Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Rebel House, Captain’s Hall
R obyn
“She’s breathing. It’s shallow but… Shit, shit, I’m sorry. I’m trying.” Someone’s tear thickened voice breaks in panic.
My mind is fuzzy.
I’m lying in someone’s warm arms but I’m cold.
Brain fog clouds my mind. My temples throb.
Something sharp and uncomfortable is digging into my ass and legs. I can smell an earthy scent.
I’m drowsy like I used to feel after a heavy night drinking at college.
Did D’Angelo carry me back to the dorms? Did we drink too much again?
Dad scolds me that my best friend is a bad influence.
I can’t remember .
Where am I? What’s going on?
I don’t know… I can’t quite…
A fanged vampire mask. Blood. White feathers.
With a jolt, my memories flood back of an entire lifetime lived since college.
Then finally, the moments before I collapsed.
Shay passing out. Being terrified that he’d die.
But he’s talking now. He’s alive, right?
He’s alive.
Relief like I’ve never felt before, sweeps through me, even in my half-aware state.
I struggle to open my eyes, but my lids feel weighed down.
Where is D’Angelo? Is Shay talking to him?
Somehow, that doesn’t feel right.
A bone deep terror chills me. I start to shake.
“She’s trembling.” Shay sounds even more alarmed. He rubs my icy arms. “What should I do, Mike? Okay, I’m checking her pulse.” I feel fingers on both my neck and wrist. “It’s strong and steady. She’s breathing fine. I told you, her color is fine too. She drank more than I did. Jude’s gone . That psycho has him and… I’m calming down. I’m sorry. You’re on route, right? How long? Dee, can you hear me? Can you get here quicker? Just get here, bro.”
I listen intently.
My mind feels scrambled, but slowly, I’m piecing things together.
Shay is on the phone with Mike and Eden.
Cody must be driving them here. Eden was having a Halloween dinner party with them.
I don’t know what Shay must have said, when he first managed to phone them.
How would Eden have reacted?
Has Shay called anyone else?
Then I’m filled with dread.
If Shay is handling this, then where is D’Angelo?
Shay is holding me, checking me medically, and making the phone call at the same time.
He’s saving me. Yet he must be feeling just as shit as I am. He’s putting me first as he always does.
Except, if D’Angelo was all right and here, then no way would he expect Shay to do all of that. He’d be caring for both of us.
Jude’s gone . That psycho has him…
The meaning of Shay’s words hit me like being drenched in ice water.
My mind clears.
D’Angelo has been kidnapped by Heine.
Was the wine spiked?
With a burst of furious adrenaline, I force my eyes to open.
I meet Shay’s red-rimmed eyes, which widen.
He’s clutching the phone to his ear like without it, he’ll fly apart. As if it’s the only way that he’s holding onto the present, rather than falling back into a past, where he was once trapped with his brother by psychos .
The ghost of his monsters are lurking in the way that he’s shaking as much as I am because of whatever we were drugged by. He’s still holding me up, however, protecting me.
“S-s-shay,” I slur.
“Love.” Shay desperately sweeps his fingers over my lips, as if desperate to check that I’m truly still breathing. “ Love .”
“Shay,” I repeat, more steadily.
He coughs, clearing his throat.
Then he blinks, taking a steadying breath, before he says into the phone, “Our Robyn is awake. She’s — fuck — she’s… Okay, she’s here.”
Shay holds the phone up to my ear.
“Can you hear me?” Michael asks
“Yes,” I reply, although I’m struggling to concentrate.
“Shay is refusing to go to hospital for tests. He’s a doctor’s nightmare. He even played on his sprained ankle. So, I’m strongly advising you that we take you both to Freedom Heart for a checkup. The drug will leave your system likely as fast as twelve hours. We need—”
“W-w-here’s D’Angelo?” I demand.
I’m quivering with panic.
I don’t care about tests.
My gaze rests on the overturned wine bottle. I make an effort to kick it with my foot.
Shay follows my gaze and picks up my thought. “We can test that.”
I nod.
