For a second, I am disoriented. I don’t know where I am. The room is dark, the sheets smell like Mikey, and the panic that usually sits in my chest is strangely quiet.
But then I hear the noise again. This time, followed by a muffled groan and a sharp inhale.
I sit up in bed, my heart pounding out of my chest.
That was the sound of pain.
I slide off the bed. As soon as my bare feet hit the hardwood, I am moving towards the door. Everything in my body is screaming at me to stay in bed, that with the life I grew up in, danger lurks in every shadow… but curiosity shoves me forward.
The voices get clearer as I inch down the hallway.
“... He wants her back. You damn well know what that means.” I hear Mikey say through groans of pain.
Her… they are talking about her…
Kai’s voice comes next. “That motherfucker.”
My heart is racing. Are they talking about me? Or is there another her that ‘he’ wants?
“There’s more,” Mikey says again. His voice is so hoarse, I can tell he is seriously injured.
“He arranged a marriage for her. Years ago. She was his bargaining chip. He found out she was planning on running, so he sent his guys to find her and ‘discipline’ her.” Mikey continues. “He… ordered it.”
Fuck! He is talking about my father. I just know it.
“No,” Kai whispers. “He’s not taking her. He’s not fucking touching her. He’s not getting anywhere near her.”
His confidence in protecting me is so sweet, but unrealistic with my dad. My dad will do anything to get me to do what he wants. Is he the one who hurt Mikey?
I swear to fucking God I will kill every single one of my dad's men, and my dad, if they hurt Mikey.
“He said he’ll come for her…” Mikey says, then pauses for a second. “If I don’t bring her by midnight tomorrow… he’ll come himself.”
Someone hits the wall, and then Kai growls like an animal. “Over my dead fucking body.”
I walk over to the kitchen and start brewing myself a cup of coffee. My emotions are all over the place, and I am going to get every ounce of information out of these men.
I grab my cup of coffee and head back to the bathroom, waiting to hear if they say anything more. There are several curse words and a lot of hissing or grunts, but no conversation.
I finally decide what I am going to do, and I push the bathroom door open.
Both of them freeze.
Mikey is sitting on the edge of the tub, his shirt off and blood smeared across his ribs and jaw. Kai is kneeling on the tile beside him with a bottle of peroxide in his shaking hand.
Mikey is the first to look up at me, his eyes blown wide in shock, then you see a wave of fear cross over them, and then they finally settle with guilt.
“Julia,” he whispers my name. His voice sounds like he smokes two packs of cigarettes in an hour.
I don’t answer him, I just look at him, his face is black and blue, his nose is bleeding, he has a cut on his eyebrow and his lip, then I look further, and his shoulder is bruised. Then I get to his ribs, they are swollen and bruised also. He is so injured that he won’t be able to play hockey.
I feel like I can’t breathe. My dad did this. My fucking father!
“What happened?” My question comes out thin and cracked. “Who did this to you?”
Mikey tries to stand up–of course, he does– but the pain hits him too fast, and he winces, grabbing the edge of the tub.
Kai rises instantly, blocking me, like he is trying to be the human shield to soften whatever truth comes out of Mikey’s mouth.
