Chapter 26
Cobra
Iscrubbed the tears off my cheeks when Giant said my name, calling me into the examination room in his clinic.
I hated this place. Reminded me of a hospital, no matter how homely he’d tried to make it with fake plants and artwork.
Just one whiff of disinfectant and it sent me right back to the hospital room I’d spent far too long in after Dad got me away from my pimp.
Cherry and bitter chocolate shoved up my nostrils, but I shook my head hard.
It was just my brain fucking with me because I’d been stressed for two days straight and hadn’t slept.
No, for a whole week straight, after I snapped at Lynn to leave me alone and she had.
We needed to talk about that. I needed to explain what happened, why I reacted that way, but… later.
“Yeah?” I asked gruffly, clearing my throat before I forced myself to walk into the exam room.
Giant angled his head when he caught sight of me, and I joined him in the corner of the room beside tea and coffee canisters and a kettle that had seen better days.
The scent was oppressive, but I breathed through clenched teeth and fixed my eyes on Lynn across the room, sitting stiffly on a sterile bed while Ndidi spoke to her in low tones.
I felt better with her in my line of sight. This last hour had been fucking hell.
Of all the things I braced for Giant to say, it wasn’t, “Has she spoken to you at all?”
“Yeah, she—” I paused. Recalled everything she’d said since we found her.
She’d nodded, shaken her head, and kept close to me, but I hadn’t heard her voice.
Same when she hovered around Prodigy, making sure the cunts of the gang were properly dealt with; I hadn’t seen her mouth open once. “Shit. No.”
“It’s a completely natural way to process trauma,” Giant reassured me quickly. “Chances are, she’ll be fine in a few hours or days. Ndidi’s seen this before, so she’s not too worried.”
“What do I do?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Giant rubbed his jaw, looking tired, haunted. After everyone he’d treated tonight, I wasn’t surprised. “The worst thing you can do is push her to talk. She needs to feel safe again, and able to speak in her own time.”
“So… silence?” I curled my hands into fists so I didn’t gouge my fingernails into my skull again. It hadn’t helped the first time; ripping the skin off my head wouldn’t solve this, either.
“No, actually.” Giant turned and rummaged through a drawer. “The pressure to talk might make her freeze, but try holding a one-sided conversation and leaving little pauses to fill if she feels up to it.”
“Right.” I rubbed a headache brewing over my eye. “I can do that. What else?”
“You know best about what comforts her. Just do that.”
I nodded. “Gaming, food, knives. Got it.”
He picked up a white box, considered it, and put it back in the drawer. “Go easy on yourself. I know it’s easy to blame yourself, but you being stressed and reactive won’t help her heal.”
“Easier said than done,” I muttered, my shoulders tight. “We had an argument before she was taken.”
Giant turned around with a different white box in his massive hands, removed a strip of tablets and passed them to me. “The whole club knew you’d argued.”
“Of course they did,” I muttered. “What are these for? How many and how often?”
“Sleeping pills for you.” I jolted, transferring a glare from the pills to my brother.
“You’re dead on your feet, but adrenaline and instincts will keep you awake.
You’re no help to anyone sleep deprived.
” He almost rested a hand on my shoulder but pulled back at the last moment.
I appreciated the gesture, though. “Everyone knows we wouldn’t have found them without you.
You gave everything, worked yourself to death, and survived on taurine and spite. ”
I choked on a laugh. “Put that shit on my headstone. Survived on taurine and spite.”
“You can rest now, Cobra,” he said, gentling. “They’re home.”
A lump formed in my throat, refusing to deflate even when I swallowed. “If I sleep—”
“She’s not going anywhere,” he said, anticipating my argument.
I sighed. Expelled all the breath in my lungs. “Fine. If I can’t sleep, I’ll take one of these.”
“Good man.” Giant lifted his head when movement came from the door.
Tybalt aimed a disturbing smile his way. “Hey, man. Do you have any of that sedative I used last month? For, uh, no reason.”
“No reason, huh?” Giant mused with a knowing smirk.
I left them to it, pocketed my sleeping tablets, and caught Ndidi’s eye. “Does she need to stay in here tonight?”
She seemed to understand what I asked. Does she need surgery? “Nothing so dramatic,” she replied, moving to put away supplies that littered a nearby surface. Lynn was the last to be examined; she insisted everyone else be seen first with an impatient flap of her hand. No words, I realised now.
“Hey, you,” I murmured, making sure she saw my hand before it landed on the back of her neck, my thumb stroking over the tense line of her shoulder. “Ready to get out of here?”
She sighed in relief and stood, following me wordlessly from Giant’s clinic.