Chapter 14
Cass
Iwent back and forth from uneasy dozing to tossing wakefulness, but luckily the bed was huge. I could flop around without disturbing Reggie, who slept very soundly.
These emotional extremes were exhausting.
Euphoria, after escaping and getting Reggie back, terror that Halliwell could still hurt her.
Passionate gratitude to Shane and his family.
Violent lust. Hurt pride. Crushing humiliation after being thoroughly dicked down and then dismissed, like a silly little bitch who had fulfilled her purpose.
What did I expect? I’d acted like such a good little concubine. Bouncing in, flinging off my clothes, falling to my knees to suck his dick. Begging him to fuck me.
And after I’d put out, after his orgasm, it was ‘get the fuck out of here.’
Harsh. Embarrassing. But I had been through worse. I was being threatened by much worse. My hurt pride would heal. Eventually. Time and distance would do the job. I had to focus on Reggie’s health. Not my own shitty impulse control.
I needed these people. Their immense resources.
Two helicopters, for fuck’s sake? An army of smart people who knew useful things?
Yes, please. They snapped their fingers, and medical and pharmaceutical experts appeared.
And the place was a fortress, beyond being beautiful and luxurious.
It was the best place that Reggie and I could possibly have landed.
Which was so damn lucky, I couldn’t help bracing for the other shoe to drop.
Reggie’s lashes quivered. She yawned and opened her eyes. The smile of delight on her face made my eyes fill up instantly.
“I didn’t want to wake up,” she said, reaching out to touch my arm. “I was sure it would just be a dream. But it’s not. It’s real.”
“It sure is, babe.” My voice cracked, and I covered by scooting over to grab her and hug her. She felt so thin and small. Much thinner than I remembered. Like she’d blow away in a high wind.
We smiled at each other. “I’m going to find a way to make you better,” I said, hoping desperately that it was true. “There has to be a way, and I’m going to find it.”
She patted my arm. “It’s okay, even if you don’t,” she said earnestly. “I’m so glad you got me out. That clinic, it was like… I don’t know, being in hell, or something. I just want to be with you now. Whatever happens, happens. And it’s all okay. Really.”
My heart felt squeezed, as if by a clenching fist, at the otherworldly calmness in Reggie’s words, like she had one foot in that other world already. It broke my heart, and it scared me to death. Whatever mellow zen calm she had achieved, I did not share it.
I wanted her to pull that foot right back here and stay in this world. With me.
“Well, I’m going to fight like a freaking demon,” I told her. “So watch out.”
“I know,” she said, smiling. “You’re the Red Queen. Off with their heads!”
“Right.” I kissed her forehead and hugged her until she started to laugh.
“You’re squeezing me like a python!” she protested.
A knock on the door cut off our giggles, and we both jolted straight up, jangled by stress hormones. “Yes?” I called out.
“It’s Angela. Good morning!” she called out from behind the door. “Just letting you know that the breakfast buffet is piping hot and ready right now, and the coffee is nice and fresh. Does Reggie like pancakes or waffles?”
Reggie looked at me, eyes blank. “Ah… I’m not really all that hungry.”
“You have to try, babe,” I said softly. “Please, try. Waffles!” I called out.
“With strawberries? Cream?”
“Both!” Reggie called, always a good sport.
“A girl after my own heart,” Angela said. “One waffle, coming right up!”
We briskly got ourselves up, washed, brushed, dressed.
I dreaded seeing Shane after last night’s debacle, but I couldn’t afford to be a whiny baby about it.
I would just interact with him as seldom as possible.
I just had to keep Reggie safe and well.
My sex life, or lack of one, was of absolutely no importance in the grand scheme of things.
The rules were simple from now on. Head up. Chin out. Legs closed.
We followed the sounds and scents of breakfast, which were actually waking up my appetite from its long sleep. Coffee, pastry, toast, fried potatoes, yum. We heard voices murmuring, cutlery clinking. Reggie’s hand stole into mine as we stood in the doorway. I squeezed it gratefully.
“There they are at last!” Angela sang out, as she emerged from the kitchen with a waffle on a plate, topped with a heap of quivering crème Chantilly and juicy, dark red strawberries. “The heroines of the moment! Sit down and have some of this!” She beamed at me. “One for you, too?”
“I’ll stick to eggs and toast myself, thank you,” I told her.
“Anything you like. Help yourself. Plates and cups over there, hon.”
The room was full, which did not surprise me, considering the delicious breakfast buffet.
Shane was sitting with Ethan and the other guys I met last night, the Drakes.
