by Sybil Bartel
“That’s not your job.” My voice strained, I fought panic.
“It sure as hell is, especially now.”
“We haven’t talked about….” I trailed off, not sure what to say, or how to say it.
His face twisted with anger. “First of all, yes, we did talk about this. All-in, Elyssia. You said you understood, and second, that wasn’t casual. You know it wasn’t.”
“I just….” I swallowed past the lump in my throat. Oh God, I didn’t want to fight with him. He was right, there was nothing casual about how I felt. “I just meant that I’m an adult. I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can take care of yourself, you’ve done it since your mom died and you’re shouldering the burden of your brother all by yourself, but damn it, Elyssia, it’s my job to protect you. How the hell am I supposed to do that though when you won’t talk to me? You haven’t even told your brother. Marcus dragged you into a crushing hug last night that could’ve hurt you worse. He never should’ve touched you like that. You were on oxygen.” He stood and paced the length of the room. “I need something,” he demanded.
My fingers twisted into the bedding.
He strode back to me and his hands landed on his hips. “Give me something.”
Talon walked into the bedroom. “Am I interruptin’?” He glanced between me and Ben as he shoved his phone in his pocket.
“No,” Ben snapped, stepping back.
Talon chuckled and shook his head. “You’re supposed to save the lovers’ spat for when she’s feelin’ better, Wonderboy.” He moved in, and Ben started pacing again. “How we doin’, darlin’? You have an okay night?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t dare look at Ben.
Talon picked up my wrist and looked at his watch. “Any change in breathin’?”
“It’s better.”
“Good. Any other symptoms? Fever? Worsenin’ pain? Anythin’?”
“No.”
He tipped his chin at the oxygen machine. “You still feel like you need the oxygen?”
“No.”
Talon gently placed my hand back in my lap and glanced at Ben. “Her color’s good, she’s breathin’ easier, she’s gonna make it. You can calm the fuck down now.”
“Language,” Ben growled.
Talon grinned mischievously at me. “He makes it too easy, almost takes the fun outta rilin’ him.” He winked, then slapped Ben on the shoulder. “What language? Fuck? Damn, Wonderboy, you’re a grown-ass man now. If you can’t say fuck, how the ladies gonna know what you wanna do with ’em?”
Ben looked like he was going to implode. “Outside, now.”
Talon wiggled his eyebrows at me before following Ben out of the bedroom.
I heard Ben talking in a strained voice, but it was too hushed for me to make out the words. Talon laughed, and a few seconds later, Ben strode in. “I’m taking a shower,” he announced.
I didn’t have time to say okay before he disappeared into the bathroom.
Talon leaned on the doorframe. “You good?”
“I’m fine.” Something in Talon’s demeanor had changed. Wary, I held his stare because looking away felt like I would be confessing.
“You know…” He casually pushed off the doorframe. “I’ve been tryin’ to figure out why a beaten woman wouldn’t go to the authorities.” He slowly walked toward me. “Wonderboy said there’s no boyfriend, so domestic abuse is out.” He stopped an inch from the bed, towering over me.
I forced myself to appear relaxed.
“And if a woman’s attacked, she usually says so, even if she doesn’t know who did it. There’s also an element of fear.” His green eyes bored into mine. “She’d be scared of it happenin’ again, scared of someone followin’ her, scared in general.”
I didn’t say a word.
“But you?” Talon looked up at the ceiling and scratched his chin. “You’re not afraid of it happenin’ again.” His eyes cut back to mine. “You’re afraid of people knowin’ it happened in the first place.” He paused. “You know what that is?”
I didn’t even blink.
“Abuse.” He spat the word out like he knew it was Marcus and like he wanted to crush the life out of him.
I swallowed past the fear lodged in my throat and squeaked the lie out. “I was attacked after work.”
“Bullshit,” he drawled. “There’s cameras surroundin’ Seven-oh-One, and security never lets the girls walk to their cars alone after a shift.”
He was right. Hank always walked me to my car. I didn’t realize about the cameras, so I changed the lie. “It happened when I got home, before I got inside. I didn’t see who it was, and since I don’t have insurance, I didn’t want an ER bill I’d be paying off for years.” I got up and pushed past him, because I needed to get away from his probing speculation.
