Chapter Six
Waverly
My head hurts like I might have drunk all the beer at that stupid end-of-summer party, and my body aches like maybe the football team used me to practice tackling.
Everything hurts! And that isn’t an exaggeration.
It really starts to worry me, enough to crack my eyes open to find out what the fuck is wrong. When I do, I immediately wish I hadn’t.
WHAT? THE? FUCK?!!
Am I in the hospital? How fucking hard did I go at that stupid party? And who the fuck is the hot guy sitting in my room sleeping in one of those really uncomfortable chairs that seem to be in every hospital ever?
I take a moment to look at the man and can only say…
he is seriously hot. His hair is a mix of brown and red with streaks of blond through it that I don’t think comes from any bottle since he doesn’t seem like the type of man who would take the time to have it done.
My eyes run over the width of his shoulders, noting how big he seems even crammed in one of those chairs.
It doesn’t escape my attention that his legs are long and well-muscled as they are stretched out in front of him.
He has to be over six feet tall. He just has to be.
And fucking hot as sin! The man could be the lead in action movies, and girls would swoon every time he crooked his finger at them.
Not that I would be one of them, mind you.
I don’t really feel comfortable around someone this fucking pretty.
They always seem to be full of themselves and very aware that they look the way they do, which ends up with them having multiple girlfriends and ‘acquaintances’.
It makes me wonder how many women this guy has been through or is currently going through.
I look back up at his beautiful face only to find his eyes open and watching me the same way I’m looking at him. My cheeks heat, and I quickly look away from him, wondering if he realizes what I'm thinking.
“Good morning, sweetheart.”
I have to swallow before I start drooling. The man makes it sound like we slept together, and a part of me isn’t mad about it at all. And it’s so much worse when he smiles at me with that killer grin and those dark blue eyes. Eyes shouldn’t be that blue.
“Where…,” I have to lick my lips to even think about getting the rest out, “where is Sadie?”
He moves closer to the bed and takes my hand in his, and a distant memory of someone holding my hand through the night flashes through my aching head, but I can’t bring it into focus. I try to raise my other hand but find it is…in a fucking cast.
“She’s at my mom and dad’s house with Boston.”
Mom and dad’s house? Boston? Oh God! I think this is Neve’s big brother and I’ve been drooling over him ever since I opened my eyes.
I’m sure that is breaking every girl code known to females everywhere.
Wait, wasn’t her brother…a cop or something?
Things are coming back to me that make the world tilt to a sick angle that has my stomach revolt.
“Is she safe?”
He nods, “Boston wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”
Oh good! At least Sadie has someone watching out for her. I’m the one in real trouble because nobody is going to look out for me. And I saw the guys who tried to take…
“Have they found him? Have they found the kid they took? Do they know who the men are?”
This time he shakes his head and frustration is in his eyes. I let my head fall back on the pillow and stare at the ceiling for a moment. What the hell am I supposed to do now? There’s no way those guys aren’t coming after me. I should…
“We’re looking, and with your help we might be able to find them even quicker. We're still not sure why it all happened. And there hasn’t been a ransom.”
“That doesn’t sound good. What…?”
The door to the room bangs open, and I can’t help the small scream that comes out.
Add quick to the list of traits Neve’s brother has that make him hotter than hell.
He moves in front of me, and something low in my belly grows warm.
Tingles shoot through me, causing my thighs to squeeze together.
I’m in danger; I should not be having all these urges and newly awakened hormones hitting me now. I should be focused on not dying.
The man standing in front of me has his hand at his hip, and only then do I spot the gun hanging from his hip. So that is why he is here. He was on the job waiting for me to wake up so he could, what? Get the description of those two guys?
Surprise, surprise! I don’t know. I can’t remember, and when I try, my head starts hurting so bad it makes me sick to my stomach. Looks like the secret of who took that kid is going to die with me.
“God damn it, Wallen. You could have knocked.” My…shit, probably not okay to call him my anything. Neve’s brother’s shoulders relax, and he removes his hand from his weapon. It must not be someone coming to kill me at least. Not yet anyway.
“Why the hell should I knock, kid? I got work to do. No time for stupid niceties.”
My...protector moves aside, and a shorter, rounder guy is standing in front of me. He looks mad, like I’ve already pissed him off.
“It’s a damn shame no one talked to this kid last night when things were fresh in her mind. Now we’re going to be playing catch-up.”
“She wasn’t able to tell us anything last night, Wallen. That’s why I was here all night. To make sure that as soon as she woke up we could talk to her.”
“I bet that’s why you stayed, kid. I bet.”
The man runs his eyes over me, and I pull the sheet up closer to my chin. I don’t like this guy. At all.
“Ask your questions and get out!”
“You don’t tell me what to do, Wrath! I’m your fucking superior!” The guy starts forward, but Wrath goes toe to toe with him.
“Not in this you aren’t. Chief said I was in charge of this one. So, why are you here?”
A vein starts throbbing in the guy’s forehead, and I wonder for a brief moment if he’s about to have a heart attack. I guess this is the best place to have it if so, since we’re already at the hospital.
Just as I think the man is going to stroke out or take a swing -which might be more dangerous considering Wrath has a good foot on this guy and a hell of a lot more muscle.
The door flies back open and in steps another man.
This one looks…almost fatherly. He’s older than both of them and is somewhere right in the middle in height.
“Cut it out, Wallen. No one said the kidnapping wasn’t yours, but the attempted murder of the witness falls in the hands of Wrath here.”
“That’s not how we do things, Chief, and you damned well know it!” The guy is shaking with pent-up anger and frustration, and I find myself not wanting to talk to him at all. “Major cases like this one come to me. Wrath doesn’t have the experience I do.”
“Maybe not, but he can keep a witness safe, especially this woman. He’s already proven that.”
I gasp and draw all of their eyes to me.
“You…you were the one who…found me.” A part of me realized it was him.
Wrath nods, but their chief is the one who speaks up, “Not just found you. He shot at the man chasing you before pulling you to safety.”
I should have remembered those eyes, but they are so mercurial I couldn’t place them.
They were darker than they were when I opened my eyes this morning, but when I look at him now the darkness starts to form in the center and bleed out until his whole iris is a deep dark blue like midnight rain.
I have no doubt he will find anyone he sets out to find.
What I don’t know is if I’m alright being his bait.