Blended (Redemption #1)

by Sasha Brümmer

  It’s Lawson Stafford, Wade. He somehow got hold of my personal address here in Chicago and tracked me down to my doorstep. I type out as Lawson gets distracted by the attractive bartender refilling his glass. I’m thankful for her flirtatious behavior as it has provided me with a few moments to text him back.

  Are you safe?

  Am I? I look back up from my phone to Lawson staring at me. He reaches for my thigh and squeezes me there to the point of bruising.

  No. I manage to respond as he leans over and nuzzles the crook of my neck.

  Where are you? I’ll send Jacobs. I swallow hard as Lawson’s lips meet my skin, and his hand that was bruising my thigh has now moved up to the apex of my thighs.

  Why won’t he come for me?

  Because you left him, I remind myself.

  The bar next to Blended.

  The second that I hit send, Lawson snatches the phone from my fingers and tosses it into my purse as he continues his assault on my neck with his lips.

  “Lawson, please stop.”

  “What? Why? Did you find a new cock to toy with?”

  “No. I simply don’t want you,” I say as I push my elbow against his side to try and get him off of me.

  He pulls back and grabs my jaw in one of his hands, forcing my eyes to meet his. I can feel the power that he has in his fingers as they dig into my skin. “What the fuck did you just say?”

  “Nothing. I-I need to get home,” I stutter, unable to get the words out the way I want to get them out.

  “I’ll let you go back once you’ve swallowed my cock. How does that sound?”

  He pushes me up against the wall that the booth sits against. I’m trapped and completely at his will now. My hands start to shake as intuition tells me that I’m in more trouble than I thought was possible with him.

  “I’m not interested in anything like that. Please, just . . .”

  He squeezes his fingers between my top and bottom jaw, forcing my mouth to open for him. I watch him remove something from his wallet with his available hand before placing it in my mouth and clamping my jaw shut.

  “Swallow like a good girl would.”

  I don’t know what he just gave me, but I know that it will ruin me. I can feel the small pill start to dissolve as it sits on the top of my tongue, threatening me with its almost undetectable bitter taste.

  “What is this?” I manage to avoid swallowing it, but it’s now when I try to push him off of me that I realize that there must have been something more than whiskey in my tumbler. My body refuses to cooperate with what I want it to do, and I’m fighting to deal with side effects of his first attempt of taking me away from reality.

  The force of his hand increases and I whimper from the pain. “A little sedative to take the edge off.” He tilts my head back and slaps my cheek hard enough to be heard over the sound of the music in the bar. My eyes snap toward the bartender who quickly looks away from me as she counts out a stack of cash.

  A tear falls from my eye as I realize that he’s going to use me as he pleases. I should welcome the distraction that the pill will provide, but I know that Colin will be here soon. I need to hold on until then.

  “You can either swallow that shit, or I can hold you like this until it dissolves on your tongue.”

  That’s what he does because I refuse to allow myself to become a victim.

  It takes ten minutes from the time he placed it in my mouth until I’m unable to feel it resting on my tongue any longer. He applies more pressure in the right place again to check if the pill is still on my tongue, and when he lets me go, I know that it has finally dissolved.

  “You’ll forget your own name soon enough, Hadley, and then you’ll be wanting to scream mine out from pleasure.”

  “What?” I ask as he shoves my drink in my face.

  “This should speed it up.”

  He still has me pressed into the corner with his body and what other option do I have? I take a small sip and make a face at the foul taste of the cheap house whiskey.

  I’ve made it through half of my drink when I can no longer keep my head up. It falls back against the booth, giving my neck a much-needed reprieve. My very last thought is of Wade, and how I wish he thought I was worth it to save, but it’s been over thirty minutes, and I know that he’s not coming.

  The fucking roads are a mess, and getting back to Blended has taken more than twice the average amount of time as usual. By the time that Jacobs pulls up to the front, Isla is bouncing her knees in the back.

