TORTURE ME_ The Bandits MC(171)

“Okay, chili dogs and fries for all. I’ll get something for you to drink to help rehydrate you as well,” the nurse told me before leaving the room.



“What happened?” I asked Gage again. “I remember Dimitri putting a knife to my throat and waking up on the boat. Then, I remember him trying to get inside my head before you and the guys arrived. The last thing I remember is sitting above deck and watching you guys drag up Ivan and another guy, still alive. I remember being impressed that you didn’t kill them.”



“You’ve pretty much got the highlights, I guess,” Gage told me. I could tell he really wasn’t interested in telling me the rest. “I don’t know what all happened in the boat, but the last thing that happened was when Dimitri kicked you over into the water. I shot him in the leg and jumped in after you.”



I remembered the weights on my chair. “No!” My voice cracked as I realized how close I came to losing my life. “Dimitri warned me that I was going to end up like Lisa, and I almost did.”



Gage squeezed my hand. “Listen, Julia, there is a lot that I need to tell you. I’ve tried to protect you from my life by keeping quiet and holding back, but after what happened and what nearly happened on Ivan’s yacht, I see that keeping the truth from you isn’t going to protect you at all.”



“Not now, Gage,” I told him, placing a finger on his lips to shush him.



“No, I need to tell you this first thing now.” He took a deep breath. “What happened to Lisa was my fault, and I have blamed myself for it ever since it happened. The reason I hid things from you and lied to you about Dimitri was so I could keep the same thing from happening to you, and that’s exactly why it almost happened.”



“What actually happened to Lisa?”



“We were tangling with a street gang. These guys were ruthless and violent. They did not give a fuck about anything. Anyway, I was facing off with their leader, and he had a gun to Lisa’s head. He shot her. I shot him. And we ran as their bodies fell to the ground. The rest of the gang opened fire behind us, but they were poorly disciplined street thugs. They couldn’t hit a stationary target at point blank range. After that, they fell apart. They crumbled and disappeared because no one stepped in to fill their leader’s spot. So, we won that fight, but at what cost, you know?”



“I’m sorry, Gage.” I ran a hand over his smooth cheek. “I’m sorry that happened to you, and I’m sorry I believed Dimitri when he told me you had actually killed her to get away in the commotion.”



“Dimitri doesn’t know everything about me,” he said. “He knows my reputation, and that reputation has served me well on the street. Maybe not in the bedroom, but that’s why I’m telling you the truth. You need to know that it’s okay to let people like Dimitri say horrible things about me. You don’t have to believe them, though.”



I blinked, and it lasted a little longer than it should have. I felt myself trying to go back to sleep. I shook my head and forced my eyes back open.



“You don’t have to be awake,” Gage said. “If you feel like you need to sleep, let yourself go to sleep, baby. I’ll still be here when you wake up.”



I hugged him again, pulling him into the bed with me. I wrapped his arms around me and snuggled up against his bare muscular skin. I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but I knew I missed having his body next to mine.



“No more talking,” I told him. “Just hold me. If I fall asleep, wake me up when the chili dogs get here.” I snickered like a school kid. I couldn’t believe that my first meal was going to be chili dogs. That couldn’t have been the best choice, but no one told me not to.



Over the next few days, I realized what I had missed out on while I was out for almost five days. I saw the gifts that had been left by the members of the MC. I learned that Ivan, Dimitri, and another guy were in prison because of what happened on the boat. I called up to the university and told them all that had happened. They were amazed to hear that my research had taken me aboard the yacht that had been on the news and that I was going to be working on a study of the effects of the collapse of the Soviet union   on the Russian underground. I was hooked, I told them. It was a dirty, seedy world, and I wanted to see it. The dean over history and the president of the university both agreed with me that it was a project that needed to be done.



I got stronger as the days passed. The nurse stopped coming by when I was able to get out of the bed and walk around on my own. Soon, life started to get back to normal. After about a week of getting up and walking around, fixing my own food, bathing myself, and doing all the normal daily things I hadn’t been able to do during those first few days, Gage came home from Kings of Hell HQ one day with news.