Lost (The Everett Gaming Series Book 5)

by Drew Sera

  “I love you too, Sir.”

  I pulled her against me in an embrace and could feel her leaning into me and I knew she was wearing out. I glanced over her head and I saw a pained look on Anthony’s face. He wasn’t looking at me, but was looking at Sydney’s back that faced him. Soon he looked up at me and gave me a small smile before standing up to begin washing himself. Fuck. I didn’t want to push Sydney much more tonight as she was clearly getting weak in the shower, but he needed some connecting with her too. Anthony and I always touched Sydney during our showers and the three of us not only got into the shower together, but out together.

  “You guys don’t have to wait on me.”

  I sat down on the bench with Sydney on my lap so she wouldn’t get weaker. Sydney offered to wash Anthony but he turned and kissed her forehead and told her he was almost done and she didn’t need to get worn down any more than she already was. He played it off well for her sake, but I knew he was bothered or upset about something.

  He helped me dry her off and then he went to bandage his chest wound and knife wound while I tended to Sydney’s wounds. I was getting Sydney settled in bed when Anthony had gone downstairs to get his medicine and asked if we needed anything. Sydney and I were talking about going out to lunch tomorrow when Anthony can back in.

  “Anth, want to go out for lunch tomorrow? Maybe we could go to Vito’s and then stop by work and say hi. Let Sydney see the girls in reception.”

  “Sure.” He looked over at Sydney and told her to lie down flat. She followed directions and looked over at him. I wondered what he was up to, but as long as he was engaging, then I’d go along with him. “I’m going to have a small snack, want to have a little something, Col?”

  “Yeah, what did you have in mind, Anth?”

  He sat up on his knees next to Sydney and gently ran the back of his knuckles over her bare tummy.

  “Part your legs just a little bit, sunshine.”

  Sydney’s eyes never left his but she looked like she trusted him and was going along with whatever he said. I worried for a fleeting moment. I didn’t know if she was going along because she wanted to or because she was scared not to.

  “Good girl, sunshine.” Anthony straddled her left leg and sat back on his heels.

  I reached over and took hold of his arm. He looked up at me and I quickly saw the spark in his eyes fade away. I think I killed it when he saw that I was unsure about us doing anything else tonight. I just was unsure about any form of oral sex right now and I didn’t want Sydney uncomfortable and perhaps uneasy about telling us so. I needed to be her voice of caution.

  “Anth, I don’t know if we should. It’s late and…”

  He held his hand out towards me to reveal a small bag of M&M’s. He tore open the bag and grabbed my hand and then poured the handful of candies into my palm. Then he began picking out certain colors and made a trail going from her belly button up to the hollow of her neck. He placed a green one on her lips and looked back up at me. I felt horrible and totally misjudged his intentions. And he and I both knew it.

  “I just needed a little room for my knee so I’d be parallel with her. My side hurts to twist.” He put his hand over his bandage where the stitches were at for the knife wound. I felt like a prick for assuming he was going to go down on her. “Rock, papers, scissors, Col.” He tossed down scissors, like usual and I the paper, like usual. His eyebrows perked up when he won. “I get to go first.” His intense gaze returned to Sydney and he smiled at her. He took the M&M off her lips and asked, “What’s your word, sunshine?”

  “Red, Sir.”

  “Good girl, sunshine.”

  He placed the M&M back over her lips and told her not to move. Anthony braced himself over her by placing his hands on either side of her hips and lowered his head to her tummy and sucked a blue M&M into his mouth. He gave her tummy a soft kiss after he claimed his candy, which made her expel a muffled giggle. He looked up at me and motioned for me to go. I lowered my mouth to get the red M&M that was nestled on her sternum between her breasts. He took the yellow one in her belly button and left several small kisses around the bruises by her belly button. There was another yellow one on her tummy, so I took that one. Anthony took an orange one that he cleverly placed in the hollow of her throat between her collar and base of her neck. He spent a few moments leaving more sensual kisses around her neck. There were two left; the green on her lips and another red on her sternum. I took the red one, leaving the green for him. He inched his arms upward and placed his hands close to her shoulders. His face was over hers and they were staring at one another. The sparks were all there and the bed could have ignited. He tapped her chin and told her to open her mouth. When she did, the green one dropped down into her mouth and he bent down to kiss her lips.