Talon didn’t step out of my way, if anything he moved closer.
“No boyfriend, no father, but one brother—one MMA fightin’ brother. With a temper.”
Talon’s accusation hung in the air, coating my skin in fear. “I….”
Someone pounded on the front door and the doorbell rang four times in a row.
“Stay here.” Talon issued the warning before he flew out of the bedroom.
A second later, I heard his voice.
“Where is she?” Marcus bellowed.
“Lemme guess, the brother?” Talon said sarcastically.
I heard a shuffle and a muted thud as I rushed to the front hall.
With his hands flat on his chest, Marcus pinned Talon against the wall.
“Marcus.” Damn it. “Let him go,” I ordered.
His face swung toward me, and I could see it in his eyes. He was about to lose it, big time.
“Who the fuck is this?” Marcus demanded.
Dripping wet, a towel around his waist, Ben was suddenly at my side. “He’s my friend. You heard Elyssia, let him go, Marcus.”
It happened so fast, I couldn’t have stopped it if I tried. Marcus dropped his hands from Talon’s chest and turned on Ben. “You motherfucker!” His arm swung out with ferocious speed, aiming straight at Ben’s jaw.
One hand holding his towel, Ben’s free arm shot up to block the blow, but he didn’t get the height he needed. Marcus’s punch glanced off Ben’s arm but still landed on his jaw with enough strength to snap Ben’s head back.
Talon moved.
Like a flash of lighting, Talon was on Marcus. He caught Marcus’s arms from behind before Marcus could land another hit on Ben. Holding Marcus’s arms with a strength that shocked me, Talon kicked the backs of Marcus’s legs and brought him to his knees.
With an inhuman roar, Marcus took the blow but then he spun to throw off Talon. Talon didn’t let go and his back hit the floor hard. Marcus landed on top of him with his arms pinned between them. One of Talon’s legs snaked over Marcus’s thigh and the other shot up then swung down and stopped right before making contact with Marcus’s groin.
“You move one inch, Marine, and you’re gonna be sterile the rest of your life,” Talon issued the warning with deadly calm.
Chest heaving, nostrils flaring, Marcus stilled.
With the same lethal voice, Talon spoke to Ben. “Get dressed.”
Ben glared at Marcus but disappeared into his room.
Closing the inch to a millimeter, Talon spoke low and threateningly in Marcus’s ear. “You and I both know why she’s here. Your only savin’ grace is that Stark doesn’t know yet. I’m gonna let go and you’re gonna get the fuck up and walk outta here before I change my mind. We clear?”
Marcus’s jaw ticked.
Talon’s heel sank an inch into Marcus’s jeans, right where he meant business. “We clear?”
“Let. Go,” Marcus hissed through clenched teeth.
Despite Marcus having fifty pounds of muscle on Talon, Talon shoved Marcus off.
Marcus sprang up and came at me, his finger in my face. “I fucking warned you about him.”
Talon jumped to
his feet and grabbed Marcus’s wrist. “Last warning.”
“Marcus,” Ben snapped, walking back into the hallway.
Seething, Marcus glared at Ben. “You’re dead to me. You fuck her over, you’re worse than dead.” He reached in his pocket, and both Talon and Ben rushed between me and Marcus. “It’s her fucking medicine, assholes!” Marcus slammed an EpiPen down on the entryway table and yanked the door open. A second later, it banged shut, rattling everything in the apartment.
Talon looked pointedly at Ben. “That’s gonna be a problem.”
Ben didn’t say anything, he was staring at me.
Falling was the only sensation I could describe—the floor bottoming out and falling. I was so fucked I didn’t know how long I could keep this house of cards together. Hours? Minutes? Seconds?
I grabbed the EpiPen off the table. “I’m going to put this in my purse.” That was all I had. A lame excuse. I fled down the hall, grabbed my bag and locked myself in the bathroom.
I begged the universe for answers. But I got none. Talon knew. Ben was going to know, and when the secret came out, Marcus would follow through with the threats to kill himself.
