“Home,” I breathed out before my wants could convince me otherwise. “Take me home.”

Twenty Three

Tears fell from my eyes as we drove past the building. On our way to Lucinda, I idly consoled myself that at least I’d tell her goodbye this time. I didn’t imagine she’d want an explanation. The writing was on the wall.

Maybe Jaxon and I were destined to be star crossed lovers. We’d gone five years without each other and we survived, albeit with bleeding hearts. Still, we survived. We would survive again.

I stuffed the voice inside of me that screamed, I don’t just want to survive! I want to love and be loved! I want to be happy! I want him!

Conflicted, I reminded myself that he was a changed man, and a part of something I couldn’t be part of. There was no way it was going to work. There was no way I was going to sit back and let those women feel entitled to him. Just thinking of that and of Jade Smith fuelled my decision even more. His excuse for even touching her and…

It hit me. A particular thing he said tonight. I knew what I was doing, and I could have walked away. I didn’t, though. At that point you’d moved on and I was trying to forget you.

What the fuck? How had he known I’d moved on?

“Damien--” I started and then screamed, terror rippling through my being in a nanosecond.

The impact happened in slow motion, yet it must have only been a few seconds long. The car head lights coming at his side; the screeching of brakes; the loud booming of metal against Damien’s door; the pain of my neck jolting to one side as my head cracked sharply against the window; the eerie silence that followed.

Dizzy and confused, I opened my eyes. Had I been unconscious? There was a loud ringing in my ears, and a mind numbing pain so great in the side of my skull. I opened my mouth to scream. Maybe I did. Or maybe it was just a whispery groan.

Something moved. The door? I fell to the side, but didn’t land on the ground. Water coated me and hands grabbed at me, and for a second I thought I was being rescued from the crash scene. Until I looked up, blinking away the rain, and saw a face in a balaclava mask.

I screamed again. Yes, it was a definite scream this time because it broke through the ringing of my ears and echoed in the empty streets. Flailing my body around, another pair of arms wrapped around my legs and I was in the air. I experienced the terror of my life when I saw a dark van; doors were opened, one dull interior light on, and me moving toward it. Trepidation multiplied as I realized I was going in it.

I was being taken.

I screamed and cried until I felt the bottom of the van. Voices littered the air around me, nothing comprehendible in my dizzied state. Then a sharp pain in my arm that had me falling quickly into a state of unconsciousness.

*****

I opened my eyes. For a moment, I feared I’d gone blind until my sight adjusted to the inanimate objects around me.

I was on something soft. I moved my arms around, feeling the blanket over top of me and the soft mattress I was on. I inhaled deeply, breathing in the strong smell of a pleasantly familiar cologne mingled with sweat. I licked my lips. My dry mouth tasted faintly of copper. Blood? What the fuck? Where was I? What happened?

Moving was a bitch of a task bringing all kinds of horrid agony to my skull. I felt around me as I sat up. Wooden headboard, more wood beside the bed. Night table, perhaps. I blinked and looked again. Yes, night table.

I was in a bedroom. How fucking lovely. Whose bedroom? And why didn’t this bedroom have a goddamn window? A windowless bedroom that….

I screamed, releasing all the pent up anger and frustration. I’ve been taken. The car accident. Not much of a fucking accident but a deliberate hit to get to me. Why me? Why?!

I fumbled out of the sheets and stepped clumsily out of the bed, tripping over something hard on the floor. I fell gracelessly, landing on a rough, cold ground. Fucking cement ground? What in God’s name… I groaned loudly at the sharp pain in my head intensifying with the fall. I swear, I felt my brain jiggle around.

A loud click came from somewhere behind me, then the creak of a door. Then another click and light flooded all around me, paining my eyes. Sluggish and disorientated, I looked around the bare room, meeting nothing but cement walls.

Breath escaped me when my eyes connected with the door. A heavy framed steel door that was opened all the way and accommodating a large, brawny man I recently learned the name of.

Tears fell from my eyes as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

“Wh-Why?” I stuttered, crawling backward. Away from him. Until my back hit the wall.

Remy stopped a few feet away from me, looking down at me with those dark eyes of his. His black hair was soaked, dripping water to the floor around him. Judging by his soaked leather jacket and jeans, I’d say it was rain.

“Why?” I repeated, louder this time.

His eyes roamed around my face and body. He didn’t look angry. There was certainly no intensity behind his gaze that made me feel like he had similar motives to his dead brother, Brett. Instead, he appeared incredibly calm, moving over to the bed that occupied most of the small room.

His heavy frame settled down into the mattress, elbows propped on each knee. He clasped his hands together and continued to stare at me. Deliberation scribbled all over his face. All I heard in the room was the drip, drip of water hitting the ground and my frightened, quickened breaths.

“My brother,” he finally spoke, his baritone voice loud and hard as the walls around us.

I gulped audibly, tasting further the coppery taste in my mouth. “What?”

“My brother,” he repeated, as if that was answer enough for me.

“What about him?”

“You tell me.”

I looked around again. Nowhere to go in what appeared to be a well concealed room. Was this man going to kill me? I knew what he wanted, but what would it mean for me if I gave him the information?

“I don’t understand you,” I simply stated, trying to bring the kind of firmness in my tone that would sound convincing. I’m sure I pulled it off well, only he continued to sit in that exact position, boring holes into my face, waiting…

“I don’t know what you want,” I lied.

Another long stretch of silence.

Uneasiness rooted me in one spot. The chill in the room had me bringing my knees into my chest. This was the calm before the storm. For a fleeting moment, I wondered how the fuck my life had taken such a drastic turn. Was I ever at all in control of it?