“Tyler! Stop!” I yell. He places his hands on either side of my face as he looks my face over and whispers, “Who did this to you?”
“I… I don’t want to talk about it…please.” If they really knew what Drake did they would kill him. They most probably know I’m lying but they give each other a look and don’t ask questions.
“Please just leave me alone, I’m exhausted, I just want to be alone to sleep please.” I beg as tears fall down my face. Alex and Tyler have sad looks on their faces while Talon and my father are trembling with anger.
“Okay all of you out…NOW!” Alex shouts at the boys when they won’t move. Eventually Tyler gets up and kisses my cheek as he leaves, my father gives me a gentle hug not saying a word but I can sense he is still angry. Talon approaches me and holds me in his arms gently and whispers against my ear, “I’m going to find who did this to you my Angel….and I’m going to kill them.” He kisses my cheek then says softly, “I love you.” Before he walks out.
I roll over again and face the window not realizing Alex is still in the room.
“Why didn’t you tell me? You should’ve told me honey, I would have helped you.” she says dejectedly as she sits on the bed in front of me looking down moving the hair out of my face.
“I’m sorry.” I say wiping away the last few tears.
“No. I'm sorry Angel, I should have protected you. I knew something was wrong when you walked in here the way you did but I didn’t do anything!” she says blaming herself.
“Don’t blame yourself; you didn’t do this to me.” I reach out and place my hand over hers.
“Where do you hurt sweetie? What did they do to you? Tell me so I can help you.” She says pulling the blanket away from me.
“Mom…It hurts everywhere.” I tell her as she lifts my shirt gently and takes a closer look at the bruising on my ribs. She helps me pull the jacket off and takes another look at the large footprint on my one side, there’s blood on the back of my shirt where she was rubbing my back earlier. Obviously she opened the wounds unknowingly. She frowns as she moves to look at my back. She gasps and covers her mouth.
‘No….no…Angel…please tell me they didn’t…no.” she says shaking her head in disbelief as she looks down at the strips of blood that have soaked through my cotton shirt.
I can’t lie about this…the memory of how he violently whipped me is too fresh and the tears start falling from my eyes as I stare at her blankly. She takes this as my reply and she grasps and covers her mouth and she screams out loud “No…no...no!” then she kneels on the floor covering her face as she cries out hard rocking her body back and forth.
Johnny comes rushing in and runs to her side, I attempt to lift my battered body off the bed to get to her. I cry out as I eventually sit up straight and I notice the twins stepping into the room looking panicked just standing there frozen.
“What happened Alex?” Johnny asks her as he pulls her into his arms on the floor.
I pull myself off the bed but fall to my knees due to my body being too weak, I crawl to Alex before the twins can get to me.
She pulls me into her on top of Johnny’s lap, he wraps his arms around both of us and Alex holds me close as she continues to cry. I touch Alex’s shoulder gently as I tell her, “Please don’t cry. I’m okay…please…stop crying.” She is an emotional woman but I've never seen her cry this hard.
“Yeah Angel is fine, look at her…we need to be thankful she's still alive. Stop crying my love.” Johnny tells her gently.
“Fine? No you are not! You are broken and I can see it in your eyes and I can hear it …your heartbeat doesn’t beat as fast and lively as it used to…you all can hear that too, don’t deny it!” She shouts at the twins and Johnny. “It’s like you’re not fighting anymore…you’re giving up! How can someone destroy you like that? Whip you like an animal.” She says covering her face crying again.
“Whip?” Johnny asks tensing, I watch as his eyes grow darker and it scares the living shit out of me. I slowly back away till I feel the base of the bed against my back.
“She was whipped…they whipped our little girl as if she was some wild animal.” Alex stutters trying to catch her breath. I look and see all the men with black eyes, I panic as I remember the black eyes of Sebastien, it feels like the walls are closing in and I need to claw my way out.
I start freaking out and my breath is labored, no one says anything but they continue to look at me with black seething eyes. The bathroom door to my side is open and I quickly run through it, I run through the boy’s room and down the passage looking for the exit. My body is aching and weak and my legs are trembling beneath me. The only thing keeping me from falling is my will to find safety, away from those terrifying black eyes.