Wounded Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) (10 page)

We exited the station and the guys were still filling up the SUVs. I walked over to the other side of the SUV and I opened the door. Jyme was still sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake him. I pulled the first aid kit out of my purse and cleaned and changed three of his bandages. He never stirred. His face was swollen, and the cut over his eye looked horrible. I cleaned it twice, spread a half a tube of Neosporin on it, and bandaged it back up. Troy walked up behind me, and I turned to face him. I couldn’t read his face. He watched Jyme; I turned back around to finish. I closed the first aid kit and put it back in my purse. I collected the soiled, bloody bandages and all the trash from the new ones and went to the nearest trash bin. I walked back to the SUV and Troy was standing at the back watching me. I tried to walk past him, but he caught my arm. I stopped and faced him.

“I can’t lose you, Cricket.”

“I can train someone else really good, Troy,” I told him.

“I know you. It has to be you,” he told me.

“Until when, Troy? My tits aren’t going to look like this forever. I’m thirty-three years old.”

“Cricket, you got a hundred more years left in you.”

I turned from him and went back to Jyme. We made it to the casino an hour later. I looked at the clock on the dash; it was 2:30 in the morning. The trucks all pulled into the employee’s parking lot. Everyone started shifting and I just sat there. Troy got out and opened my door for me to get out.

“Troy, can I wake him up here in the truck alone?” I asked with teary eyes.

He watched me for a long moment and then held his hand out for me to get out. I took his hand, and he held the seat up for the back passengers to get out. He still held the door open, and I climbed back in. Jyme and I were now all alone, and I wasn’t sure if this would ever happen again so I had to make the best of it. I kissed both sides of his face, and then his forehead and both sides of his neck. He stirred a little, and I touched his lips with mine. He woke sleepily, and I whispered, “Hi there” in his ear. He opened his eyes, blinking them a dozen times and looked around us.

“Do you remember what happened?” I asked. He winced at his forehead scar and raised his hand up to it and shook his head. “Jyme, listen to me. I don’t know how long Troy is going to play this little game. But I swear to you I will get you out of here, and when that time comes, you must go, no matter what. Do you understand what I’m saying?” He nodded, sliding his fingers through mine. “He won’t kill me, but I can’t guarantee that for you. But I will get you out before that happens. I have many friends in there, and they will help us. I love you so much, and I know we’re meant to be, and I believe we will be…just maybe not right now. Once we go through those doors, I’m going to be another person. I have to shut down everything inside of me to do this. We need a code word to use to get messages to one another. If I send someone to you that you can trust, what word would you like?”

He sat there and thought about it. I kissed the side of his neck.

“Hurry, babe.” I said.

“Strings.” I frowned and then he smiled. “Strings in the park…your favorite date.”

I nodded, and a few tears fell down my cheek. Troy knocked on the window, and I pressed my lips against Jyme’s. He pulled me closer to him and winced.

“Best?” Jyme asked me.

“The day you rescued me,” I smiled and he looked deep into my eyes. “And you?”

“Our first night in the safe house,” he told me.

“I love you,” I said.

“I can tell,” he smiled.

I opened his door and unbuckled his seat belt. He turned and slid slowly out the truck. One of the bodyguards held on to him under his left side until I got out, and then I slid under his right arm and held on to his torso. We all walked slowly to the employee entrance. Then, we entered the pits of hell.

We walked down the long concrete hall and I remembered the last time I fled these halls. I thought of Cinnamon, Sugar, and Chelle; I prayed they were alright. We walked past the break room, and a few people came out running up to us.

“Cricket, OH MY GOD! What happened? Are you alright? Who is that?”

I smiled at them all and told them I would tell them all about it later. We had officially started an uproar in the hall. We made it to the freight elevators and all piled in. When we got to my floor, we walked down to the suite. Troy used his master key, and we walked in.

