38. Chapter 38
Cody
Someone needs to turn these fucking monitors off before I lose my mind. Between the noise, nurses, doctor, and pain, I can’t fucking sleep. And I’m exhausted to the point that I might cry, which is embarrassing.
Still, I need to be certain. Need to make sure this morning wasn’t a dream.
I wiggle my toes.
They move. Thank fuck. Could do without the pins-and-needles. Can’t wait for that to go away.
“Look who’s finally awake.”
Atlas.
Opening my eyes, I scan the room, sucking in a breath at the sight of him. A hot, sharp streak of pain ignites through my lower back. I groan, pressing my lips into a tight line.
“Easy, Little Titan.”
“Hunter?” I turn my head slowly, blinking when my vision lags a beat. “You’re here. Both of you.”
He nods, brushing hair off my forehead. “You moved your toes.”
“Mhm. They even made me stand this morning. But fuck doing that shit.” When my eyes finally focus, I notice his cheek is swollen. Covered in red marks too. “Please tell me you’re done fighting. I can’t—”
“We’re done.” Atlas squeezes my hand.
I turn toward him, stopping midway when the room spins. Fucking pain meds. My lungs seize when I finally get a good look at him. His face. Oh, my god. Hunter did that ? I swallow hard, tears forming in the corner of my eyes. “Atlas.”
“I’m okay.”
“No. No, that’s not okay. Hunter—”
“It wasn’t him. Well, not all of it.”
My gaze drops to the cut on his cheek. No, not a cut. A slash. “Who—” The words catch in my throat. “Atlas, who did that?”
The beeping from the monitor picks up.
“Cody, calm down.” Hunter cards his fingers through my hair. “Everything’s okay now.”
I close my eyes, tears spilling over. My heart thunders in my chest, the monitor chirping faster beside me. Pain surges through my lower back with every broken breath.
Can’t even cry without it hurting.
Fuck this shit.
“Little J, easy.” Atlas threads his fingers through mine, holding my hand tight. “You know, I’m supposed to be apologizing to you for—”
“No. It was an accident. And you already said you were sorry.”
“But you’re here because of me.”
“So?” I raise my hand to wipe my nose, but Hunter beats me to it. “Great, there I go again, snotting all over you.”
He huffs. “Told you I don’t care.”
Atlas chuckles and wipes the tears from my cheeks. That’s when I see the bandages on his wrists.
My throat constricts, and more tears fall. “Atlas . . . did you . . . Oh my god, it was an accident. I’m not mad . . . why did you . . .”
He follows my line of sight, then his gaze snaps back to mine. “No, Cody. It’s not like that. Just some zip ties cut a little too deep into my skin.”
My eyes widen. “Excuse me? Zip ties? What the hell?”
Atlas looks from Hunter to me.
I'm missing something, probably because the fucking meds won't let my brain catch up. So, I squeeze Atlas’s hand hard because it's the only thing I can do. “Tell me.”
Hunter clears his throat. “We will. All of it.”
I face his direction again and catch him wincing when he shifts. “You’re hurt too?”
“No.”
Atlas growls. “We talked about lying and hiding shit.”
Hunter glares. “Enough.”
“Nope. He got stabbed, Little J.”
There goes my heart again, beating like it’s trying to break out of my chest. My sobs wrack my whole body. The shaking intensifies the pain tenfold. It’s too much.
Stabbed.
He was fucking stabbed .
“Cody, we’re fine. Honestly.” Atlas’s thumb brushes over the outside of my hand. “We’re okay.”
Hunter places his palm on my chest when I start to hyperventilate. “Slow down, Little Titan.”
When I don’t, he leans forward, resting his forehead against mine, and Atlas kisses each of my knuckles. They’re here. Both of them. They’re okay. And slowly, I start to calm down.
A nurse pokes her head in. “Everything good in here?”
“Yes,” Hunter says, not bothering to look at her.
“What happened?” My voice comes out weak, broken.
“Now’s not the time.” Hunter steps away, moves the chair in the corner closer to the bed, then sits.
