The Insiders by Tijan

FIFTY-SIX

““Bailey.” A whisper.

“Bailey.” Again.

My name kept coming to me, pulling me back from the dark. I was swimming to the surface, and with a last kick, I pushed through. My eyes opened, but I was back in the dark. No. Wait. It was a bedroom.

A soft glow filtered under the bedroom door and, feeling my entire body aching, I sat up, reaching over to turn on something. There had to be a lamp. At least a nightstand to help me get my bearings. I felt something—there it went. I heard a thump as I knocked something over, feeling the splash on my hand.

Crap. Someone must have put out a glass of water for me.

Finally feeling a lamp, I switched it on, and it took me another few seconds to figure out where the hell I was.

I was in a bed. Red sheets. A red armchair in the corner.

Yeah …

I had no idea where I was, but I heard voices out in the hallway, so, sitting up, I took inventory of myself. Plaid sleeping pants. A baggy T-shirt. BROOKLEY COMPUTER CLUB, WE BYTE BACK stared back up at me. My mother had changed me, or insisted that whoever did put these clothes on. They were the same pajamas I slept in in high school. Damn. I could still fit in these clothes? Hell to the yeah!

A different sort of damn hit me.

Rushing to the bathroom, I paused in the doorway, grabbing hold of the frame for a second. A wave of dizziness hit me and I was blinking back stars. I’d stood up too soon, so I quickly sat and did my business. Gravity realigned with me. Then I looked in the mirror, after washing up, and I blanched.

I totally and completely did a Golden Girls.

My hair could have laid eggs for eagles. There were scrapes and bruises all over my body. I pulled the front of my shirt and looked down. Shit. The bruises extended all the way down too. And now it was like my brain was catching up to what I was seeing, because I was aching everywhere. My fingernails hurt. My cuticles were angsty. The dead skin on my heels—yes. Even those were in pain.

Every single cell and nerve were in agony. I could hear them in my head. They were all saying, “Bailey, what did you do to us? We want a spa. Bailey. Spa. Bailey. Spa. Spa … spa…”

I was going nuts. My mind was bruised as well, apparently.

I tried to tame my hair, what I could, and I pressed a washcloth over my face. Raccoon eyes were a real thing. It looked like someone had tried to clean off my makeup, but not all of it was gone. The eyeliner decided to go through a rainstorm.

Catching a whiff of my breath, I wrinkled my nose.

“Bailey?”

I turned, or I started to. The room decided to race me, and it won. I grabbed the bathroom counter, holding on, and Kash was at my side in a flash. He caught me.

He lifted me up and carried me back to bed. After settling me down, making sure I wasn’t going to topple out of the bed, he returned to the bathroom.

He came over with my own teeth-cleaning setup. It was a whole thing.

A new glass of water, two towels, and a toothbrush and paste ready for me. I brushed my teeth, spit into the glass I’d spilled. Kash cleaned it up and handed it over. New water. And I wiped my mouth again. My mouth was refreshed, and now all the kissing could commence.

Kash took everything back to the bathroom. He came back, hitting the lights, and I heard his clothes being shed.

I didn’t want to process anything.

I knew maybe I should, but I was on strike on the emotional front.

I wanted to sleep. I wanted to sleep in his arms, because he was my man and no one was going to take either of us away. And because I was still having a hard time forming words, I closed my eyes as he pulled me into his arms.

I let the warmth take over. Again.

I was lying in Kash’s arms the next day.

I first woke around five in the morning. Brushed my teeth. Bathroom.

Went back to bed.

The next time we woke, it was because someone was knocking on our door.

A guard stuck his head inside, keeping his eyes averted. “Guests have arrived, and they refuse to leave.”

Kash sat up. “Her mother?”

“Yes, sir. Matthew. A girl named Torie.”

I grinned at that.

He kept on. “Her father.” He hesitated now, before saying, “And a police detective.”

Kash hauled himself out of bed, crossing to the closet. “Lawyers?”

