BEEP, BEEP, BEEP…
Jensen’s soft body lies under me as I open my mouth, cover her nipple, and suck hard without remorse. She wiggles, her back bowing off the bed.
“I’m going to take you, push you, bring your body to the deepest edges of insanity, do you hear me?” A place I feel I already am. Her soft laugh seeps into my veins. My dick hardens even more if possible, and I can no longer play. I need to be inside her immediately. “Laugh now, my little pet, because soon, I’m gonna be fucking you so hard and deep, you won’t be laughing, but screaming my name as my cock owns you.”
“Where are you, Damien?” she asks as I pull her other breast into my mouth.
“I’m right here.” I suck hard, knowing she loves the pain mixed with pleasure.
“Where are you, Damien?” she asks again.
I release her nipple and pull away to gaze at her. “Baby, I’m right here.”
She stares back at me, not hearing anything I say. “Baby, I’m here. What’s wrong?” I ask, concerned. Her body heat rises. Her skin is becoming too hot to touch. “Jensen. Jesus, what’s wrong?” I panic, having to jump off her to avoid getting burned. “Jensen!” I call her name again.
“Where are you, Damien?” she asks one last time, then explodes into a burst of flames—
The beeping sound brings me out of my nightmare. My eyes shoot open, and I sit up from the bed I’m soaked from my own sweat. I look around for Jensen, but she’s not here. The bright lights send a shooting pain to my head and severe dizziness blasts me back against the bed. My hand goes up to touch my forehead and it’s met with cloth. A bandage? Confusion strikes as I open my eyes again and look around. I’m in a hospital room.
“You’re finally awake. Welcome back, Mr. Cross.” My eyes whip to the nurse entering my room, causing another wave of dizziness.
“Why am I…What happened?”
She’s at my bedside, checking the machine. “You were in a fire. You sure are lucky.” Her hands are cold as she checks my pulse. “How are you feeling? You got yourself a pretty nice concussion there.”
My eyes squeeze shut, fighting to remember.
The fire.
The blood.
Jensen—
“I need to speak to—”
I make another attempt at sitting up, but my head spins and my stomach threatens to expel from the pain. I go back down, cradling my head. “I need to—”
“You need to rest, Mr. Cross. You’ve been out for the past seven hours. It’s in your best interest to lie back. Would you like something to help you sleep?”
Seven hours?
I need to get out of here. “Jensen…have they found Jensen?”
The nurse offers a kind smile. “I’m not sure. Is this a family member? Would you like me to contact anyone for—”
“No! She was kidnapped. Have they found her? Where’s Commissioner Stephens?”
She’s oblivious to what I’m asking. “Sir, you really need to calm down. It’s not good—”
“HAVE THEY FOUND HER—?”
“Hello, Mr. Cross.”
I give my attention to the doctor and officer entering my room. Relief floods the nurse’s features, and with a quick nod to the doctor, she scurries out.
“Mr. Cross, I’m glad to see you’re awake. We were starting to get worried about you.”
“I’m fine. I need to get out of here.”
The doctor walks up to the end of my bed and takes a look at my chart. “I understand that. Mr. Heywood is here to answer any questions you have, but for now, I would advise you against leaving. You’ve taken a bad hit to your head.”
“I said I’m fine,” I repeat even as the pain shoots through my frontal lobe.
“I understand, but your head scan says otherwise. You should be thankful for just the head injury. The other gentleman brought in with you suffered severe burns.”
Other?
Kade?
Fredrick?
“Where are they? Are they okay?” The doctor’s expression changes. The fear of his next words, like a noose around my throat, choke me. “Are they—?”
“Your friend, Mr. Turner, suffered third-degree burns on his back and legs. He’s been in and out of surgery. They’re doing the best they can to clean the wounds and remove any debris out of his back. Next steps are skin graphing. But he’s stable and awake.”
Fredrick.
“What about Kade? Kaden Forth?”
The doctor checks the chart in his hands. “I don’t see that a Kaden Forth was brought in with you.”
No. Fuck. No.
“He had to have been. Check again. He was in there with me. He was going to grab…”
Fuck.
