Fragile Truths (15 page)

“What the fuck did they do to her, Nik?” I asked quietly as I moved my eyes to his face.

I noticed he was chewing on his lower lip while his concentration lingered on a particular point on the floor. He sighed and turned to me, his eyes narrow and hard but he took the few steps needed to stand in front of me when the nurses finished their job and left the room, leaving a drip attached to Frankie’s arm and her bare back exposed to the coolness of the room.

“Ethanoic acid,” he stated simply.

My breath caught as I shot my eyes from his to Frankie’s sleeping body. “Jesus Christ.” He shrugged but I noticed something deep within his eyes, something I had never witnessed in my former friend, Jude’s best friend, “Nik?”

He growled with frustration under his breath and bent beside me, extracting a key from his pocket to release the lock on my chains. “She’ll need care. Don’t try anything or she’ll suffer without help.”

I nodded frantically, appreciating and thanking his compassion with a look. I knew we were being watched so I just went with it. He leant further into me as he reached across to unchain my other arm. “You need to persuade her to give in,” he whispered. I flicked my eyes upwards, catching his as something angry glinted in them and I knew what he was about to tell me wasn’t good.

“Nik”? I probed with my own whisper, his body screening my mouth from spectators.

He leaned over further, hiding his mouth in the side of my neck. “They have her dad.”

“Oh dear God,” I muttered as I closed my eyes in both exhaustion and dread. He stood back up and gave me the slightest of nods which I returned before he left the room, glancing at Frankie as he passed her.

Jude

I ran my finger over my bottom lip and smirked as I watched the show on the screen. Well, well, well, this was… intriguing indeed.

I observed with narrow eyes; watched him limp across the room in agony after Nik unleashed him. I scoffed at my choice of words, unleashed seemed highly appropriate for the fucking animal he was.

He was almost unbelievably tender as he gently sat himself beside her on the bed, his hand hovering over her hair like some pussy whipped submissive. I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes further when his hand then came to rest on the side of her cheek, his face soft but full of agony as he ran his thumb across her bruised cheekbone.

My smirk grew into a grin and I laughed at the display. The fucking fool was in love.

Oh, this was perfect. This was finally what I needed to hurt him, to twist things around and make him fall to his knees as I ripped his treacherous heart to fucking shreds.

The hunger for revenge is perilous, my father used to say to me but I laughed loudly as I switched off the monitor and relished in the exhilaration pumping my blood faster. “Oh but Daddy dear, revenge will be fucking incredible.”

Frankie

My whole body hurt and I moaned with the pain squeezing my body tightly as I tried my best not to cry with the ferocity of it.

“Hey.”

I slid open my eyes and blinked to bring Tate into focus. He was staring softly at me; his backside perched precariously on the edge of the bed as his forehead creased with anguish. I smiled, grimacing at the pain it produced when my cheek flinched against the obvious fracture. “Hey.” My voice seemed to belong to someone else as it scratched and came out with a squeak.

“How you feeling?”

I mentally checked over my body and groaned as everything seemed to hurt at once, “Like I’ve been run over by a truck.” I murmured as I lifted my hand to my chest to cradle it, instinct kicking in and taking over my movements as the pain in my finger – or rather the place where my finger used to be - throbbed.

Tate nodded but smiled, “Well thank fuck for that, I was worried it was a train that had hit you.”

“Well a bird shit on me as well.”

He laughed lightly, “Push you over the edge, huh?”

I smiled softly and tried to budge myself across to the far edge of the bed; if it could be called a bed, it was a wooden box partnered with the thinnest mattress I had ever seen and a blanket threadbare and sheer enough to still freeze your organs in the cool room, “Climb in.”

“You sure?” he asked with a troubled frown but I nodded and smiled again.

“You look exhausted. There’s only one bed so I suppose we have to share.”

He smiled and gently reclined beside me, his body and face turned to me. He quirked an eyebrow when I looked at him quizzically. “Why do I get the feeling you want to interrogate me?” he asked with a smirk.

I smiled wider and dropped my eyes as I asked him something that had been troubling me, “What’s with you and Jude?”

