Chapter 5
BEASTY
Iwas suspended in nothingness. My body was heavy and empty all at once. No thoughts existed here. No emotions. No pain.
I was...sleeping?
That didn't feel right. I strained to listen for a sign of something, anything to give me a clue what was going on. Then I heard it.
Like I was sitting at the bottom of a lake, sound was wavy and distant. But I heard it.
Voices.
Lake! Lake and Atlas were talking, but I couldn't make out their words.
The beeping I hadn't noticed before started to pick up in tempo, and the cotton seemed to dissolve in my ears.
"How the hell did this happen?" Lake bellowed.
My pulse thumped in my ears. Something was wrong.
"Sir, we take the utmost precaution in this wing of the hospital. I assure you, this has never happened before."
"I don't give two fucks about what's happened in the past. I care what happened today. Now!"
"Lake." Atlas. His smooth voice was as deep and rich as it ever was, sliding over the best parts of my mind. "I think Beasty's waking up."
There was a lengthy pause. "I'll grab your nurse."
"Beasty?" Lake was closer, practically right over my head with how close his voice sounded. "Are you back?"
Back? Where had I been? Why couldn't I remember—
I gasped, flailing my arms and trying to move, to run, to get to Kim! He was hurt!
Why wasn’t he moving? A sob wracked my chest.
"Stop. You're going to hurt yourself," Lake admonished, gently pressing my arms down.
"It's okay, Beasty. You're all right," Atlas murmured.
That wasn't like him. Oh, God. How bad was I hurt? Was Kim dead? Atlas was never the sweet type. He was the fuck you til you passed out because I'm obsessed with you type. He was the drive you crazy because he cared type. He wasn't the one I'd ever had assumed would give me soft reassurances.
Darkness claimed me again.
I had no idea how long it was before I came to again. This time the room was quiet except for that horrible noise.
Somehow, I pried open my eyes. They itched, like a thousand pounds of sand had been shoved under my lids, but soon, I blinked both Lake and Atlas into focus.
Lake, beautiful Lake, with his usual white-blond hair, his strong jaw, and fierce blue eyes. He was the most underappreciated of the four, but he liked it like that. And now, he was searching my face like I was the answer to his most sacred hopes and dreams.
He didn’t seem ripped open from the inside out. Some of the tension leaked out of my body.
Atlas pushed his head next to Lake’s, his stare that familiar, gorgeous amber. So mesmerizing even in their intensity. No, because of it.
"Wh-what," I coughed to clear my throat, "happened?"
Why couldn’t I remember anything?
A door banged open, and an old woman who was seventy if she was a day, walked in. "Out of the way, gentlemen. I have a patient to check on."
Even though she couldn't have been more than five feet tall, she elbowed her way in efficiently and didn't waste any time looking me over.
She checked my eyes, my machines, asked a series of questions and removed the oxygen from my face.
Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, she forced the men out so she could remove the catheter.
I had a catheter.
What…Why was I so sluggish? I could barely move.
The nurse was so fast, a whirlwind of commotion, that I barely had time to take a deep breath before she was done. As she gathered up the tubes, she eyed the door.
We could hear the shouting through it. Lake was pissed.
"Honey, are you okay with those men? I've heard from the staff that they've stayed by your side—something every woman would love, and they sure are pretty to look at.
Again, what every woman would love—but, I need to know.
You're okay with them? You're..." Her wrinkled lids closed for a second before she speared me with dull brown eyes that still held a wealth of intelligence. "Okay? You're with them willingly?"
I blinked, happy to feel normal again. Or at least alert.
"I am." My voice was still reed-thin like I hadn't spoken in ten years.
"Here, hon. Drink this." She handed me an electrolyte bottle with a straw. "You must be parched."
I took a healthy swig. The cool liquid soothed my throat in the best way. "They're my family."
That was good enough for her. With a sharp nod, she said, "Sounds good to me."
The door opened, and this time, it slammed against the wall with such force, I winced. That probably left a hole from the handle. No way could the stopper have held up against that power.
"We're out of here, Beasty. We're taking you home." Lake was livid as he stomped around the bed, gathering up several things before turning.
Taking a deep breath, he shut his anger away as he held out pieces of clothing. "You should get dressed." Even his voice had softened.
My arms were like lead weights as I raised them to take the clothes. I was happy to see my favorite worn pair of jeans among them. Atlas stepped inside, skirting around the nurse with his gaze locked on me.
Wait.
"We need to keep Ms. Hart here for at least another hour," the nurse argued.
