CHAPTER TWO
Kayla
The first thing I’m aware of is the bitter cold, inching through my back and shoulders. Something hard is underneath me, and I try to make sense of it as I open my eyes. I’m surrounded by darkness, and I hear muffled voices, then suddenly everything rushes back to me.
Dirt drops on me as someone removes the coffin’s lid, and I panic, feigning unconsciousness. But when I hear Brawley, his voice calms me a little. His face is the first I see, and I focus on it as tears burn my eyes, mixing with the dirt.
“I’ve got you,” he says. “Look at me.”
He looks terrible; I hate that I made him look like that. He reaches down and pushes an arm under my back, and though I try to help, my body doesn’t cooperate.
“I can’t,” I try to say, but what comes out is slurred.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs. “Ares.” Then between the two of them they drag me out of the hole and lie me on the ground nearby.
As more comes back to me, I tremble with the realization that I was buried alive.
And Aaron . . . he is here. My entire body shakes harder, and Brawley’s arms tighten around me.
“She needs to be warmer,” Ares says from somewhere behind me.
“I know that,” Brawley grumbles.
“I’m okay,” I whisper, and it comes out hoarse.
“You’re not okay,” Brawley says flatly.
“I’m sitting up.”
Brawley doesn’t let me go. “You were buried in a box in the ground.”
I glance around the cemetery, finding Clay a few feet away with his phone pressed to his ear, his back half turned. Whatever the person on the other end is saying, Clay isn’t happy.
Ares is crouching down near me, checking me over.
“How’s your head?”
“Full of dirt, but it feels fine now.”
He doesn’t react. “Can you feel your feet?”
I wiggle my toes inside my boots. “Yes.”
“Good,” he says, relaxing a little.
I look around again. “Where’s Vero?” They all look away, even Clay, and no one answers me. “Where is he?”
“He’s okay, he just needed a minute,” Brawley says, and I close my eyes. Vero is struggling because of me. He would have seen me in the grave, and my chest aches knowing what that would have done to him.
Aaron did this. He planned it and came here. Now he is somewhere on the island, walking around, still breathing while I was running out of air.
“I need to stand up.”
“In a minute,” Brawley insists.
“Now!”
He must be able to tell by my tone that I mean it, so he shifts to his feet and takes my hand to pull me up slowly. My legs feel like lead, but with sheer stubbornness I refuse to fall over. The cemetery tilts for a moment, and I wait for it to steady.
Clay finishes his call and turns around, scowling at me standing. “We need to move you inside.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Clay shakes his head. “Aaron did this to you, didn’t he?”
I nod. “Yes.”
Clay’s face is pure anger. “The PI I hired just called and told me he was last seen near your loft. He forwarded a photo.”
Clay holds his phone out, and both Ares and Brawley go stiff.
“Luca,” Ares says, voice deceptively calm.
My eyes widen. “That’s Aaron.”
“We need to find him,” Brawley seethes.
I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. The cemetery smells like dirt and something I can’t put my finger on.
“We need to get Kayla to the house first and have a doctor look over her, then we can worry about Luca or Aaron,” Ares says, and everyone nods. “Can you walk?”
I take a step and my legs don’t collapse. “Apparently.”
Ares moves in beside me, close enough that his arm brushes mine, not helping but close just in case.
We make it about thirty feet before my legs give out with no warning.
One second everything is fine and the next the ground is too close for comfort.
Clay catches me before I hit the ground and pulls me up into his arms.
“Put me down,” I argue.
I’m not useless; I can walk home. I won’t let Aaron win.
“No,” he states as he keeps walking.
I consider fighting him, but think better of it, reminding myself how recently I had been drugged and buried alive. “I can walk, you know,” I finally mutter.
“You were doing a really shitty job at it.”
I scoff. “I was doing fine.”
“You nearly ate shit, Kayla. You are not fine.”
“Maybe I was just testing the ground to make sure it was stable.”
Clay chuckles. “Right, sounds legit.”