They were conversing in low voices. I had no way of knowing if he looked at me, because our gazes were never, ever going to cross again in this lifetime.
I got Reggie set up with silverware and a glass of milk, and dished up some food, which made my stomach rumble.
There was a delicious looking ham and veggie omelet, some sliced fruit, fresh toasted bread, fresh squeezed orange juice.
I got a cup of coffee, and I sat with Reggie, who was nibbling her waffle with grim resolve.
I had seated us as far away from Shane as it was possible to sit. Which would be my strategy from now until the sun expanded and consumed the entire solar system.
Kat poured herself a fresh cup of coffee and ambled over to sit with us after a few minutes. “Did you guys sleep well?”
“Great,” Reggie announced. “No bad dreams! And I woke up and Cass was there. Best night ever.”
Kat reached out to ruffle her hair. I sensed a hint of sadness in her smile. “Glad to hear it, honey. Look at you go. That waffle is history. Where did you even put it?”
“Well, I only ate half the waffle, but I ate all the berries and cream,” she said.
“If you went to the kitchen and asked Angela to pile on more berries and cream, I bet she’d do it.”
“You think?”
“I’m sure of it,” Kat assured her. “Angela has a weakness for cute little girls. She’s like putty in their hands. Go on, try it.”
Reggie jumped up and took her plate. She scampered toward the kitchen.
Slick move, on Kat’s part. I could just tell that she was gearing up to have some kind of ‘talk’ with me. I hid in my coffee cup and avoided eye contact.
Kat was undaunted. “Um. I couldn’t help but notice a certain chill in the air.”
“Not from me,” I said crisply. “Far as I’m concerned, there is absolutely nothing in the air.”
“Yikes,” she murmured. “Interesting night, huh?”
“Not the word I’d choose.”
She opened her mouth, then shut it, frowning for a few minutes. “Trauma is tricky,” she said. “It shuts you down at the worst possible times. Always when it’s positioned to do the absolute maximum damage. Make the biggest, ugliest mess.”
I set down my coffee and met her eyes. “We’re not having this conversation.”
“Don’t tell me, let me guess. It was all totally awesome, until bam, his trauma popped up and kicked you both right in the teeth. Am I right?”
I stared at her, unnerved. “Ahhh…”
“Been there, done that, don’t love the memory. But we got through it.”
I tried to resist, tried really hard, but my curiosity got the better of me. “Whose trauma?” I demanded. “His? Or yours?”
“Mine. My sisters were shot to death in front of me when I was fourteen.”
I gazed at her, mouth agape. “I… ah…”
“I spent the next fourteen years on the run from the guy who did it.”
“Oh, my God,” I murmured. “So, um… where is he now?”
She smiled. “Ethan took care of him for me. Very poetically, I might add. I’ll tell you the story sometime. I would have handled it myself, but Ethan just had to be the big hero. These Masters dudes are super macho. As you will come to know.”
“I’ve noticed already,” I said.
“It’s hard to miss. They need a very strong hand.” She gave me a thoughtful onceover. “Which you clearly possess.”
“My strong hand isn’t going to do him much good, the way he’s acting.”
“Please,” she said gently. “Give it time. Don’t come to any conclusions yet.”
I snorted. “Conclusions, my ass.”
“Conclusions about what?” It was Reggie, back with a waffle that was hidden under a teetering heap of berries and cream. “What about your ass?”
“Nothing, sweetie,” I said. “My ass is fine.”
“I’m not a baby anymore, you know,” she told me solemnly. “Particularly not after the clinic. You can tell me stuff. I won’t break.”
Not this stuff, babydoll. “Sure, honey. I know. That looks amazing.”
“It is, but I’m stuffed. Already. Here.” She slid the plate my way and smiled at Kat. “Want a bite?”
“Already had mine,” Kat said. “But thanks.”
I took a bite and let out an involuntary moan of pleasure. Dessert for breakfast.
There was a brief commotion on the other side of the room as five guys simultaneously got an alert on their phones and leaped up, at the ready. They checked the camera feeds on their devices, and all of them visibly relaxed.
“It’s just Rose,” Ethan told us. “Not to worry.”
“Oh, good.” Kat sounded relieved. “We can start getting some answers.”
I was hopping with eagerness to get right to it, but I had to wait through all the rituals and pleasantries.
Rose was a beautiful young woman, about my age, with strawberry blond hair.
She was luscious and curvy and eye-catching, and she seemed very bright and focused.
But of course, Angela had to fuss over her, feed her breakfast, catch up on every detail of her life, yada yada.