Page 132 of Lessons In Grey
Rags was at my side, pulling me into him, and I clutched into his shirt, the sobs breaking through me as his arms tightenedaround me. “What happened to me?” I demanded, my voice cracking, the words broken.
He slid his hand behind my head, the scent of his cologne sliding through me, trying to calm every terrified piece of me. “You were taken.”
~~~
I had finally gone to the bathroom.
Rags explained what had happened to me beforehand, and now I was sitting at the table as he cooked me some food. Everything had started to scream in pain, so he gave me some more Aspirin, which while it helped take the edge off, did nothing to ease the pain in my soul.
According to he, Jeremy, Ash, and Syn, Diamond’s secretary, who had no knowledge of the setup, had come to get me, claiming that my dad had been in a car accident. They had gotten the exact model of town car my dad’s driver always drove, the man picked me up, and drugged me.
After that, well, I saw the remaining evidence while I went to the bathroom. The bruises were still dark, the cuts still healing. If I still looked this bad five days in, God knows what I had looked like Monday evening.
As far as Rags could tell, they had gotten a lookalike to take my car from the school to my building, and Jerry said that when they brought me back, it was one woman, carrying me. He thought I was drunk, passed out. He didn’t ask any questions other than asking if I was alright.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring the memories up. Everything was just…it was gone. Poof. Like it never existed at all.
Rags set a plate of food in front of me, placing a glass of soda and a paper rose next to it, Sirius laying directly in the center of the table, watching me with steady eyes.
I lifted my eyes from the bubbling soda to him. “It’s 9am.”
He nodded, setting a plate down in front of himself as he sank into the chair cattycorner to me. “You need the calories, the sugar. Four eggs for protein, bacon for fat, bread for carbs, fruit, and a soda. You don’t have to eat it all, just some.”
My brow furrowed, my lips pulling down in a frown. “You’re always hounding me to drink water because I drink too much coffee.”
He nodded. “In the last five days, you have drunk about 10 gallons of water. You’re hydrated, baby. Overly hydrated. In fact, you drank too much water.”
My brows lifted. “What? Seriously?”
“I can only come up with two reasons why you did that. One: you were still reading my texts, even though you didn’t respond to all of them. You were drinking it because I told you too. Or two: the body heals better if you are hydrated. Your primal instincts took over, but that wouldn’t account for the over-hydration. I think you were doing it because you wanted to make sure you were still doing as I said, still trying…trying to make me happy.”
I watched him for a moment before turning back to my food and picking up my fork, but I didn’t feel hungry. I knew I was, rationally, I could feel my stomach growling, but I didn’tfeelhungry. I pushed my eggs around, my eyes lifting to the cat, her eyes locked on me. I frowned. “Why is Sirius acting like that?”
Rags followed my eyes. “She’s protective. She saw that you were hurt, and she tried to do her best to take care of you, protect you. She hasn’t eaten either. I tried to get her away from you, make her eat, but she ignored me.”
I watched the cat for a few more seconds before stabbing a small piece of egg. Even the smell of it made my stomach turn. “Um,” I cleared my throat. “Ash and Syn?”
“Worried,” he answered quietly. “Angry at me for telling them they couldn’t come up here. Ash confessed to me that she had lost her key, but from her story,” he went on as my eyes lifted, “I think they stole it off of her in the middle of the night. I haven’ttold them what happened, just that you slipped into a deep depression, that you needed time and space.”
My eyes filled as I set the fork down, unable to force myself to eat. The guilt felt overwhelming. “You said I texted you?” I asked, my voice thick. “But I didn’t text them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He hadn’t even made a move to touch his food. “I don’t know. You probably had a reason, you just can’t remember it.”
I fell back into my chair, my hands covering my face as the tears began to fall again, my shoulders shaking. An entire fuckingweek. A week of ghosting the people I care about most in the world, and I will never know why? That was fucked. This was sofucked.
I heard Rags’ chair scrape back against the floor, and then he was pulling my chair out and turning me to face him.
He crouched down in front of me and reached up, gently pulling my hands away from my face. Rags carefully wiped the tears away. “Listen to me,” he spoke, his voice, his touch, so gentle that I felt like I might shatter completely, “I am so sorry this happened to you. I never should have left you. You’re going to be okay, Emily. Malachi has pulled everyone. We are all looking for the person who did this, but I swear to you, I swear that you are safe. You are safe now. Nobody will ever touch you again.”
I released a shuddering breath, trying to understand what he was saying, trying to work through the fog in my head. “What did they do to me?” I whispered, tears streaming down my face. He had told me as much. Malachi and Matthew had been watching Eris and Diamond. They were following the rules. The person, the people, who had taken me had nothing to do with the drug ring, they were separate. Someone after Rags or Malachi, thinking they could use me to hurt them.
His jaw feathered. “They tried to use you as a message, but they didn’t realize that Malachi had already given his blessing.You’re a part of The Family now, Emily. You mean as much to my brothers, to Malachi, as I do. And I am…I amsosorry.”
Tears burned his eyes, the guilt was eating him alive, but the thing was I signed up for this. For this life. I told him I wanted him, whatever that meant.