29. Serena
Serena
“Ready the jet. We need to get out of the city.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where is that fucking doctor? She should be?—”
“Right here. Is this?—?”
“Yes, her. She just passed out.”
“Alright.” There’s a cool hand on my cheek, the rustling of a bag next to me. The world is fuzzy, but coming back into focus. “Does she have any allergies? Was there any cause for the fainting spell? Have you seen her faint like this before?”
“Dianne, check her?—”
“No allergies listed in her file, sir.”
“I’ve never seen her faint like that,” Ryan says, “but it was a stressful moment.”
“She didn’t faint during the storm,” says Graham.
“What storm?” Travis asks, pointedly. “You two were in a storm together?”
Finally, my body responds to my attempts to move, and I manage to blink my eyes open. They feel sticky, heavy.
“Oh, hi, dear.” A nice woman with a round face comes into view. “I’m the on-site physician for Onyx. Don’t try to sit up. How are you feeling, Serena?”
“Horrible,” I croak, shutting my eyes again. “Can I have some of that?—”
A water bottle is pushed into my hand, then removed again, and the doctor slides her hand under my head, dribbling some awkwardly into my mouth.
“I’m going to take your blood pressure,” the doctor says. I open my eyes and watch as she wraps the cuff around my arm. In the background, Ryan, Graham, and Travis are talking quickly, alternating between glaring at one another and looking over at me.
“Can you think of any reason that you might have fainted?” the doctor asks, pulling the cuff from my arm and looking me up and down. “Have you fainted like this before?”
“I got into a fight with my best friend last night,” I offer, though I’m not sure why. Her authority pulls the truth right out of me. “I—I was too queasy to eat dinner, and then breakfast this morning. And I didn’t get good sleep.”
The doctor looks oddly relieved. “Yes, that will do it. Let me get my bag—I think I have a granola bar in there.”
“Dianne!” Travis calls, stalking across the room.
Through the glass, I see Dianne drop her phone down to her ear, tilting her head toward her boss. “Yes, sir?”
“Order lunch and have it delivered to the airfield. To the jet.”
“Of course.”
I sit up, and the doctor lets me. I’m halfway through the granola bar when I feel I’m being watched and look up to find the doctor gone now. Instead, all three of the guys are staring at me.
“Are you feeling good enough to move?” Travis asks, looking something close to anxious for the first time since I met him. I’m still pissed at him for disappearing on me, but right now, everything that just happened is eclipsing that.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp, feeling my cheeks heat. “I can go, yeah. That’s never happened to me before. I, uh—it was obviously Bianca who told Alex. I didn’t mean to make a mess?—”
“Alex made the mess,” Graham insists gruffly. “You had nothing to do with it.”
“And he’s going to make a bigger one,” Travis says gravely.
Ryan kneels down in front of me, sliding a hand up and over my knee. I turn and look at him, and my heart actually starts to slow a little. “Serena,” he says, “I know this sounds crazy, but we have to go.”
I nod, tears pricking embarrassingly in the corners of my eyes. “Okay. I can—” I start to push up, to leave, but Ryan stops me with a gentle push.
“Not you.” Travis steps forward, his throat bobbing. “All of us. We can explain more in the jet, but it will be best for us to be out of the city.”
My mind is desperately trying to keep up, but it just can’t. Apparently seeing my confusion, Graham says, “Alex is going to take a page from our father’s book.”
“W-what does that mean? What is he going to do to me?”
“Nothing.” Travis says it like a promise, his brown eyes intense on me. “We’re not going to let him do anything to you. But we have to get out of the city. We need to make a plan to mitigate the damage. Talk with PR and legal, get a?—”
I’m shaking my head. “Leave the city? I—I can’t.” I get to my feet.
“Serena,” Travis tries, but I’m still shaking my head, stumbling back from them. Not for the first time in my life, I hear Georgia’s voice in my mind, warning me.
You barely know these people. And Alex was just in here, calling you a slut. You can’t get on a plane with them going to god knows where.
“I’m not leaving the city just because he’s upset,” I insist, shaking my head again, stuffing the granola wrapper in the trash. “I—I have to go.”
“You don’t understand,” Graham says in that deep, steady hum.
“Serena,” Ryan says, “Just wait. Hear us out?—”
I turn and look at Travis, and he holds my gaze for a moment.
I’ve heard nothing from him since that hotel room, and now that I’m seeing him again, I feel exactly how much it hurts.
I wait for him to say something, want him to say something about me.
Caring about me. Wanting me safe. It might not be enough.
But maybe.
Travis doesn’t say any of those things. Instead, hands clasped together, he says, “It’s the right choice, Serena.”
Something in my chest deflates. Turning to the door, I say, “Yeah, well, Alex can throw as much of a fit as he wants. I’m done letting him dictate my life.”
And with that, I walk out of the office. As I head toward the elevator, I half expect to hear them on my heels, calling after me. Trying to convince me that I should come with them.
I’d be lying if I said no part of me wanted to. Of course I do—I’m drawn to them. I’ve been drawn to them since the first time I saw each one of them.
But maybe it’s time I stop letting that part of my brain call the shots. That’s what I’ve been doing since everything happened with Alex, and all it’s done is get me into this sketchy situation.
I don’t know what to do about Alex.
But I do know one thing—I’ll feel better if I go home.
So, that’s exactly what I do.