Chapter 35 #3
“Listen here, boy , I can make your life a whole lot harder,” he promises. Then he smiles. It doesn’t brighten his eyes or change the darkness in his face. It’s eerie how quickly it appears. “ Or I can make it better.”
Rather than ask about it outright, I raise a brow in a challenge. James takes it.
“Tell me everything you know about Everly and I’ll give you purpose in life,” he offers.
“I’ll set you up to get an education here, and once you graduate, you can become a professor—working here and making money alongside other prestigious members of society.
You’ll help other patients better themselves. ”
The hard scoff that fills the room at his offer causes that stupid smile to drop away.
“A job ? You think I want a job ? This is the best you could come up with?” James’s cold glare returns but I don’t flinch under it. “You can take your job and shove it up your ass. I hope you never find Everly and I’m glad as fuck Peter’s dead. Whatever you’re dealing with?—”
“I’ll make sure you never leave Rookwell Tower again, Maverick,” he cuts off angrily. “I highly suggest you take my offer seriously.”
I shrug. “I’m not scared of your threat.”
James opens his mouth to say something but Dexter steps up and asks eagerly, “Want me to take him away?”
Everly’s father holds up his hand to stop Dexter from taking another step toward me. His upper lip pulls back into a sneer.
“When I find Everly, because I will find her,” he promises darkly, “I’ll make her go through with this wedding and finally have these people stop breathing down my neck.
When she’s given Arthur his heir and she’s no longer needed, I’ll have her sent here—straight to Rookwell Tower.
You can be her tour guide before they pump her full of drugs and turn her into a?—”
My control snaps. A bellow of rage wells up and pours into the room as fury takes over. I lunge for him without thinking.
“Rot in fucking hell !” I roar as my fingers reach James’s neck.
James jerks his head back, at the same time a needle slams into the back of my neck. Something cold fills my veins. The chill that comes with it is so intense it almost feels like I’m burning from the inside out.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Dexter says, yanking me back by my shirt as the room immediately starts to spin.
“Fuck you, James!” I spit out, still glaring at James. “I’m going to kill you!”
I try to fight Dexter as he suddenly hooks his arms under my armpits, but my body is shutting down. My motor skills are beginning to slow. I’m losing sensation in my limbs and the world is starting to dim. Still, I attempt to reach for James, determined to see his life snuffed out by my hands.
James shakes his head before he heads for the door. “I guess you really are unhinged. What a waste of my time.”
The door to the office bangs open, and Dexter snaps, “Justin, grab his feet. Megan, let Dr. Hubbert know he’s about to have a visitor.”
Before Justin can get to me, I’m sinking to the floor and Dexter’s huffing hard—trying to keep me upright while his coworker hurries forward.
The room is spinning but the rage in me doesn’t retreat.
If anything, it grows stronger. My attempt to kill James Woodrow has been thwarted.
I didn’t even get a scratch on him. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
“But Dr. Hubbert isn’t in Williamson Health Center. He’s been transferred to Rookwell to oversee—” Megan starts.
“Exactly,” Dexter interrupts with a grunt as he shoulders most of my weight. “It’s already been discussed that Vick here will be going to Rookwell if he takes a step out of line.”
“But that place is for the bad ones,” she whispers anxiously before I hear the sound of her retreating feet.
I understand her fear and if I wasn’t so consumed by rage, I would be scared too.
I’m so ready to murder the man who threw me in here and would destroy his daughter, that I don’t give a fuck about what else is happening in the moment.
The world is growing dark but I fight it back as best as I can as I glare at James’s retreating back.
Over his shoulder he calls out, “Have fun rotting away, Maverick.”
With that, he disappears.
The minute he’s gone, all the rage falls away.
Fuck, what have I done? I lost control, lashed out, and now I’ll be locked away in hell, never to see Everly again. Panic and fear send a surge of adrenaline through me. It doesn’t help though, even with adrenaline, my body refuses to work.
I want to scream my frustration as Justin takes my legs and Dexter hoists up my upper half.
I try to fight them. If they get me into Rookwell Tower, I’m as good as dead and I’ll never be able to tell Everly how sorry I am.
Sorry for never seeing and protecting her from what was going on under her roof, for ever doubting her intentions when she showed up, for laughing in her face at her dream of us running together.
I’m going to die here at Serenity Falls without ever having told Everly how much I love her. I’d been given a second chance and I blew it.
“I can’t wait to see you as a rabid beast again,” Dexter whispers into my ear as I’m carried from the room. “Seeing you like that was fucking wild . It always made my shifts more enjoyable, dealing with a mindless animal like you.”
The rage is starting to fade as is the rest of the world. My head lolls back, and I find myself staring up at the blurry ceiling and the can lights we pass.
“Are we really taking him to Rookwell Tower?” Justin asks on the other side of me.
“Yes—”
“ Actually ,” a new voice says from nearby, cutting off Dexter’s response. “You’ll be taking Vick back to his room, unharmed.”
Dexter and Justin come to an abrupt halt, and my head flops forward.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Dexter hisses. “You’re just a patient, like everyone else.”
“Just a patient?” The newcomer asks, his tone eerily calm. “Justin? Megan? What do you think about that?”
“No, sir,” two voices confirm at once.
Dexter sputters, “But?—”
“If I have to tell you again what to do with Vick, I’ll make sure it’s you that’s sent to Rookwell, got it, Dexter?”
I sink into oblivion, but one thought follows me down into the darkness.
Why is Braum Milligan saving me from a grizzly end?