We were greeted with the onslaught of screaming metal music. It was so loud, it made my ears ring.
Kane hurried to the speaker holding the small music player and shut it off. “Call him.”
I pulled my phone out of my bag and dialed Brett’s number. Kane and I exchanged glances when we heard his phone go off in the bedroom.
Heading down the hall, my heart thumped hard. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what I would walk in on. I just prayed that everything was alright. That Brett was fine.
Taking a breath, I pushed open the door.
“Evvie,” Kane whispered.
I turned on the light and gasped.
“Holy shit.”
My gaze travelled down a completely naked Brett lying in the middle of his bed. His wrists and ankles bound to the bedposts. Dark purple bruises covered his body, scratches, scrapes and cuts ate at his skin. My body froze. My brain was screaming for me to go to him but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t…do anything.
“Evvie.”
I jumped and spun on Kane. “G-go…c-call the police.”
He nodded, his eyes saddening.
A hard lump burned my throat and I took a tentative step towards Brett. “Brett?” My voice came out as a croak.
Who did this to him? Why? Why would anyone do this to him?
I moved around the bed and undid the restraints when Brett started thrashing on the bed. My heart sped up, the blood pounding in my ears as I couldn’t get the restraints undone fast enough. “Brett, stop. I can’t…”
He pulled hard on the black leather bonds. He groaned, his body tense.
“Stop. Please. Brett.” I yanked on the last restraint, finally getting him loose when he shot off the bed and tackled me to the ground. The wind was knocked out of me as my back hit the floor. “Brett,” I said, gasping for air. My lungs burned as I took deep breaths.
Rough, needy hands roamed up my body before he pulled me under him. “I…” He cleared his throat and brushed his nose along the side of my neck. “I need to smell you,” he croaked. “Make sure you’re real.” He inhaled, his tense body relaxing.
“I’m real.” I ran my hands down his sweat soaked back, biting my lip from crying out when my fingers grazed over rough ridges. Raised jagged flesh covered his skin. My body shook. I saw red. Bile rose to my throat.
Brett’s chest rose and fell, his big body shaking in my arms. “Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.”
He repeated those words over and over in my ear, his throat going raw.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I held him, his heavy body relaxing as he passed out in my arms. “Never,” I whispered, holding onto him. “I’m here. I’m yours.”
***
“Who did this to you?” My voice shook as I tried holding back the tears that threatened to escape. I brushed a hand down Brett’s cheek, his stubble scratching my skin. Running my fingers through his hair, I looked down at his still form covered by a hospital gown and a blanket.
His chest rose and fell, his hand gripping my inner thigh tight. Even passed out from medication, he still knew where I was.
After he tackled me in his bedroom once I got him free, Kane and the EMTs had arrived moments later. Kane didn’t seem surprised that Brett was in my arms. When I had asked him why, he told me that Brett’s love for me was deeper than anything he had ever seen. Apparently there was a layer of Brett’s love for me that I didn’t realize.
They carried him out on a stretcher but wouldn’t tell me a thing. I begged, pleaded for them to tell me…something.
“Ma’am, visiting hours are over.”
Thoughts interrupted, I glared at a nurse as she lifted Brett’s hand to check his vitals.
“I’m his family,” I croaked. My throat was raw from the anger and pain I felt for Brett.
“Wife?”
“Yes,” I lied.
Her brown eyes searched my face before she nodded once and left.
That’s what I thought. They would have to pry my cold lifeless body from him before they would be able to get me to leave Brett’s side.
The doctors and medical staff that had worked on Brett determined that he had a broken rib, minor cuts and bruises and that he was drugged. Drugged. With what, I wasn’t sure.
It had been three hours since Kane and I had walked in on Brett. Kane never asked me if I thought Brett had cheated on me but I remembered the accusatory glint in his eyes. Under different circumstances it could have looked like he had cheated on me but I knew different. I knew deep down in the recesses of my soul, that I was his. I was enough for him.
My eyes welled with unshed tears. “Brett…my lover, my best friend…my…mine,” I sobbed and kissed his head. “Wake up.”
The doctor had knocked him out to help with the pain but I needed to hear his voice. For him to say my name. To tell me that it was okay and that everything would be alright. Seeing him so still and innocent left me ready to kill whoever did this to him. I had a feeling I knew already. I knew it was the calm before the storm. Deep down in my gut, I knew something else was going to happen.
“Evvie?”
I jumped at the soft voice coming from the door when I saw Anna peek her head around the corner. I sighed and motioned for her to come closer.
She chewed her bottom lip and took tentative steps towards us. It had been a couple of weeks since I had seen her after our coffee date. I liked her. I did. As much as I didn’t want to in the beginning, I now knew she would never do anything to threaten my relationship with Brett. I trusted her. I didn’t know how I knew that I could. I just did.
“Is he…is he alright?” she asked standing at the foot of the bed.
My gaze fell on Brett’s relaxed face. His eyes fluttered now and again but every so often, a deep sigh would leave his lips like a weight had been lifted. “He will be.”
Anna let out a sigh.
“How did you get in?”
Her cheeks reddened. “I snuck—”
“No visitors,” the same nurse from before demanded.
