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Gage: You’re headed home right? Let us know when you get there. Ella isn’t answering her phone.
Madd: Neither is Stone. I checked the cameras. There’s no audio in the elevator but something happened. Idk what. Didn’t look good.
Me: What are you talking about?
Madd: Check the cameras.
Madd: Better yet, check on Ella. The brat found the camera in her room and covered it with something.
Gage: I think she’s looking forward to finding out what punishment means.
Me: Punishment? Wtf Gage. You can’t be serious. She’s still fucking recovering asshole.
Gage: Don’t care. She needs to learn.
Me: You sound like a shitty boyfriend.
Madd: Don’t call him that or he’ll probably spank you next. He doesn’t like that word.
Gage: It’s a childish word. Suits you perfectly, brother.
Shaking my head at the idiots who used to be my badass, cold-hearted best friends that have apparently been replaced with pussy whipped douchebags, I slide my phone into my pocket so I can figure out what the hell is going on. Walking out of the elevator and into the main living space, I’m not surprised to find it silent. It doesn’t escape me that our new houseguest has been avoiding the fuck out of me. She’s been as quiet as a mouse whenever I’m home and she hides in her room until she’s sure I’m upstairs.
The only reason I know she hasn’t taken off or been kidnapped is because of the cameras. I’mtryingto be nice and give her space, so I only use the kitchen when she’s tucked away safely with her door closed. As much as I want to be an asshole and force my way into her life, just so I can keep pissing her off and ensure that she hates me, I can't. And I can’t because as much as I want her to hate me for her own fucking good, I am a selfish prick who is secretly hoping that if I give her enough space, she’ll miss me. Or at the very least, not despise my existence.
“Stone! Isabella!” I call out as I drop my keys and wallet onto the entryway table. I’m met with silence. Again, it’s not odd. But something does feel off. I walk to the opposite side of the great room, across from the elevator, and open the front door. Peaking out at the gated front entry I am surprised when I find it empty. Quan should be here. He and Raptor have been on protection duty around the clock. Quan takes days and Raptor takes nights. They are two of the only guys we trust on our property. They don’t know who, what or why they are guarding our house but it’s not their job to know or ask questions. They just know they do it or die.
They should be here.
Pulling out my phone, I shoot a text to Stone asking where he is. He doesn’t reply right away which is unlike him. His damn phone is generally glued to his hand. I pull up the camera app and look at the recordings from the elevator today so I can see what Maddox was talking about. I scroll until I find a video of Ella from a few hours ago going up to the top floor, probably to the gym. I know she sneaks in there to run at least twice a day. She’s probably bored out of her fucking mind here.
Sure enough, she works out for an hour and a half, running at a surprisingly quick pace. I shake my head. The girl should be fucking healing not pushing herself like that. I’ll have to set her ass straight. No, scratch that. It’s not my job. I’ll tell herboyfriendsand they can get her ass sorted.
She leaves the gym and for some reason, I’m annoyed to find her smiling down at her phone as she heads back to the elevator. She zooms in on something and her face turns bright red. I instantly want to throw my phone. Red-hot, intense jealously burns through me at the idea of Gage or Maddox texting her or sending her some sort of sexual shit that’s hot enough to give her that reaction.
I’m just about to close out of the app when I see the video clip that Maddox must have been talking to. Ella walks into the elevator, still looking at that damn text. She’s so distracted she doesn’t even notice Stone until he says something to her. She jumps and drops her phone, looking freaked the fuck out. I laugh for all of five seconds before I see her drop to the ground and cower in the corner.
No, I was wrong before when I said I was pissed. Now, I’m fucking livid. I fucking hate that Remington kid more than I thought possible. She walks around here like she’s fine, unaffected. Clearly, she is. She’s fucking broken and for that, he’s going to die an incredibly slow, painful death. I will make sure that everything he did to her, he receives back tenfold.
I watch as Stone freaks out overherfreak out and I can’t help it, I actually do chuckle when I see what he does to her. Saran wrap? Kinky ass motherfucker. I literally never would have thought of that shit. I would have just picked her up and forced her to calm down while I held her. But, I know my brother and that’s, just not something he would ever do.
He’s not a brute like me, a neanderthal like Gage, or a rabid puppy like Madd. He’s the smart one, the brilliant one. He’s also the extremely broken and fragile one.
I watch for a few more minutes while he talks to the plastic-wrapped ball formerly known as Ella. She seems as though she’s calming down even though I can’t see her face. We don’t have audio in the elevator but I can see him smiling softly at whatever they are talking about. His body language is calm and before long, he’s unwrapping her and helping her up. She looks up at him and smiles and it’s fucking beautiful. I feel a pang in my chest that she never turns that smile on me.
I don’t know what is going on between them but when she looked at him, it’s obvious something shifted for him. He’s staring at her with a mixture of emotions written all over his face. From this angle, I can see both of them, and for whatever reason, they aren’t moving from the elevator. Whatever happened seems to have him frozen in place. I fast forward through the video. He doesn’t speak, he doesn’t fucking move. I can tell she’s trying to help him but she doesn’t know how. And then all of the sudden, he runs.
What the fuck happened? I have never, and I meannever,seen my best friend act like that. I fast forward a bit more, watching her. He takes off out front and Ella stands there looking shell-shocked for a few moments before she shakes her head, picks up the plastic wrap, and disposes of it. Then, as I assumed, she heads back into her room, locking herself away. I close out of the app and check my texts, seeing Stone still hasn’t replied.
Fuck this, I need to know what the fuck happened and where everyone is. I storm across the lower level and find myself in front of her door. I haven’t been in here since the night after we found her when she was injured to all hell and needed someone to hold her.I held her. I held her and she felt perfect in my arms.
No, I can’t think about her or how amazing her body feels next to mine or how good her skin smells. No! Fuck!
I bang on the door, more irritated than I have a right to be. Why and the hell does she have to be so fucking amazing? Why do I have to feel this way about her? The one woman who has ever made me feel something? And why and thefuckis that one goddamned woman the one who happens to be living in my fucking house?
When she doesn’t answer, my angry ass bulldozes into her room, ready for a fight. I expect to see her texting her boyfriends, smiling or blushing or fucking touching herself to their dick pics or whatever the fuck they send her. I expect to see her there, completely aware of my knocking and ignoring me like the brat she is.
What I do not expect to see, is her curled up and passed out in bed wearing nothing butmyfucking sweatshirt and panties. Her hair is fanned out around her head like a halo, her face is soft and peaceful in her sleep. She’s got herself in a tight little ball, holding the hoodie up to her nose as if she fell asleep smelling it.
