Chapter 34 #3
After squeezing Bay’s waist, I step away, walking over to Cara. “You expect us to believe you didn’t notice he was practically unconscious under you? If you two had sex, that would've been rape, Cara. You would’ve raped him,” I yell, lunging for her.
Strong arms wrap around my waist, pulling me back. I look down to see bloody knuckles and tattoos. Nick has me. “She’s drunk, Shortie. No point in arguing with her right now.”
“She would’ve raped him, Grumpy,” I whisper, tears falling again.
“I know. We’ll deal with it,” he assures me.
E shoves Cara back in the closet, closing the door with a slam, and takes a few deep breaths. He walks over to me as Nick’s arms loosen from around my body. “Right now, we have to take care of you and Seb, okay?”
I nod as E envelopes me in a hug, and Nick steps away. “What about Ben?”
“Unconscious,” Alex replies. I look around at the guys, then remember the bloody knuckles.
I turn and lock eyes with Nick. “Thank you.” He just nods in return.
“We should leave,” Alex says. “We need to figure out what to do about all this.”
“I need to get my phone. I dropped it in the bathroom when…” I gesture to the bathroom door.
“I’ll get it,” Bay offers, heading for the bathroom, but I follow him.
Nick puts his hand up to stop me. “I want to see him down,” I say, looking into his eyes.
Nick must see my determination and steps out of the way.
Ben is lying splayed out in the middle of the floor.
You’d think he was sleeping if not for the swelling around his eye and bloody lip.
Bay is picking up my phone from under the vanity.
It’s surprisingly undamaged as he hands it to me.
We head back into the room where Nick and E pick up Seb between them. He’s able to shuffle along, but his eyes are closed as his head lolls forward. Alex leads the way out of the house with me sandwiched between Bay and him.
We all pile into the SUV together. Bay will come back for his car. “Where do we go?” Alex asks.
“I don’t want Gabs seeing this,” E replies, brushing hair off Seb’s forehead where his head rests on his lap.
“We can go to my house if you don’t mind my stepmother,” Alex offers.
I look at the clock and see it’s already 11:30pm. “We can go to my house,” I offer. I’m due home soon anyway. Alex makes a call to his doctor to meet us there and then drives us home.
“Zander,” I holler as we enter the house.
“In the living room,” he calls back. As the guys come around the corner, Zander jumps up from the couch. “What happened?” He demands. He helps Nick and E get Seb into the spare bedroom and onto the bed. A doorbell rings, and Alex excuses himself.
“A lot happened, Z. We will explain everything in a minute,” E replies.
Alex comes back in with an older man carrying a large bag. “Hello. I’m Dr. Croft,” he nods, moving over to Seb.
“Someone better talk,” Zander says, his jaw tense with a furrow between his brows.
“Let the doc do his thing,” Bay offers. “We’ll explain outside.”
Nick, Bay, Zander, and I leave the room and move to the island. We take seats as Zander paces in front of us. “Start talking,” he says, making eye contact with each of us.
“Can we wait for everyone? I don’t want to do this a bunch of times,” I plead with him. He must see something in my eyes because he nods and grabs water bottles for all of us.
It’s only a few minutes later that Alex, E, and the doc come out from the spare room.
“Seb will be fine. I took a blood sample to identify the drug. I’ve set up an IV drip to flush his system, but he’s not in any danger medically.
Depending on the drug, he may or may not remember anything when he wakes. ”
“Thank you,” I tell him. He nods as Alex offers to walk him out.
“Did anyone call Troy?” Zander questions.
“I did,” E tells us. “He’ll be here soon.”
E comes over and gives me a hug. “Thank you for protecting him,” he says. “I can’t imagine what she would’ve done if you hadn’t found them.”
Alex comes back into the kitchen with a frantic Troy. His breathing is rapid as he scans the room. “Where is he?” We point to the spare room, and he rushes off to check on Seb.
Troy comes back out a few minutes later and stands beside Zander. “Explain now.”
Bay looks around at us, then begins. “Summer needed the washroom, so I took her upstairs. I was waiting outside the door for her when a fight broke out in the hallway. The two guys ran into me as they were swinging at each other, so I tried to break them apart.” Bay looked at me and says, “Summer yelled my name, and while I was trying to get to the bathroom, those guys attacked me.”
