"What's the poem?" I asked, suddenly wanting to know how it started.
"I say I'll Seek Her," he supplied.
"It's pretty," I decided, feeling lame for not having anything else to say about it.
"Hardy was a romantic," he said, and even though I wasn't sure I fully understood his meaning, it sounded like he was agreeing with me to an extent, which made me feel a little less silly.
"It's good to talk to them," I supplied, folding up to a seated position, pulling the blanket up to my shoulders. "When patients seem lost in their own heads," I clarified. "It's good to talk to them. A lot of people who wake up even from comas say they could hear things, but just couldn't wake up. Does she like poetry?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"Isn't she your friend?"
"Yeah."
"You never asked?"
"Do your friends ask if you like dead poets?" he shot back.
It was probably not a good idea to let him know that I didn't really have any friends. Any family. Any significant other. Anyone who would notice I was missing, would look for me.
"I guess not," I said, shrugging.
Ace's attention went to Red, then back to me. "We are going to need to move her," he said, mostly to himself.
"We moved her earlier," I told him. "To change the sheets," I clarified.
"I meant in a car."
"To a hospital?"
"No."
"She shouldn't be moved. She's... she's covered in wounds. If you're not careful, the stitches will open up."
"Well, then you will need to stitch them up again," he said, rising, making his way to the door.
It certainly sounded like he planned to bring me with them.
"Where are you going?"
"We are going home," he told me, strolling out and closing the door before I could ask anything else.
I was left alone to contemplate his words.
I guess I thought they were home. It was certainly someone's home we were in. If it was not theirs, then why were they here? Where was home?
My stomach clenched at the idea of being dragged anywhere else, but I was also not naive enough to think I had any sort of control over the situation. Not with so many men in the house.
Ace, Lycus, Aram, Seven, Drex, Bael, and the guy Daemon that I hadn't seen but had heard. Plus Lenore. I was more than outnumbered. If they wanted to take me somewhere, they could and would. And, really, the only control I had was over not getting myself too hurt in the process.
Maybe, if we were changing locations, it would give me a chance to come across some other people who might help me.
Whatever the move was, it didn't happen that day.
Not the day after that, either.
It wasn't until the third day that I was startled awake by a small group of the men as they burst into the room, flicking on the overhead light, leaving me with a frantic heartbeat, trying to force my eyes to adjust to the brightness.
"What's the matter?" I asked, clutching my blanket tighter to my chest.
"We're heading out," Aram supplied, being the one who seemed to take more sympathy on me.
"Heading out where?"
"Home," Ace snapped. "Like I told you."
"Where is home?" I pressed.
"I can't imagine why you would need to know that," he told me as he made his way toward the bed, looking down at Red. "Come over here and get her ready to go."
"She shouldn't be moved," I snapped at him, throwing off the blanket to stalk across the floor. "She's still barely healing."
"Yeah, well, we waited as long as possible," he told me. "So do what you can. Because we are leaving within the hour," he said as the other men grabbed things out of the closets, the dressers, shoving them into suitcases.
With little choice, I did a quick cleanse of the wounds with saline, dried her, then gently wrapped as much of her in gauze as possible, hoping to minimize any tearing during the transport.
I gave her another pain pill, then turned to find Ace watching me, arms folded over his chest. "That's the best I can do," I told him, shaking my head.
"Good. Aram, get Bael and Ly," he said. "We are going to carry her on the sheet like a makeshift stretcher. "You, get over here," he demanded, daring me to object.
I wanted to tell him to go screw himself, but I also understood that not ending up hurt was in my best interest. I needed to be sharp. I didn't need another concussion.
So with gritted teeth, I moved toward him, figuring it out a moment too late what he intended to do.
Because my wrists were encircled in cuffs in what felt like two seconds.
It wasn't in my best interest to antagonize him, but his cold, indifferent arrogance just rubbed me the wrong way. I couldn't seem to keep control of my runaway mouth.
"That's fine. I can still scream," I said, shrugging.
"No," he told me, but the word was strangely soft, almost apologetic.
I didn't understand it until his hand lifted, and I felt a sharp pinch stab into my shoulder.
I looked down to see the needle sticking out of my arm for a second before the wooziness swirled through me, making me feel like I was floating, like I was half-asleep in seconds.
I swayed on my feet, and Ace's hands went around me, pulling me to his body, my face resting against his chest.
I could have sworn he whispered Sorry before I drifted off.
But, no, that wasn't possible.
Men like him never apologized for anything.
They had too much pride.
But soon I was unconscious.
And nothing mattered.
Chapter Seven
Ace
It was a fucking miserable ride back home.
Daemon and Bael took off first with Drex, Seven, and Aram, getting a head start on their bikes while the rest of us piled into the SUV with Red and Josephine unconscious in the back, our own bikes in a trailer.
We couldn't stay another day, even if I was more worried about moving Red than I would let on. The house was a rental. And they had another client coming to stay in two days.
We had to clear out with plenty of notice.
Especially when we were traveling with a fucking hostage.
I should have taken her out to the woods and done away with her, but had somehow convinced myself that Red might need her on the long ride home.
It was something like a thirty-five-hour drive back from Utah. But I'd convinced Lycus, and Minos to drive it in shifts so we didn't have to stay over anywhere.
There was a lot of bad that could happen with Red's condition from our start to end points. And I'd reasoned that it was easier to transport Josephine with us than to possibly have to abduct someone else halfway through the trip.
It had been Drex's idea to drug the nurse to keep her from drawing attention to us. I'd had no good argument against it, even if, for some reason, I didn't like the idea.
I took the first leg of the drive while Minos slept in the passenger seat and Ly and Lenore slept together in the middle row.
We stopped eight hours later when the nurse started to rouse. We'd pulled up to a gas station that had a detached bathroom, backing up to it, and helping a groggy Josephine out, letting Lenore take her inside.