I sank to the floor and buried my face against my knees.
“Elyssia.” Ben knocked softly.
I pushed to my feet, wincing slightly from my back, and smoothed my hands over my hair. I shouldered my bag, opened the door and carefully didn’t make eye contact. “Sorry, you can have the bathroom now.” I tried to step around Ben, but he didn’t move.
He lifted the bag off my shoulder. “That’s not why I knocked.”
I stared at my feet like my life depended on it. “I’m sorry about Marcus.”
He set my bag down. “Stop apologizing and look at me.”
Reluctant, terrified I was going to lose the only family I had left, I lifted my head.
His jaw, his face, his shoulders, every muscle in Ben’s body was strained tight. Then his voice dropped and his next words punched me in the gut. “I’m assuming Marcus didn’t hurt you on purpose.” His nostrils flared, and he gripped my chin. “Tell me how it happened.”
I flinched.
His grip tightened. “Don’t.” He barked out the command like he was barely keeping his cool. “Don’t you dare lie to me anymore.”
Irrational anger hit. “Let go of me,” I snapped.
Instead of getting angrier, guilt washed over Ben’s face, and he dropped his hand. “I should’ve seen it. He was different after his second deployment. I should’ve made the connection. I’m sorry, Elyssia. I’m so damn sorry.” Then all of his anger came back. “But he will never lay a hand on you again.” He cupped my face. “So help me God, he is going to pay for this.”
In a move that was ingrained into my psyche, I brought my arms up and out and followed through on the trajectory of the swing to break Ben’s hold on me. I dropped and grabbed my bag and lurched forward as quick as I’d been trained to do. Without a thought besides escape, I aimed for the front door.
I wasn’t naïve. I knew I was escaping because Ben was allowing it. No matter how hard I trained, he was stronger and faster than I’d ever be. I made it down the hall and my hand wrapped around the same knob my brother had grasped earlier as a fleeting thought of concern about Talon’s whereabouts entered my mind. The split second I took to look over my shoulder before opening the door was a mistake.
Ben’s arms caged me in as his palms landed on the hard wood and slammed the door shut. My shoulder hit the door, and Ben’s lips touched my ear.
“You walk out now, I call the police on Marcus.”
In that moment, there wasn’t a soul on earth I hated more than Bennett Stark.
“And say what? You can’t prove anything.” My voice shook.
“Two counts of assault. Both Talon and I will press charges. Then I’ll tell them everything I know about what happened to you.”
“I hate you,” I bit out, sounding like a child.
“I care about you too much to give a damn right now.”
I spun on him. “You hate Marcus. You’ve hated him for a while. All you do when you come home is fight with him. Stop pretending like you can waltz into our lives for four days and fix everything. You don’t know anything!”
Ben leaned down and his face came dangerously close to mine. “What makes you angrier? That I figured out you’ve been protecting your cowardly brother or that you think every part of this morning is going to disappear once I leave to go back on the road?”
RAGE WASN’T A STRONG enough word.
I wanted to fucking kill Marcus. Kill him.
Talon tried to talk me off the ledge. He’d spouted shit about PTSD and fucking scenarios about how the fuck it had come to this, but I hadn’t given one fucking shit. Not until he stated the suicide statistic for vets. I didn’t know who the fuck I was mad at anymore. Fucking everyone. And why the hell hadn’t she told me? I would’ve fucking helped him.
I was a fucking asshole for telling her I’d call the cops on Marcus, but I’d been losing her since the second I’d fucking taken her. I saw the switch. I saw her retreat. Now I knew why. Or at least, I thought I knew why.
“You can walk out that door, but it’s not going to change a damn thing. Not for us or Marcus.” I leaned back so I wasn’t so fucking threatening. “Talon is on the phone right now. He knows the VA system. He’s seen this before, and he knows how to get Marcus help. Let’s go talk to him.” I thought she’d be relieved, but instead her whole face twisted with anger.
