Chapter 2 #2
“No, you don’t,” they both said together, Ellie continuing. “I’ll handle Mark and get you a different contact for help if you need it. Maybe you…” She cleared her throat, shooting Creed a questioning look.
“Thank you, Ellie,” I whispered, realizing she didn’t want to embarrass me. I let out a slow breath and met Creed’s upset eyes but then looked away again. “I can’t speak when you’re so angry. Please, it’s not what you think. Ellie didn’t know and it wasn’t nefarious, Creed.”
“Creed Maddox from maintenance, right?” Ellie hedged.
“Yes.” That was it, but he did relax some when it was clear this wasn’t some setup. “I’ve been too screwed over to not get pissed, Aurora, but I believe you.”
That was about the best I would get, so I took it.
I met his gaze but then realized I should talk to Ellie.
“I walked up on doctors very openly and loudly harassing him. It was obviously a normal thing and I interjected. A few weeks ago.” I waited until she nodded and looked at Creed.
“Ellie’s worked really hard to cut out the corruption and toxicity. ”
He sighed. “So you wanted to know why me. Okay, well, she knows I’m an ex-con and—I’m sorry, Aurora, but she’s…” He closed his mouth and ran his tongue over his teeth.
“Part of the problem?” Ellie chuckled darkly. “I doubt that, but I understand most thinking that. So tell me whatever you think I’m involved in or not handling. Without recourse. I promise.”
“Ellie would want to know, Creed. Please, trust me on that,” I pushed when he gave her a look that he wasn’t stupid. “She is the purest soul I’ve ever known.”
Ellie snorted. “I’ve killed too many people for that to ever be true, Aurora, but that was a different time.” She narrowed her eyes at Creed. “I am a busy woman though, so spit it out or quit—”
That was the right button to push because he adjusted his neck and cut her off.
“I put everything into studying and training for the EMT parole program. Top of the class. I got to pick wherever I wanted to go because of it. What better place than ASH, the mecca of medicine and saving everyone who cares, right? Yeah, bullshit, when I fucking come here to be a janitor and—”
“Wait—what?” Ellie bit out, rage practically pouring off of her. “Who decided that if you passed the program?”
Creed blinked at her for several seconds and then shook himself out of it.
“The guy I reported to for the next step in the process.
The doc in the emergency department. He practically laughed in my face that I thought I would really get to train to be an ED tech and told me to grab a mop bucket and be grateful I had a job.
“That he’d call my parole officer if I so much as looked at him funny or stepped foot in the emergency department.
My supervisor told me the program is all bullshit and three others on the maintenance staff were in the same boat.
To just suffer through the time during my parole and get a different job later because then not everyone would know I was an ex-con. ”
“They aren’t supposed to know now,” Ellie bit out.
“They do,” I told her. “He was hassled while we were eating lunch.” I focused back on Creed.
“Yes, I knew something was off and wanted to get to the bottom of why you were being bullied, but I wasn’t spying or—I thought I could help and knew Ellie wouldn’t allow this. I truly enjoyed our lunches and have—”
“Wait, so this wasn’t just today?” Ellie interjected, looking worried now instead of angry.
“No, we’ve been having lunch for a few weeks now,” I admitted. I winced when she sighed and rubbed her forehead.
Creed chuckled darkly. “Yeah, I got it. You’ll fix me getting fucked over, but stay away from your stepmom, right?”
The anger instantly came back in Ellie’s eyes. “She has a bodyguard. She needs one.”
“So we’re dropping the act that he’s my driver, huh?” I whispered, mortified that she announced that to Creed.
She lost her anger and squeezed my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Aurora. That was unfair of me, but I have pieces of both sides of this that clearly you both don’t have. I know his history and yours, and it’s not him or you, but the combination—it’s like watching a car crash.”
“I’m sorry, Ellie,” I whispered, staring back at my hands.
“That’s it?” Creed asked. “She says no and that’s it?” He snorted. “Wow, Aurora, okay, so cool. So glad that—”
“And your anger issues are partly why,” Ellie growled. “You have piles of reasons to hate the world, and I’m sorry getting screwed over by my hospital has now added to that, but she is…”
“I told him that I’m a survivor of abuse,” I whispered, understanding why she hesitated.
I let out a slow breath before meeting Creed’s gaze.
“I don’t judge you for being in prison because I should be too.
If the sins I committed weren’t centuries ago, I would be.
They were against both my daughters. They’re sins I can’t ever be forgiven for. Excuse me.”
“Aurora, wait,” Ellie sighed as I headed for the door.