  Sydney kissed him back and when she reached up to wrap her hands around his neck, I noticed he seemed to flinch. I thought maybe his neck was sore still and didn’t give it much thought because he went right back to kissing her. I could tell he didn’t really want to stop or pull away but he knew to keep things calm. I could see that he was hard through his boxer briefs, as I was. But we needed to calm down as much as neither of us wanted to.

  “Just so you know, you got the green one, sunshine.”

  She smiled and laughed and said she enjoyed that. We told her we’d play another night. It was a great idea. He reintroduced playful touching and I thought the M&M’s game would be great to play each night before bed.

  We hadn’t been in bed long before I felt him getting up to rushing into the bathroom. Sydney reached for him but I understood that he couldn’t wait. She rolled over to face me to see if I was aware.

  “Sir?”

  “I know, baby. Stay here, I’m going to go check on him.”

  “Can I come with you? Please?”

  Her eyes were pleading with me not to leave her alone in the bed. I held my hand out for her and she eagerly put both hands in mine. I asked Sydney to sit in the doorway to the bathroom though. From there she was closer to us and could see both of us.

  I crouched down by Anthony as he continued to get sick and set my hand on his upper back. I could feel his body quivering beneath my hand as he clutched his stomach. When his stomach was empty, he leaned against the tub. His eyes were closed and perspiration had beaded on his forehead.

  “You should be with Sydney, Col. She needs you.”

  “So do you.”

  “Col, don’t you ever put me over her. She needs you more.”

  I felt his forehead with the back of my hand and knew he was burning up. I got the thermometer and slipped it under his tongue. I glanced over my shoulder at Sydney. She was now sitting with her arms wrapped around her legs as she leaned against the doorframe. When the thermometer beeped and I grabbed it to take a look.

  “One hundred and two. Let me get your Motrin.”

  I started to get up but he grabbed my arm and was shaking his head.

  “No, I won’t be able to keep it down.”

  “Well, I’m not letting you sit around with a fever of one hundred and two and just keep my fingers crossed that it goes down on its own soon.”

  “I’ll sit in the tub for a bit. The cold water will help.”

  He was right. He’d just throw up the Motrin. At least sitting in the tub would possibly help. I was drawing him a cold bath when Sydney came in and knelt by him.

  “Sir, are you okay?”

  “Sunshine, what are you doing out of bed?”

  “I came to see if you were okay.”

  “I’m fine, sweetheart. Slight fever but I’m going to sit in the tub for a while. Let me tuck you back in.”

  “No, don’t move, Anth. Sydney, baby, will you go get some dry boxers for Anthony to put on when he’s done in the tub?”

  “Um…yes, Sir.”

  I knew she was nervous to go back into the bedroom by herself, which is why “um” came out. She knew that I expected her right back and I think that’s what encouraged her to
go get them. I heard her run into the room and knew Anthony would be getting whatever was on top because Sydney wasn’t going to doddle. When she left the room, I helped Anthony stand and then get in the tub. Fuck it felt cold. I can’t imagine sitting in it, but that’s exactly what he did for about thirty minutes and he finally climbed out ice cold. While he put on his boxers the thermometer hung out of his mouth. It still was high at one hundred and one.

  “Come on. Come lie down.”

  I spooned behind Sydney and told her not to lie on Anthony for a while. At least until I can check his temperature again in another thirty minutes. He thought he’d be able to keep the Motrin down so I gave him his dose with some Gatorade.

  I had drifted off to sleep, and the next time I woke up was from a nightmare of Sydney’s. I didn’t move us from the bed because Anthony wanted and needed to be near and he was weakened. I just sat up against the headboard and held her while I talked with her.

