The shaking in my body had lessened but it hadn’t stopped all together. I wanted so badly for someone to hold me and tell me it was alright but that someone was no longer here. It was times like this that I missed my dad more than ever. I took a deep breath and tried to fight off the nauseating sobs trying to escape. When I raised my head back up Dean had a tear running down his cheek and he held out a hand to me.
I got up off the floor, holding onto the coffee table to make sure I didn’t fall back to my knees, and made my way to Dean. He had always been like a second father to me. I think I spent as much time with him growing up as I did my real dad. He pulled me onto his lap and I wrapped my arms around his neck. The fight to not cry lost when I felt Dean take in a shaky breath. He was suffering as much as I was.
We sit there holding and comforting each other for a while before I sat up to look at him. I let out a breath of a laugh when we both reached up at the same time to wipe the others tears away.
“Dad would laugh at us if he could see us right now,” I told him.
“Yeah, I can hear him now telling us how we’ve gotten soft. But he can laugh all he wants. We’re entitled to mourn him.”
“I can’t help but feel like he’s out there somewhere Dean. That this was all a mistake. Could it be? Could it be someone else?”
“No sweetheart, it’s not a mistake,” he said as he pushed my hair away from my face and behind my ear.
The pain was unbearable. How was I supposed to go on? I didn’t really have anyone else. I mean I knew I had Shayden and Aunt Dawn but it wasn’t the same. No one could replace him. No one would ever be able to fill the hole that was left in my heart. The worst part of it all was I never got to tell him I loved him before he left. He was gone before I had gotten up that morning.
“Rissa, can I ask you a question?” Sage asked.
I nodded to him.
“How long were you tortured?”
I really didn’t mind the distraction I’m sure he was trying to create to get my mind off Dad but it would have been better if it were on another subject. I really didn’t want to talk about this.
“I don’t know for sure.” I stared out the window passed Dean’s shoulder. I wanted to get lost in the colors of the woods behind the building but as the darkness fell over my eyes, scenes replayed. I blinked bringing back the light and got up out of Dean’s lap to sit beside him. I hadn’t even realized I had taken his hand and was holding it until he gave my hand a gentle squeeze.
“I was taken on a Friday. I don’t know what day it was when Braydon found me.” Truthfully I didn’t know what day it was for a few weeks after waking up. I kept thinking it would be one day only to find I was a few days off.
“I found her on Sunday,” Braydon said in a whisper.
That was something I didn’t know. I had no way of knowing because I wouldn’t speak to anyone. I had been tortured for two days. Did it make a difference? Not really. I guess I would have been in better shape had he found me sooner but the things I went through the first day was almost as bad as what I went through there at the last.
“I don’t understand, I thought you said you about lost her?” Gabe asked.
“Somewhere between the time they left with Marissa until they reached the hospital she began to vomit blood. Her stomach was bleeding profusely. The doctor didn’t think they’d ever get it to stop in time.”
My stomach turned as I remembered waking up once to see everyone around covered in blood. Dad, Dean, Sage and Zavier’s dad along with the nurses and doctor all had blood on them somewhere and I was still projecting it out every time my stomach filled with it.
I jumped up from the couch and ran to the bathroom. I knew someone was behind me but all I could think of was making it to the toilet in time to lose what breakfast I had eaten.
“It will be alright. I’m here,” Zavier said as he held my hair back. I had expected Gabe or Braydon but Zavier? I didn’t know what to say.
“It was an allergic reaction to something,” I told him as I rose up and took the towel from him to wipe my face.
He looked at me like he was lost.
“What about killed me; it was an allergic reaction to something that caused my stomach to bleed.”
His eyes got real wide but he never spoke. He waited with me patiently until I finished washing my face and brushing my teeth. I went to walk out of the bathroom but stumbled just a little. Zavier picked me up like I weighed nothing and carried me back into the living room where everyone else sits.
I had expected him to put me back down on the couch but he sat down in the chair and held me in his lap. I knew he felt guilty over this but he had no reason to. There was nothing he could have done that would have changed how things went. I couldn’t stand seeing these guys act so upset over this.
“On a funnier note, I scared the nurses half to death after I woke up,” I told them. Braydon’s head came up and I could see him fighting to hide the smile.
“What did you do?” Gabe asked hesitantly.
I grinned real big and laughed to myself. “Well I was a good girl at first. I promise,” I laughed again. “They wouldn’t tell me anything about Braydon. I asked everyone; Kyle, the nurses, Dad, no one would tell me anything so I was beginning to think the worst. Finally Dad agreed to call Dean. Bless his heart; Dean had only been gone from the hospital maybe three hours.
