15
Darcy
The languid post-orgasmwarmth in my body had me tingling. “Did you stub your toe or something?” A thud broke in on my happiness and the blood froze in my veins. “Brooks? What the hell?”
The loud, rattling sound of unnatural breathing mixed together with something else happening a few feet away from me on the floor, and sent me tearing into action. I would never fucking forget Brooks trying to breathe through a seizure. It was terrifying. And I was certain that was what I was hearing right now.
I tugged at the rope restraining me to the couch. “Brooks? Can you hear me?” My throat constricted and my mouth became a desert as I tried to swallow. There was a small thumping sound and dread curled in my stomach. The darkness Brooks had created with the blindfold had been comforting seconds ago, but now it was unbearable because it was keeping me from knowing for sure what was happening. I jerked hard on the rope but all I managed to do was make my hands hurt worse than they already did. “Brooks? Levi! Levi, can you hear me?” I yelled, not caring I was tied up and naked. “Fuck!”
There was scratching at the office door, and a whining that had to be Lemonade reached me. Panicking, I rolled to my front, crossing my arms. My wrists hurt and my hands thudded with my rapid pulse, aching as the rope strained and twisted tighter.
“Brooks, please answer me.Please.” I threw my body into jerking on the ropes, but whatever the hell Brooks had done, it was sturdy and solid, just like the man himself. I didn’t get an answer from him, but I wanted one. Knowing seizures might be something he considered normal, that simply happened to him sometimes, didn’t make me feel any fucking better about this.
If only I could see what the hell was going on. I strained and struggled, panting and feeling dizzy as my heart raced, then wanted to kick myself. I bent forward and shoved at the blindfold until I had a sliver of light stabbing my right eye. My senses reeled and I was disoriented as I turned toward the noises. Brooks thrashed on the floor, lying on his front, and the stiff way his limbs jerked around had me scared.
“Fuck, Levi!” I yelled as I registered blood—lots of blood—pouring from Brooks’ nose. Maybe he’d hit his face on the floor. His body trembled and his arms were oddly rigid. It looked so painful. I winced when I noticed a wet spot spreading out on the carpet underneath him, and the unmistakable scent of piss hit the air. There was a small stream of blood leaking from Brooks’ mouth, too, and I didn’t know if it was because he’d bitten himself or if it was just from his nose. I threw myself backward and growled as the ropes held. My elbows ached and I twisted. “Fucker,Levi!”
The scratching at the door intensified and there was some whining. My stomach turned and tears prickled at my eyes. Lemonade was scared, too. Could she tell her master was having a seizure and she couldn’t get to him? I bent forward, shoved harder at the blindfold, and got it moved up a bit from both of my eyes. Even though it hadn’t worked so far, I tried to tug on my restraints. Sweat slicked my body and made my fingers slip away from the rope. I tried the knots but couldn’t get my fingers to cooperate. My hands were going purple and ached. I was breathing too fast. I yelled wordlessly, rage powering through me, and tugged on the rope where it was strung around a piece of wood on the arm of the couch.
“Fuck, you couldn’t just tie me up? No, it had to be efficient,” I snarled at Brooks, who was still twitching. “Oh, no. ‘I’m going to make the world’s strongest knot, just to fuck.’ Goddamn it, Brooks. Levi!”
Lemonade began barking.
“Good girl!” I yelled.
She barked back louder. The sound of her as upset as I was had me losing it. Tears burned down my cheeks as I tugged the rope and leaned back until I could kick at the arm of the couch. My foot ached, but I didn’t care. It seemed like the seizure had gone on for fucking ever.
All at once Brooks let out a groan and the shaking stopped. I stilled and sat there, watching him. He was so immobile now, after all that. Nowthisdidn’t seem right. Terror blazed through me, and big blobs of tears welled up in my eyes. He didn’t wake up, and I knew last time that had taken him a bit, but blood still leaked from his nose, and I hated him lying in a mess. I needed to fucking fix this for him. My shoulders trembled, I pulled on the ropes so hard, and I gave the arm of the couch another solid kick.