I felt him stiffen beside me as his eyes hardened and the brightness that was always present in them faded to a faint smoulder. “You noticed that?” he sighed as he grabbed at the back of his neck. “Of course you noticed, it’s hard not to really.” He was mumbling and I lowered my eyes once more, angry at myself for asking a question that so obviously grieved him. “Jude is…” His tongue ran the length of his teeth slowly as if the action would sooth the anger in him, “he’s my brother.”

My eyes widened but then saddened with his evident sorrow, “What happened?”

He scoffed and let his eyes wander across my face. “It’s not important, just sibling stuff.”

I scrunched up my face and sighed. “I always wanted a brother or sister” I divulged but shrugged shamefully as my eyes suddenly filled with a rapid build-up of tears. What the hell? I never cried, it wasn’t in me to be mournful and I was suddenly angry with myself. I turned my head away, not wanting Tate to see my tears but I knew I’d been too late, he didn’t miss much when it came down to it.

“I have a sister too, Bella. She’s sixteen and she scares the shit out of me,” he laughed as he continued to talk. “I’m sure you’d get on well with her.”

I frowned but didn’t answer him as I blinked hard to rid the tears that were now flowing relentlessly and beginning to take my breath. God damn it. I nodded hoping that would be enough to sate him when he became silent behind me.

My chest constricted when Tate nudged further into me and I shivered as I felt him run his fingers softly up the length of my arm, “Don’t cry, Frankie. I promise I’ll get you out of here.” His voice was so gentle and full of anguish that my body shuddered involuntary as my spirit shrivelled with despair inside me. I flinched as his sympathy brought the bubble up from my chest and it erupted from my mouth in a distraught sob.

“Shush, shush…” he soothed gently as he carefully wrapped an arm around my waist and snuggled against me. “Look at me.” I curled further into myself, embarrassed but infuriated that my desolation chose to make an appearance when it had an audience. “Frankie, look at me.”

His tone was firm and deep and I slowly brought my face round to his. His eyes were solemn but his face was full of strength and resolve. He placed his palm softly over my cheek and manoeuvred my head a little until I was looking directly at him, “Listen to me. I promise that I will get you out of here.”

I nodded but held his eyes, “It’s not freedom I want though.”

He frowned and tilted his head in confusion at my statement. “Then what do you want?”

I stared at him for a while, assessing how much trust I could put in him but he held my gaze and nodded as if reading my apprehension. “I want Don Knight to burn. I want to watch as he’s escorted through the prison gates. I want him to get mauled and baked in his prison cell as he rots for the rest of his life.”

His eyes skimmed my face as he read my pain and emptiness. “Why?” His voice was quiet but his eyes encouraged me to open up and tell him everything, tell him how barren I was inside, how much my heart ached and how I was living through a bleakness, an empty soul that no longer fed me with life.

“Because he killed my mother.” I told him as I secured his gaze.

He grasped my chin harshly. “You took on Don Knight because he did something that hurt you?”

I swallowed against the heat he was emitting yet somehow I managed to nod, “Yes.”

He released the grip on my chin but slid his hand along the edge of my cheek and into my hair where he wrapped it around his fingers strictly as his stern gaze remained locked on my eyes. My breathing sped up as he glared at me with a ferocity that soon turned to heat and desire. His eyes dropped to my mouth then slowly lifted up to my eyes again. “I am so mad with you right now, Frankie.”

I gasped loudly when he tugged at my hair and pulled my head back. What the fuck was going on here? The arrogant fuck had no right to do this; my life was exactly that – mine and the only person who governed the direction it took was me. “Let go!”

“No,” he hissed. “Not until you realise what the hell you are doing!”

“I do know!” I spat back. “I’ve known since I was nine that this day would come and I’ve prepared for it.” I looked at him, his eyes ablaze, his jaw tense and rigid. “He can take my life. He can torture and hurt me, even fuck with my head but he’s going down. I have made damn sure he will go down for the rest of his miserable life, even if I’m not there to witness it. I know the bastard is going to rot.”

Tate shook his head slowly, his eyes still fixed hard on mine, “And your mom?”

I reared back and blinked at him, “What? What about my mom?”