  I turn to face her from the front seat. “Stay here.”

  Jacobs and I get out of the SUV and walk through the thick snow to the bar next to the whiskey library. I push the door open and walk in. A dank, musky odor fills my senses as I search the almost-empty place for her, but I can’t find her. I walk up to the bar and turn around once more from this new angle with Jacobs next to me in search of her.

  “Mr. Brass,” Jacobs says as he walks to an empty booth. I watch him bend over and retrieve Hadley’s Burberry purse from underneath the table.

  Anger heats my body as my voice booms out above the music. “Where the fuck is the woman who was sitting here?” I say out to the room and indicate the booth on my right.

  A few faces glance in my direction before going back to their drinks. The bartender clears her throat, and I swing my head to glance at her. She nods toward the back of the bar, and I surge forward to where the bathrooms are located. I push open the door to the single stall of the women’s bathroom, but it’s empty.

  I glance at Jacobs, who is now standing in front of the men’s bathroom door. I reach for it, but it’s locked. I jiggle the handle once more to see if it will click free, but it doesn’t. Jacobs sets down Hadley’s purse and walks over to the bar to pick up a solid wooden barstool before coming back to the bathroom.

  “Take a step back, Mr. Brass.”

  I do as he says as he picks up the stool and rams the object into the old bathroom door. It splinters under the pressure, and I hear a stream of curse words come from inside. The second that Jacobs steps back, I reach through the hole in the splintered door and unlock the door handle before twisting it open and pushing the door in.

  Lawson Stafford has Hadley draped over the sink with her arms flailing helplessly at her side as he pulls out of her from behind. Jacobs reacts before I have the option to. He slams Lawson into the tiled wall of the bathroom where he lands a fist to his jugular as I reach for Hadley, who is slipping from her poised position against the white porcelain sink.

  “Fuck,” I say to myself, and I pull her up close to the front of my body. Her head falls lifelessly against my chest as I struggle to move her curls off of her face. Once I manage to get a good look at her, I see that her eyes are open, but she’s not present.

  “Goddamn it. Jacobs, kill that motherfucker,” I order through a hiss.

  I watch as Jacobs snaps the asshole’s nose in a grotesque way before he blacks out from the beating Jacobs gave him. Jacobs tortures the fucker some more before he sags down against the bathroom wall, leaving streaks of red-tinged blood on the tile.

  Jacobs washes his hands, cleaning the blood off in the sink that Hadley was bent over mere moments ago, before he walks up to me and takes his coat off to cover Hadley’s half-naked body. I hand her off to him because I won’t be able to carry her out of here without further injuring myself.

  As I go to leave, Lawson groans, and I turn, glancing down at the fucker. “You’re fucking ruined, you piece of shit.”

  He brings his hand up to his mouth in an attempt to wipe some of the blood off his mouth. “For that used-up bitch? What do you care?” He laughs to himself and looks me dead in the eyes as he chuckles. “I’m sure she enjoyed it. Anyway, she’s mine—the bitch promised to marry me.”

  It takes every ounce of energy that I have to fight my own body from reacting to his words and launching myself at him. “Shut your goddamn mouth—she’s not yours.”

  He groans, but instead
of being in agony, he seems to be enjoying this moment of confrontation that I’m allowing him. “She liked it. You should ask her about it later. If you gave me another five minutes . . .” He spits out blood, maybe a tooth or two, onto the grimy tiled floor. “ . . . What’s it to you, anyway?”

  The ferocity that my body is holding on to right now will rip me open if I don’t leave soon. “You’ve signed your own death warrant, Stafford. You won’t ever see the light of day again,” I say through a snarl.

  He laughs again and tries to speak, but gets choked up on his own blood.

  I slam the door shut and turn to Jacobs, who has my life in his arms. I walk out in front of him, grabbing her purse on the way out.

  “Call the police and report a rape. Give them my name—Waylon Brass,” I say bitterly as I walk toward the door and push it open for Jacobs to walk through it with her.

