22. Liar
Chapter Twenty-Two
LIAR
I t wasn’t very long until the bag came off, and I found myself tied to a hospital bed in a nice hospital room. Did I say nice? Hospital rooms are only nice if you choose to go into them.
I screamed, then took a breath to scream again.
“It’s completely soundproof, but by all means, waste your breath.”
I whipped my head around, because that announcer voice was impossible to mistake. Yep, there was Horse, wearing t-shirt, jeans, dark wavy hair looking wet, like he’d just had a shower. “I’m hallucinating,” I stated matter-of-factly. “You don’t kidnap women, they kidnap you.”
He raised a dark brow over blue piercing eyes and smiled. “I appreciate the vote of confidence. I did kidnap you, but rest assured, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“That’s my job,” Roger said, stepping out from behind him with a scalpel in his fingers and a twinkle in his eyes.
I rolled my eyes and relaxed. Dupre didn’t have me, just these idiots.
I looked around for Trevor, and he walked in the door, right on cue.
“Perfect, the three stooges are together again. What do you want?” I inhaled sharply because just then, Roger stuck a needle in my elbow where it was stretched out on the rail, secured with two zip ties to keep me from getting away.
He wiggled his brows at me while I frowned back at him.
He was the prettiest man I’d ever seen, all soft lips, high cheekbones, narrow nose.
I blinked at him and snickered. “You were the one in drag this morning. You’re all completely insane or on the worst drug trip.
” I frowned at Horse. “You shouldn’t get involved with these idiots.
You’re going to lose all your respectability. ”
He smiled at me, warm, sincere. “You think I’m respectable? That’s such a lovely sentiment. Are you done?” he asked Rog.
Roger pulled the needle out of me and then took the blood he’d drawn over to the counter where a nice little lab was all set up.
“You’re looking for a blood donor and you thought, ‘she looks like a healthy candidate.’ You can’t just go around kidnapping people, Trevor, no matter who tells you to do it,” I said, frowning at him.
He smiled back at me. “You’re taking this rather well, lecturing me instead of freaking out.”
“I only fear what your incompetence will do. None of you are going to stick me in a box and cut pieces off me to add to your shrine.”
“You really have a stalker?” Horse asked, looking concerned. Because he wasn’t a stalker, and while they were taking my blood and acting like idiots, they weren’t going to hurt me. No idea why I was so confident about that, but I was.
I shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone? I’m sure you have more than your share.”
“I have three,” Roger said with a wink before he refocused on the labwork.
“So, what do y’all think you’re doing with me?” I said trying for a sweet smile.
Horse pointed at me. “You’re too charming to resist. Did you smile like that for Nix? Of course you did. Who set you up with him?”
“His mother,” I said, still smiling. “The Crocodile of Alabama. Have you heard of her?”
Horse’s eyes narrowed. “So, you want to bring him back into the family.” He nodded like that made sense.
I laughed and then shook my head. “Now you’re being funny. I’ve never met the woman and if I did, I’d have a few words with her. Violence is not the way to raise a child.”
“Even if they have violent tendencies?”
“Especially if they have violent tendencies. What did you want with my blood?”
“I want to know what strain of the serum you carry. You’re something I’ve never seen before.”
“She seems to lack the psychotic edge entirely,” Roger said with a frown as he swirled a test tube around, like it was filled with a fascinating puzzle.
“She does,” I said drily. “How long is this going to take? I’m going to meet Nix after his fight and then give him a long lecture about the pointlessness of violence. He lied to me. Should I leave him? I don’t know. I was really scared that y’all were working for someone else.”
“Does your stalker have a name? We’ll get you home as soon as we’ve cleared up the questions we have,” Horse said with a confident smile.
“ You have. They work for you.”
He smiled more genuinely. “Yes. They do. And why would I hire two characters like Trevor and Roger? Because they already know you, and I’d like to keep the circle of impact contained. I’m still not sure what your destructive tendencies are.”
“Got it,” Roger said, scrolling down a tablet and walking back towards us. “She’s got markers for the serum, but it’s all on the sweet side. Also, she’s a direct descendant of Flowers.”
Horse’s brows went up and he grabbed the tablet from Roger, scrolling through like he knew exactly what he was looking for. Yep. He could have taken the blood and run it through the process even better than Rog if he wasn’t busy being in charge of this nonsense.
