Page 82 of The Sweetest Note
“None yet,”Turner shrugs unapologetically.“Roark or Lavender have always pulled me back from the brink.”
Derek shudders and swallowing hard says, “They changed her hair. It’s blonde like her mom now. I think they had a certain look for the woman they wanted to buy.”
Everyone stills and stares at Derek, willing him to continue.
“Keep going,” I murmur. “We’ll deal with the rest of the shit we’ve had to do later.”
Nodding, he leans back and looks at the ceiling. He can’t deal with the weight of everyone’s stares.
“I went to see my mom, and Grant parked in the Director spot in the parking lot,” Derek begins. He’s disassociating himself from his father, and I don’t blame him. I don’t want to be related to my own father half the time.
“The hospital looks cheery when you go in, but Orion managed to get into the secret part of the hospital and that side is sterile and doesn’t have any natural light. I was able to take my mom outside for a walk, and you’d think I’d given her the best gift.” Derek throws his hand up in disgust, and he’s definitely not masking his emotions at the moment. I don’t want him to hurt, but shutting everything down right now isn’t the best option either.
“I asked my mom if she had seen Lennon, and she wanted to know why. We were hidden in the gardens and alone, so I told her I needed Len and my mom started to cry. Apparently, she saw her once in the common areas, and Lennon looked rough.” Derek sits up, staring at the men on the television.
“I dropped my mom back off at the sun room, and then Nurse Imelda explained that Grant wanted me in his office. There’s no way he would ever want me in his space, but because it worked in my favor, I didn’t say a word. I searched and found the address on a box. Greg has it now, and as soon as we’re able to move, I know we will. But…”
Derek stares at Roark and Turner, his chest sawing as he chews on his bottom lip.
“Derek,”Roark whispers brokenly.“We need your words. Even if they hurt. You did nothing wrong. None of this is your fault. Tell us.”
“My father sold her,” Derek rasps. “Xav needed money to continue his projects, my dad needed money for the campaign, and so they sold her. I walked out of the office, turned to look down the hall, and there was our girl. Her hair was a mess, she was wearing these tiny ass pajamas, and there were handprints all over her body. Len looked like she had been attacked, and now that I really let myself think about it, there may have been fingerprints on her neck.
“A nurse pulled her away as I stared, and Lennon didn’t look like she recognized me. Her eyes were dead, disconnected from everything, and at first I thought she was Carrie. My father told me he was sorry I had to see her,” Derek’s voice finally breaks and suddenly I can’t stand it anymore. His voice is full of pain and the thought of someone violating her and hurting her like that makes me need to kill people.
Clearing his throat, he brushes a tear as it travels down his face. “He said Lennon made ‘us’ a lot of money, and Xav has big plans for her. Greg please, please we can’t leave her there!”
Derek breaks as he screams at Greg. Greg winces and nods, discreetly rubbing his finger under his eye.“This needs to end. I have everything I need to bring to my superior. My team is ready to move as soon as I give the order too. Lennon’s coming home. We’ll figure out the possible kill switch—”
“The what?”Turner rasps. Roark and Turner have their arms around each other, while Roark hides his face in Turner’s shoulder. God, even I can feel the waves of hurt coming from them all.
Greg coughs, but I respond for him. He’s clearly got some bad blood with Turner.
“Xav told me when I was at the hospital while I visited in Grant’s stead that there was a kill switch embedded somewhere in Lennon’s body. He was really shifty when he said this so I’m almost certain he’s lying. However, on the off chance he’s not…”
“We’re not chancing it,”Greg affirms.“I’ll have a doctor on our team when we go in.”
“I want to be on the team,” I insist.
“Me too,” comes from Derek, Roark, and Turner and I shrug. Oops.
“Fuck,”Greg groans.“Seriously? I know Orion can handle his own, but y’all?”
“You watched me torture and murder someone the other day,” Derek says flatly. “Try to fucking tell me no again.”
Turner and Roark look at Derek wide-eyed but there’s no judgment in their stare.“Roark and I can both fight hand to hand and use a knife. Greg, you’ve also shown us how to shoot as well. We can follow directions, but we need to be there. We’re so far removed from everything, we’re already getting information days old. I understand the reasons why, but fuck. I should know if my boyfriend is becoming a serial killer!”
Derek gives a gentle smile at this. “Boyfriend, huh? Also, it’s only been a few people.”
Shaking my head, I decide to break this up and get back on topic. “Grant put Derek in an impossible situation, but Derek exceeded my expectations and his father’s. Every step he’s made has been to get Lennon out of this hospital. I regret it isn’t going to be soon enough for any of us, but it’s important that you know he’s put everything into saving her.”
“I couldn’t take Lennon with me when I left the hospital because it would have been too obvious. Trust me, I didn’t want to leave her,” I begin to explain. “So instead, I took an orderly, drugged him, and threw him in the trunk. Grant sent me a car that has a tracker and a camera by the front seat, but the trunk wasn’t being watched. So when I got home, I asked Derek to come over to my house, and we tortured him for information together. Neither of us could get him to give up the hospital’s address, and by then Derek and I were frustrated with Eric the orderly.”
“He’d been putting his hands on Lennon,” Derek mutters, interrupting me. I don’t mind it though, because he clearly needs to tell the story. Derek sneers as he remembers what happened. “Orion had a fireplace poker already warmed from the fire outside, so I figured I may as well use it. So Orion parted the douchebag’s ass cheeks, and I pushed the poker in. His screams were amazing.” A chilling grin spreads over his lips and I smile back.
“Yeah, they really fucking were, Derek,” I tell him.
“Baby serial killers, unfucking believable. I leave you for a month, and you find a new hobby,”Roark mutters.