  Her dream was about being in Paul’s dark room of the cabin again. I held her in my arms while Anthony held her hand weakly in his. He needed more rest. We all do actually. I needed to figure something out.

  Chapter 25

  Thursday, February 6th

  Colin

  After breakfast, we took Sydney to the patio and I turned the spa on. Since she had been cooped up in a cold cabin, her doctor suggested to we try to have Sydney walking a bit each day to help with rebuilding strength. I had my swim trunks on, but Sydney didn’t have a swimsuit so we had to improvise. She wore a tank top and her panties into the spa with me. While Anthony wasn’t going to get in the spa, he sat on the edge and dangled his feet in. He was going to hold Sydney’s hands while I was in the spa with her, holding my hands under her torso. We wanted her to stretch a bit and kick with her legs. She was doing well, and each time I felt her body start to drop down in the water further, I pulled her onto my lap and we rested for a few minutes. Then we’d work on it again. Anthony had more of a visual on Sydney’s face than I did and when he said my name, I knew we were most likely at our capacity for the day.

  We had lunch at Vito’s we dropped by the office for a while. I know it killed Anthony to have to keep his physical distance from Sydney. Sydney was able to spend some time visiting the ladies in reception and Dwayne came over to talk as well.

  Anthony and I sat down with Dwayne at the chairs in the reception area while we watched Sydney talk to Janice, Katie, and the other ladies. We were maybe fifteen feet away and close to Sydney, but she still had difficulty concentrating on the people she was talking to, and kept turning to look at us every few seconds making sure we were both still here. I hated seeing her so nervous but I was determined that we’d work on this. I wasn’t going to let her live in fear.

  “So how are you doing, Anthony? Took a bullet in the chest, huh?”

  “I’m doing well, thanks. Everything is healing.”

  I almost slipped and said he’d been up nearly every night since being home with fevers. Luckily, I remembered where I was and whom I was with.

  “When I came to visit Sydney, they said you were up in the ICU and couldn’t have any visitors.”

  “Yeah, I think they ended up cutting me off from visitors except for a few close friends,” Anthony explained.

  I wanted to correct him and say family members, but I couldn’t really do that either. After about ten minutes, Sydney came over to where we were sitting and she leaned against my chair. I stood and wrapped my arm around her and we said our goodbyes to Dwayne so we could spend a few minutes upstairs with my employees.

  Anthony walked around with Sydney and I for a while but then some of the guys in the finance department started talking with him. James and Mitch were both glued by my side as we spoke to some people. Mitch briefly mentioned some status on the Cheng deal. I had talked to Cheng the other night and smoothed things over. While I didn’t offer any specifics, I let Cheng know that due to a personal emergency, I wouldn’t be available in the office but Cheng or his team could utilize my cell phone or email. I assured him that his project was still getting all of the attention it required and that Mitch had all the same power that I did. Cheng had specifically asked about my CFO. Anthony had many dealings directly with Cheng while I was out of the office while Sydney was missing and Anthony was also an integral part of sealing the deal with Cheng. He knew and trusted Anthony. I told Cheng he could contact either myself, Mitch, or Anthony regarding the project and any us of would get back to him the same day. He was satisfied and I was going to make it a point to reach out to him a few times a week personally with status updates as we neared the delivery.

  As we spoke to people in the office I kept Sydney’s hand tucked inside of mine to keep her calm and also to detect when she was ready to go. Soon, I realized Anthony wasn’t in my direct line of sight. I figured he went off with some of the guys and didn’t worry about it right away. By the time Sydney and I were ready to go, I had to go look for him. I found him in his office leaning against his window, looking out at the Strip.

  “Hey, ready?” I asked him.

  He turned to face me but hadn’t moved away from the window. Anthony nodded and said he thought he should think about working from home for a while.

  “Anth, you’re still recovering, man. Mitch can handle things and when he can’t, he’ll get me involved.”

