“Brax, you’re next,” he says as Casp sits down next to me.
“Gumdrop is okay. She’s stable from what the nurse told me. She took to the blood transfusion, and that prick didn’t shoot anything vital, but she lost a lot of blood. She’s lucky to be alive,” he informs me, and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
“Thank fuck. Still waiting for news on Axel. They shut the curtains as you can see,” I say.
“In the meantime, we need to come up with a plan to get that motherfucker. I want him dead, Harley,” he spits, but I shake my head.
“I do too, but we need to wait.” I spit, and he growls.
“I should’ve killed him when I had the chance,” he seethes.
I wish I could tell him how much we really can’t kill Jacob Lee, that he’s ultimately untouchable, just like we are, and that I’m stalling because I need time to come up with my own plan that doesn’t interfere with the contracts our grandfather bestowed upon us. All the secrets and lies in this small town surrounding the founding families are going to be our fucking demise.
Chapter 2
Axel
One month later…
Waking up, my eyes open, then roll shut. For weeks now, I’ve been sedated repeatedly because I’m what the doctors call unpredictable. After assaulting the nurse and slicing down her face, I've been restrained, which is only further making me a basket case. I don’t like to be touched and all they do is keep poking and prodding at my body.
My skin crawls with tiny spiders every time one of them lays a finger on me. I want fucking out but Harley tells me they aren’t going to let me go until I prove that I’m not a danger to them or myself, which is extremely hard to do since they found the slices on my body from all the years of self harming. Harley and the others were shocked to hear about that. Normally I’d feel ashamed for hurting myself, but I don’t. It's the only way to feel after all the things I’ve been through, things that not even Casp knows about. It’s not that I don’t trust and love my brothers, I just don’t think they want to see and hear all the things thathappened when they were out with their friends or whatever else they did. Especially Harley and Mav who chose to live elsewhere. I don’t want them to feel guilt or pity. All I can ask for right now is understanding and my girl. I just want fucking Presley.
Feeling the leather strap around my wrist as I try to open my eyes again, but it’s no use. The drug flowing through my veins is too strong to do anything, but my heart beats erratically the more I pull on the cuffs. To avoid more drugs through the IV, I try not to scream. I haven’t spoken a word other than Presley's name and ‘stop touching me.’ I have nothing left to say, not until I can lay my eyes on my Angel Baby. Mav told me she was recovering and stable, but that's all they will give me. I can read the looks on their faces when they come up here to visit. Casp is angry, Brax is lost, Mav is depressed, and Harley is trying to keep it all together, but he's just putting on a show. I see right through all of them. If I can see past Presley's mask, I can see past all the ones each of my brothers wear, and they suck at hiding it. There is something they aren’t telling me, and every time I try to figure it out, my mind whirls into a million different scenarios and sends me into a fit of rage. My breathing picks up the more I think about why they are all lying to me.
Sweat drips down the side of my face and my hands begin to shake as the cuffs seem to tighten the more I pull. A weight on my chest gets heavier and heavier then I’m thrown into a memory I thought I buried a long time ago.
“Mommy's going to have a few friends over. You need to be a good boy and stay quiet for a little while,” she tells me, cuffing my wrist with metal restraints, clipping them to the ring screwed into the floor of the closet.
“Please Mommy, don’t do this. I’ll be a good boy and stay quiet. Please don’t leave me in the dark,” I beg, as tears stream down my face.
“You said that the last time. You did this to yourself,” she scolds, biting off a piece of duct tape and pressing it over my mouth. I scream, but it comes out muffled. She smirks before getting up and taking a step back, locking me inside the closet in complete darkness. I rock for I don’t know how long. The music seems to get louder as time goes by. I try to scream for help and bang on the door with my feet, but I’m too short. I kick and scream until my throat is raw and my feet go numb, facing the fact that no one is going to help me. Shutting my eyes, I cry, wishing my life was different, wishing I was strong enough to tell her no and run away to tell someone all the horrible things she does to me, but I can't because she’s my mommy and I love her. I just wish she would love me the way I love her.
Jolting out of the memory, I don't realize I'm screaming until someone's hands are on my shoulders, trying to calm me down. It’s no use. There’s no one who can get me to stop, but Presley.
“Pressssllleyyyyyyyy!” I scream, but it comes out raspy.
“Mr. Cyprus, I’m going to need you to calm down, sir,” the man to my right tells me, but I continue to scream and thrash, wanting out, needing out, as the spiders crawl up and down my skin, causing me to shiver and making me want to peel my skin from my body. I don’t want to be here anymore. Someone, anyone please come save me. I need my Angel Baby. She will make all the pain go away. She loves me the way I love her, and that's all I need. Without her, they might as well lock me up. I won’t survive if she's not by my side.
“Pppresssleyyyyy!” I scream before a warm sensation flows through my veins, filling the room with silence. As my heart slows down, the spiders crawling on my skin fade and darkness takes over.
Chapter 3
Presley
Two months later…
I've been out of the hospital for a month now, and they've stripped me of everything. Mr. Radley has allowed me to stay in my home, which is a shock, but my home is not just housing me. I have guards at every door who come in shifts, watching my every move. The only time I have privacy is when I’m in the bathroom, and that’s a small reprieve. I haven’t seen or heard from my guys since the incident. I don’t even think I can call them that anymore. My cell number has been changed, and I have zero contact with the outside world. At least not until tomorrow when I can finally return to school with strict orders to never to be alone. The days of me being with the Cyprus brothers are over. I cry myself to sleep every night wishing this wasn’t my life. They were supposed to save me. I was supposed to be safe, but when I woke up in that hospital bed to Mr. Radley and Jacob Lee at my side.I knew I had lost. We lost.
While I healed from the gunshot wound to my hip, no one has touched me or forced me to do things I didn’t want to do. Except, Mr. Radley has come every night to take care of me. He would make sure I was fed, bathed, and that my wound was washed and taken care of. He wouldn’t let anyone else near me. Seeing a different side of him has my head all fucked up. It’s sick, the things I let him do to me. But he doesn’t hurt me, doesn’t force himself onto me. He just whispers sweet nothings, telling me how beautiful I am and that I’m safe with him.
No other man will ever treat me as well and tender as he does. I’m not sure what to think anymore. That man has made me cum so fucking hard just with his fingers and mouth more times than I can count, but it’s suffocating.I shouldn’t like it. I shouldn’t want it.But every night, I look forward to him coming for me. At least someone does, but then once he leaves and I’m all alone in my bed, all I see are my guys, the ones who truly have my heart. My mind plays tricks on me, and my anxiety about how Axel is takes over and I end up having panic attacks. I’ve tried to escape numerous times but always end up getting caught. Since I’m still in recovery, I haven’t suffered the consequences just yet. I know it’s coming. I know the moment I’m fully healed, I will pay for everything. I’m not looking forward to that day anytime soon. What I really need is a way out. I’m just not sure how to make that happen.
My bedroom door suddenly swings open, and Mr. Radley steps in, undoing his tie.
“Good evening, Presley. How was your day?” he asks, taking off his suit jacket and folding it over my chair.
“Boring as usual, how was yours?” I ask, and he frowns.
