Chapter 68
sixty-eight
. . .
My body hurt.
That was the first thing I noticed when my eyelids popped open. Lying with my cheek flat against a white sheet, I stared at the unfamiliar curtains, momentarily dazed. The light filtering through was too bright, sharp, slicing through the fog in my brain.
Where am I?
A niggle of anxiety touched my breathing and I pushed up on my hands, my shoulders objecting to the force I applied to them. My muscles felt heavy, leaden.
“What the hell happened last night?” I mumbled, noticing the thickened slur to my voice.
Flipping over onto my back, I couldn’t hold in the groan slipping from my lips as I sat up, eyeing the peach and white bedroom with a lot more panic.
Whose bedroom is this?
I tried piecing together the last of my memory.
All I remembered though, was the drink Ajay handed me when we sat down to dinner.
I couldn’t tell what we ordered, the color of the tablecloth, the name of our waiter or the kind of music playing in background.
A black hole where hours of my life should’ve been.
I refused to acknowledge the notion that I’d allowed Ajay to go to third or fourth base when we hadn’t even explored the first. Not that I wanted to since Remo seemed to be the only man my body craved.
The thought of him sent a sharp pang through my chest, followed immediately by a protective instinct over my stomach.
What if Ajay raped me? What if the baby…?
That gut punched me into vaulting off the bed and blindly rushing around the room until I located the ensuite bathroom. Inside, I stared at my flushed skin draped in a blue negligee I had no recollection of slipping into, my hair a tangled mess of knots and streaks of mascara tainting my cheeks.
“Please, God.” I tore off the silky material in a frantic tug, inspecting my body in the long mirror.
Except for dark blue rings around my throat and biceps, there was no other visible marks. I touched the blotches on my arms, wincing at the slight pain. Someone had gripped me with enough force to bruise my skin. I turned sideways, exhaling only when I saw the flat curve of my abdomen untouched.
Frustrated, I reached for a bathrobe hanging on a hook, poked my arms through the sleeves, knotted the belt then grabbed the torn negligee and stepped out of the bathroom intent on getting answers.
However, the sight of my sister, paused my feet.
Garbed in her usual black tank and dark chinos, she lounged against the window I assumed she’d come through.
Immediately, the anxiety dissipated, leaving in its wake a sense of calm her appearance always seemed to bring. With her around, I felt safe, protected, knowing she’d never let anything happen to me.
“Where am I?”
She chuckled before answering, “Ajay’s estate, well, his father’s to be precise.”
I frowned. “His home?” She nodded. I’d been to his home, never the bedrooms though, there was never a reason to. “Do you know if he…” I trailed off, unable to say the words.
“Raped you?” At my nod, she shook her head. “I wouldn’t say rape, more handsy trying to get to first base in the restaurant bathroom but you fought him off.”
“I did?” I began then, “wait, how do you know he did?”
Her soft laugh surrounded me in its warmth. “You remember when we were kids and Mom insisted we learn martial arts to protect ourselves?”
“And I couldn’t even lift my arms for days after one session.” Staring at my chipped pinky nail, I laughed too, recalling those days I’d moan before eventually dragging my feet to the training sessions then literally fall asleep later while brushing my teeth.
“What did I promise you, Ishika?”
I lifted my eyes to meet hers. “You’ll push me to try my best, but you’ll never let any harm come to me, no matter what.”
“And?”
“You’ll watch from afar while I try to defend myself and step in to help only if you see me failing.”
I recalled that day two boys bullied me during recess. Dia found me crying in the bathroom and after school she cornered both boys. By the time she finished with them, they were licking her shoes in front of a crowd of students.
We made the pact that afternoon.
“When you resisted, he got a little rough.” She touched her throat indicating the mark on mine. “Then you somehow forgot the training you had and you tried to use the SING method instead. You remember that one?”
“Yeah.” I loved the movie Miss Congeniality since the first time I watched it, more so Sandra Bullock’s self-defense technique as her talent at the pageant show. “That isn’t supposed to work in real life. The variables are too many for the technique to be that accurate.” I grinned.
“Judging by the way he limped afterward, I’d say blunt force trauma to his cock.” She wiggled her brows.
Although I laughed, I quickly sobered. “Why can’t I remember anything?”
“Because his goons, standing outside the bathroom door, rushed in when they heard Ajay scream. At his request, they held you while he sedated you with enough ketamine to knock you out and–”
“Cause short term memory loss,” I finished for her.
