After squeezing Bay’s waist, I step away, walking over to Cara. “You expect us to believe you didn’t notice he was practically unconscious under you? If you two had sex, that would've been rape, Cara. You would’ve raped him,” I yell, lunging for her.
Strong arms wrap around my waist, pulling me back. I look down to see bloody knuckles and tattoos. Nick has me. “She’s drunk, Shortie. No point in arguing with her right now.”
“She would’ve raped him, Grumpy,” I whisper, tears falling again.
“I know. We’ll deal with it,” he assures me.
E shoves Cara back in the closet, closing the door with a slam, and takes a few deep breaths. He walks over to me as Nick’s arms loosen from around my body. “Right now, we have to take care of you and Seb, okay?”
I nod as E envelopes me in a hug, and Nick steps away. “What about Ben?”
“Unconscious,” Alex replies. I look around at the guys, then remember the bloody knuckles.
I turn and lock eyes with Nick. “Thank you.” He just nods in return.
“We should leave,” Alex says. “We need to figure out what to do about all this.”
“I need to get my phone. I dropped it in the bathroom when…” I gesture to the bathroom door.
“I’ll get it,” Bay offers, heading for the bathroom, but I follow him.
Nick puts his hand up to stop me. “I want to see him down,” I say, looking into his eyes. Nick must see my determination and steps out of the way. Ben is lying splayed out in the middle of the floor. You’d think he was sleeping if not for the swelling around his eye and bloody lip. Bay is picking up my phone from under the vanity. It’s surprisingly undamaged as he hands it to me.
We head back into the room where Nick and E pick up Seb between them. He’s able to shuffle along, but his eyes are closed as his head lolls forward. Alex leads the way out of the house with me sandwiched between Bay and him.
We all pile into the SUV together. Bay will come back for his car. “Where do we go?” Alex asks.
“I don’t want Gabs seeing this,” E replies, brushing hair off Seb’s forehead where his head rests on his lap.
“We can go to my house if you don’t mind my stepmother,” Alex offers.
I look at the clock and see it’s already 11:30pm. “We can go to my house,” I offer. I’m due home soon anyway. Alex makes a call to his doctor to meet us there and then drives us home.
“Zander,” I holler as we enter the house.
“In the living room,” he calls back. As the guys come around the corner, Zander jumps up from the couch. “What happened?” He demands. He helps Nick and E get Seb into the spare bedroom and onto the bed. A doorbell rings, and Alex excuses himself.
“A lot happened, Z. We will explain everything in a minute,” E replies.
Alex comes back in with an older man carrying a large bag. “Hello. I’m Dr. Croft,” he nods, moving over to Seb.
“Someone better talk,” Zander says, his jaw tense with a furrow between his brows.
“Let the doc do his thing,” Bay offers. “We’ll explain outside.”
Nick, Bay, Zander, and I leave the room and move to the island. We take seats as Zander paces in front of us. “Start talking,” he says, making eye contact with each of us.
“Can we wait for everyone? I don’t want to do this a bunch of times,” I plead with him. He must see something in my eyes because he nods and grabs water bottles for all of us.
It’s only a few minutes later that Alex, E, and the doc come out from the spare room. “Seb will be fine. I took a blood sample to identify the drug. I’ve set up an IV drip to flush his system, but he’s not in any danger medically. Depending on the drug, he may or may not remember anything when he wakes.”
“Thank you,” I tell him. He nods as Alex offers to walk him out.
“Did anyone call Troy?” Zander questions.
“I did,” E tells us. “He’ll be here soon.”
E comes over and gives me a hug. “Thank you for protecting him,” he says. “I can’t imagine what she would’ve done if you hadn’t found them.”
