Page 31 of Creed (Rock Hard Mountain Men #3)

Creed

Everything was so hot. I was burning up from the inside, like someone had built a bonfire in my chest that was now burning me from the outside, too. My vision even seemed to swim from the miasma of the heat radiating off me.

There was a weight on top of me, though I couldn’t concentrate enough to tell what it was.

All I knew was that, although it felt good, I hated it.

A hand tugged at my shirt, managing to undo the first few buttons, but then I thrashed as much as my restraints allowed, and those hands were forced to stop.

I couldn’t even remember why the touch of those hands turned my stomach, but I’d survived this long by relying on my instincts, and I wasn’t going to stop now.

I heard a bang from somewhere close by, and a moment later, the weight on top of me disappeared.

Cool air rushed to replace the now empty space above me, and I took several deep breaths.

The cool air helped soothe the fever in my skin, but it also caused a deep shiver to ravage my body.

I couldn’t stop shaking. It was even making the bed beneath me tremble.

Bed?

Yes, that was right. Some clarity returned to my mind. I was tied to a bed, and I’d been drugged. By whom, and for what reason, I still couldn’t recall, but I was certain it didn’t mean anything good.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been drugged against my will. When I’d been captured and kept as prisoner of war, they’d sedated me most of the time as well.

At least, they did when they weren’t interrogating me.

Is that what this was?

A new form of interrogation?

Well, it wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t sure what my interrogators wanted to know, but I certainly wasn’t going to give it to them.

Footsteps sounded near the bed. Someone was coming closer.

I prepared myself for whatever vile villain wanted to torment me with. It wasn’t the first time. I would get through it, and then I’d find some way to escape and get revenge on them

Just survive.

The face that leaned into my view brought a rush of relief.

I knew that face. The name eluded me for a moment, slipping across my brain like a fish gliding downstream, but I knew that face.

It was a good face. A friendly face. Although the expression was currently twisted into a look of distress, the sight of that face still brought with it a sense of safety.

“Creed, babe. It’s okay. I’m here now. You’re fine.”

Kayden.

The name burst through my mind, along with a chaotic mix of images from our longstanding friendship. Everything, from our first meeting as children to our recent, more intimate, exchanges, played out behind my eyes all at once.

The restraints around my wrists fell away, but I barely noticed. As soon as I was free to move, I reached out, grabbed Kayden, and kissed him. I poured every ounce of relief I felt into that kiss.

If he was here, that meant I wasn’t in danger. Everything would be fine.

Kayden returned the kiss, which was a relief, but it also ignited the smoldering embers of the drug in my chest. Fire licked through my veins once more, and I moaned deep in my throat.

Twisting my fists into his shirt, I tried to pull him onto the bed with me.

It didn’t work. Kayden fought back and removed my hands from his clothing.

“No, Creed. Wait. We need to get you out of here.”

I moaned again and tried to reach for him. We had a perfectly good bed right here.

Why wait?

It certainly had to be better than doing it in an unstable tent out in the middle of the wilderness.

Yet, despite my usually quick reflexes, he easily dodged me.

“Hold on, let me get you untied,” he said.

I supposed that made sense. It would be a lot harder to do anything while I was still tied up.

I waited until my legs were free, and I tried to sit up and reach for him again.

However, the moment my body was vertical, everything around me spun on its axis.

I could no longer tell up from down, and my balance disappeared.

I slid right off the edge of the bed and collapsed into a heap on the floor, clutching my head to keep it from spinning right off my shoulders.

“Oh, God! Creed. Are you okay?”

Kayden’s ran his hands over me, checking for injuries, but even that touch felt good, cooling. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea just staying on the floor. It was almost as comfortable as the bed, and the world didn’t spin so much down here.

“Hey, I need some help,” Kayden continued to shout. “Where are... Oh, Brody, how long have you been standing there?”

Brody was here?

That probably meant Magnus was here as well.

Everything would definitely be okay if they were here.

Although, I didn’t want an audience. I hadn’t even told them about my relationship with Kayden.

I’d barely even admitted to them that I was gay.

They knew, of course, in the same way that I knew about them, but it had always been an unspoken thing between us.