I couldn’t listen to her this time. As much as I hated to make a mess for her, I was too upset and couldn’t stay there. Everything had exploded in my face. All I had wanted was a piece of normal others had—a piece of peace and to not live in pain and guilt.
And now it was all gone.
I was so upset that I was flustered and got turned around since I didn’t know the hospital well and apparently couldn’t function without being babysat. It upset me more to know that I was really as stupid and incompetent as my husband and family always said I was.
Instead of stopping and settling myself so I could focus on signs or even look at the maps posted on walls, I just kept moving like the ultimate idiot in horror movies. Or maybe spy movies to point out who was incompetent.
It worked for me right then too.
Finally, I was exhausted from my upset and tears filled my eyes as I realized that I’d been circling around somehow, the same sign right in front of my face. I let out a shaky breath and tried to think of what to do, how I should handle this, when I was roughly grabbed and spun to face someone.
“You really are a moron, Sister,” my eldest brother said in French. “At least it finally got you away from that dog even if I had to chase you in circles.”
“Andrew,” I whimpered.
He grabbed my other upper arm and shook me. “You dare to try and bite us, you bitch? You were supposed to bring Theresa into the family as she should be and instead you both think you are the same as men and would sue us? As if you are worthy of the family money or any sort of—”
“Let her go before you lose those hands,” a deep voice yelled from behind me as he approached fast.
Andrew stopped shaking me and tried to push me behind him, but I snapped out of my shock and used one of the moves Xavier had taught me and blocked his hand, quickly moving away. The look of death Andrew gave me for daring to go against him made my whole body feel weak.
“Hey, I said leave her alone,” Creed bellowed, understanding I was about to be in more trouble.
“This doesn’t concern you,” Andrew said in better English than I would have expected given the way he looked down on everyone else besides the French. “This is a family matter, so you can—”
Creed ignored him and moved in front of me protectively. “This the mate?”
I didn’t realize what he meant until Andrew snorted, but I couldn’t get my voice to work around my brother, terrified of him. I simply grabbed onto Creed and shook my head.
“I am her eldest brother and about to take over our coven,” Andrew said confidently. “I was sent by our father to fetch her, so step aside and—”
“Yeah, not happening,” Creed drawled. “She’s not an errand or something you’re picking up from the store. She’s a damn person, and clearly she doesn’t want to go with you.”
“What does it matter what she wants?” Andrew asked, looking at him like he’d grown another head. “She is but a woman.”
“Is he for real?” Creed asked me.
Unfortunately, he was, but I still couldn’t get my mouth to work, so I just nodded.
“She’s not going with you,” Creed declared. “So, move it along or I’m getting security and—”
“Really, Aurora? You’re fucking another dog? Being a harlot with one wasn’t enough so you—”
Creed chuckled which surprised both of us. “So, you know what you’re doing is wrong if you had to do it when she was alone. Enough with the bullshit, asshole. If you had every right to just claim her, you wouldn’t have to wait until she was away from her bodyguard.”
He moved my hand off of him and stepped closer to Andrew, tilting his head and staring down at him, showing off the height difference… Which Andrew didn’t like from the rage in his eyes.
“And no shade to her guard, but I’m no dog, dickhead.
I’m sure he’s well trained if Ellie Reed hired him.
She’s smart and connected, but I’m way more deadly of an animal and raised on the street.
So not only would you be very fucking dead, but I’d make it hurt for fun.
” He chuckled darkly. “Now get the fuck outta here before I let my lion hunt.”
Andrew narrowed his eyes at him before focusing on me. “Drop the lawsuit and come home. Do not upset Father any more than you have, Aurora. You know the punishments if you do. Bring that bitch Theresa and maybe he will forgive you—”
“I will never hand my daughter over to any of you monsters,” I yelled, pushing off the wall and moving towards him.
“Never, Andrew! Centuries didn’t break me—Theresa is better than any of you, and you’re so jealous of her that it’s pathetic.
She’s one of the most sought-after attorneys in all of Europe and you hold onto being Father’s heir as if that means—”
I was so into my rant, finally able to speak when I was afraid for Theresa that I didn’t see Andrew make a move until his hand was close to my face.
But then he was across the hallway, unconscious and collapsed to the ground. I blinked at him and then looked up at Creed, realizing he’d punched Andrew. One punch and that was the result.
“Don’t be scared. It pisses me off when people get scared when I do things to protect them,” he grumbled, looking anywhere but at me.
“Thank you,” I whispered, my voice shaky. “Please don’t let them take me.” The upset and adrenaline overwhelmed me, the fear at being dragged back to that room in my family’s castle and them getting Theresa because I’d fought back, and everything went dark.