I looked between the older woman and Anna. “She’s family.”
A soft smile splayed on Anna’s full lips. She mouthed thank you as the nurse huffed and left the private room.
Anna pulled up a chair and scrubbed a hand down her face. “Do you know what happened?”
I shook my head, tears filling my eyes again as memories of Kane and I finding Brett invaded my mind. I kissed his forehead, inhaling the scent of leather and sweat. I wanted to shower him. To wash away the memories of the nightmare he had experienced and replace them with me. Us. No one else. Just Brett and Evvie.
“He’s strong. He’ll make it through this.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I nodded at Anna’s words. I prayed he would. He had been doing so well. He drowned himself in work stuff. Setting up more parties and benefits, conventions, anything to get out of his head. Or that’s what I had assumed anyways. He never told me. He didn’t tell me much. Not until we fought and then words poured from our mouths as if they were forced.
At that point in time, I decided that I would avenge him. My possession of him came out thick as blood. He was mine. And no one messed with what I called my own.
NINETEEN
“Evvie.”
I groaned.
“Lover. Wake up.”
A small smile slowly spread on my face and I sighed, snuggling into the warm hard body that was beside me.
“Evvie.”
My eyes popped open. I took a couple of deep breaths. I looked around the room and blinked a couple of times before I remembered what had happened.
Brett. Bound and restrained. Black and blue bruises. Cuts and scratches. Him breaking in front of me and passing out in my arms.
My heart raced before I turned my head to look up into the bluest eyes I had ever seen. Sapphire depths that drew me in from the beginning, captivating me from the start.
A lump formed in my throat. I swallowed repeatedly and shook
my head.
Brett’s eyebrows narrowed, his full mouth turning down at the corners. His bottom lip was split, a dark purple bruise marring his cheek. But he was awake. He was…God, what he must have gone through.
“Hey. Why the tears?” he asked softly, brushing his thumbs under my eyes. He kissed my forehead and that’s when I lost it.
Sobs wracked my body, tears flowing freely down my cheeks. I cried so hard, it gave me hiccups.
“My sweet Evvie,” he said, pulling me tight in his arms. “I don’t like seeing you cry for me.” His voice was soothing as he brushed his nose along my neck.
I gripped him hard, my fingers digging into the hospital gown. I wanted to crawl inside of him. Protect him. Be his armor that would stop the pain. I wanted to save him. From himself.
I didn’t know who had hurt him but I wasn’t stupid. It had to have been his mother and that monster husband of hers. Then there was Claire but I didn’t think she actually had the balls to set that kind of torture up.
“Evvie,” he breathed against the crook of my neck. “Please stop crying.” He ran a hand down my back and held me tight.
I swallowed several times.
Brett cupped my cheeks and placed soft kisses on my face. “I love you deeper than ever,” his voice cracked.
“I love you hard,” I whispered.
A small smile splayed on his lips. “Now tell me, why the tears?”
I let out a deep breath. “When I walked in and found you strapped to your bed…”
“Did you think that I cheated on you, Evvie?” he asked, his eyes searching my face.
“No, actually. I didn’t. I was more confused but then I saw…” Fresh tears welled in my eyes. “I saw the bruises. The cuts. What bothered me the most was you lying there, not having any control. Brett…what happened?”
His jaw clenched, his gaze darkening but he didn’t answer. He shook his head and looked away.
“Brett, tell me, please,” I pleaded, cupping his cheek. My thumb grazed over the dark bruise. “Talk to me,” I whispered.
“I felt like a little boy again,” he mumbled. “Unable to fight. Unable to do anything because I wasn’t strong enough. I was weak. I swore to myself that I would never be weak again,” he said, his eyes going cold. “They tried to break me. They tried to destroy me. But Evvie, you put me back together. I…” his breath hitched. “I know it’ll take time, but I know as long as I have you, I can get through anything.
With a shaky breath, I placed a soft kiss on his lips.
He leaned his forehead against mine. “I forgot something at home. Something told me…my gut was saying to stay away, to wait for you.” His eyes met mine before he pulled me back against him. “I should have waited,” he whispered in my ear. “but I thought it was all in my head. When I got home, my mom and her husband were there. I…”
My heart hurt. Anxiety swirled deep in the pit of my belly. I couldn’t deal. My chest constricted like someone was sitting on it. My breaths came out in small bursts. I shoved out of Brett’s arms and sat up, sitting on the edge of the hospital bed. Trying to take control of the overwhelming emotions that racked through my body, I took deep breaths.
“Evvie?”
I shook my head. “I can’t…I…” Tears of rage burned down my cheeks and I angrily wiped them away. “I want to hurt them for doing this to you. I…” A dark feeling came over me. An emotion so strong, it took my breath away. “I want to kill them,” I sobbed and covered my face. God, what was wrong with me? My mother would be so disappointed. My stomach clenched.
Heavy arms wrapped around my shoulders. “Stop. Please.”
I couldn’t. The control of my emotions was no longer there as the sobs shook through my small body.
“Evvie. I’m fine. They won’t get me—”
“They could have destroyed you,” I mumbled.
