for all to hear, baby. You’re just making my story more believable.”
I should stop, but I can’t. I have to try to get out of here. I have to try to free myself. No one else is here to save me. I need a phone. I need to call Brecken. Nurses run in, and he steps back to allow them to stand around me. I don’t stop. I scream until my throat is raw. I fight until I feel warmness run down my wrist and hand.
“She needs to take these.” They reach out to me with a couple of pills. I close my lips tightly and shake my head.
“Sedate her,” Robert screams. “Sedate her. She’s hurting herself,” he snaps.
“She’s ripped open her wound,” someone yells.
I fight until I have not
hing left. I fight until my body betrays me and goes limp. I fight until the very last second that it takes the drugs they pump me with to keep myself awake. But in the end, I lose. He was right; they are gonna do whatever he tells them to do to me. And that bastard’s smile is the last thing I see.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
BRECKEN
I stand in the Sloth room at Seven Deadly Sins. Jet stands to my right and Case to my left. Rusty lies on the floor in front of me as blood runs down his chin.
I sigh. “I’m taking it easy on you because you came to me, Rusty,” I tell him.
He wipes his chin with the back of his hand. “I got all the information that I could,” he whines.
“You brought me nothing new,” I say flatly.
“How am I supposed to get information on someone that I don’t know?” he snaps.
“He’s gonna beat your ass,” Jet tells him as if he hadn’t figured that out yet.
He sits up and places his head in his right hand. His left arm is in a cast. “Look, I didn’t know the woman. Or this Robert guy. I’ve seen her out twice …”
“Oh?” I say. “Been keeping information from us?” Case raises his brows.
He shakes his head quickly knowing that he’s lying. “The second night I was out she was with another man, but she never called him Robert.”
“What did she call him?” Case asks. His phone starts to ring in his pocket, but he ignores it.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, aren’t you just helpful?” I l kneel down and grab him by the arm that I didn’t break and yank him to stand. “I must break your other arm.”
“Wait. Wait. Wait. It was an animal,” he says as he starts to sob. I refrain from rolling my eyes.
“An animal?” Jet snorts. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Rusty’s arm flies around in front of him as he looks like he is trying to describe something. “Grasshopper.” I frown. “Rabbit.” He places his hand on his head as he mumbles to himself about God knows what.
“I think he’s on some shit,” Jet says. “Check his pockets. See if he has any Gen on him.”
We hear the ringing noise again, and Case pulls his phone out of his pocket, this time, to actually look at it. He ignores whoever it is and puts it back in his pocket.
“Crrrr … Crocodile,” Rusty goes on. “No that’s not what it was.” He shakes his head at himself. “I remember it,” he says shouting and placing a finger up in the air. “Cricket.”
The room falls silent as Case and I stare at one another. “Who the fuck is Cricket?” Jet demands.
“A man we’ve been trying to get for years,” Case says as he runs his hand through his hair and then he looks at me. “Why the hell would your girl’s best friend be with Cricket?” he growls.
“How the hell would I know?” I snap. Then look at Rusty. “You sure that was his name?” I ask.
He nods. “Yes. I’m positive. She left with him.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” I say shaking my head.
Case goes to open his mouth, but his phone rings again. “Just answer the damn thing,” Jet growls.
Case puts the phone to his ear and snaps. “What?”
I can hear a man yelling on the other end, but I can’t make out what he is saying. “Brecken, where’s your phone?” Case asks me.
“It’s in the office in the desk. Why?” I ask still trying to figure out how Tiffany would know Cricket. What was that girl into?
“Hold on a second. I’m gonna put you on speakerphone,” Case says. He walks over closer to me and holds out his phone. I see that Doc is on the other end, and he places it on speakerphone. “Okay. You’re on,” Case tells him.
“Brecken?” Doc yells.
“Yes?” I say. “I’m here. What’s up?” Cricket … How would she know him?
“I’ve been calling you for the last twenty minutes,” he snaps.
I fist my hands down by my side. “I’m in the middle of something,” I inform him. “Can it wait?” I growl.
“No!” he snaps. “Skye is up here.”
I look at Case and then at Jet, who just shrugs. “Up where?” I left her at the hotel. I told her to stay put.
“The hospital. Hang on.” I hear a few doors open and close, and then he’s whispering. “I came in to check on a patient and saw her name on the board. I thought it looked familiar. I figured if she was here then you were here with her. And I started thinking well, that’s odd. Brecken would have called me if he or Skye were up here. So I went to her room. As I got close, I could hear a woman screaming her head off.” I fist my hands; he’s not making much sense. “I entered her room just as they were sedating her.”
“What?” I demand. “Was it Skye? My Skye?” I ask as my heart pounds in my chest.