Chelle was passed out on the floor all bloody. Cinnamon was getting up off the stairwell; she had a busted lip that was dripping blood. Three bodyguards were holding Trey, and they were struggling with him. He was drunk and coked out of his mind. There were two naked girls on the couch, and they were in outer space right now.

I helped Jyme sit down on the top step and I ran to Chelle who was bleeding on the floor. I sat her up and tried to wake her; she wasn’t responding.

“CHELLE! MICHELLE! MICHELLE, IT’S CRICKET! WAKE UP SWEETIE…WAKE UP AND LOOK AT ME!” I screamed at her. She jerked with a kick and started swinging madly at me.

“MICHELLE, IT’S ME, IT’S ME!”

She focused on my face and started screaming and climbing all over me in pure fear. I’d never seen Chelle like this, and it was splitting me in two. I rocked her like a child, and it seemed to calm her.

“Cinnamon!” I called out to her. She didn’t answer. “CINNAMON, TALK TO ME!”

“I’m okay,” she said groggily. Troy was standing in front of Trey now, and the rest of the bodyguards were scattered all over the apartment.

“Korliss, please check the apartment for anyone else,” I asked one of the bodyguards I knew. He nodded and went straight to Sugar’s room and then passed through the hall entrance going toward my room. Korliss came back and shook his head to me. I closed my eyes and thanked God for this small blessing.

“Troy, I can’t do this.”

“What Cricket?” he sighed.

“Get Chelle out of here. Let her go home. I can’t do this knowing Trey will hurt her. I can’t. This is too much for me and you know it,” I said through tears.

Lance and two more security men burst through the door.

“Cricket,” Lance said. And then he rested his eyes on Troy.

“This is all your fault; you did this. You smug son of a bitch, you did it!” Lance yelled over at Troy.

Someone knocked on the front door and Lance let them in. The house doctor walked in with wide eyes. He looked over at me and asked who had the most injuries. I pointed at Cinnamon, and he went to her first. A few minutes later, he said Cinnamon had a mild concussion.

Then I pointed to Jyme, and he went over to Jyme and examined him. Chelle was still so frightened, and I knew her examination would be a task. Troy walked over toward me, pulled out his cell phone, tapped the screen, and spoke into it.

“I need a flight to Seattle, first class as soon as you can get one.” I mouthed thank you to him, and he turned away from me.

“He has a couple of broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder,” the house doctor announced. I stared at him frantically, and he caught my face.

“I can wrap it and get him into a sling. In ten days, he’ll be fine.”

I pointed to the now silent Chelle in my lap, and the doctor walked over to us.

“Chelle, can the doctor check you out?” I whispered in her ear.

She sat there thinking and then nodded. She turned around in my lap and faced the doctor. I gently pushed her off me and sat her on the floor. I got up slowly and walked to Cinnamon. I pulled her into my arms, and she clung to me.

“Did anyone
hurt
you?” I asked her. She knew exactly what
hurt
I was talking about. She nodded, and then I swallowed, “Did anyone
hurt
Michelle?” Jyme and Troy watched me. But Cinnamon was looking only at me.

“I stopped him before he could.”

At that very moment, one of the naked women on the couch stirred and started pawing on Troy.

“Rod get
this
out of here, and get someone up here to clean this shit up,” Troy demanded. Rod nodded and retrieved some clothes from off the back of the couch and from the floor. Rod and two more of the bodyguards dressed the two naked women and helped them out of the suite.

Troy’s phone rang. “Alright,” he said and hung up. “Her flight’s in four hours. Will she be able to take a flight by then?”

I looked at the doctor, and he looked Chelle over. “I can give her something to make her calm; she’ll need help once she gets where she’s going.”

I looked over at Troy, and he nodded at me. I went over to my purse by Jyme, and he slid his fingers through mine. I looked at him and shook my head; he pulled his fingers away. I got the phone out of my purse and dialed Ayashe’s number. She answered on the first ring,

“CRICKET, WHAT HAPPENED?”

