Page 50 of Fractured Souls
And I understood I didn’t have a choice.
Nodding, I stood up and kept my gaze on the ocean as I walked out of the party with Toris. I knew damn well I wasn’t going to be able to stand after the beating he would dole out, let alone meet Melanie on the dance floor.
Flashes of the beating that followed ran through my mind as my screams mixed with those of the stars, feeling absolutely drained as I let out a pathetic sob from my throat. No tears fell, but I felt the agony all the same.
“Bunny.” Rhett’s voice was soft as he tightened his hold around me. “I promise you’re safe. I promise that it’s nothing more than a nightmare from the past.”
Which meant he’d seen it. Which meant all of them had probably seen it.
“I wish I could kill the motherfucker again,” Adriel bit out. Desmond made a noise of agreement, the sound of his pacing causing me to feel a stir of anxiousness. I hated the idea of them being upset, even in my honor…
“Dean, you need to breathe,” Cash said evenly. “It won’t help when she wakes up if you’re all fucked up over this.”
“It’s a fucked up situation,” Dean snarled.
“It’s over,” Draven said roughly. “He’s dead, and all his people are fucking dead.”
“Is that Toris, then? The one who tortured her?” Zander’s voice sounded off. I couldn’t pin exactly why, but the sudden rumble and shifting of the plane told me I needed to wake up, and really fucking soon.
“He’s dead,” Adriel repeated, sounding a bit concerned. It was mostly hidden, but it was there in his tone of voice.
“Heisdead.” I inhaled sharply, murmuring against Rhett’s neck. I groaned, sitting up and running a hand over the slick, wet blood coating my face. We were still in the jet, all my men surrounding me. My gaze immediately fell on Zander, who was white-knuckling the seat he stood next to. “He’s dead—very fucking dead, just like Mr. Black.”
Zander nodded but didn’t say anything, making it clear my words only moderately calmed him.
“I’m guessing that went on for a while?” I didn’t normally have that type of memory during a star call.
“We just landed in Bora Bora, actually—almost ready to get off the plane,” Rhett explained. I nodded and slid off his lap, stabilizing myself on his shoulder before moving past my men. I needed to rinse off my face, and honestly, I needed a minute to collect myself before I could calm anyone else. I knew Rhett was following me, and when I leaned over the sink in the master suite, I was unsurprised to find him standing in the doorway watching me with a calm yet concerned expression.
“I’m fine,” I promised, drying off my face. I had no idea how much blood had been on it originally, but it was less now.
Rhett pulled me into his arms, brushing his lips over the top of my head. “I never doubt your strength, bunny, but it doesn’t mean I’m okay with what you’ve been through. It doesn’t mean I’m not worried about how you feel after those memories resurface. I will always worry and care about anything that affects you. Fucking always.”
Pulling back, I stared up at him as my eyes stung with tears, not bothering to hold them back. I went up on my toes to brush his lips against mine. When the soft, sweet kiss was over, he pressed his forehead against mine and let out a small rumble.
“I knew something was wrong about Bora Bora—I could tell you weren’t happy about coming here. Next time please tell me, bunny. I don’t want you to go through this if you don’t have to.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I would have said something if I’d thought it was necessary, but I also sort of expected to keep it together. It didn’t feel like that prominent or heavy of a memory—a lot of them from when I was high aren’t usually a huge problem—but clearly I was wrong.”
“The star call must have triggered it more intensely.”
“Maybe.” I swallowed, pulling back. “I feel like I keep causing everyone so much distress. It’s so fucking frustrating.”
“That is not on you,” Rhett countered. “We love you, bunny, that’s why we’re upset. It’s the same reason you would be livid if something like that happened to us.”
I shivered at the thought before tempering my guilt and nodding in understanding. I got what he was saying; it didn’t mean I felt good about it.
Stepping back, I leaned against the counter of the bathroom and tried to shake myself. “You said we’re in Bora Bora officially?”
“Yeah,” he said, adding, “The small island we need to travel to is off the coast of the main island—it’s early morning here, so we should be able to catch low tide.”
“We’ll need to swim though,” Zander explained, appearing in the doorway before switching places with Rhett, the latter calling out to Cash about something I didn’t catch.
Zander cupped my jaw and looked over me, pulling my focus to be completely on him, but instead of asking me how I was feeling he just brushed a kiss on my forehead that I relaxed into.
“Swim, you say?”
“Oh yes,” he mused. “We’ve been taking a closer look at the maps, and there are a few smaller islands with caves—we’re assuming the portal is in one of them. The tide is still low so it shouldn’t affect our travels, but like I mentioned…swimming for sure.”
