Page 52 of Tempt Me

I frowned and looked at his finger. It was clean.

“Uh. But, of course, Mister Grosvenor. I will have her moved to a different room immediately. She will be taken to the VIP wing. I apologize for this inconvenience and will see to it that the cleaners are called at once for this matter.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but a mill of nurses came into the door, grabbed my things off the desks, and reached for me, ushering me away.

Nineteen

Trapped: Being caught or confined in a situation, place, or emotional state from which escape is difficult or impossible.

Where can anyone be truly free?

I sat across from my brother. Judas didn’t look good. He was usually a mad hatter, but today, he just seemed…off.

“Judes?”

He was staring at the wall, not really seeing anything, his expression blank as the damn white paint he was fixated on.

“Brother?” I tried again, lightly gripping his arm.

He leaned forward, his fist swinging hard and fast directly into my jaw. Wheeling backward, I tumbled right onto my fucking ass.

“What the fuck, Judes?” Blood welled up in my mouth, and I spat it onto the floor.

Crash!

The door to the room slammed open, and two guards moved inside. But I held up my hand, motioning the guards to stop.

Judas stood over me, a strange look clouding his face. He was breathing wicked fast, his handcuffs glistening with my blood from the strike.

Goliath walked up to us, reaching his hand out to me and pulling me back onto my feet.

Son of a bitch—I was still feeling the effects of my ‘late-night non-consensual swim,’ and his love tap didn’t help clear my mind.

Lith thumped Judas in the back of the head, barking an order to sit the fuck down.

Judas shook his head, his lazy smile replacing that strange cold stare.

“Hey, Roe. When did you get here?” He rubbed his bruise absently. “Ow…”

Goliath gave me a look that said this was happening a lot lately.

“Good to see you, Judes,” I said, wiping the blood from my mouth

“Larry,” he sang, dancing around the table and licking the blood off his metal bracelets. “We have company. All the gangs back together.”

Before he started singing a song about the three musketeers, I gave Lith a look to confirm we needed to talk.

The guards in the back walked forward. I locked eyes with my favorite one. He wasn’t shorter than me and my brothers.

He stared at his shoulder and the man’s hand, looking up at him and giving him a kissy face. “Oh baby, you know I like it rough.”

The guy removed his hand like it was on fire and made Judas chuckle, continuing his dance around the two guards.

“Judas Masters, visiting hours are over. Return to your cell.”

Jude’s grabbed the plastic cup filled with water on his table, smiling wide before he smashed it in his grip. The guards reacted, but not fast enough.

Judas spun around with the cup in his bleeding hand, linking the big man’s neck in a vice grip with his handcuffs. He began dancing around with him and managed to finagle a jagged piece of plastic next to his jugular.