“Robyn, I’m here.” Eden must have taken the phone. He sounds calmer than I’m expecting but also, darker. There’s something dangerous blazing underneath his tone that makes me reassured that he’s going to burn the world down to save D’Angelo. Literally. A thrill of fear runs through me. I haven’t seen this side fully of Eden before. “Jude will be back with us soon. No one hurts my family.”
I believe him.
“Tell Mike,” I say, firmly, “that I’m not going to hospital. He can do a professional check up on us, when he arrives. We’re not leaving Jude alone with Heine a moment longer than we have to.”
Shay is stroking my hair over and over. He hugs me close to his chest. He’s shaking as hard as I am.
He leans over my shoulder to call into the phone, “Stay on this line until you arrive. Don’t go, okay? Don’t leave, Dee.”
Shay sounds unbearably young.
I switch the phone to speaker.
We both need the comfort of this connection, sitting in the wood’s cold shadows.
I was playing at Halloween fears before, but now, human ones have come true…and they’re more frightening than any mask, costume, or movie.
What the hell is happening to D’Angelo?
“We won’t.” Eden’s courageous calmness settles Shay but also me. It’s the medicine that I need right now. “Cody’s driving. Your brother’s here.”
“Can you hear me, Ryn?” Cody calls. “It’s going to be all right, I swear. I’ll be with you soon. Look after my sis for me, Shay. Can you do that?”
Shay’s shivering reduces. He straightens his shoulders.
I can tell what Cody is doing. He’s giving Shay the task that he needs to calm him and get him through this.
Thank you, bro.
Shay sets his jaw. “I can. She’ll be safe with me.”
He pulls me more fully onto his lap.
I settle my head on Shay’s chest, listening to how fast his heart is thudding. It’s still reassuring to feel the rapid rise and fall of his chest after the terrible moment, when I had to watch the man I love so fucking much collapse like he’d been poisoned.
As if he’d just died in front of me.
Heine did that to me.
“I’m sorry that I wasn’t with you tonight. I’m so fucking sorry,” Cody says.
My eyes prick with tears. “None of this is your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but Heine’s.”
“I lost Jude.” Shay sounds heartbroken. When I tip my head back to study his face, his eyes are glazed. He’s biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. “I didn’t protect you, Dee, and now I haven’t—”
“Stop,” Eden says, sternly.
“Heine attacked all of us. He spiked our drink.” I scrunch up my nose, trying to piece together my fragmented memories of the night. “Do you remember how the waiters were dressed as angels? The jerk is a billionaire, plus the club’s owner. He could have easily arranged for that detail in this annual event, then bribed his way onto the caterers. Dressed as a waiter, we’d never know that there was a problem with the drink.”
“Heine took a risk,” Eden says. “He would have been angry with Jude for not following his orders. He saw his chance, when you went outside.”
So, I was to blame. It was my suggestion.
I blink the tears from my eyes. “How long was I…?”
“I don’t know.” Shay is scanning the road that leads into the woods, on the alert. “But only a couple of minutes longer than me, thank fuck. I’ve kept an eye out for that bastard returning, but he hasn’t.”
“Have you told security? Dad?”
“My legs aren’t working, love. It’s why I can’t get us at least back to the road. I just phoned my brother. I didn’t know about calling anyone else without talking to you. I mean, this is huge if our boss truly has kidnapped the captain of the team. But Jude’s safety comes first. I know that. I simply couldn’t take the decision, when this is your dad’s team.”
I freeze.
This could be the end of the Bay Rebels. If we call the cops, it will be.
We would need to be honest about the circumstances of how we were drugged, which would mean about why D’Angelo, Shay, and I were together outside.
I can imagine the headlines now: Hockey players in Satanic Orgies in the Woods.
And those would be the friendly ones.
D’Angelo and Shay’s careers would be over. Our relationships would be misunderstood, while we’d be hounded to death. It would be the worst way for our dynamics and polyamorous relationship to become public.
It would be unfair for Shay to be outed like that.
Heine must know this, which is why he’s set us up.
Yet in the balance against that is Jude’s safety.
