Page 46 of Bear Hunt

“You’ve been a real bad girl, Athena. Time to go home.”

Chapter Seventeen

Bear

My mouth feels like cotton and tastes like acid’s been poured down my throat. Did I drink last night?

“Come on, brother. Wake the fuck up!”

The fuck?

I’m trying to open my eyes but they’re so heavy and sleep sounds like a great fucking idea right now.

“Dude, get up or we will carry your mammoth ass to the fucking shower.”

Is that Psycho? And what the fuck is he doing here? Although, I’m not really sure wherehereis, exactly, because it sure as shit doesn’t feel like my bed. Could’ve sworn I was in my house. With Athena. She was in my bedroom and I was—

“Dude, I love him but he’ll break my fucking spine if we try to lift him.” The hell is Grinder doing here? Something’s wrong if both of them are threatening to carry me to the shower.

Open up, you fuckers.Why can't I open my eyes?

“There he is. Come on, Bear. Open those pretty browns of yours. Daddy Grinder is waiting.” Note to self… make sure no one ever says those words to me again.

“What did we say about all the daddy shit?” When I speak, it feels like a thousand cuts in my throat and my voice is barely a whisper.

“Well, you must be doing okay if your biggest worry is my daddy issues.”

“Y’all need to shut the fuck up for a second. Bear, listen to me. We’ve been trying to call you all day but your phone goes straight to voicemail. Hoops set up a church meeting and when you didn’t show…” With every word Psycho is saying, I can feel the spike in adrenaline coursing through my body but I can’t seem to get my limbs to actually move. Something ain’t right.

“Goddammit.” At least that’s what I want to say, but what actually comes out of my mouth is a slurred version of a bunch of nonsense.

“I gotcha, brother. Where is Athena? Did you take her back to Maribel’s?” As though her name conjures up the exact spike I need to move, my body jerks and with great difficulty I turn to look at my bed. A lot of shit doesn’t make sense right now. Like, why am I on the floor? I don’t remember taking her anywhere and I sure as fuck don’t remember leaving a mess all over the floor. The bed looks like there was an orgy in it and the stack of books I keep on the bedside table is strewn all over the carpet in a haphazard mess.

“Something ain’t right.” This time I’m able to get those words out and my brothers understand them because they are immediately on high-alert. My jaw clenches as I try to speak again and I can tell by Grinder’s frown that neither one is following the timeline. “Why did Hoops call for a church meeting in the middle of the night? Did something happen?”

“Nah, brother. He called it this morning. We’ve been tryin’ to get ahold of you all day.” The memory of all of us decorating the house for Christmas nudges at my barely alert mind.

“We were here, putting up Christmas decorations.” I narrow my eyes at Grinder, sure that he’s fucking with me. Fucker was here arranging my lights into decorative dicks all over the house.

It hits me hard that something is fucked up when Grinder, instead of making a ridiculous joke, looks me dead in the eyes and whispers.

“That was yesterday.”

I don’t miss the look they exchange like maybe, just maybe, I’ve lost my mind.

“Where’s Athena?”

And that’s when it all starts to come back.

“We don’t know, man. We thought…” Psycho’s words fade into the background as I see Athena looking at me from the bed, telling me that she wants me to sleep next to her. I relive the thundering feel of my heart as she strips away her clothes right in front of me. No shyness, no shame. My mouth goes right back to dry as she scoots across the bed and pulls off the covers so I can slip inside with her.

Except, I never do. The memory ends right there. The last thing I remember is the look of horror flashing across her face seconds after…

As though my subconscious is trying to guide my movements, my hand flies to the back of my neck, an index finger digging around searching for… I don’t fucking know what.

“What’s wrong?” Psycho pulls me away from the side of the bed, which has been the only thing holding me up, and pushes me down so he can see what I’m doing.

“Something happened, this ain’t right. Last thing I remember is the decorating, then we went to bed. She looked afraid, Psycho, and I’ve been asleep for… how long?”

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