Lazily, he reached out and hit the button, and we finished the descent into the basement in silence. I followed him to a far room where he opened the door, pointed at the coffee machine in the corner, and, with a hooded look, he closed the door behind him.
Resigned to the fact that I was to wait, I made my way around the large table, guessing this was a conference room or maybe a training room. I didn’t really care; my focus was on the coffee machine. I had no idea what time it was, but coffee was never a bad choice. I was trying to figure out how to work the machine when I realized that out of all of them,Iwas the one who should be in the room while they discussedme. No matter how bad it was or what they thought I needed to hear, it wasmychoice.
With grim determination, I opened the door and went to find them.
I didn’t expect to find Onyx with his black shirt sleeves rolled up as he struck a guy in a chair. I didn’t expect to find Jett holding Gray back from attacking the guy, and it seemed from the look on his face that he wanted to kill him.
I didn’t expect to recognize the guy in the chair,especially as he seemed to have already been beaten, or to register that each of them still had their faces half covered. Even Onyx had a bandana around his face. All I could do was stare at the man who had tried to convince me that adoption was the best thing for me and my baby.
“Dr. Newton?”
Onyx whirled around as Jett’s and Gray’s heads snapped to look at me.
“Get her out of here,” Onyx growled as he looked at me with his usual loathing.
Gray was in front of me, and he half-carried me out of the room and back to where I had been.
We stood several feet apart, but I felt that there was a gulf between us as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon. He pulled his bandana down as he pushed his hood back. He always looked softer than Jett, but right now, his face was all hard lines and tight with anger.
Anger at me? I wasn’t sure, nor did I care. “You need to explain.”
“Do I?” He walked over to the machine and started to make himself a coffee.
Cold. Detached. Despite my earlier observation in the car, sometimes he was like a stranger to me. Even after he’d just kissed me like I was the only thing that mattered, he could turn it all off and just be . . . nothing.
Unemotional. Callous. Bordering on cruel.
“Why is he here? Who did that to him?” My voice was steady, low, and I was proud of myself for keeping it together. “Did you set fire to hishouse?”
Cold blue eyes watched me as he added creamer to the coffee that he effortlessly made from a machine that had given me nothing. “No.”
“No? What are you answering no to? No, you didn’t set fire to it?”
“Why would I set fire to it?”
If I had asked him what time it was, he would have answered with the same casualness. “He’s in a chair, half beaten, in a basement, where your crazy brother is torturing him!”
“He deserves it.” Gray took a drink of his coffee as he watched me, grimaced, and placed the cup down. “He deserves to swing from a fucking rope.”
“Gray . . .”
“Youdon’tknow,” he suddenly shouted at me as his hands hit the table in fury. “You haven’tseenwhat they do, whathelets happen!”
“And you do?” I asked in confusion. “How?”
“Because the sick fucker in that roomrecordsit.”
I saw his fury as he looked at me. I saw it as clearly as if he had spoken the words to me, accusing me that I was going to be the same as the girls on the film. Was his anger at me or Dr. Newton?
“Tell me.” I moved closer to him, and the pain that rushed through me as he stepped out of my reach was sharp.
“How do you know him?” Gray asked me.
“He was the doctor who talked me through the adoption process.” We stood apart, and I wanted to close the distance almost as much as he wanted to widen it.
“How did you find them?” His voice was low, toneless, and I watched him reach for the cup and drink his coffee. I noticed the shake in his hand, and I knew it was adrenaline.
Shit, his hand.
