Page 10 of Mad Love

I nodded, and a shrill whistle pierced the room, the sound echoing off the tiles and making me groan. The guards had finally realized there was another issue that needed their attention.

Fucking figured.

Someone hovered behind Grinder. “Shit, they really cut him good.”

Grinder’s jaw tightened as he nodded. “He needs…”

I never heard what else he said, because I passed out like a bitch.

CHAPTER 5

MADDIE

I was losing track of the days.

I’d been here for… five—no, six—days.

Or was it seven?

Shit. The idea that an entire week might have passed in an endless blur was almost unfathomable.

Time had ceased to exist in this tiny room. The lights turned on and off regularly, but I’d started to get used to sleeping with the overhead lights searing through my eyelids. There wasn’t much else to do.

Lights on signaled the start of a new day, but I didn’t know at what time. There wasn’t a clock or a window in my cell. An orderly—who it was always changed—entered and set down a tray of bland food alongside a bottle of water and a paper cup filled with pills. I’d learned after the second day that there was no point in trying not to take them. Fighting back only landed me in soft restraints while mute people ignored my pleas before shoving a needle into my arm.

Whatever drug they sank into my veins made time even more obscure. When I finally swam back to the surface of consciousness, I was never certain if hours or days had passed.

On the maybe third or fourth day, I’d tried hiding the pills under my tongue when swallowing the water. That day’s orderly, a skinny woman with pinched features, damn near ripped out my tongue when she checked my mouth to make sure I was doing as I was told. When she threatened the restraints and needle, I quickly downed the unknown pills.

Then I was alone. For hours, with nothing but my thoughts for company. I tried remembering movies I’d watched, forcing my exhausted brain to play them in my mind as a distraction.

Turned out that a two-hour movie was really little more than a five-minute memory when your brain was the projector.

Inevitably, my mind always turned to Ryan. Bex. The guys. People who gave a shit about me and would be coming.

Eventually.

But now, staring down what I was ninety percent sure was day seven, I was starting to have doubts.

My head dropped against the wall as I exhaled slowly. “Where the hell are you, Ryan?” I whispered to no one in particular.

Like I’d summoned him, the lock on my door clicked in the tumbler and the door pushed open.

My heart surged into my throat, and I scrambled forward on the bed, expecting to see him storming into my cell like an avenging angel.

Disappointment crashed over me like a bucket of ice water as Dr. Browne stepped inside, a pad of paper clutched to her chest. An orderly appeared at her back with a chair that he set by the bedside before leaving.

I eyed the door. I hadn’t heard it lock.

Dr. Browne sighed as she settled into the chair, looking prim and proper in a pair of cream pants and a turquoise blouse. “Please, don’t, Madelaine.”

My gaze snapped to hers and narrowed, my skin chafing at the name. “Maddie.”

A thin smile tugged at the corners of her narrow lips. “Are we back to that?” She shook her head while scribbling something on the paper. “I had hoped that a week would be enough time for you to come to terms with the truth. But if you’re still suffering from this delusion—”

“It’s a nickname.” My heart rate kicked up at the thought of another needle. “Just what I prefer.”

Her lips flattened. “All right. Maddie, then. How are you feeling?”

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