“Can you at least put me down at the gate?” I complain.
“I’ll put you down when we get inside.”
I relax into the safety of his arms around me. Everything fucking hurts—my back and shoulders, even my lungs. Whatever Aaron gave me is wearing off, but too slowly, and my mouth tastes like dirt.
Ares falls into step on our left, while Brawley is somewhere behind us. But I’m grateful there isn’t anyone around—I don’t want people to see me like this.
“I can’t believe we didn’t pick up that Luca was Aaron,” Ares finally declares, and I presume he is talking to Clay.
“He is good at what he does,” I answer. “None of you could have known. I’m sorry I put you all in danger.”
“You did nothing wrong,” Brawley says. “This is all on him. And when we find him, he won’t be able to walk.”
The house comes into sight, but the lights are off and my stomach sinks. Vero didn’t go home; he is allergic to turning lights off.
Everyone is silent as we reach the front of the house. Brawley moves ahead and opens the door, then Clay walks through with me and takes me straight to the couch.
“Stay here,” he says.
“Where else would I go?”
“Knowing you, anywhere but here. Brawley, get her some water and call Banks.”
“Why the fuck would I call Banks?” Brawley asks.
“Banks is a doctor?” I question.
Brawley laughs. “Banks is a man who makes weird shit in the lab. That is not the same as a doctor.”
“He has medical training,” Ares says.
“He’s what we’ve got right now,” Clay adds. “It’s that or the hospital.”
“Banks it is,” I tell them. I’m not going to the hospital.
Brawley walks off in a huff, and when he comes back, he hands me a glass of water. It’s cold going down and hurts a little, but feels amazing at the same time.
Ares sits in the chair across from me, his elbows on his knees as he glares at the floor. I know he must be thinking about all the interactions he had with Luca—well, Aaron—and is trying to make sense of it all.
“Ares,” I say, and he looks up at me. “Stop it.”
He holds my gaze for a moment, then nods once, and he’s back to his stoic self. Clay is on the phone again, pacing toward the kitchen as Brawley sits next to me and puts his hands over mine.
“Are you okay?” he asks me.
“Check with me again tomorrow.”
“I will,” he says, squeezing my hands. “Banks will be here soon.”
“I need a shower.” I look down at my ruined clothes.
“After Banks gets here.”
I open my mouth and he gives me his signature scowl, so I close it again. Back-and-forth banter doesn’t work with Brawley, and I’m too tired to win a fight right now.
“Can someone please check on Vero?” I ask them.
“I will after Banks checks you over. He would hate me if I left you right now,” Brawley tells me.
“Clay and Ares are here. I will be fine. Just please find him and bring him back to me.”
“He will come back when he’s ready,” Brawley reassures me with a pat on my hand.
Now he is pissing me off. Why won’t he just go find him? Panic builds. What if something happened to him and they aren’t telling me? “If something happens to him, I won’t forgive you. I need to know he is okay.”
Brawley stands and looks at Ares, who gives a small nod, then pulls out his phone and looks at me.
“I will check the app.” He unlocks his phone and stares down at it, but after a second, he frowns.
“Brawley . . .” He looks up and gazes over at Clay, who is standing at the side of the room, and then back at me. “He’s in the cornfield.”
“Fuck,” Clay bites out. “He thinks Cave did this.”
“Just bring him back,” I snap before anyone moves. I don’t even argue that I should go because I know none of them will let me.
They stare at me in disbelief.
“Clay and I will go. Ares will stay with you. It’s probably best anyway while Banks checks you over,” Brawley concedes.
“Just bring him back in one piece, and don’t come back without him.” I glare at Clay. “And don’t be a dick.”
“I’m never a dick.”
Brawley and I both regard him skeptically. “Fine, I’m rarely a dick. But I promise we will bring him back, even if I have to knock him out.”
Brawley growls and Clay laughs. As they head for the door, Brawley stops in front of me. “I will bring him back.”
“I know you will.”
He presses his hand to the side of my face for a second, then turns and follows Clay outside.