The pain in my chest explodes. This is my fault. His death is on me.
“There was a woman in there as well. Was she…” I don’t finish. The officer steps forward. “Mr. Cross, my name is Officer Heywood. I was hoping to ask you a few questions about the fire.”
“Answer mine first, dammit!”
The officer nods. “You and Mr. Turner were the only ones brought in. A body was retrieved from the building, but it was too badly burned to identify. It may be some time before we are able to know if the remains are Mr. Forth or Patricia Phillips.”
“I need to see Fredrick.” I need to know what Patricia had planned. I sit up, forcing myself to fight through the dizziness. “Do you know who started the fire? Where’s Commissioner Stephens? I need to talk to him.”
He pulls out his pad of paper. “From what we know from the surveillance we’ve recovered, it shows a young man setting low-grade explosives around the building. They shouldn’t have been powerful enough to do the damage they did, but unfortunately, one struck the gas line, which caused a whole lot of damage. I don’t have to tell you the building is old, which didn’t help the impairment to the structure.”
“And Jensen? What’s the update on Jensen Stone?”
My stomach threatens to heave, waiting for his response. I already know by his expression he’s going to tell me they haven’t found her.
Seven hours.
“There’ve been no leads. Mr. Turner was questioned. His story pans out at this time. There was no reason to list him as a suspect. We put out a missing person’s and notified the university. We’re doing everything we can—”
“If you were doing everything you could, you would have found her by now!” I snap. I’ve been held up in this bed for seven hours while she’s been enduring God knows what. She could be—
“Excuse me, Mr. Cross?”
Everyone turns to the girl standing in the doorway. She’s well put together, but looks scared, nervous maybe. Her face is stained with tears.
“Can we help you, miss?” The doctor questions.
She looks unsure, but after a few seconds, steps into the room. “Yeah, uh…my name is, uh…Christine Bigsby.”
Anger rises inside me. Christine. The friend who blew her off. The one who caused all this mess. “What the fuck do you want?” I bite out, and she physically sinks into herself.
“I’m…I think I know where Jensen is. I know how to find her.”
I force myself to stay conscious. “Where is she?”
“Syl—Sylvia asked to borrow my phone yesterday. I didn’t think anything of it, but when she never returned it or came back to the house, I thought it was strange. Not long after, all the news came out about the club fire. Then the school posted about a student missing. Sylvia hates her. I know it. I think…I think she has something to do with it.”
I throw my legs over the bed, grabbing the railing as a rush of dizziness threatens to throw me back.
“Mr. Cross, lay back down. You are not permitted to leave.”
I push him away and stand. Fuck, the nausea is about to win this one. I shut my eyes until it passes, then reopen them to search for my clothes. “Where are my things?” I ask.
“Mr. Cross, I highly recommend against this.” I don’t give a fuck what he recommends. I need to save Jensen. I did this. Fuck, I’m the cause of everything she’s going through.
I walk to the small closet in search of my clothes. Thankfully, I find a set of scrubs. I don’t give a fuck who sees as I drop my hospital gown, and with every last bit of energy in me, change.
I bring my searing eyes to the girl. “How do I find her?”
“My phone has a tracker. My dad put it on there. He just wanted to make sure, if I ever lost it or got stolen, he’d be able to find me.” Her voice is laced with panic. “I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner. I just didn’t know. I thought Sylvia was nice and—”
“I don’t give a fuck! How do I track your phone?”
“I called my dad. He sent me this location. It’s in Morrison Woods, just outside the city.”
I don’t bother with her a second longer. I don’t care that she’s a crying mess right now. She’s the reason Jensen is in this mess. So are you, asshole. I turn to Officer Heywood. “Call Commissioner Stephens. Tell him she’s here.” I hand him the tracker location.
“Mr. Cross, you can’t seriously think you are well enough to leave this hospital and go on a search and rescue. That’s just absurd. Let the law enforcement do their job.”
I ignore the doctor’s pleading demands and turn back to Christine. “Do you have a car?”
“Yes,” she whimpers.
“Let’s go. You’re fucking taking me there.”
She complies instantly. The doctor still yells for me to return as I make my way down the hall. I need to save my girl.