“Absolutely. But there was a guy in her room. I heard him talking to one of the nurses. He has signed for them to put her in for a seventy-two-hour watch in the psych ward.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I shout. Case and Jet just stand there looking as confused as I feel.
He takes a deep breath. “She was strapped down to the bed, Brecken. She’s on suicide watch.”
“What?” I ask breathlessly. “No … She wouldn’t … You must be mistaking.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not. She was brought in for attempted suicide. I’m still here …”
I turn around and run out of the room. Jet calls my name, but I don’t stop. I run through the club and out the back door to my Range Rover. I drive like a mad person.
I come to a stop in front of the hospital and jump out of my SUV. I leave it there, keys still in it, and run as a security guard tells me I can’t park there. “Tow it,” I shout as the sliding glass doors open, and I run in.
“Brecken.”
I look to my right and see Doc standing there. I run over to him. “Where is she?” I demand out of breath.
“I’ll take you to her.” I follow him down long hallways and then elevators. We go down to the basement level and the doors open. Jet stands there at the nurse’s station with his back to us. “I’m looking for a woman by the name of Skye,” he says fisting his hand on the counter.
“Jet,” I call out to him as I head toward him.
He spins around to face me. “Oh, I figured you had beat me here.” Then he points at the nurse behind the nurse’s station. “This bitch won’t tell me where she’s at.”
“Excuse me.” She stands narrowing her eyes on him.
“I know where she is,” Doc says as he walks past the desk. “We don’t need them.”
“You’re not on the list … I’m going to call security,” the nurse says as she sits back down.
“Go ahead,” I call out.
Doc takes us to the end of a hallway and turns left to enter a room. I walk in and come to a stop as I see her lying on a hospital bed. She is in a hospital gown with no blanket over her. Her arms are bent at the elbow, and her hands are up by her head with white restraints wrapped around them. There is a restraint around her stomach and her ankles are strapped down. It’s like a something from a horror movie.
Her head is looking away from me, so I can’t see her face. I walk over to her and sit down on her bed. Brown hair covers half of her face. “Baby?” I ask as I brush it away. Placing my hand on her chin, I turn her to look at me. Her skin is ice cold. She’s freezing. “God, Skye,” I say breathlessly as I look down at her. She has a bruise on her cheek and a split in her lip, but that’s not what gets to me. It’s her eyes. They’re open and looking right at me, but she’s not really seeing me. They look glossed over as if she’s in a trance.
“What the hell happened to you?” I ask with a heavy heart as I gently run my knuckles down her cheek. She doesn’t respond, and I don’t expect her to. Drool runs down the side of her face, and I wipe it off. “I’m here, baby.”
I start to undo the restraints around her wrists, and I see Jet start undoing the ones for her ankles.
“Watch me.” I undo the one around her waist and then sit down on the bed as I lift her up and hold her limp body in my arms. “What’s wrong with her?” I ask Doc. I know all about street drugs but not much about what hospitals prescribe. I’ve always tried to avoid these places.
“They had her restrained physically and drug induced.” He sighs as he stares down at her in my arms. “I can’t be sure what she has been given until I read her chart,” Doc says as I run my hands through her dark hair.
“What happened, baby?” I ask softly as I stare down into her dull eyes. It’s as if she’s slipping away from me at this very second. I feel my throat close up. Is she suicidal? I don’t want to believe that. I mean, I thought she had a death wish when she was trying to find Tiffany’s killer, but to actually kill herself? No, I just can’t believe that she would do that. She slowly blinks, and it tears at my heart. Can she hear me? See me? That thought has my heart speeding up. “Wake her up,” I order to Doc. “Do something to bring her out of it,” I demand.
“I don’t think I should do that,” he says, and my head snaps up to look at him.
“Excuse me?” I growl. “Wake her the fuck up,” I shout.
Jet places his hand on my shoulder he stares down at her and then looks away as if he can’t bear to see her like this. “I think he’s right, man. Let’s get her out of here and then wake her up.”
“She’s gonna be disoriented. Confused. We don’t know what she went through,” Doc adds. “She could fight you. It will cause more of a scene than we already have.”
I look down at her and lift her so I can plant a kiss on her forehead. “I’m here, baby. You’re okay.” She closes her eyes slowly, and this time, she doesn’t open them back up. I start to panic. “Skye?” I shake her in my arms. “Skye, wake up.”
“It’s just the drugs, Brecken,” Doc assures me. “She’s going to fade in and out of consciousness. I promise you. It’s just the drugs.” I let out a shaky breath. “Take her back to the hotel. I’ll be right behind you. I’m gonna find her chart and grab everything that she will need,” Doc orders and then heads out of her room.
Obsession (Seven Deadly Sins Book 2) Page 32