Chapter Two
Lottie
Icould barely seethe man crouched before me through the violet haze that obliterated everything in the world, turning it all into fields of black and purple. Even the person in front of me resembled a twisted nightmare, though I learned not to trust my senses days ago.
“Looks like bait.”
The words didn’t make sense to me as I returned to my ruminations. How long had I been in this place? Not that long. A week? I had no idea. Focus was impossible. Every time I tried to stand my stomach wanted to revolt. Gravity meant nothing when my field of vision resembled a swirling galaxy painted on the inside of my eyeballs.
“Sweetness.” A different voice attacked me from the side.
I turned my blurred eyes toward this new form, finding a gaze of pale green that filtered through my haze like he could see me in the mess my head had become. Without my permission my hands raised to touch, and the man stilled. I encountered bristles, a defined jaw, a warm face.
He laughed softly. “Yeah, that’s me. You gonna let us take you somewhere so you can clean up? Eat, maybe put something on?” He kept his voice light, but I recognized the strain beneath it, what he wasn't saying.
You’re a mess. I don’t know if you’re a victim or the threat, but I need to find out.
The silence on the other side of me didn’t say anything else, though a hard, calloused hand found mine and gripped hard. I anchored to a firm grip, knowing instinctively this unyielding man wouldn’t let me fall, and the warm face I clutched, though I couldn't see either of theirs, and nodded.
The world jerked with me.
“All right,” I managed, before I retched bile and stomach acid on the alley floor because that was all I had left in my body to vomit.
****
Warmth covered me ina deep sense of safety and protection. I snuggled in, resting my cheek against the hard/soft surface that beat a pleasant, steady thump beneath me. Something stroked along my spine in an idle rhythm, neither lazy nor slow, butsafe. I let out a contented sigh.
“If you keep doing that, we might not give you back.”
Happy bubble popped.
“We?” I sat up too fast, and the room rocked.
White sheets, dark gray flooring, and heavy wooden exposed beams were all I saw before I covered my mouth with my hand, hoping to prevent a repeat of my last movement. Then my stomach settled along with the room, the ability to see registered, and all-encompassing warmth hit me on both sides, at least from the waist down.
A chill cooled my skin where the covers dropped from my bare flesh. I stared side to side, squishing first in one direction as I came face to nipple with an enormous pec—the one I slept on—and above that, unyielding gray eyes. Black hair hung over a carved face in longer strands, and an evening shadow coated his chin.
This is the first man who spoke to me.
Even with my addled mind I knew that. But the way he watched me, cold and fiery all at once, left me scrambling for breathing room, my prior nausea forgotten.
When my scrambling butt hit something warm on that other side, I twisted and rediscovered the owner of the green eyes. Much easier to look at in all the ways. His mouth curved in a grin he covered with his hand a second too late. Tanned skin covered him in a never-ending expanse decorated with ridges of muscle. High cheekbones and a playful gleam in those moss green eyes leant him a less terrifying edge than the first man.
It wasn’t until I stilled, staring at him, that an arm snaked around my waist to hold me to the hard chest of the unyielding black-haired man with the gray eyes who scared the shit out of me. I lay between the two men who saved me and realized that not one of us wore a single stitch of clothing. And that for the first time in days—weeks—months—I was clean. Someone had showered me. I smelled like ... flowers. Just flowery soap. And maybe a strange sharp male tang.
Everything was so right it was all wrong.
“I shouldn’t be here,” I breathed, not actually sure whereherewas.
“You’re right where you should be, love.” Green Eyes caught a lock of my hair and twirled it around his fingers, lulling me closer to him inch by inch as his smile grew wider. “You shouldn’t be anywhere but with us ever again.”
I shivered at the underlying promise in his words, barely able to recall my own name as he tugged me closer. His breath brushed my lips before a growl and a sharp tug broke us apart.
“Stop it.” The arm around my waist tightened as harsh words were directed over my head to the green-eyed man. A second later I found myself on my back staring into eyes the color of an overcast day. No, not overcast—like a breaking summer storm. “How do you feel?”
“Uh...”