“Damn it all to hell, Levi!” I shouted.
The couch arm began to move, and I landed a few more kicks and tugged. My hands throbbed with pain. The couch arm gave out and sent me sailing backward, flat on my back. I was able to slide the rope off the piece of wood I’d been anchored to that had come with it. My wrists burned and ached, and they were red where the ropes had cut into my skin. My hands were still an unnatural color, but I didn’t care.
I fell off the couch onto my side and army crawled over to Brooks. For a second I just stared at him where he was more or less facedown, but he was moving his hands around. I risked rolling him onto his side. He groaned and my stomach sank. His nose was a little crooked, and it hadn’t been when my blindfold went on. I wasn’t a doctor, but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t broken. Blood dripped out of both nostrils in a stream that had my gut roiling.
“Brooks?” I tried not to panic, but Lemonade was on the other side of the door, barking like a burglar was in the house. My hands shook. “Brooks, I know you said this is normal, but there’s fucking blood!” There was no curbing my hysteria because I couldn’t pry myself from my mental ceiling. If he hadn’t been bleeding, maybe I could be like Mother and sit here like it didn’t matter, but he was, and I cared too much. I sat up. His phone lay on the desk, and on shaking legs I lunged for it and pulled it down and tried to open the screen, but the fucking thing was locked. I poked at his screen with my thumb and it wouldn’t open. Swearing, I scrabbled over to Brooks and used his thumb to unlock the phone, only to have it click in my mind that I could have hit the emergency icon. I shook my head at my stupidity.
My fingers trembled as I hit 9-1-1 and pressed Send. I jammed the phone to my ear so hard it hurt. “Hello, this is New Gothenburg Emergency Services, please state your emergency,” a man with a deep, soothing voice said.
Would Brooks be mad at me for calling? I hesitated, but there wasblood. Too bad. He could be pissed off later. “My boyfriend has seizures, but he fell and hit his face and isn’t waking up, and there’s a lot of blood,” I said in a rush, adding needlessly, “I’m worried. Really worried.”
“Sir, stay calm. What’s the address where you are located?”
Tears welled in my eyes. “I’m not sure. We’re on the lake.” I sat up and tried to peer out the window, as if that would help, but I hadn’t been able to see on the drive in. I couldn’t even guess how far out from the city we were.
The door flew open and Levi and Lemonade rushed in. His black hair was everywhere from sleeping. She padded over to Brooks and whined, lying down beside him with her head on his legs. Levi stood just past the doorway, blinking blearily around the room. There was a red crease across his cheek as if he’d been lying on a balled-up pillow.
“Come here. The address, where are we?”
Levi’s mouth twisted into a horrified frown. “Oh no. I’m sorry. Are you okay, Darcy? Is he—”
“The address!” I held up the phone, and Levi ran over to take it from me. He dropped to his knees beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder as he talked to the man on the phone. I rested my shaking hand on Brooks’ neck, feeling for his pulse, the same way I had that first time I’d seen him have a seizure. I could see his chest rising and falling, and the blood was still running from his nose. I wasn’t sure how to help him without hurting him, but thethudof his pulse under my fingers made me feel better. His heart was pumping, and that had mine slowing to match his.
Levi tossed down the phone and grasped my wrist. “Fuck! Your hands.”
I stared down at my hands, and they were turning an odd blueish-purple and felt huge and strange and painful.
“No, this is bad.” Levi hopped to his feet and bolted for the desk. After a quick rifle through the drawers, he came back with a pair of safety scissors. He slid onto his knees at my side. First he cut the rope down the middle so my hands weren’t tethered together anymore, and then he took his time cutting at the bands around my left wrist. I tried to hold in any sounds because every time I hissed as he tried to work the blade of one side of the scissors under the rope, he would pause and mutter, “Sorry.”