I was barely willing to admit it to them out loud, let alone let them see me with Kayden.

As these thoughts raced through my head, the conversation continued above me.

“What are you...” Kayden’s voice trailed off, sounding confused. “Why are you recording? How long have you been doing that?”

“Since we got here,” Brody said, his voice stern and matter of fact. “We’re going to need evidence to prove what this cult did to us, otherwise they’ll just be able to go free and continue harassing us. This needs to end now.”

Kayden sighed, and I felt the ghost of his breath against the back of my neck.

“Fine, but can someone help me with him? We need to get him out of here. I don’t... I don’t know what they did to him, but he’s clearly been drugged.”

More words were exchanged, and it was arranged that Magnus would take Kayden and I... somewhere, while Brody stayed behind to take care of things here.

I should have paid more attention. “Take care of” could have a lot of different meanings. It could mean that Brody would contact authorities to handle things, or it could mean that he simply planned to kill everyone involved. Either option was possible.

I should care. Even when we were all serving together, I hated the idea of my friends killing people for my sake. However, at the moment all I could feel was a sense of relief and security that someone else was taking charge. I could finally relax and focus on my important things.

Like how to convince Kayden to get back on the bed with me.

To my dismay, instead of returning to the bed, Kayden and Brody worked together to help me off the floor and herded me out the door. I was unstable on my feet, and they had to practically carry me with one arm draped over each of their shoulders.

The fresh air outside hit me like freight train, and I nearly collapsed on the spot into a shivering mess.

“Fuck,” Kayden gasped as he was suddenly forced to bear more of my weight. “Seriously, what did they give him? I’m not sure we’re going to be able to get him out of here.”

“I can answer that,” Magnus’s voice reached us. “Here, look.”

It was just as I suspected, if Brody was here, then Magnus was as well. There was no doubt that the two would come for me, just as there was no doubt that I would come for them if the situation were reversed.

I was too busy staring at the ground, desperately hanging onto consciousness, to look up, but I could still hear what everyone was saying.

“What is that?” Kayden asked, sounding both curious and horrified.

“I think it’s the drug they gave him,” Magnus answered.

There was a shuffling sound as the people above me moved around, possibly passing the drug between them. Then, a moment later, Brody suddenly cursed.

“Fuck. I recognize this. Seriously, of all the drugs... There are better options if they just need an aphrodisiac.”

Kayden’s hand gripped my shoulder even tighter. I was kneeling on the ground, barely able to breathe without panting, but he’d never once let me go.

“What’s wrong? Is he going to be okay?”

“It won’t kill him, but...” Brody hesitated, and I knew whatever he was about to say wasn’t going to be good.

“Most drugs like this will eventually wear off over time, but not this one. There isn’t even an antidote.

The only way to make the symptoms stop it is.

..” He paused again, but this time the silence sounded different, more charged. “Relieve them.”

The moment to catch my breath had helped, and I was starting to feel a little better. Not great, but there was a chance I could at least stand up without the world spinning around me.

Sensing my shift in movement, Kayden looped his hand under my arm again, prepared to help me stand up.

“I guess they really wanted to make sure they got a kid out of him.” Kayden laughed, keeping his tone light, but there was a strain to his voice. “Well, that’s not so bad. It’s easily fixable, at least.”

Between the three of them, they were able to haul me over to the truck they’d used to get here.

There was a moment of confusion, as they’d actually left the truck near the beginning of the road, and someone had to run back to fetch it and bringing it closer, but once the vehicle was parked in front of me, I practically collapsed into back seat.

Every touch against my skin had been heightened a hundredfold.

The upholstery of the truck’s seat was probably usually very soft, but now it felt like sandpaper against my skin.

Even my own clothes, which were thankfully still intact other than a few missing buttons from my shirt, were too much for me to bear.

I was already reaching for my shirt, determined to remove it entirely, when a small voice stopped me.

“Mister Creed, what’s wrong?”

A pair of inquisitive eyes were watching me from the front seat.

Oh, fuck.

The kids were in the truck. I’d completely forgotten about Robyn and Mavis. There was no way I could let the kids see me in such a state.