Page 28 of Five

“I need to draw your blood now,” Michael reminds me. I reluctantly move to the table to let him do it. Eyes never leaving the unmoving figure on the bed. When he’s done, he pushes a cotton ball to the needle site, and then gathers his things before leaving with Raph.

It’s me and Ollie in the room now. Only a few short hours of complete nightfall remain before the pending sunrise. It doesn’t bother me. Insomnia has always been my faithful companion.

“You can take a shower if you want.” Ollie’s tired voice comes from the foot of the bed where he’s sitting. His hand is on top of the sheet covering Lori’s foot.

I nod, but I still don’t move, standing near the table on the other side of the room.

“He won’t wake up for a while and…” He sighs. “I think, maybe it would be better if you leave. Don’t know how he’ll react to seeing you after…what happened.”

“Because he dislikes me and would’ve never had sex with me if he wasn’t drugged,” I finish his line of thinking.

“More or less.” Ollie slowly nods, looking all guilty.

Fuck that! My Little Wasp wants us!Bez strongly disagrees.

He didn’t when he was sane. The fact that he asked for my help doesn’t mean anything.

Bez snorts derisively at me, like he knows something I don’t.If he really hated you, he’d have preferred a stranger to you.

He still dislikes me and won’t be happy to see me. The thought turns my muscles tense as my gut twists painfully. I know I have to leave. This is getting out of control.

Every step I take toward the door makes my skin itch, but I keep pushing forward.

Ollie’s voice halts my steps, and I turn toward him. “Gabe, thank you for what you did. You saved my friend. I owe you.”

My eyes fall on Lori. The lamp on the nightstand is illuminating his red cheeks and swollen lips. I’m still studying the way his hair curls at his neck and how his face looks so much younger without any makeup when Ollie calls my name again.

I fight hard to move my gaze to him. When I do, I remain silent. He doesn’t owe me anything. I’d have done it for anybody in our family.

But would you have enjoyed it that much?Bez’s rhetorical question makes me turn around and leave the room.

In the living room, Michael jumps off Raph’s lap when he sees me advancing. He takes two steps away from the dining table in my direction.

“You need the IV as well.”

“No, I don’t,” I tell him, moving toward the front door.

“The saline bag will flush out the rest of the drug you still have in your body,” he insists, making me stop. Maybe it will help with the weird sensations I’m feeling.

Sure!Bez mocks me.

“Give me one to go.” Michael frowns at my words but prepares a bag with all the necessary items and hands it to me. “Any news from Rami?” I ask Rague.

He’s making pancakes in the open-concept kitchen. He renovated this old cottage in the middle of nowhere all by himself and did a great job. It surely helps that he owns a construction and demolition company with Ollie.

“Bailey left the club in a black BMW. Serena found it in an alley. No sign of Bailey, but she’s on it. Rami got the video of you and Lori from the club, though.”

I nod and ask for the keys to his car. He points to the bowl by the entrance, and I grab them before going for the door again.

“Don’t you want something to eat? You need to regain your strength,” I hear Michael say from behind me.

“No,” I simply reply, closing the door behind me.

Why are we fucking leaving?Bez hisses at me.Those pancakes smelled good.

If you want to stay so much, why aren’t you stopping me?He’s stronger than me, can easily force our body to stay.

Because I know you need your fucking time to accept what is already obvious, he huffs.