Page 62 of Hiding Secrets

I drop the blade and snap my eyes open, looking up to see Marcus standing above me. He kicks the blades from me and pulls me from the floor.

“I-I-” my words stutter through sobs, “I just needed to. I ne-eded i-it. I’m so-orry. I couldn’t stop.” I’m shaking uncontrollably now, “I couldn’t stop it.”

“I fucking knew it.” He mutters to himself. “Shh, just let me stop the bleeding.” He lifts the fabric off my wound, and I hiss at the burn. “Shit. Elliott.” His voice is so soft it makes my heart ache.

He shouldn’t have been here. He shouldn’t have had to see me like this. He doesn’t even care about me, he probably just feels sorry for me. As another way in which I’m the inconvenience to him. To them.

He opens a drawer on the bathroom vanity, pulling out a small wash cloth and presses it firmly on my cuts.

“Fuck.” I hiss out as it digs into my wounds.

“Yeah, hurts like a bitch huh? I need the bleeding to stop so I can clean it up.”

“You don’t have to, I can do it. I made this mess.”

“Sorry to break it to you, princess, but I don’t really trust you to be alone right now.”

“I–” I close my eyes as he shifts on the floor to grab what he needs from the vanity cabinets. “I didn’t mean for you or anyone to come in and see that.”

“Well, I did.”

“Why?” My head is still swirling, but the reality thathecame into the bathroom starts to sink in.

“Why, what?” he asks blankly, opening up a first aid kit he found in the cabinets under the sink and getting to work on my stomach.

I pull away from his chest to look up at him, but he forces me back down to lie against it.

“Why did you even come in here?”

He rips open an alcohol pad, rubbing it against the two wounds and I hiss at the burn, but I secretly want more.How fucked up is that? Very, I know.

“I came because I saw you spiraling again.”

“You saw me… spiraling?”

“When you were talking with Raf, when you tried to smile through it, and when Hunter and Kameron joined the conversation. I saw your eyes go vacant and your smile become duller. The way you shifted on your feet and the flick of your thumb on your thigh. You were spiraling.”

I shift, cranking my neck to look at him, “How did you know that?”

“It was like looking in a mirror.” He says without a glance my way, his hands working on putting a bandage on my wounds.

“What does that mean?” I ask, hoping for a real, honest answer.

He smooths out the band, finishing up his work, and finally looks at me. His eyes look pained, “It means, unfortunately that we share a similar monster.”

I don’t say a word as I glance between his umber eyes.

“Hey, the guys told me to hunt you down are you–Oh shit! What the fuck?” Raf walks into the bathroom but Marcus’s eyes are still on me. His jaw ticks as he lifts me off the floor with him, steadying me on my feet before he pulls away from me.

“Oh good, a real doctor to help you.” Marcus’s eyes harden again, the pain he exposed as he looks to Raf long gone, “Your patient got hurt. Might want to talk to her.” He pushes past me, leaving me there with Raf.

“What happened?” Raf asks and I let out a loud exhale knowing that I have no choice but to be honest.

By the time I fill him in on what happened and answer all of his questions, I hear the team of men begin to shuffle from the study, giving their goodbyes before leaving the house.

“Elliott, the guys are going to have to know about this.”

I knew he would say that, I mean I figured Marcus already blabbed about it to Kameron and Hunter when he got back to their meeting.

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