“Flowers? I do like flowers an awful lot,” I said agreeably.
“Flowers was…” Horse said and then pulled up another screen and showed me the face of another blonde man who looked familiar. “He’s a painter. You paint, right?”
I hesitated then nodded. “You’re saying this is a relative of mine?”
“Yes, he’s your father. He’ll be extremely interested to know that you exist. Perhaps I shouldn’t tell him.
But who…” He blinked at me. “You really have no idea what we’re talking about.
You think we’re crazy.” He ran a large hand through his hair.
“Apparently, we are.” At least he was self-aware.
That man, Flowers, might have my eyes, but he hadn’t raised me on his own, juggling work and fatherhood like a real superhero.
Roger reached over his shoulder and tapped on the screen. “Look how the strain isn’t reacting to this part of her cortex at all. She’s genuinely not psychotic, has all the normal feelings, emotions, reactions as everyone else. But there’s something else here, this part that’s eating her away.”
Horse inhaled sharply and gave me another look before he smiled warmly and came over to cut my zip ties. “All right, honey. I’m going to take you home now, unless you’d rather Trevor or Roger take you.”
I crossed my arms. I hadn’t fought against the zip ties, because then I’d be stupidly bruised, but I still had marks where they’d cut into my skin, and those were going to be pretty bad.
“You’re going to escort me home for my safety now?
Tell me what you found in my blood that made you so eager to get rid of me, if you’d be so kind.
” I smiled at him, but my arms hurt, and everywhere they’d carried me hurt, like my heart hurt for Nix and this whole ridiculous mess.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s just the way that some people tried to enhance what was already established.”
“Don’t speak delicately, Horse. You kidnapped me, tied me up, and stole my blood. Do you think Nix is going to be happy about that?”
He inhaled sharply. “About Nix. You should probably get away from him as soon as possible. I can set you up with a place, if you need one, and protection from your stalker. Cut ties with Nix clean, all at once, or things are bound to get extremely messy.”
Trevor elbowed him. “Wasn’t Flowers working on the ultimate weapon?”
All three men looked at me while I sat there in my yellow dress and magic bra and tried to look like I wasn’t about to burst into tears. It would not be pretty.
“I’m the ultimate weapon?” I sighed heavily. “Do you three know how ridiculous you sound? I’m the ultimate weapon against what?”
“The ugly side of the serum,” Trevor said, like that was obvious.
“I should have realized at once when I saw her with Beastie. She had him wrapped around her little finger without the slightest effort. But why was he trying to set her up with me and Rog? It’s like he was trying to get her away from the ugly side, but then he sets her up with Nix? ” He shook his head. “Makes no sense.”
“Right? So weird for things to not make sense,” I muttered and looked around for my bag. I wasn’t going to get rational answers, and I was too tired to deal with this kind of ridiculousness. Come to think of it, I’d left my bag in Beastie’s dressing room.
“I’m serious about helping you get away from Nix, to protect you from anyone who comes after you,” Horse said, fishing around in his wallet for a card that he held out, black with a gold embossed bowler hat on one side, a number on the other.
“No, thank you. For some reason I’m disinclined to trust those with such a tentative grasp on reality for my security and safety.” I stood up and then my legs went out.
Horse caught me, concern in his eyes as he held me up, trying to touch me as little as possible, like I really was a dangerous substance.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, frowning at him.
“You’re Nix’s wife. He’ll hurt me. Do you care about him?”
I blinked at him, startled by the question for a moment to think what to say. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I don’t like that he lied to me about the fighting thing, but that’s hypocritical. And anyway, I don’t owe you explanations after you kidnapped me. Do you care about Trix?”
“Everyone knows that I do.”
“Why do you make it so blatant if it’s not a lie?”
“Because I’m not a very talented liar.”
“That’s a lie,” I said.
He laughed and carefully released me, hoping I’d stay on my feet. I did. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just sometimes I fall over.”
“And you’re on morphine all the time,” Trevor said.
“And you’re used to being in hospitals,” Roger said, now frowning like he didn’t like what he was thinking. Well, I didn’t like it either.
I crossed my arms. “And?”
“You’re sick?” Horse asked, new concern in his eyes.
I shrugged. “I’m just a delicate female. Can’t help that.”
“You’re already bruising from the zip ties. They weren’t that tight,” Trevor the ever-helpful pointed out.
“Check her normal stats,” Rog said to Horse.