Page 58 of Sinners Keepers
I'd fucked up again and I could only hope my guys would get to me in time.
"How long did I sleep?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
How long have I been away from them? Have they noticed I left yet? Have they had time to get to me?
There was something wrong with the way he stroked my forehead and the way his eyes looked when they landed on mine.
“Long enough,” he answered.
The room tilted.
My eyes unfocused and my lids fell shut. I lay back against the pillows, feeling as if my body was sinking. Each time I pried my eyes open, the room began to spin around me in a nauseating way, and I fought the urge to vomit.
I closed them again, trying to focus on inhaling and exhaling, on cooling my overheated skin, on abating the shivers that wracked my body.
Opening them, it was as if I viewed the room through a kaleidoscope. Sounds echoed in my head, and colors shifted and swirled. Oily colors oozed from the walls, and I felt my mind unraveling at the edges.
“It works fast, yeah?” My dad said from somewhere far, far away. “LSD can be a fun time.Or not. We’ll see which it is for you. I’m guessingnotwith that brain injury of yours.”
I tried to focus on his voice, to find a thread that would lead me to him so I could grab onto it and pull myself back to reality.
Tried.
And failed.
My breaths came in shallow, rapid pants. My heart fluttered like the wings of a fucking hummingbird, and my stomach turned inside out.
“They don’t want you, Hunter.No onewants you.” I guessed it was no secret that I’d gotten pretty cozy with all three of my guys during theirprotectivedetail. It wasn’t as if we hadn’t been public with it during the times we’d been out together over the last several weeks.
Blurry lights and colors crossed my vision as I fell into complete and utter disorientation.
“How could you think you’d ever been good enough for the three of them? They haven’t even noticed you’re gone. That… or they just don’t give a fuck.”
At least he seemed convinced I hadn’t told them, that I’d just done as he asked and came alone.
Time warped; seconds felt like hours, minutes felt like days.
“The only thing you’ve ever been good for is keeping me out of debt, but you can’t even do that now, can you? Scarred fucking bitch. Who would want you?”
My thoughts spun in circles and I felt like I was being pulled down an unstoppable vortex.
“You fucked everything up when you allowed those bastards to kill Roman. He was the only one who had shown any interest in you, the only man who was willing to take the only thing I had to offer up as payment. My connections have worn thin, and you fucked it all up, you’ve fucked up everything in my life from the day you were born.”
He was psychotic, I knew that. But he’d reached a new level. What the fuck was he talking about? Fear coursed through me at the thought of losing control or dying, and I screamed in anguish as the full force of the terror I felt enveloped me.
“Your whore of a mother was just like you. She couldn’t keep her legs closed either, even when she belonged tome. All I’d ever wanted was a child of my own, and that was the one thing I wasn’t capable of. Then she gotpregnant, and I knew it wasn’t mine. Thatyouweren’t mine, but I played along… biding my time until I could find a way to make her pay. And then she got sick, and I watched her fight and fade away over fuckingyears. Cancer is a bitch like that, but you know. I thought that was enough for me, that she suffered and I hadn’t even had to lift a finger. But when she died, it just wasn’t…satisfyingenough. So all the ways she fell short shifted to you, and you weresoyoung. I had much longer to dream up exactly how I could make you fuckinghurt.”
A deafening crack reverberated around the room. The air shifted and the scent of copper permeated the space around me. Something hot and wet sprayed over my neck, arms, and face.
Then, nothing.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE
Hunt
The sound of hushed, overlapping voices tugged at my consciousness. My eyes fluttered open and I took in the seemingly familiar room.
The fucking hospital.