  Anthony nodded and went toward Sydney but then stopped. I hated that he had to hide what the three of us had, but it wouldn’t be wise for people at work to see him holding her hand or doing anything here that would indicate he was romantically involved with Sydney. Everyone has known for years that Anthony and I were nearly never apart and that we’re best friends. But they didn’t need to know that he and I were both involved with Sydney. Most wouldn’t understand it anyhow and would just see two older guys taking advantage of a young woman.

  We just had one more stop before home. Anthony had a follow up appointment with one of the doctors who oversaw his care while in the hospital. Matt was going to drop by for the appointment too. He was working today and I was supposed to text him once we got there.

  “I can go back by myself, Col. You and Sydney don’t have to come too. Don’t make Sydney have to look at my wounds.”

  “Shut up. You, Sydney, and I are in a relationship; a strong, supportive relationship. You and I wouldn’t let Sydney go back alone. We’re not letting you either,” I told him.

  Anthony looked really nervous and I knew he didn’t like being the center of attention and hated showing any sign of need. He needed to get over that. We all followed a nurse back to the exam room and I sat down on a chair across from the exam table and kept my arm wrapped around Sydney as she sat beside me. Matt and another doctor came into the room together and were chatting. The other doctor took Anthony for some X-rays and then brought him back to the exam room pretty quickly. He checked the knife wound on his abdomen first and was satisfied with the progress that he went ahead and took the stitches out. He wanted to leave the stitches in though around the bullet wound for a few more days but did go ahead and remove the stitches where the chest tubes had been.

  “How is everything else going?”

  “Fine,” Anthony automatically responded, and Matt jumped in addressing the other doctor.

  “He’s been having some fevers and chills.”

  The doctor looked at Anthony and asked when his last fever was. He was honest and told the doctor it was just last night. The doctor nodded and made some notes and then asked if Anthony was still getting sick to his stomach.

  “Yes, can you give me a different medication, please? The one I’m on screws up my stomach.”

  “You really need to try to stay on the one we have you on. You aren’t allergic to it. You probably only have a few days’ worth of it left, right?”

  “Yeah, I’ll finish it.” Anthony seemed to give in and probably felt it wasn’t worth it to argue.

  The doctor eyed Anthony and broached a topic that I really wasn’t sure how Anth
ony would respond to.

  “It might not be the medication that’s causing the upset stomach.”

  Anthony had been looking pale before that statement was made, but it only took moments for all the color to leave his face. He didn’t break eye contact with the doctor and the doctor continued.

  “It wouldn’t be uncommon for things like an upset, or nervous stomach, to present itself after some of the events you’ve experienced recently. Not only have there been severe physical changes, but psychological and emotional events, too.”

  Anthony shook his head and looked down. Matt added to it, which I really don’t think helped any.

  “Anth, your body might be reacting to stuff that has gone on rather than the medicine.”

  I think the doctor understood that Anthony wasn’t accepting this conversation well and he moved to apply a few new bandages.

  Anthony wouldn’t look in my direction at all. I felt bad for him and Sydney. Both are physically a mess and the emotional toll presents a different issue almost each day for them. I’m here for both of them and wish Anthony would realize that he’s important to me too and I will help him.

  Few hours later we were home and able to relax again. Sydney wanted to write in her journal for a little while outside on the patio. She loves the patio and I thought it’d be okay as long as we turned on one of the heat lamps. She asked Anthony and I if we’d go outside too. Of course, I would go with her, but Anthony shook his head and said he wasn’t feeling well and was going to lie down. I knew he has been dead tired and hasn’t been sleeping well.

  For a while I sat in the lounger across from Sydney and worked through some email. I looked up often though to check on her. She was writing away and looked very involved and was concentrating. I continued to go through email and looked up when she spoke.

  “Colin…Sir...”

  She looked sad and tapped her pen against her crossed legs. She looked so fucking cute, but very fragile.

  “Yes, baby?”

  “I really enjoyed last night. Our shower was sweet and I liked the M&M’s. It made me feel…wanted. And, it was nice to feel you guys touch me like that again.”