Chapter Thirty-Six
Nick
They’d given her a sleeping pill, and she’d been down for the count no more than ten minutes later. I was in bed with her, her head resting on my chest, and I could feel her heart beating against my side.
I’d done what I’d needed to do, and I knew that she might hate me for it. But that was okay, because I loved her enough to be the bad guy. I would take her wrath. I’d even let her throw things at me if it meant that she’d forgive me.
“Hey, can we come in?” Maykin peeked her head around the door, still wearing her gown from earlier. “She asleep?”
“Yeah, they gave her something about an hour ago to help her relax.”
Bleu walked in behind Maykin, a large bouquet of colorful flowers in his hand. When I eyed them, he shrugged, silently asking me not to make a big deal of it. “How’s she doing? Did the police come talk to her?”
“They did, and she did great. She answered all their questions, she told them everything that happened.” I looked down at the beautiful girl in my arms. “But when they left, she told me she didn’t want to press charges.”
“What?” Maykin’s eyes were wide, and so were Bleu’s. Neither one of them could understand why she’d want Collin to get away with what he’d done to her. What he’d almost done to her. “Did she say why?”
“She doesn’t want her parents to find out about any of this. Not her life here, not the pill problem…none of it.” I sat up slowly, gently untangling her from my body. “Which is why I need one of you to come lay with her for a bit while I step out.”
Maykin looked down at her dress, wincing. “This fabric is rough—if one of her cuts or bruises brushes against it it’ll hurt.” She darted her eyes over to Bleu. “Which means you’re up, vintage tee.”
Bleu scoffed. “I’m not spooning my best friend’s girl.”
“Yeah you are.” Maykin dragged him by the arm, forcing him to gently climb up onto her bed.
“I shouldn’t be too long.” I knew she’d be safe with Maykin and Bleu. I also knew that if she did happen to wake up, those were probably the only two other people on this planet she’d like to see right now.
It was a little after five in the morning, and I’d gotten the text I’d been anticipating for almost three hours now. I stopped by the nurse’s desk, asking them in which room he was being held. I walked down the hall, opening the second door on the right, the waiting room empty and a bodyguard at the door.
“Mr. James?”
Evie’s father stood, his hands on his hips and his expression hard. “Where the hell is my daughter? Why am I being held in this goddamn room like a prisoner?”
I didn’t blame him for being pissed, his anger reminding me a lot of my girl in that moment. “Evie isn’t ready to see you. In fact, she doesn’t know I called you.” And she’s probably going to flip shit when she finds out.
“Why is she here? What happened? All you said was that there was an incident and that I needed to come alone. I had to lie to her mother; she thinks I’m at the fucking New York office right now.”
Hindsight, maybe I could have given him a little more info. But I only had a few minutes to get him on the phone and get him down here before Evie started to freak out, wondering where I was. “Evie is safe, and she is down the hall, I promise.” I sat down and gestured for him to join me. “But before you see her, I need to tell you what happened. And for you to truly understand, I need to start at the beginning.”
I wanted to tell him the whole truth, all of it. I wanted him to understand how much his daughter meant to me, and what she’d been going through. I needed all our cards on the table so he didn’t walk in that room blind and fuck up all our progress.
I didn’t agree with Evie keeping her family in the dark, but her recovery was hers. This though? This was something else. This was something that her parents needed to know about, especially if they were what was holding her back from prosecuting Collin. He was a monster, and he didn’t deserve to go unpunished because Evie was scared to disappoint her parents.
Mr. James sat, thankfully.
“I met Evie two years ago, right before classes started her freshman year. She came into my tattoo shop on a whim. She said she was homesick and the signage reminded her of her family. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, and I was hella impressed with the art she chose.” I swallowed past a lump in my throat. “While I was working on her, she told me how no one liked her. That they thought she was boring, shy, and a prude. I liked her, instantly, and I hated that she was having a bad day, so I took her to dinner after I closed up shop.” I wasn’t going into detail about the night we spent together, but I needed him to understand our connection. “I’m pretty sure I fell in love with your daughter that night, sir.”
“Are you sitting here, telling me you slept with my eighteen-year-old daughter after only knowing her for a few hours?”
Oh. He was quick on the uptake, wasn’t he? “Yes. I am.” I held my hands up when he opened his mouth to no doubt scream at me. “The next morning, when I woke up, she was gone. And I didn’t see her again for almost two years.” Huh. That didn’t come out like I thought it would.
“You had a one-night stand? Are you seriously saying these words to me right now?”
“I promise you, it’s important to the story.” I waited for him to nod, silently telling me to keep going. “When she walked into my shop, the second time, she looked different. Don’t get me wrong, she was still beautiful, but she was also too thin. And her eyes had dark circles under them, and her hands were shaking. I had to bribe her to get her to tell me what was going on, what was wrong.” Mr. James’s eyes narrowed, like he was starting to catch on. “Evie changed herself to become who people wanted her to be. She changed her hair, she bought new clothes, and she took on this rock and roll princess persona. And to keep up with it all, she started taking Adderall. Which led to her abusing Adderall. After that it was only a matter of time before she started the—”
“Downers.” He shook his head, sadly. “She needed help coming down from the speed, so she started pain pills. Valium? Vicodin?”
“Both, I think.” Not at the same time, but I didn’t think that was relevant right now.
“Is she here from an overdose?”
I shook my head. “No sir.” He sat back in his chair, his hands covering his face as I continued. “I kind of kidnapped her when I realized how bad off she was, took her to my apartment and helped her detox.” He was quiet, so I kept going. “She saw a doctor, she mapped out a plan to detox from the Adderall. She’s seeing a therapist, someone to help her learn to cope without the pills.”
“What happened to my girl, Nick?”
“Before we reconnected, she was dating this guy. He was her dealer, and he treated her like shit.” This next part was what I’d been dreading from the moment I’d decided to get Smith James to Dallas. “Last night she had this dinner thing she had to go to for her sorority. He was there, and she told him it was over. He drugged her, waited until she was sick in the bathroom, and then he attacked her.”
Mr. James got to his feet, his eyes wild. “Where is he? What did he do to her?”
“I hated the thought of her being away from me, so I was already on my way to the hotel when her friend called to tell me something was wrong.” I stood, knowing that Mr. James was seconds away from knocking on every door until he found Evie. “When I walked into the bathroom, she was bleeding. And he was trying to rape her.”
Evie’s dad fell to his knees, tears instantly started to roll down his face.
“I tried to kill him, I swear I did, but my friend pulled me off.” I looked at my hands, half expecting them to still be covered in blood. “Evie doesn’t want to press chargers, sir. She said she didn’t want you guys to find out about her pill problem.”
He looked up, his eyes red. “Where is she?”
“She’s sleeping. Room three-twenty-two.” Before he could make it to the door, I grabbed his arm. “I am in love with your daughter sir, so fucking in love with her.”
He nodded. “Then she’s a lucky girl, son.”