Page 9 of Surface Scratch
“You’re in my penthouse, above the club,” Marcus said. He produced a glass of water, his amber eyes drifting down Caleb’s exposed torso.
Caleb would have felt self-conscious and searched for something to cover up the scars on his shoulders and arms, but he was laser focused on the glass of water and the burning in his throat. He reached out, his hands shaking as his fingertips brushed against Marcus’s, and stared at the water sloshing in the glass as if he could will his hands to still.
“I got you,” Marcus whispered, guiding the glass to Caleb’s lips.
The first gulp of cold water hurt, burning all the way down his throat and into his stomach. Caleb winced, feeling tears form in the corners of his eyes, but took another gulp, forcing away the burning pain so he could focus on getting the water into himself.This might be the best water I’ve ever had.A small sound escaped his throat as Marcus pulled the glass away, almost like a whine.
“You need to go slow, I don’t want you to throw up,” Marcus said. He set the glass down and took a deep breath in through his nose before leaning forward and taking Caleb’s shaking hands in his.
Despite the throbbing pain that tore through every inch of him, Caleb felt his heart skip a beat, looking down at the delicate yet strong hand holding his own.
“What do you remember?” Marcus asked gently, stroking the backs of his hands with his thumbs.
Caleb felt a pang of shame course through him as he realized his eyes were already brimming with tears.So much for not crying in front of my boss. His scalp and face stung, tingling with the reminder of every blow that had landed on him. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Marcus.
“I-I went to get the first aid kit, I wasn’t trying to do anything shady, I swear,” Caleb said, squeezing his eyes closed again. Adam’s bruised and bloodied back flashed in his mind.
“I know. I believe you,” Marcus said. He gently squeezed Caleb’s uninjured hand. “You went to get the first aid kit. Tariq told you where it was, right?”
“I don’t want him to get in trouble—” Caleb began. The sob he had been trying to hold back burst out and he bit down on his lower lip.
“Don’t worry about that.” Marcus leaned forward.
Caleb nodded, licking his lower lip a few times, trying to convince his vocal cords to work. “I-I thought I heard someone getting hurt, a-and I went to check because…” He trailed off. Adam’s voice telling him to run echoed in his ears as they began to ring. “Because no one ever helped me when I was the target. I just wanted to help.”
He stared down at Marcus’s hands where they held his, still stroking the backs. It was such a small movement, but the gentle motion cut through the chaos coursing through his veins and began to build a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“You’ll learn that it’s best to mind your business in our world.” Ophelia’s voice came from the hallway. Caleb looked up at her as she strolled into the room from the hallway holding three pill bottles. He felt his cheeks and chest flush, his embarrassment building as he realized she was seeing him like this as well. Marcus had been making him feel better, but he had spent all night trying to get on Ophelia’s good side. What would she think when she saw him sobbing on her couch like a baby?
He stiffened his back, wincing from the pain in his sore ribs, and wiped away the tears rolling down his cheeks.
She handed the bottles to Marcus, who shot her a glare. She ignored him. “The ribs aren’t broken, so you’ll just feel like shit for a week or so instead of months, but you have a concussion. Take these every few hours, alternate them to get ahead of the headache,” she said, pointing to each bottle in Marcus’s hands. She reached behind her and pulled out a syringe with a ball of foil over the tip. “They hit you with this, I’m guessing propofol or ketamine. You’re probably going to be nauseous, and with the concussion, you might puke, so”—she tapped the large, round bottle in her father’s hand—“take this one a lot. It’ll melt under your tongue and help with the puking.”
Caleb nodded grimly, his hand subconsciously finding its way to the sore spot on his neck where he had felt the sharp pain before his world went dark. So that was how they’d knocked him out so fast. He clenched his teeth together to keep them from chattering, another surge of fear and adrenaline gripping his heart. Who the hell just walked around with that kind of knockout drug on them?
“Thanks. Now off to your room for the night, child.” She didn’t budge, instead folding her arms over her chest and looking down at Caleb.
“Good night, Caleb. Tell Marcus I said hello.”Vincent’s words echoed in his mind. He lowered his gaze as his hands began to tremble again. “He wanted me to say hello to you for him,” Caleb muttered. He stared at his nails, at the dried blood caught in his cuticles that had apparently been missed when he was cleaned up. “I think I heard Adam say his name was Vincent.”
“That fucker knows better,” Ophelia grumbled, stomping her foot with a huff.
“Ophelia, bedroom. Now,” Marcus said, his voice sharp and stern enough to make Caleb wince. She muttered a string of curses and threats beneath her breath as she disappeared back into the darkened hallway.
Marcus waited until the sound of a door closing echoed up from the hallway before he reached out and grabbed Caleb’s hands again, stilling them with his own. “She means well.” It sounded like he had a smile on his face, and when Caleb looked up through his messy curls, there was indeed a small smile on an otherwise concerned face. “What else did Vincent say?”
Caleb’s breath caught in his throat. The warmth in his belly from Marcus’s gentle touch was back, soothing his fried nerve endings, but he desperately did not want to think about anything else the blond man had said to him. He just wanted to forget the whole thing, but he felt compelled to continue. He shut his eyes and saw the black light room in his mind and Vincent’s terrifying face in front of him with a vicious smile, like an animal playing with its food before finally cutting into it and putting it out of its misery. “It’s a shame to leave such a pretty thing with a beast that likes to break his toys.”
Caleb pursed his lips, suddenly uneasy. He didn’t know if that was about Marcus, and he had no idea what it meant. He made a split-second decision to not mention it. “He wanted to take me somewhere, b-but Adam convinced him not to,” Caleb said quietly.
Marcus stayed silent for a long time, long enough for Caleb to calm his breathing again. Marcus’s face was tense, his brows pinched together as he stared back at Caleb. “They didn’t say anything else to you?” he finally asked, biting down on his lower lip as though he were uncertain about wanting to hear the answer to the question.
Caleb shook his head. “They spoke with sign language, mostly. At least I think it was sign language.”
Marcus nodded. “I didn’t see the Jovanovskas with him, but that tracks. Luka is mute and Matteo is deaf, and their brother Petrov doesn’t speak much to begin with,” he said absentmindedly. He leaned closer to Caleb, locking eyes with him. “I can’t tell you what to do about what happened, but I can tell you this: what happened tonight will never happen again. I promise. If you want to file a police report, I can give you whatever information about them you need.”
For the first time since their meeting in the early evening of the previous day, Marcus looked nervous, his unusual amber eyes filled with worry. Caleb considered the idea for a moment, wondering if it would do anything to make him feel better to know the police would arrest Vincent for battering him and scaring him. How would the police react to it? Would they just laugh at him for not being able to defend himself? He knew how he looked and he knew the assumptions they would make about him. It was his word against four men who would undoubtedly just deny everything.
But Adam…