  Isla must see us coming because she jumps out of the SUV and gasps. “Holy shit! Is she all right?”

  “Call a doctor and have him come to the penthouse,” I command as I take a seat in the back of the SUV. Jacobs places her on my lap and in my arms before shutting the door. Isla has her phone up to her ear before she jumps into the passenger seat and we start our journey back to the Waldorf Astoria.

  I take off my jacket and drape it over her legs before cradling her to my chest. “Fuck, Rye, I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough.” Her eyes are now closed as she leans against my chest. I bring my fingers to her neck, relieved when I feel a faint, but steady pulse there.

  I push her curls back and hold her close as Jacobs struggles to get us back to my residence in the blizzard. The amount of snow that has fallen in this short span of time is taking its toll on the city.

  It takes us over an hour to get back, and when we do, I demand that Jacobs park before we head up to the penthouse. I refuse to let any more people than absolutely necessary see her in this state.

  Jacobs and Isla get out of the vehicle first before he comes around and swings my door open, taking her from my hold before I get out and follow both of them to the elevator.

  “The in-house physician is here. I called ahead to let your personal doorman know to expect him. He said that he’s waiting outside your door.”

  “Very well. Thank you, Isla.”

  I don’t take my eyes off of her as Jacobs stands next to me in the elevator.

  “She’s going to be okay,” Isla offers to me.

  “I don’t know. This may be too much for her to handle.” She might be able to recover from this physically, but with the knowledge of her history, I’m unsure if she’ll be able to fight the need to give in to her addiction again if she hasn’t already done so.”

  The elevator doors slide open, and we’re met with a doctor and his medical bag standing in front of my door. “What happened?” he asks as he takes in Hadley’s appearance.

  I unlock the door and hold it open for everyone to enter.

  “Take her to my bedroom, Jacobs.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I follow them up the stairs, but each step takes me longer than the one before it. I must be overexerting myself this evening. By the time I’ve made it to my bedroom, Jacobs has her on the bed, and he’s walking out of the room as the doctor starts to unbutton the jacket we secured around her petite frame.

  “I’ll be in the living room if you need me, Mr. Brass.”

  “Thank you,” I tell him and walk up to stand next to Isla.

  “What happened to her?” the doctor repeats.

  I take in a lungful of air before answering him. “I’m not entirely sure. I found her in the bathroom almost unconscious while being raped.”

  “Good God. In that case, I’ll need to do a sexual-assault forensic exam.” He walks over to his medical bag and pulls out multiple materials, along with envelopes and containers.

  “This may take me a while.”

  “I’m not leaving her.”

  “May I ask what your relation is to her?”

  “She’s . . .”

  “She’s his girlfriend,” Isla answers for me while I stumble over my words.

  He nods his approval as he starts to work on her, checking her from head to toe, but focusing on the vaginal exam before setting up an IV drip. Isla has gone downstairs to let the doctor’s RN attendant up into the suite; he called her in shortly after Isla contacted him. I stay standing in the same spot as he covers her up with my blankets.

  “It appears that she’s been drugged. I’ll have my nurse run her blood samples to our lab as soon as possible, but if I had to guess, I would assume that she’s taken or been given a potent sedative.”

  “How long does it usually stay in the system?”

  “The usual dose of one milligram has a tendency to last up to eight hours, but if she’s ingested a higher dose, it could possibly double the amount of time. If I had to give you a reliable number, I would give her a minimum of twelve hours to come around, and when she does, she may experience confusion, amnesia, and disorientation.”

  “Was she injured when he took advantage of her?”

  “There is scarring from older injuries but I do see some fresh bruising from this event, which would appear to support an allegation of rape.”

  Bile rises in the back of my throat at his words. This beautiful woman has been hurt and taken advantage of for her entire life, and the one time that I had a chance to do something about it, I failed her.