“Yep. Those assholes caused the bruises.” She pointed to my arms. “When they helped you to the car after proclaiming to other patrons that you were too drunk to walk.”
“Bastards,” I mumbled, miffed. “And this?” I held out the bunched negligee in my hand.
“Wouldn’t be surprised if his mother helped,” she snorted. “He’s apparently a mama’s boy.”
Slowly shaking my head, I paced the dark brown carpet for a bit then stopped in the middle of the room. “I need to get out of here.”
“What about Kai?” Her question had me looking at her, concern deepening my frown. “You know they’ll kill him before they let him go.”
She was right. They would rather see me broken that letting me off the hook. “Help me get him out.”
Straightening, she slipped her hands into her pants pockets and rocked back on her heels. “Kai doesn’t believe you’re his sister–”
“But the DNA test will prove I am,” I argued, flustered because we had yet to get that test done and they hadn’t allowed me to as promised.
“You’ve met Kai a few times now, has he made any indication of wanting to come back home with you?
” She had a point. “Anything drastic and you risk alienating what little leeway you gained. Besides, he won’t come quietly.
Even if we kidnap him, he’ll either hate us more, or try to kill us.
He’s been brainwashed since he was a baby, Ish.
He sees these people as his family and they’re all he’s ever known for the last twenty-three years.
All they offered him was love, there’s no reason for him to hate them. ”
I hated that she was right. Defeat brought tears, making me angrier. “So what do I do?”
She shrugged. “Let it all play out, slowly and methodically. Earn his trust. Convince him that your lack of memory has a reason and find out what it is.”
“What about Remo, he can help me get Kai out?”
Dia laughed. “You’re not thinking clearly, sis.
Ajay hates Remo and he’s already filled Kai with that hatred.
You’ll spawn a war between your brother and the man we fuck.
Do you honestly want to say goodbye to his incontestable appetite for pussy?
Anyone else fucked you to pass out point?
” She sighed. “Right now, Remo is standing down because of Kai, otherwise he’d rain war on these people, one they won’t survive. ”
Despite my anger, her bluntness made me smile. She never beat around the bush. “So you want me to just go downstairs and pretend last night never happened?”
“That would be the logical choice right now.”
“What about you?”
Her expression shifted, the humor fading into something harder. “I need to go away for a bit.”
My stomach dropped. “Again? Why?”
“Intel,” she said simply. “There’s a dangerous man I’ve been hunting for a while now. He knows things that can impact us all. I might not have reception where I’m going, so if you call I might not answer in time.”
“But… Ajay—”
“Remo won’t leave you with Ajay for long,” she interrupted, her voice certain. “He’s hunting. You just need to stay alive until he finds you. I’ve cleared the immediate threats, but I can’t be in two places at once.”
“When will you be back?”
“When I have what I need.” She turned around to climb out the window.
I stopped her. “What about me, sis?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “When you’re ready to claim him completely and unconditionally, I’ll walk away.”
I frowned. “Will it be that easy to?”
She studied me for a silent moment, then smiled. “He’s the light to your darkness, Ish, the elixir to your poison and the strength to your weakness, you just don’t know it yet.”
What darkness?
My jaw dropped. “Wait. How are you repeating the same…well, not same but similar words he used?” I asked instead, remembering Remo’s words in the car the first time he took me to his home.
“Maybe I heard him talk about you to someone else?” she chuckled.
“Who would he discuss me…” I had a moment of clarity. “Lorenzo.” The only person Remo would comfortably speak to about anything. It was easy to see the brothers shared an unsurpassed bond. “And what darkness? He’s the monster, not me,” I grumbled.
“When you’re ready to embrace it, you’ll see that I’m right. Don’t overthink it.” She blew me a kiss and disappeared down the side of the building, leaving me to ponder her words.
I stood there for a long time, staring at the empty window. The curtains fluttered in a breeze, cool against my skin. I was alone. Dia was gone, chasing ghosts, and I was trapped in a lion’s den with a target on my back.
I dressed quickly in the clothes I found neatly folded on a chair.
My dress from dinner last night. The faint smell of softener suggested someone took the time to wash the dress and underwear.
I inhaled deeply, smoothing my hair, stepped out into the hallway to find my shoes beside the door and slipped them on.