“A guy named Ben came into the bathroom while I was washing my hands, but I swear I locked the door. He, um, locked and put the chain on the door and wouldn’t move when I told him to.
I grabbed my phone, but he rushed me and pinned me between himself and the sink.
I flinched and panicked, dropping my phone.
He tried to touch me, so I started fighting him off.
I kneed him in the balls and he let me go.
There was a second door at the other end of the bathroom that I ran through.
It was a connecting bedroom, and I saw…” I say, choking up a bit.
Bay wraps an arm around me for comfort, so I continue.
“Cara was on top of Seb in her underwear, but I noticed Seb wasn’t conscious.
” Gulping in some air, I wipe my cheeks.
“Cara was screaming at me to get out,” I tell them.
“When she came at me, I punched her in the face. Then Nick came through the bathroom door, after knocking Ben unconscious, and the rest of the guys charged through the hallway door.”
Zander looks a little stunned for a minute, then he comes over and picks me up into a hug. “Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Were you triggered?”
“Yeah, I was, but I’m okay now.”
“I’m so, so sorry,” Bay says again, looking ashamed, his eyes down-turned.
“Not your fault,” I remind him.
“Did you say you were triggered?” Alex asks.
Zander and I look at each other. I nod, and he sets me down.
“The second foster home I was in was awful, and something bad happened.” Zander squeezes my shoulder, and I look up at him.
“That’s how I could get past my panic. Ben touched my skin with his hand, and it cleared my mind,” I tell him as a tear falls on my cheek.
“Fuck,” Zander says, wrapping me in another hug. “Did he…touch you?” He swallows.
“No. I went crazy on him before he could,” I reply, shaking my head. He puts me down, and I take my seat again between Bay and Nick.
Nick puts his hand on my thigh, squeezing gently. “Keep going, Bay,” he tells him.
“When I couldn’t get through the bathroom door, I called the guys. Nick and E busted the bathroom door open and broke the chain, but you weren’t there. We all left searching for you except Nick, who took care of Ben. Then I heard him yell, so we broke through the locked bedroom door and found you.”
Zander gives Nick a fist bump. “Thank you for getting to her,” he tells everyone.
“How did Seb get drugged?” Troy asks.
“I don’t know,” E shakes his head. “We were sitting on the patio with a bunch of people, sipping a beer. Seb had to pee and went into the house. He was gone for a while, so I got up to check on him and met Nick on the way. He told me about Summer, so we ran upstairs to help Bay.”
“Did you drink something someone gave you? You guys know better than that.” Troy asks, disappointment lacing his tone.
“No, we didn’t. We had a case of beer beside us on the patio. I cracked open my bottle and Seb’s. We had them in our hands the whole time. We didn’t set them anywhere.”
“Did this girl drug him? Where is she? Who is she?” Troy asks rapidly.
“Cara Stroud. And we don’t know. She says she didn’t, but she was drunk herself, so we don’t know for sure,” E answers.
“Goddammit,” Troy shouts.
“Who is this Ben?” Zander asks.
“He started school in January. He was trying to befriend Nick shortly after school started,” Alex tells him.
Troy looks up at that. “Nick, did you check him out?”
Nick nods. “No connection that I could find.”
“To your father?” Zander questions. Nick nods his head. “Dig deeper, Nick. I want to know everything about this guy,” Zander demands, as Nick readily agrees.
“He’s been interested in Summer. Flirting with her whenever he can,” Bay adds.
“The guy from the tournament,” Troy says, a spark making the connection.
“He’s been asking me out and just bugging me,” I fill Zander in. “I’ve told him I’m not interested, but he doesn’t seem to care. He was at the basketball tournament over the weekend and was trying to engage me, but the guys wouldn’t let him.”
“You should have said something,” Zander tells me, anger in his tone.
“Said what?” I ask, lifting my arms up. “A guy was trying to get me to go out with him? All he did was talk to me until tonight. He never tried anything,” I defend.
“She is correct,” Alex agrees. “He was just an annoyance until now.”
