Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Krew
“W hat’s wrong with her? Why isn’t she waking up?” Concern laced Decker’s voice. He paced, keeping his distance from the bed I laid Regina on.
“I don’t know, man. Maybe shock at seeing us?”
“Not possible. Maybe she hit her head.” Decker stopped pacing, grabbed his bag and rifled through it until he pulled out a small box. He ripped the top open and retrieved a white tube. “It’s an ammonia stick.” He cracked it in half with his fingers and waved it under Regina’s nose.
Regina finally stirred with a slight jerk of her head. Her eyes fluttered opened, and she looked dreamily at me. “Hmm.” She smiled, closed her eyes, and snuggled against the flat pillow. “I’m still dreaming.” Her words were muffled by the pillow.
“Regi.” I gently stroked her cheek. “Open your eyes, sweetheart.”
She scrunched her nose before her eyes popped open wide, and panic immediately took root in them. She scrambled away from me. “No—No way. This can’t be.”
“It’s us, Regi. Deck and Krew.” I raised my hands and slowly backed away from her, hoping the space eased her alarm.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Decker’s censure didn’t help. He turned to me and frowned. “Maybe she did hit her head, and that’s why she doesn’t recognize us.”
“Regi, you’re safe with us.” I infused calm into my voice, but she kept shaking her head.
“You killed that guy,” Regina said accusingly, glaring at Decker. She turned her gaze from him and looked around the room. “And why did you bring me to this disgusting place?”
“Regi—” I began to say before she cut me off with a gasp.
“I’m not doing anything with you two—I have to leave—I have work tomorrow.” Her frenzied words and what she implied was like a hard slap to the face.
Decker snorted, as an angry sneer sliced his lips downward. “Get over yourself, princess. We brought you here because you and Krew are in trouble. There are killers after you both.” His verbal hit was a bullseye.
Regina stilled, her eyes going unbelievably wide while her parted lips slammed shut. She began to tremble. “I have to get out of here,” she murmured as tears trailed down her cheeks.
She stared at the motel room door, and then rolled off the bed and ran for it.
“I don’t think so.” Decker stepped in her path, blocking the door. “You can’t leave.”
“Get out of my way,” she screeched in his face as she reached around him for the doorknob. But Decker caught Regina around her middle and hauled her up off her feet. “Calm down, hellcat.”
“Don’t fucking call me that.” Regina scratched and tried to bite his arm.
“Jesus Christ.” Decker shook her roughly. “I’m going to knock you out if you don’t stop scratching and biting me.”
Regina went slack in his hold. She dropped her head forward, and went silent.
Decker sat her down on the bed, and the moment he stepped back, Regina scooted toward the headboard.
She shook uncontrollably and I knew we wouldn’t be able to reason with her until she calmed down.
It wasn’t like her to react to us in this manner.
Then again, it had been years since she had seen us and someone tried to kill her this morning.
“Regina, please?—”
That’s not my name anymore,” she screeched.
“Not your name?” Decker countered with equal ferocity. “Then what the fuck is it?”
“It’s Regi—Regi Martin,” she said, but she still wasn’t looking at us.
“Okay, Regi… There’s things Decker needs to explain,” I pleaded, trying to coax her to look at me.
“Regi,” Decker scoffed and shook his head. “She’s not going to listen.”
“Try,” I demanded, glaring back at Decker.
Decker clenched his teeth and turned his focus on Regina. “Someone put out kill contracts on you and Krew. That asshole back at your apartment—he was a killer trying to collect on the contract out on you.”
“That’s fucked up, you know that?” I spat, before turning back to Regina. “Regi.”
She dipped her chin down to her chest, her shoulders folded in and her arms wrapped tightly around herself. “I have a life—a good job. You’re going to get me fired,” she whimpered before she tipped over onto her side and curled up into a fetal position.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You can’t go home,” Decker railed.
“I want to go home.” She sounded illogical, completely ignoring his warning.
Didn’t she understand the enormity of the situation? Losing her job was the least of her problems, not when there were hired killers out there searching for us.
In the past, whenever she was upset, ice cream would do the trick. I doubted a sweet treat was going to work this time. I had never seen her this distraught before.
Decker bent, bringing himself eye level with Regina’s partially covered face. “Look at me, Regi,” he gruffly ordered.
I didn’t like his terse tone, but it worked. She lifted her head and stared at Decker with watery, red-rimmed eyes.
I lowered myself until I was also eye level with Regina’s face. Pain carved through my heart at the abject fear blooming in her brown depths. What made her so fearful of us—of me? I had to know.
“Reg…” Her name died on Decker’s lips as she quickly scuttled back against the headboard again like we were lepers.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed.
“Why are you being this way?” Decker demanded in outrage. Frustration creased his brows. He climbed onto the bed, his face inches from hers. “What the fuck’s wrong with you?”
Regina jumped off the mattress and raced into the bathroom, slamming the door. The click of the lock was like the cock of a gun.
“What the hell, Deck. Can’t you see she’s scared?”
“Scared? Of us? We never gave her any reason to be scared.” The truth of those words hit me as soon as Decker had spoken them.
“I know.” I dropped onto the bed, feeling lost. Out of all people in this world, I wanted to reconnect with Decker and Regina. Even if it was only for friendship. I had trusted them back then and my gut told me I still could—even if Decker was a hitman.