“We’re fine. We’re ALL fine,” I assured her.

“I need you to listen to me. I’m sending Chelle back to you, and you have to be at her gate waiting on her. She will be out of it and will need help walking. You might need to get her a wheelchair. I’ll text you her flight number and her arrival time.”

“Okay. JJ wants to talk to you.”

“Alright.”

“Cricket, I know you’ll keep him safe. I know that with everything in my soul. I trust you, and I love you both. Call me when you can,” Mrs. JJ said.

“I love you, too.” I hung up the phone and nodded to Troy.

There was a knock at the door, and Lance let them in. Three housekeepers walked in and started cleaning immediately. The house doctor asked for some water for Chelle. I went to the fridge and poured half a bottle of water into a glass. Chelle swallowed the water down, and the doctor handed me four pills. “She will need to take two of these four hours before the flight, and then these other two are for if she gets anxious tomorrow or the next day.”

I turned to face Troy, and he was staring at Trey. Trey had calmed down, but his breathing was irregular. “Doc, can you check out my brother?”

The doctor closed his black bag and cleaned off his glasses with a white cloth. “He does way too much cocaine; he’s an alcoholic and a sociopath. I don’t need to examine him to tell you that.”

Troy watched the doctor with a sly look in his eyes. I placed my hands on top of the doctor’s hand and squeezed it.

“Cricket, I don’t fuckin’ need you to convince the Doc to check out my brother. That’s what the fuck he’s getting paid to do. And you know what Doc…let me give you a quick news flash. I’m the HNIC up in this bitch, and when I tell you to fuckin’ do something, you best fuckin’ do it!”

The doctor patted my hands and walked over to Trey. He examined Trey while everyone watched. He listened to Trey’s heartbeat and asked Trey if he had been taking his blood pressure meds he had given him last month. Trey didn’t speak. The doctor stood and said, “His heart can’t handle all of his extra activities.”

“Man, just give him something to make his breathing regular,” Troy yelled.

The doctor opened his bag and gave Troy two brown pills to give to Trey. Then the doctor turned to me and said, “I can set his wounds now, but he’ll need to come downstairs with me.” He was referring to Jyme.

“Troy, can Korliss go with him while I take care of Chelle?”

He nodded at Korliss, and Korliss went to help Jyme up off the steps. He watched me as he walked out the room. Troy and Trey followed behind them. As soon as the door shut, I slid my jacket off and went to help Chelle off the floor. I called Cinnamon to follow me. I shut my bedroom door, not bothering to lock it. I took Chelle to the bathroom and turned the shower on hot. Then I told her to undress and get under the water. I went back into the bedroom and kneeled down in front of Cinnamon.

“What happened?” I asked in a whisper. I wasn’t sure if anyone was standing outside the door or not, I was too afraid to speak louder than a whisper.

“Troy watched the cameras for about ten hours straight and then went back and watched the day before. He saw something. He didn’t tell me what, but he saw something. Then he did some checking and then he left; and now you’re back.”

“Cinnamon, I need to know how he found the house. Because if he finds out…”I broke off into full-blown tears.

“Cricket, I know. Shh, I know.”

I wiped my face and went to go check on Chelle. She was in the shower and she was scrubbing her body all over. I knew she would probably rub herself raw. I walked back into the bedroom and asked Cinnamon if I could get some clothes out of her closet for Chelle. I knew my clothes would fall off of her.

I walked down the hall and entered Cinnamon’s bedroom. I looked through her closet and found a thick sweater and some jeans. I turned around, and Troy stood in the doorway. I stood there in front of him, and he gave me an odd look.

“As long as you make me happy, I’ll make you happy. I’ll keep Trey off of you, but I will be picking up some of his slack. Big Indian is going to learn how to share you. That’s too much ass for one man to have.”

I tried to walk around him, but he stepped in the way. “Tell me something, were you and Big Indian fighting this morning? I saw you and him in the garage, and neither one of you looked too happy.”