Zander sighs. “Sorry, Summer, I’m just upset. You did nothing wrong.”
“So, what do we do now?” E asks.
“Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do,” Troy tells us. “We have no proof of who drugged Seb. As despicable as Cara is, it sounds like nothing actually happened to him. Seb was underage drinking, and I recognize her last name. Her wealthy family won’t allow anything to happen to her.”
“I’d like to file a police report, if Summer is agreeable, on Ben.
He assaulted you, and he triggered you. I want a report on record if he tries anything else,” Zander adds.
Hopefully, Ben has learned his lesson now, but if it makes Zander feel better, I can do that.
“No parties for a while either, please,” Zander asks.
“I think I aged 5 years when you came home. I need you all to keep a closer eye on Ben, too. If he’s around, then one of you is too.
No opportunities for him to get her alone. ” The guys all nod in agreement.
“Okay, I’d like to stay the night,” Troy says.
“Me too,” E agrees.
“Of course,” Zander offers. “The rest of you had better head home.” Nick gives my thigh another squeeze and heads out. Alex squeezes my hand, and Bay gives me a quick hug before leaving.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I tell the remaining people.
E follows me towards the bathroom. “Are you really okay?” He inquires.
“Yeah, I think so,” I nod. “It was a scary night, but seeing Seb like that sort of pushed all the Ben crap to the side. It doesn’t seem like such a huge deal after seeing Cara and him like that.”
“It was still a big deal, though. If you need to talk, let me know, okay?”
“I will E,” I tell him with a tired smile as I head into my bedroom for pajamas. I take a long, hot shower, but I don’t seem to process anything that has happened tonight. I’m not exactly numb, but my brain and body are both just done.
When I walk back out, Zander has set some bedding up on the couch for Troy, and they’re both sitting at the island talking. “Doing okay?” Zander asks.
“Not really processing tonight. I’m gonna call Sarah tomorrow.”
“Good idea,” Zander smiles.
“I’m gonna check on E and Seb, then go to bed. Night,” I wave. E is lying on the bed beside Seb when I enter. “Has he woken up yet?”
“Don’t think so. Doc said he’d probably sleep through the night,” E answers.
I make sure E has what he needs for the night. “I’m heading to bed. Come get me if he wakes up?”
“I will, promise. Night Summer.”
I wave goodbye and go to my room. Getting into bed, I snuggle down with Jake’s pillow.
“Summer! Wake up! It’s a bad dream.”
I shoot up in bed, knocking my head against something. “Ouch,” I say, rubbing my forehead. What is happening right now? Opening my eyes, I see E sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Sorry. You were thrashing in your sleep. I was trying to wake you,” he says, rubbing his nose.
Oh. “Sorry, nightmare,” I reply, running a hand down my face.
“From tonight?” E asks with worry in his eyes.
“Sort of. It was a mashup of tonight and the foster home. Sorry to wake you.”
“I wasn’t sleeping anyway with Seb still out,” he says.
“Besides, this is the second time you’ve had a nightmare tonight.
” Huh. I’m not all sweaty, and the bed doesn’t look like a tornado blew through.
E must have caught both nightmares early on.
“I came in here about an hour ago. You didn’t wake up last time, but you settled. ”
I reach over, squinting my eyes, to grab my phone from the nightstand. It’s only 3am. Groaning, I flop back onto the mattress. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to sleep.”
“Why don’t you come into the spare room with me? Maybe you can get some sleep with us nearby?”
“We can’t all fit in the double bed, E.” I’d be surprised if Seb and E both fit.
“I’ll sit in the chair and watch over you both,” he offers. I point out the obvious fact that he needs to sleep as well. “I can sleep on the chair if I get tired enough. Come on. Try it.”
“I’ll take the chair. You lay with Seb,” I compromise, getting up. We head across the hall, and E scoots past me to sit in the chair.
“Really, it’s fine. It’s you and Seb who need rest more than I do tonight. Maybe having someone nearby will help you settle.”
I walk back to my room and grab a blanket and pillow and lay them over E. “Thank you,” I tell him. Getting under the covers beside Seb, I reach out to hold his hand and quickly drift off to sleep.