Ares hasn’t moved from the chair, still staring at me with that calculating look of his. I almost find it comical that he is way out of his comfort zone right now.
“I won’t fall apart. I know I’m safe here with you.”
“Are you? We did a pretty shit job at protecting you.”
“How could anyone have known my crazy ex would show up and try to bury me alive?”
Ares shrugs. “Someone should have gone with you.”
I laugh. “That would never have worked. I refuse to have a babysitter, and you know it.”
“If you think any of those three are going to let you out of their sight now, you have rocks in your head.”
That’s a fight for another day. “Do you know what I thought when it was happening?” I ask him, and Ares shakes his head.
“About how much I needed you in that moment. I might talk a big game about not being able to be controlled again or manipulated, but you have weaseled your way in and are now someone I need.”
Ares is silent, and though I didn’t expect him to say anything, I need him to know that he is needed.
“Do you think Vero is having an episode?” I continue.
“Yes,” he simply says.
“Are you okay?” I ask him, knowing this could not have been easy on them. Digging someone up and not knowing if they are alive is a lot for anyone to handle.
Ares blinks, and it’s the closest to surprise I have seen on his face. “You’re asking me if I’m okay? You’re the one who was just pulled out of a box in the ground.”
“And you dug me up. So I am asking if you are okay.”
Ares stares at me for a moment, and I hold his gaze. He may have had a gut feeling about Luca, but he would never have been able to uncover the truth about him. I won’t let him sit there and punish himself.
“I’ll be fine,” he finally states.
“Good,” I reply. “That’s the right answer.”
He smirks at me, and a knock at the door breaks the tension between us. Ares gets up to answer it, and I hear voices in the hallway, then Banks walks in ahead of Ares.
“You look terrible,” Banks says. “You have dirt on your face.”
“I have dirt everywhere, Banks. I was buried alive after all.”
He sets down the bag he is carrying and pulls up a chair. “Run me through what happened.”
I start by telling him how I think I was drugged, and Ares’s face falls. I forgot to mention that part earlier.
“Do you know what he gave you?” Banks asks.
“No idea”—I shrug—“but I’m sure it was in my water bottle.”
Banks nods. “And how do you feel now?” He takes my wrists and checks my pulse.
“My head is a little sore, but it’s not spinning anymore.”
He checks my throat and eyes and asks me a few more questions, and when he sits back, he reaches into his bag.
“Drink this,” he says, handing me a bottle, the color screaming bad decision.
“What is it?”
“Something that will help your body process whatever he gave you faster and help settle your lungs. Warning, it tastes unpleasant.”
“How unpleasant?” I ask, screwing up my nose.
“Very.”
I open the drink, but make the mistake of smelling it first. The best way to handle something that tastes like shit is to down it in one go. But holy fuck, Banks is not wrong—it is foul. I press my lips together and breathe through my nose, waiting for the nausea to pass.
“Rest and drink lots of water. If your vision blurs again, or your hands go numb, tell someone straight away,” Banks orders.
“That’s it?” I ask.
“That’s it. You’re not concussed, your pupils are even, and your heart rate is fine. You were lucky, or he was incompetent.”
By he, I know he means my ex. “Aaron is not incompetent.”
“Then you were lucky,” Banks says again and stands. “I have a new formulation of my recovery balm that will help with your bruising.”
“Banks!” Ares snaps.
Banks laughs. “Worth a shot. Just rest up.”
Ares walks him out, and when he comes back, he scoops me up in his arms, even though I protest. He takes me up to his room and into his bathroom, where he undresses me while the shower warms. He doesn’t ask to join me; he simply does, helping me wash off the dirt.
Once I’m satisfied that I’m clean, he helps me into one of his shirts and tucks me into his bed.
“Please tell me when they find him,” I mumble sleepily.
Ares nods and presses a kiss to my temple. “You’ll be the first to know.”
My eyes fall closed, and Ares wraps his arms around me while I drift off to sleep.