He pinched my chin, turning my head to meet his gaze. His blue eyes glistened. “But they didn’t.”
I shoved my head out of his grip and rose from the bed before spinning on him. “Brett, I want to rip off every piece that touched you. They saw you. I’m only meant to see you.” Brett reached out for me but I hugged myself instead. “I-I want to hurt them. Break them until they beg me to stop. I want…I want to avenge you.”
Brett got up off the bed slowly and closed the distance between us. His shoulders were tense but as he cupped my face and pulled me against him. His breathed hitched but his body relaxed. “I love that you are possessive of me. I love that you want to hurt them for me but Evvie, I will not have you doing anything that would put you in harm’s way.”
I tried pushing out of his grip but his hold only tightened. “Brett—”
“What they did to me has not set me back. Yes, I may have more nightmares but because of you, I will get through them.” He cupped my face and placed a soft kiss on my lips. “I’ll get through this. We will get through this.”
“They need to get punished—”
“Evvie, stop. The police can deal with it. I will not have you thinking these dark thoughts.”
“I want to hurt them for what they did to you,” I cried.
“I know. So do I, but you taught me to ask for help when I need it. You,” he kissed my nose. “made me realize that I can’t do everything by myself.”
“Did they…” I swallowed past the bile that had unexpectedly risen in my throat. I couldn’t ask. I didn’t know if I even wanted to find out what exactly they had done to him.
His mouth was grim as he waited for me to ask my question. “What, lover?”
I took a breath. “Did they r-rape you?”
Brett’s jaw ticked. “No.”
A breath of relief left my lips, a weight that had rested on my shoulders since finding him restrained a couple of hours before, leaving me. “Oh thank God.”
“I think they just wanted to fuck with my head,” he said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed and pulling me in his arms.
I brushed the dark strands of hair off his forehead and grazed my fingers over his face. Memorizing him. Pushing the strength from my being into him.
His blue eyes were clear, no longer cloudy from the drugs that had been used on him.
“They touched you though,” I stated.
He nodded.
We sat there for what felt like an eternity, holding each other.
A light knock sounded on the door when a uniformed police officer entered the small hospital room.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Brett, I’m Officer Charles. I need to ask you some questions.” The older cop pulled out a notepad, his eyes warm as they looked between us.
Brett sighed and nodded.
The cop threw question after question at him but Brett answered open and honestly.
I had also found out that when Brett got to his apartment, it didn’t take long for him to get knocked out and dragged to his bed. He said that the rest of the time was foggy but at one point he woke up, naked, bound and restrained with his mother on top of him. He said as far as he knew, it didn’t go further but he couldn’t be sure.
Hearing those words made me sick to my stomach. What kind of mother would do that to their child? And how could God let that happen?
Not his fault.
My breath caught as those words sounded in my head. I wasn’t sure who they were referring to, but my body felt lighter all of a sudden.
“My mom’s a psycho bitch. I don’t know why she wanted to come after me,” Brett mumbled.
My thoughts interrupted, I cupped the back of Brett’s neck, running my fingers through his hair.
“When was the last time you saw her before all of this?” the cop asked, scribbling notes on his pad of paper.
“Over ten years.”
“What do you think she wants?”
Brett huffed. “Me.”
I cringed at the answer.
The cop raised an eyebrow but didn’t respond, his eyes going cold. “Thank you. If I need anything else, I will le
t you know.”
“Thank you, officer,” I said softly.
Officer Charles reached the doorway and turned back to us. “And Brett, I will do everything in my power to put these people away for you. They won’t hurt you again.” And with that he left.
A sigh escaped my lips.
“Evvie.” Brett cupped my rear and pulled me flush against him. The movement, although usually sexual, wasn’t this time.
I brushed my fingers through his hair, over his face, across his lips, giving him the strength that I knew he needed. I didn’t feel very strong at the moment but I tried. I would try anything that I could to make him strong again.
“Do you hurt?” I asked softly.
His lips tugged at the corners. “Nothing that can’t be taken care of later.”
A small smile splayed on my lips at the innuendo in his words. “I can’t help but wanting to destroy them,” I whispered.
“No,” he said, his voice firm. “Take out your rage on me, Evvie.”
I frowned. “Why the hell would I do that?”
His grip on my waist tightened. “Because they will hurt you. It will be over my fucking dead body before I let anything happen to you. Use me. Hurt me, Evvie but don’t you dare try and avenge me.”
“You would do it if the situation was reversed, Brett,” I cried.
His eyes darkened. “Damn right.”
“You and your double standards,” I growled.
“My double standards will keep you safe.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I can feel you shaking from anger. I can see the pain in your eyes. I get that. I understand it. But don’t you dare go after them.” His voice was hard, final, as he held me in his strong arms.
I knew it was totally insane of me to think it, but the possession I felt for the man holding me made me want blood. I wanted Diane and her husband to pay for what they did.
“Promise me.”
I met Brett’s dark gaze. “I will let the police deal with them but that doesn’t change the way I feel.”
“I don’t expect it to.”
“Are you okay?” I asked a couple of minutes later.
He released me and pulled off the hospital gown before getting dressed. “I will be.”
Revealed by You Page 18