I narrow my eyes. “You ran out of here, Hunter. Didn’t explain, just bolted. And now you’re both back, talking about being stabbed and tied up. Tell me.”
“Little J—”
“No!”
Atlas looks at the monitor as the beeps accelerate. “Cody—”
“I said no!”
He sighs and nods. “Promise you’ll stay calm.”
I glower at him. “That doesn’t sound ominous or anything.”
“Little J, promise me.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Atlas looks at our joined hands and takes a deep breath. But it’s Hunter who starts talking, telling me about how he grew up with a serial killer for a father. How he had been forced into some sick, twisted hunting ritual with his brother since they were small children.
It’s a good thing I didn’t make that promise because I am anything but composed. Those scars all over his body. His family did that. His own fucking family. My muscles tense with rage when Atlas tells me about how they kidnapped him, how he got the scar on his leg.
I turn to Hunter. “I hope your father rots in jail.”
“Atlas killed him. To protect me.”
“Glad someone did. Saves me the trouble.”
Atlas chuckles. “Little J, that is not you.”
I huff and roll my eyes. “You don’t think I would hurt someone to protect you, to protect my family?”
“Perhaps.” Hunter’s jaw works. “But I—we—don’t want that for you.” Atlas nods in agreement. “There’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“Little Titan, just listen.”
“Fine.”
Atlas blows out a breath. “Hunter’s uncle broke out of prison. Kidnapped me again. That’s why my wrists were zip-tied, and how I got this.” He traces the slash on his face.
My mouth opens, closes, opens again. “How? How’d he break out of prison? Isn’t that hard to do?”
Hunter’s dark eyes meet mine. “My uncle was in a low-security facility. He had a good lawyer who got the charges reduced. Might’ve been easier for him to get out. Don’t really know what happened yet.”
“But the police have him?”
Hunter shakes his head. “He’s dead. My brother too.”
I reach for his hand, ignoring the pain the movement causes. “Hunt.”
He takes my hand but says nothing.
Atlas swallows hard. “There’s still more. And you might think differently about us after you hear it.”
“You think I wouldn’t want you because of this? Because you were abused. And attacked. Seriously?”
He looks away for a second, then his eyes lock with mine. “Cody, we killed them. And they’re not the only people we’ve—”
My pulse beats wildly, setting off an alarm on the monitor. “Stop.”
“You have to hear it.”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”
Hunter grips my chin firmly and moves so he’s the only thing I can see. “We kill people. Bad people.”
“Y-you . . . you still do it?”
He nods.
The room starts to spin, my breaths coming hard and fast. All those threats they casually made. Like the one against my professor because I got upset over a grade. The way Atlas tripped Cindy. That scare actor. It wasn’t just talk.
I swallow hard. “M-my family?”
Hunter’s brows pinch together. “Already said we don’t hurt innocent people.”
A chill settles into my bones. “But Atlas hurt Cindy.”
Atlas scoffs. “Dude, my brothers and sisters have been doing that to each other since elementary school. And she came at you first. In public. So honestly, a chipped tooth was getting off easy. Plus, she should've put her hands out.”
Hunter glares at him, then looks back at me. “Your family is safe. We’d never hurt them.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, bile crawling up the back of my throat. Not sure if it's from what they just told me, the meds, the pain, or all of it.
“Little Titan, look at me.”
“I–I can’t.” Each breath saws in and out, inducing new spikes of pain, and I whimper. “Too much. It hurts. Everything hurts.”
Hunter lets go of my chin and pushes to his feet. “We’ll leave.”
My eyes go wide as I grab for his wrist. “No.”
He sits back down in the chair, and I let go of him, then search along the blanket until I find the little button clipped near my hip. I press it once and wait for the meds to kick in and dull the pain.
Wish I could rewind time and go back to last week when everything was perfect. When no one was hurt. When I didn’t know they . . .
The pain starts to subside, my body sinking deeper into the mattress. I blink, then blink again, and when the room goes blurry, I let my eyes close. “Don’t go.”
“We won’t,” Hunter says.
“Promise?”
Atlas kisses my knuckles again. “We promise.”
Only now . . . I don't know if I can say the same.