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Noelle reached over and clasped my hand. “Don’t you dare apologize. It wasn’t your fault. Babe, you have been through so much in one day. I was surprised you had been still standing after everything.”
I couldn’t help the emotions that welled up inside. I always wondered what everything looked like from their perspective. I knew it wasn’t pretty.
“Listen,” Ayana chimed in. “We understand you more than you know.” The corner of Ayana’s mouth curled into her cheek. “Don’t worry about being yourself around us. We will never judge you or think negatively of you. You should know that.”
“I do. I just hate the fact that I scared you.”
She waved me off. “Babe, please. Don’t you worry about it. We were more pissed than anything. I swear, whoever did this, I’m going to cut off their balls and feed it to them.”
Noelle shivered. “Woman you are so vulgar.”
She shrugged. “Eh… it’s a gift. Anyway, so Noelle and I tried to get you to calm down, but we knew you were past us. So, we made sure you stayed safe. That you didn’t hurt yourself or no one got close enough to hurt you until the cavalry came. The crazy thing was that Reed and Garrett came before Lock and the guys.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Did you call them?” I asked, but I knew the answer.
“Fuck no! I was shocked as hell to see them. But I didn’t question them being there. I figured they could help calm you down, get you to come back to us. But sweetheart, they couldn’t do it.”
That surprised me. “Really? That’s crazy. Anytime I have freaked out about something, Reed or Garrett would be able to get me back, especially Reed.”
“They thought so too,” Ayana retorted. “But when Reed went to touch you, you scurried away from him like he was the devil himself.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I had no recollection of what happened. I have never reacted that way with Reed or Garrett. I mean, Garrett was a psychologist for Pete’s sake. If anyone could get me to relax it would have been him. If all else failed he would have injected me with something. Wondering if he did, I asked, “Did he give me something? Garrett I mean.”
Ayana’s face morphed into this look that scared the crap out of me.
“Fuck no. First, I wouldn’t let him. I didn’t know what he was going to give you and I wasn’t having it. Neither was Brady. That man actually pulled out his gun and was like, if you poke her with anything, you’ll get a bullet for your troubles.”
“Really?” I screeched. “He wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“I’m sure he wasn’t. But you weren’t that bad to where you needed to be sedated or something. They were just feeling some type of way you weren’t responding to them.”
“But then Lock came…” Noelle added, smiling. Ayana smiled too.
“Exactly.”
I looked at both of them puzzled but then my mind suddenly cleared, and I knew exactly what they were going to say. I remembered feeling the murkiness of my fears lift in my mind when I thought about Lock or when I thought he was near. For some reason, I knew he was close, and I knew if he was there, he would make the hell I was trapped in go away.
Ayana said, “You were calling his name, do you remember that?”
I closed my eyes and thought back to that night. I nodded my head when the memory flooded my mind.
“Yes, I do. I wanted him to save me from the abyss that consumed me. It was everywhere and I felt someone there, touching me, grabbing for me. I kept fighting them off, wanting Lock, needing him. Then he was there.”
“Yeah,” Ayana expounded. “It was the craziest thing. He told Reed and Garrett to move, or he would move them, and that they wouldn’t like it if he did. They moved but it was with complete reluctance. The moment they did, Lock crouched down in front of you, and he must have heard you say his name because he said—”
“I’m here, baby,” I finished, remembering every word he breathed.
Ayana nodded. “Yes. And just like that you were back. You wrapped your arms around his neck and practically crawled into his lap.”
Damn…
Now, I understood why Reed was so pissed at me afterwards, why he went in hard, carrying on like I had betrayed him. Because he felt as though I had.
Absently, I admitted, “Reed lit into me when we were alone.”
“What did he say?” Noelle asked.
I shrugged. “Same stuff… I told you to stay away from him. If we lose our company, blah blah blah…”
