Page 2 of Duke
Beside me, Mason has finally gotten to his feet. “What the fuck do you think he’s talking about?” He reaches up, gingerly touching his fingers to the side of his head.
It takes me several steadying breaths before I reach out, my hand covering his. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about me.” He begins making his way across the room when Bear stops him with a hand curled around his bicep. “You feel dizzy or nauseated, you fuckin’ say something. That was a hard hit to take. I saw it land.”
Mason nods, shrugging from his grip. “I’m good. Worry about yourself.”
As we hurry out of the pool house and make our way around the pool, heading for the back door, I glance at Bear. “He’s right. You’re no better off. What are you going to do about the fight tomorrow?”
He turns his head toward me, eyes blazing but lined with pain. “I don’t fucking know!” He grits his teeth, eyes crashing shut. “I can’t think about it right now. I need to put eyes on Lennon. Then”—he heaves out a harsh breath—“I’ll fucking figure something out.”
“What about the prescription meds you were taking?” My eyes narrow. Something’s not right.
He avoids my gaze by glancing at the balcony Mason and Lennon share before swiveling his head to the other window. “I’m out.”
“Can you get more from your doctor?” I wet my lips, already having an awful feeling that I know the answer.Tell me that this isn’t what he was talking to his dad about.
“No. No, I fucking can’t. Just—” His eyes blaze with irritation born of terrible pain, tinged with a bit of humiliation. “Drop it. Getting to Lennon is more important.”
I see the problem so clearly now that I’m kicking myself for not picking up on it before. He hasn’t been to see his doctor. He hasn’t told anyone. Except the person who is providing him with prescription drugs.
I catch Mason’s concerned gaze. He starts to open his mouth but must rethink whatever he was going to say as we get to the house. Instead, he mutters, “Let’s go make sure she’s okay.”
An uncomfortable feeling shimmies down my spine as I recall what Cannon said. My feet carry me faster and faster as thoughts tumble through my head. “If Cannon fucking saw her… does that mean she didn’t lock the door behind her? Did she open the door to him thinking it was us?”
Bear’s pace picks up, too. “She wouldn’t. She’s smarter than that.” Through the haze of his pain, I see the immense concern for her flowing from him.
Reaching the end of the hall, I throw open the door to her room. My gut twists. She’s not here. Oh, fuck. She’s not fucking here. “Lennon!” I shout, hurrying to check the bathroom. When I come right back out, Mason has disappeared and Bear is rising from a crouch beside the bed.
“Let’s check our rooms.” Just as Bear says this, Mason returns.
“Not in my room.” His hands plant on his hips for a moment, then, almost immediately, he raises his arms to claw his fingers into his hair. “If I find out he hurt her, he’s done. I will jump on his back and choke that big savage right the fuck out,” he snarls, his tone sharp and lethal.
Bear and I dash to our rooms, but moments later, meet back in the hallway. My heart tugs viciously in my chest. If we hadn’t taken so long with the fight, maybe we’d know where she is. We should never have left her alone. There’s this haunted look in Bear’s eyes that’s a match for how I’m feeling.Fuck. Fuck!Empty-handed, we rejoin Mason in Lennon’s room. He’s seated on her bed, his head bowed.
“Mase?” My brows tug together, creasing my forehead. His dark eyes stare blankly at us as he holds up something black for us to see. My heart clenches so hard, an unbelieving gasp wrenches from me.
The dress I gave Lennon. The one she wore to the auction. So, she definitely made it up here. But why would she have gotten undressed? Where the fuck is she? Panic the likes of which I’ve never known surges through me, filling every cell of my being. A sense of foreboding overwhelms me, but I don’t know what to think. She wouldn’t have gone back downstairs. I’d bet money something happened up here, which is why Cannon felt the need to tell us about the odd energy she’d been hitting him with.
Though I suspect it’s mostly futile, we search the house, barging into every room, looking everywhere we can think of. We usher the remaining members of other brotherhoods out. Fear coats my skin the longer the hunt goes on. But thirty minutes later, we still don’t have any clue what’s happened.
Our girl… she’s gone.
TWO
LENNON
Flashes of darknessand flickers of light. My head is a horrific disco nightmare, thumping to the beat of nonexistent music. There’s an odd strobe effect every time I attempt to open my eyes that’s both jarring and disconcerting. It’s probably for the best that my eyelids are so heavy I can’t hold them open for more than a few moments at a time. Keep them shut. Don’t throw up. It’ll all stop soon. But I can’t track the passage of time because it’s simply a fucking awful dream.
But something doesn’t feel right. Am I having a massive hallucination? Or is this a nightmare of hellish proportions? My stomach churns violently. Pinching my brows together, I attempt to concentrate on sound, but it’s completely out of the realm of possibility when I can’t hear over the fastwhoosh, whoosh, whooshof blood pounding in my head. My lips smack together trying to gather enough spit to wet my dry mouth.
A low, gravelly voice whispers, “Think she remembers?”
I lift my head in alarm and immediately regret it as this dark world spins and spins out of control.Thump.Pain. The moan that falls from my lips doesn’t even sound like me. It’s garbled, heart-wrenching to hear. It’s me. But is it real? Or am I dreaming up this demented fusion of sight and sound? Waves of uncertainty roll through me, unrelenting and ruthless.Oh god. Wake up, Lennon. Please.
“Don’t care. Who’s in?” a man’s voice says, raspy and without feeling.
My brow furrows. What’s happening? How did I get here? Whereishere? There’s nothing stopping the fuzziness invading my head, and the room spins and spins, the lights behind my lids flashing chaotically, but when I force my eyes open, it gets worse. My surroundings are a wild array of jerking movement. Black masks. Deep-voiced murmurs of assent. Panic rises, and my breath accelerates. I have no concept of what’s real and what’s not. With my senses so dull, I can’t get a grasp on any of this. I squeeze my eyes shut. Please, please be a twisted, fucked-up nightmare. I feel sick. So sick. My heart races out of control.