  Isla walks into the bedroom with an elderly woman who goes straight to the doctor’s side as he packs away his equipment into his medical bag. He hands her the two vials of blood that he took from Hadley a few minutes ago, and she leaves under his instructions.

  “Mr. Brass, I will be in contact with you as soon as I receive the results from my lab. I will be by in the morning to check on her. If anything happens in the meantime, I ask that you dial the number that your friend used earlier to reach me.”

  I shake his hand. “Thank you for coming.”

  “Of course.”

  Isla shows him out, and she closes my bedroom door when she leaves. I walk to the side of my bed and kneel down beside Rye.

  “Hey gorgeous. You’re going to be okay. I’ve got you.”

  Eight hours have passed and she hasn’t moved a muscle.

  Jacobs pulled a seat up to the bed, which allowed me to remain at her side. I’ve had to get up and do a few exercises in the room, but I haven’t left her side other than to shower.

  I’ve become uncomfortable with sitting down for all of these hours so I get up and lie down on the other side of the bed and under the covers with her. I pull her body against mine, careful not to snag her IV line as I do. I position her in the way that she used to sleep with me, her head in the crook of my arms, with each part of her body touching mine. She’s dressed in one of my shirts that she used to wear all of the time, the one that I considered hers since she first wore it.

  I place a kiss on her temple and breathe her in. “I’ve missed you, Rye. I have no right to miss you because you no longer belong to me, but I couldn’t give a shit. You still carry my heart around with you, whether you are aware of it or not.”

  I don’t close my eyes in fear that I will fall asleep. I want to be here and present when she wakes up. I’ve turned off all of the lights in the room with the exception of the one on the nightstand beside her, which is currently set to dim.

  I search her features for a sign that she’s there, that she’ll be all right. I move her curls behind her back and frown at the bruises that have slowly but surely been making their appearance on her silky skin. I need to know where else he hurt her, what else he stole that belonged to me.

  I place my lips against the large bruise on her jaw before running the pad of my thumb over her mouth.

  “I should have left the penthouse sooner. I should have come after you when you left me in Sydney. I should have grown those brass balls and told you about Isla.” I tell her my regrets as I move the covers off of her body to insp
ect her for myself. I notice more bruises marring the skin on her thigh. I push my shirt up until I’m able to see her hips. There’s a long line that runs across her waist. He must have bruised her there while she kept hitting herself against the sink in front of her. I turn her body slightly to see the bruises, which are shaped in the form of his hands on her hips.

  I shut my eyes as I pull the shirt back down her body and settle her into her favorite sleeping position again before I allow myself to breathe. If it were up to me, Lawson Stafford would already be buried six feet below. I move her hair from her face and place my hand at the small of her back to keep her against my body.

  “I love you,” I say close to her ear. “I’ll never be able to stop,”

  The ache that I’ve managed to keep at bay through my recovery resurfaces and I close my eyes as I’m immersed in the pain—the pain of knowing that she doesn’t want much more to do with me.

  I’m jolted awake by a hand on my shoulder. “Wade? The doctor is back to check on her,” Isla says.

  I blink through my sleep and release her from my hold before sitting up and getting out from under the covers.

  “Are you okay?”

  I refuse to answer her because she knows my truths. She knows exactly how ready I was to take on Rye forever before she left me. Isla understands what I’ve been struggling with and how I’ve had to deal with it in order to keep living.

  “I’ll let him in. Put a shirt on.”

  I nod and walk into my closet to change. When I return to my bedroom, buttoning up my shirt, the doctor is taking her blood pressure.

  “Her vitals are back to normal,” he says as he checks his watch, “and it’s been twelve and a half hours. I’m hopeful that she’ll wake while I’m here. I might stay until she does.”

  “Very well.”

  There’s a knock on the door, and Jacobs walks in. “Excuse my intrusion, Mr. Brass, but your rehabilitation specialist is here and waiting for you downstairs.”