I don’t know what to do.
“We can get him back.” Eden’s voice is hard. “I won’t let this rich man destroy my family. We are not his toys.”
“But how?” My voice is raspy with tears. “We can’t gamble with D’Angelo’s life. This jerk is unhinged. He’s been stalking D’Angelo but cleverly enough to make sure that it can’t be reported. Now, he’s reacted violently because D’Angelo refused to play dress ups for him. Years ago, he manipulated him into playing with him on Halloween as Lucifer and his tamed angel.
“What if that’s what he wants? A repeat of that but on his terms?” Shay asks, quietly.
I blink. “Shit.”
“He thinks that he’s in control. He’s not.” Eden sounds hard and focused.
Shay exchanges a surprised glance with me.
I struggle to sit up straighter. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve been researching Heine for Jude,” Eden replies. “So has Garcia. I have an entire file on Heine and his secrets. I know where he lives, what businesses he owns, and where he goes to escape his dad.”
“His dad is still violent then?”
“Garcia has medical records going back decades of hospital visits for broken bones that were not caused by falls.” Eden sounds grim. He should know. “He wouldn’t have taken Jude to any business or mansion that his dad could know about. His dad is even more powerful than he is. Heine has nowhere to take Jude.”
“What if he’s simply with him here in the grounds?” Shay sounds strained. “What if he’s hurting him right now, while he’s unable to fight back?”
“Please,” I whisper.
I can’t think about that.
Can’t.
“Not his style,” Eden growls. “Too much security. Plus, Dad and the board. Heine will want control of the setting.”
“Where does that leave?” Suddenly, my eyes widen. Of course. “All the players are here. The staff are holding their own party at Merchant’s Inn. What if Heine has taken D’Angelo to the rink?”
“I don’t think so,” Shay says, softly. “He’s a sub who is obsessed with a dom. A dom who didn’t play out a scene. A dom who he thinks of as his . He’s possessive but in a way that turns Jude into a thing. Don’t you think that he’ll take Jude back to the place that he felt was also his? Or should be? Possibly, that he dreamed he would once live in with Jude? His safe space? Perhaps, that he’s deluded himself he is still going to live in with him?”
“Jude’s mansion,” I breathe. “Thank goodness Noah isn’t lodging there right now. It’s empty. But I haven’t been there. I don’t know where it is.”
“Jude invited me…us…to move in with him.” Shay’s eyes flash with both fury and grief. “I’ve been bloody excited about the first time that I’d step through his front door. Heine can steal that moment from me but he doesn’t get to be in Jude’s home, make-believing at also taking my place.”
Studying the jealousy, insecurity, and pain on Shay’s face, I can see how personal this is for him.
This is the first time that he’s explored loving a man or allowed himself to be fully vulnerable, revealing both his emotional and submissive side.
Having Heine trying to take his place as D’Angelo’s sub in this sick parody is his nightmare.
At the same time, anything endangering the man I love is mine.
“I know where D’Angelo lives,” Cody calls through the phone. “Freedom Mansion is famous historically as where the Governor used to live and more recently, as where D’Angelo holds wild parties. I’ll collect you, we’ll have a look around there, then we’ll drive on to Freedom House. It’s not far. We’ll work out a plan, Ryn. There are five of us. Standing together, we can take on any danger.”
“What if Jude isn’t at his mansion?” Shay asks. “Shouldn’t we go straight to the police? I know what the stakes are. I’m prepared to pay them, if it means rescuing Jude. I’d bloody pay anything.”
My heart sinks.
“Wait,” suddenly, hope rushes through me, “what about his phone? D’Angelo’s main costume was skintight, but then he had that big coat. I’m sure that I saw D’Angelo sneak his phone into his coat pocket, before I left.”
Shay’s eyes light up. “Do you think Heine will miss that?”
“You did. It’s impossible to see. Can you track it?” I hold my breath,
After a moment, Eden replies. “As his PA, he had our phones and locations linked. I can track it. I’m coming to you Robyn, then we’re going to save Jude.”