God, I had missed Regina so damn much with every part of my being. Even though she never contacted me—not once—not while I was in prison, I had plans for us when I got out. But when I was released, I learned that she disappeared soon after I was arrested. Not even Maya knew where she was.
At first, I wanted to track her down, hold her, and tell her that my love had never died.
However, something in my gut told me that expressing the truth about my feelings wouldn’t help, and I was right.
Even though I still didn’t know why she ran all those years ago, I realized there were deep wounds inside Regina—wounds I couldn’t see.
“We haven’t seen her in all these years and suddenly she’s acting like we physically hurt her,” Decker growled.
“I don’t fucking know,” I snarled back. “Maybe she needs time.”
“You might not want to push, but I need to. We don’t have time to waste, and I’m going to find out why she’s acting so strange toward us.”
“Christ, Deck, someone—I think the guy named Grater, is who tried to kill her this morning.”
“I know Grater. The guy I put a bullet in wasn’t him,” Decker said with a frown. He stalked to the bathroom and pounded on the door. “If you don’t get your ass out here, Regi, then I’m coming in after you.”
“Jesus, cut her some slack,” I rumbled out, reaching his side. “Let me talk to her, Deck. You’re too hotheaded right now. Take a walk.”
“Fuck. We don’t have time for this shit.” Decker glared at the bathroom door, turned and tore out of the motel room, slamming the door.
Now it was up to me to soothe a whimpering Regina, hiding in the bathroom.
I swallowed the pain bubbling up in my chest, took a calming breath, and carefully turned the knob. The door opened easily. What a surprise, the lock didn’t work. Slowly, I widened the door, until I saw Regina in the tub, curled up, her eyes filled with wariness.
“Can I come in?” I asked, standing at the threshold. I didn’t step into the small space because I didn’t want to add to her anxiety.
Regina was trembling, smashed against the farthest side of the tub, her arms wound tight around her legs. She dropped her gaze to her knees and a soft, barely audible no came through. That one word cut me even deeper than any before. She was afraid of me.
I dropped my ass down in the doorway, my attention never leaving her face.
She didn’t move, or say anything else. Neither did I. We just sat there in the quiet.
I sat there in silence, unmoving for so long that a dull ache settled into my tailbone. When I got up, I caught her flinch. Her negative reaction to me only added to the pain ripping at my heart.
Did someone hurt her? If so, I want to know who.
Nevertheless, I refrained from asking.
I walked away, leaving the bathroom door open.
I glanced out the grimy window, trying to spot Decker, but he was nowhere in sight.
I figured he either went down to his truck or took a walk to clear his anger.
Either way, I hoped he could get his rage in check, because we needed him to get us out of this insane mess we’d been thrust into.
A gut-wrenching sob echoed from the bathroom and had me rushing to Regina.
She trembled violently. I didn’t care if she hated me; I still loved her.
Without hesitation, I reached into the tub and scooped her up.
I climbed in, managed to contort my big, bulky frame until I sank back down, and cradled her in my arms.
Rocking back and forth, I murmured to her all the wonderful things we used to talk about when we were kids.
I refused to let her go—even when she struggled to get out of my arms. It was a futile effort on her part—I was much stronger and more determined.
She eventually quieted down, even though her tears didn’t stop flowing.
Decker appeared in the doorway. “Is everything alright?” All of his bravado and anger were gone. Or tucked away.
“For now.” I stared up at my best friend, my own eyes filled with unshed tears. I had never seen our girl so broken before. She’d always had a sweet disposition and loads of self-confidence, and it killed me to see her folded in on herself.
I was ready to take on the world, just to make her smile.
“Give her to me,” Decker said.
“Don’t yell at her,” I quietly demanded.
“I won’t,” he replied softly, with his arms out.
I reluctantly passed Regina to him. She didn’t protest. He left the bathroom and headed to the bed. He laid her down in the center of the full-size mattress and spooned himself against her back. Decker pointed to the other side of her, silently telling me to lay down.
At first, I wasn’t sure if I should. Deciding, I climbed onto the bed and we sandwiched Regina between us like we used to when we were kids, whenever she had been upset, especially pertaining to her mother. That last summer at the Honey Pot was the worst.
Her breaths fanned my neck, which, in an odd way, eased my worries. I kept my left arm at my side, and watched her.
Decker gently stroked her short dark brown hair. “I miss the blond,” he whispered, and Regina stiffened like a board between us.
“It doesn’t matter what color hair she has, our Regi is still beautiful,” I countered, hoping she’d relax, but she neither moved nor spoke.
Regina’s eyes closed, her breathing evened out, and her clenched fists eventually relaxed.
How ironic, we were right back to where we were, before all hell had broken into our lives more than a decade ago.
I lifted my head and glanced across the bed, and met Decker’s eyes. With unspoken understanding, I slowly slid off the mattress and so did he.
Once I covered Regina with the blanket from the other bed, I followed Decker outside and quietly closed the door.
“Something happened to her, I know it,” Decker grated out. “And we need to find out what.”
I glanced at Decker as he stared at the early morning sky. The profile of his handsome face hadn’t changed much since he was young. Although the fine lines etched in the corners of his eyes made him look dangerous, I supposed that came from life as a hitman.
I trusted no one else but Decker Moss with my life—with Regina’s too.
He turned to me, the harsh slant of his sexy mouth softened. “You agree?”
“Yeah,” I said easily, but I dreaded what we were about to uncover. From the way Regina had rejected us, it had to be bad.