He was beyond angry and I couldn’t quite figure out why. My life and my choices in it held no importance to him but he was acting like my guardian - or my father. “What the fuck do you think your mom will be doing now if she could see you risking your life just for some petty revenge?”

My hand shot out and I struck his cheek harshly. “Petty?
PETTY?
That bastard killed my mother; he made her suffer and broke her down before he ended her.” I went to punch his chest, anger at his flippancy pushing me to act before I thought, but his hand shot out and caught my wrist.

His face softened and he looked almost agonised. “And will it bring her back?”

I stilled as a pain seared my heart and clenched at my stomach. He gazed at me as if my heartache was his, as though he suffered through this life with me and as if he’d like nothing more than to take my ache and soothe it for me. “No,” I whispered. “But I came to terms with that long ago.”

He remained quiet as he stared at me, his face now tight with emotion. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered suddenly, his warm breath wisping across my face with his closeness.

I tilted my head and frowned slightly but smiled a little. “And so are you.”

He frowned then smirked, “Babe, please. I’m fine with hot, gorgeous, stunning, hell even handsome is okay but a man is never beautiful, we’re too rugged for beautiful.”

I smiled but hesitated as I swallowed back the nerves that were coiling in my stomach. “I wasn’t talking about your looks.”

He eyes filled with pain and he shook his head, vehemently denying my words, “No, Frankie, no. I’m very… ugly inside.”

“No,” I whispered firmly as I leaned in further towards him, needing the heat from his body to curl around me, to fester inside me and calm the storm that was raging angrily in the pit of my belly. “You’re here, with me, caring and fighting for me. That shows just how beautiful your soul is.”

He nuzzled further into me, his mouth so close to mine that I could smell his unique scent and feel the tip of his nose touching mine. “No, that’s yours you’re seeing.”

I frowned at him but before I could question his cryptic words his lips brushed over mine. His eyes closed slowly as he pressed further into me and captured me under his mouth. He moaned as if our touch agonised him but still he kissed harder; his tongue swept across my bottom lip, begging for me to submit and open to him and as I did he devoured me in a single move. He clutched the side of my head, angling me until he could deepen his kiss and as his tongue found mine and demanded his attention I moaned into his mouth. He echoed the sound and pushed against me as his other arm slid beneath me to hold my body against falling off the bed.

I had never been kissed like this, so entirely and passionately. My previous lovers had been quickies, apart from Jarod and Gray whom both just concentrated on their own pleasure, but Tate was driving pleasure into me through his mouth. He was waking me and urging a need in me that I’d never experienced before. The heat scorching through me was causing dampness between my thighs and a deep-seated need in my belly.

“Tate,” I moaned desperately against his mouth as his fingers slid from my hair and smoothed along the side of me that wasn’t injured until he cupped my bottom. He pushed his fingers into my flesh, giving me the slightest sensation of pain but generating a raging stir in me as my pussy throbbed and my whole body cried out in need. “Please.”

He pulled back slightly but edged my jaw with his mouth, his teeth grazing as his tongue soothed. “You okay with this?”

I shouldn’t be okay with this, I should be backing the hell off after undergoing what Jude and Yard had put me through but his touch, his gaze upon me and the need on his face was lighting me up inside, deleting the previous hours of pain and agony and replacing it with something far from pain, something delicious and amazing as my body sang under his touch.

I arched my back to push my backside further into his hands. I couldn’t talk; or rather I didn’t want to risk saying the wrong thing so I remained silent and just signalled with my body that I was more than okay with this. However, Tate had other ideas as he removed his touch and stared at me. “Not this time, Frankie.”

I shook my head in confusion before he continued. “Last time you wouldn’t allow me anything but now, right now, I’m in control and I need to hear you. I
want
to hear you. You get me?”

I nodded at him, highly aware that his dominant side was taking control of both him and us. “Yes,” I murmured.

He smiled and ran his finger across my lips as his eyes followed, “Good girl, now tell me what you want.” I swallowed as I felt heat swarm my face in my embarrassment. He shook his head in denial as he pursed his lips, “Don’t be shy, we are beyond shy now. The way you took me in the club was far from timid so I know it’s in there.”