“Where’s Kim!” I tried to shout, but my voice broke to a rasp. I remembered. I think.
Please let it be a nightmare.
Please don’t let sweet Kim be hurt or worse. I tried to swallow but my throat was like sandpaper.
"Absolutely not. A paparazzi just breached the ward. If your security was as good as you say it is, they never would have gotten through," he snapped, like he didn’t hear me. "She's awake. She's fine to go home."
Atlas rushed to my side, cupping my face in his hands. “He’s okay. He’s with Joaquin. Breathe,” he ordered and I gasped, sucking down air.
I blubbered like a fool as I tried to make sense of the images flashing through my head and what Atlas was trying to tell me.
“He’s okay? It wasn’t real?” I pleaded for him to tell me Kim hadn’t been hurt.
“It was real.” He pressed his lips into a thin line. “But he’s fine. We’re more worried about you.”
Shivering, I nodded.
He was alive. If he wasn’t here, that had to mean he wasn’t hurt. Right? They’d have put him in my room, right?
The woman narrowed her eyes. "She should be fine, but look at her! She’s in no shape to leave!"
"I am," I croaked. I needed to see Kim with my own eyes. "I don't want to stay here. Now that I've been awake for a few minutes, I feel fine." Mostly. I was pretty sure the groggy, heavy feeling was a residual reaction from the drugs.
My heart started pounding and her head snapped to the machine. When she turned back to me, she raised a brow.
"It's fine." I pulled off the sensors and the machines went crazy.
She huffed and turned them off. "I'll grab your paperwork and a wheelchair."
"No." Lake slashed a hand through the air as Atlas crossed his arms, watching the nurse with a flat stare. "It will only make it easier for someone to attack us. We'll walk out, and if Beasty can't, we'll carry her."
My eyes widened. I expected the woman to balk at him, to be surprised and maybe afraid that he was speaking about attacks, but she just nodded like this was par for the course, if a hindrance.
She left and Lake turned to me. "Go on, Beasty, get dressed," he urged.
When I swung my legs over the side, a wave of dizziness swept over me. I groaned as Atlas steadied my shoulders.
“You’re doing great, Beasty. We’re going to get you home. Step in,” Lake said softly as he helped me into my underwear, then flicked my pants out so I could step in.
I stood, feeling slightly better now that I’d been upright for a minute. Discarding the gown, I pulled on the oversized crewneck they'd brought me, sans bra. It wasn't like I needed it anyway.
"I'm ready." I turned to where Atlas and Lake hovered barely a foot behind me.
I had questions. So many questions and fears about what had happened. I think I remembered all of it, but my head was fuzzy. I didn't want to ask them here though.
Atlas tucked me close to his body while keeping a solid hold on my shoulders. He steered me toward the door that Lake already had open.
In the hallway, there was nothing to make me think that anything was wrong. It was just a normal hospital with a few nurses working the station. Most watched us leave with curiosity, but there was no malice in their expressions or body language.
Lake led us out like he knew every nook and cranny of this place. By the time we reached the outside, most of my fears had abated. If something were seriously wrong, Atlas and Lake wouldn't be this calm. If you could consider Lake's blowup calm.
One of the men from the club security melted from the bushes. "We swept the vehicle. All is clear and no one has bothered it."
Lake nodded and muttered his thanks as he beelined straight for his car. To see it parked so neatly in a regular parking space seemed surreal.
Hadn't we been attacked? Hadn't—Damn it. There went my heart again, competing with an Irish jig.
I let Atlas arrange me in the passenger seat, buckling me in before running around to the driver's side and sliding into the back.
As soon as the doors shut and we were tucked safely away from the outside, I asked the most important question. "Is Kim really okay? Tell me, he's—" my voice cracked, but it didn't matter. Lake didn't let me finish my question.
"He's fine. He and Joaquin went to the house to take care of Quilliam."
For a second, I stared at him slack-jawed. So, so much was happening. I was glad Kim was okay, good even for him to be out of the hospital. But that he and Joaquin had thought of Quilliam when I wouldn’t have blamed them if they had forgotten about him…
It was too much to process as my nose burned, and I dropped my gaze to my hands twined in my lap. Atlas slid between the seats and caught my hands in his large one.
"Everyone is fine. Well. Everyone but Storm." His words were barely understandable through the angry shake in his voice.
Storm. My breath caught. He'd been the one to find me in the bathroom. I remember. That part was clear. "What about Sarah? Is she okay?"