“They’ve been here since eight this morning.”

A second grin from me. I had a picture of three lawyers sitting on a couch together, hands on their knees, backs sticking upright, dressed in their fancy long coats, with their briefcases at their feet, and then sitting, sitting, more sitting as the hours literally ticked away.

“Okay.” Kash pulled on pair of pants and a Henley.

Good God. That Henley.

Mouth not dry anymore.

There’s a fair chance I was doing everything I could do not to focus on what had happened to me, but the cavalry had literally arrived. They were outside, in the living room of wherever we were, and my vacation away into Sleepland was done.

Time was up.

Kash nodded, saying, “Give us another minute.”

The guard nodded, pulling back and shutting the door.

Kash swung those piercing eyes my way, and he stared. His brows pulled together. The seconds ticked away before he sighed. “I have things to say to you, but none of that’s happening with the brigade outside. I just need to know, are you ready for all of this? If you’re not, shake your head and we’ll slip out without anyone knowing.”

Oh man. When he said things like that, I was drooling.

But I sighed too, and nodded. “I’m ready.” My voice came out hoarse. His eyes darkened, but he just nodded, raked a hand through his hair, and stepped into the bathroom. I had gotten up and gone through a bag my mother must have packed. All sorts of Brookley clothes were in there. I had on an old pair of jeans and a sweatshirt when he came back out.

He stopped, taking me in, before his top lip tugged up.

“What?”

Amusement flashed in those eyes. “Nothing. I just got a glimpse into how you must’ve looked in school.”

I flushed. “I was a nerd in school.” Well, kinda.

“I doubt that.”

Yeah. His voice dipped low, sending tingles through me, going low as well. I tried to school my features into a scowl. I was sucking at it. My lips kept curving up, and then I just sighed and lay back on the bed.

He came over, leaning over me. His arms rested on both sides of my head. He held himself up, just gazing down at me, and all sorts of promising swept over his face. “Your mother is going to come in and fuss all over you.”

He was saying this, asking if I was okay with it.

I nodded.

He added, “Matt is going to curse, look angry, but he’s just terrified about what almost happened to you.”

Another nod.

I didn’t want to think about that, either.

“Your father is going to bark orders, probably fight with your mother, and get irritated with Matthew. It’ll be because he has no idea how to talk to you, but he’s just as scared as Matt about what almost happened to you.”

Again with the reminder. Did he have to go there? But I nodded a third time.

Kash gentled his tone. “Torie is here for you. That’s her job. If you need me, tell her. She’ll get me. If you need space from your mom, she’ll scurry you away for a breather. She’s informed me she’ll do anything you need except perform sexual favors, unless it’s on a specific guard that she’s had her eye on. She wanted to make sure I quoted her exactly with that. You okay with all of that?”

Oh boy. I was smiling, just slightly.

He took it as a fourth nod, and his tone hardened next. “The police will need a statement from you. You passed out from the drug Quinn gave you, and they tried to question you at the hospital when you were checked over. You weren’t even lucid. The detectives weren’t happy when the lawyers pushed back, saying you needed to know what you were saying before saying anything. They’ve been impatient, and that’s saying it nicely. But in the end, they just want to make sure they have a good enough case to make Quinn do time.”

Quinn. Time.

It was now sinking in what she’d done to me. I felt a woosh inside of me, a wave crashing over my mind, and I was back there.

Rafe. Clemin. Arcane. They were coming for me.

Quinn. How she grabbed me.

I winced now, feeling it all over again.

Kash tensed, then cursed under his breath. He was gone, and I cried out. I didn’t want him to go away, but he was saying something in the hallway. Then the door was shut and he was back. The bed dipped under his weight and he pulled me back into his arms. He rolled around me, as if his entire body could cushion the nightmare ripping through my mind. It couldn’t. He couldn’t. But I was grabbing on to him, too, as if he could.

I was sobbing. Or someone was. It was probably me. I heard myself outside of myself, and I knew it was inevitable.

I was sinking once more.