“Anyway, Dad had brought me some things from the house. One of them was a cell phone scrambler but he didn’t know that. So I turned it on and started begging him to ask Dean. He looked down at his phone and told me he’d be back in a few minutes. I waited until I heard him walking away, unplugged my IV, and blood unit. Then I watched as he got in the elevator.
“I didn’t think they would have him in ICU so I went door to door looking in each room. That is until I got to the nurses’ station and one of the nurses said I needed to get back in bed. I gave her the saddest look I could give and told her that my boyfriend had been in a car wreck with me and no one would tell me if he was still alive.
“She asked me his name and I told her and watched from her glasses as she typed his information in. I can read backwards so I was able to get his room number. But as I began making my way toward his room a freaking amazon woman steps out points her finger at me and demands I go back to my room.”
“Oh God,” Lorik groans. Yeah he knows me well.
“What did you do?” Sage asked as he narrowed his eyes at me.
I gave them an innocent look and blinked my eyes. I looked down at Zavier’s hands holding mine and bit my bottom lip before looking back up. I could see Sage’s face soften as he looked at me. I was doing my best doe eyed impression possible until I looked at Braydon. I knew that look went from sweet and innocent to naughty real quick.
“I told her to look at me. I said I play deadly games for a living, would you like to be the next contestant on let me see where I can shove this cast?”
Zavier was laughing so hard I felt like I was on a horse galloping as his body shook. Lorik face palmed himself. Dean was trying to hide the smile behind his fist and a cough. Sage looked at me like he was dumbfounded that I would do it, and Gabe, poor Gabe, shook his head. They all know me well. They should have known I wouldn’t sit by. When I looked over at Braydon he was grinning from ear to ear.
“What?”
“I could hear you. Braxton thought there was some psychopath loose in the hospital and was telling Dean he needed backup,” Braydon was laughing before he could even finish what he was saying.
“Oh Gah, I bet when he saw me he almost messed himself,” I said laughing.
Braydon kept laughing and nodding his head in agreement. It took him a few minutes to calm down. I watched as he wiped the tears away from his face. I loved the sound of his laughter.
“I knew it was Marissa. I knew the sound of her voice. I was trying my best to get out of the bed when she stepped up to the door of my room. Braxton’s face paled
, I swear I thought he’d pass out. Marissa pointed at me to make me set back in the bed, then walked around and climbed in beside me,” Braydon was fighting so hard not to laugh again as the tears kept rolling.
“You’ll never guess who Dean sent as backup to get rid of the psychopath,” Braydon lost his fight and doubled over. “John!” he was almost in hysterics when he finally finished it.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. The look on Braxton’s face when Dad walked in and started laughing almost undone him. He had flopped down in the chair looking around like he didn’t know where he was or what was going on. Dad finally told him who I was and then Braxton’s face went from pale to flaming red right before he got up and walked out of the room.
As far as I know he still hadn’t forgiven Braydon for that. I don’t know why, it’s not like he was expected to know who I was. Then again I guess he could have felt embarrassed that he called me a psychopath. He wouldn’t be far off base though.
Braydon’s phone went off and he pulled it off his belt. After reading the text message he began laughing again. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at him. I had a sinking feeling I knew what was going on.
I got up out of Zavier’s lap and got my tablet sitting on the bedside table. I turned it on and watched it load. Within seconds the triple beep alarm let me know what I thought was right. They had a camera set up in this room.
I looked up and looked at each one before settling my gaze on Dean. I raised an eyebrow and he looked at me confused.
“Care to explain why you have your tech watching?”
“How did you?” I smiled at him cutting his sentence off.
“Are we forgetting who we’re dealing with here?”
“Never. I just didn’t think you’d bring your toys,” Dean replied.
“Ah now Dean, I thought you knew me better than that,” I said as I smiled at him. “I guess I’ll just have to find a way to entertain him.” I walked over and sat down in Zavier’s lap. I leaned back and crossed my legs and placed my hands in my lap. It was trick I had picked up from Dad to get the information I wanted. “So, who is it?”
“Not going to work Princess. You’re not as intimidating.”
“Okay that’s fine. Just answer this,” I leaned forward and placed my elbow on the chair arm and my chin on my fist. “Think he’d like a good strip tease?”
Dean’s eyes widened then narrowed as he looked at me. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh wouldn’t I?”
“You do realize there are other men in this room. Men that even if I’m not here, one of them will be at all times."
“I’m sure they would enjoy it.”
“Fine have it your way,” he said grinning as he stood up.
“I will. Braxton won’t know what to do with himself by the time I’m done,” I said as Dean’s step falter slightly. I grinned as he turned to look at me. He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and walked out of the room.