“The VA?” she spit the words out. “They’re not helping him at all. None of the medicines they throw at him work. All he wants to do is take every prescription they give him at once and end this.” Tears welled in her eyes. “They’re not doing a thing.” She thumped her chest. “I am. I’m keeping him alive, and if you don’t let me walk out this door, then his death is going to be on your head.”
Jesus Christ. I’d been worried about a fucking blowjob from a damn groupie, and this was the shit she was dealing with? I’d never felt so fucking selfish in my damn life. “Is that why he beat you? You were trying to stop him from taking the pills?”
Her arms crossed, and she looked away. “I need to go get him.”
I pushed. “You thought if he beat the hell out of you, he wouldn’t take the pills? That was your solution?”
Anger flushed her face and I was fucking glad. I’d take her mad over sad any day.
“Yes,” she snapped. “I held them because I didn’t want him to take them and they were too expensive to flush down the toilet. But he wanted them. He wanted to take every last one of them at once.” Her finger hit her chest. “But I stopped him.” She glared at me. “Any other questions?”
A fuck ton. But I’d pushed her enough. “Talon!” I yelled over my shoulder.
His phone to his ear, Talon strode toward the entryway. “Yes… that’s correct. It’s critical.” He nodded at me. “I understand. Thank you.” He hung up. “VA hospital’s waiting for us. They’ll admit him on a psych eval and hold him for seventy-two hours as they adjust his meds.” He glanced at Elyssia. “You know what he’s on, darlin’? He takin’ anythin’ he shouldn’t?”
She was already shaking her head. “You don’t understand. He’s been through this three times now. It never helps. He only gets worse the more medication they give him. He’s not going to agree to this. Not again.”
Talon’s hands went to his hips. “Unfortunately, three, five, sometimes even ten times ain’t enough. I can name a dozen meds off the top of my head, and about a hundred different ways to combine ’em to get what you need. This ain’t an exact science, darlin’. Every patient is different. There’s gonna be some trial and error until they get it right.”
“That’s just it, he doesn’t want to be a patient anymore.” Misery laced every word Elyssia spoke.
Talon ignored her despair. “When did all this start?”
“After his second deployment,” I answered. “That’s when I noticed th
e shift.”
Talon glanced at me. “What happened on that deployment?”
I glanced at Elyssia. When she didn’t answer, I filled Talon in. “His unit’s Humvee was hit by an IED. He survived because he was next to the vehicle, not in it. No one inside the vehicle made it.”
Talon frowned. “He wasn’t injured?”
Elyssia shook her head. “He wasn’t close enough when it blew up.”
“Not even shrapnel?” Talon asked.
“No.” Elyssia confirmed.
“TBI? Blast wave injury? Concussion? Nothing? Did they check him out?” Talon looked pissed.
“I don’t know what TBI is, but he had a concussion and a ruptured eardrum.” Elyssia picked up her bag. “I need to go find him.”
Talon scratched his chin. “All right, darlin’.” He palmed his keys and tipped his chin at me. “I’ll follow you.”
“Elyssia, stay here. We’ll find him.” I knew at a minimum, my words would piss her off, but I didn’t want her running around after Marcus. And I sure as hell didn’t want her to witness me confronting him.
Her shoulders squared, and a woman I didn’t know surfaced. “Whose brother are we talking about?” Quiet, reserved, her tone was matter-of-fact, but her words leveled me with guilt.
Talon slapped me on the shoulder. “She’s fine. She can stay in the car, Wonderboy.”
Pissed and feeling guilty for being pissed, I grabbed my keys and we took the elevator to the garage level. Elyssia waited until we were in the car to speak.
“We’ll check the house first, then the gym. That’s where he usually goes.”
I threw the Jeep in reverse. “Fine.”
“And if he isn’t willing to go to the VA, then we’re not making him.”
I had to count to fucking ten before I answered. “Then what do you suggest?”
She looked out the window as I pulled out of the garage. “I don’t know.”
“How about the regular hospital?” He needed to get help somewhere.
“His insurance doesn’t cover that.”
Fuck the insurance. “I’ll pay for it.”
“Like you did for me?” Something close to anger laced her tone.
Goddamn it. “I’m not the enemy here.”
