It didn’t matter that we had a moral code. It mattered that we wouldn’t shy away from the violence she didn’t want in her life. Her mouth opened beneath mine and I plundered the sweetness. It wasn’t long before her fists loosened and she wrapped her arms around my neck.
Against her lips, I said, “I know, Nikki. I know all of it. This weekend is for us to say goodbye.”
It had been from the moment I asked her and she said yes.
We would just have to make the most of it.
Her groan answered something inside of me and I picked her up. It was four steps to get us back inside and I had her sprawled on the bed in moments. Gazing up at her, I found her watching me with teary eyes.
“I love you,” she whispered. “You know that, right?”
I did. But it wasn’t enough. Not for her. “I love you, too.” Loved her enough to let her go. “But for the next two days, ma’am, you’re mine and all I want to hear is you screaming my name.”
In saying goodbye, I planned to leave my mark. I couldn’t keep her, but I’d never forget her.
And I didn’t want her to forget me.
CHAPTER 15
DOC
“You want to be committed?” I stared at Freddie. I’d heard him clear as day. I still couldn’t quite believe it. “At some exclusive treatment facility we know nothing about?”
“Liam’s got the money,” Freddie said with a shrug. “Elaine here—”
“Lainey,” she corrected him. I had no idea who this new girl was, or how she knew so much, but Milo hadn’t said a word since she shut him down. The fact she had shut him down so damn effectively was a conversation for another day.
“Lainey,” Freddie repeated with a hint of a smirk and a thumbs up. “She knows where it is.”
Arms folded, Liam dipped his chin. “We’d have to change your name, work out a fairly quick ID swap. Make you my brother for real.”
Rome snorted, but Freddie grinned. A real grin. The first actual smile I’d seen on him with any animation in days. Hands over his heart, he said, “See, I knew you liked me best. Look, it’ll work, we need to get in to find her. It’s that, or go in there guns blazing, and I don’t want Boo-Boo getting hurt, ‘cause if they’re locking her up like that, what else are they doing to her?”
That one question hit Milo like a fist to the head.
“She never wanted to go back,” Kellan said slowly. “She didn’t want us contacting them.”
“And she said, repeatedly, we had no idea what we were talking about,” Jasper added.
Every single sentence drew blood, but Milo didn’t move. I glanced at the newcomer. The woman hadn’t said anything else, no, she was watching all of us. Correction, she was watching Milo.
“What do you know about her family?” It had to be asked. I’d pushed Emersyn away because I thought it would be better for her. For Milo. For the rest of them. The hurt in her eyes though after, and the way she avoided me, raked across my soul in great big bloody gouges. Regret for that choice crawled through me, a thief coming back to chortle over its victory.
“Enough,” Lainey responded. I thought she’d offer more, but that was it. Arms folded, she shifted her attention back to Milo. “Is he really her brother?”
“You could just ask me,” Milo said in a low growl.
“I could pretty boy, but I wanted confirmation from someone else. Because the fact you are her brother means you were following us a few years ago and I’m not sure if that’s creepy or endearing.”
He’d followed—I wasn’t the only one who snapped a look at Milo. A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I followed you both because you were running around a huge amusement park alone.”
“And remarkably, we were just fine.” She made a face at him.
“Until trouble found you when you got back to the hotel.”
She laughed. “That was Adam and Ezra. Ignore them. I do.”
Liam’s whole demeanor shifted. There was no mistaking the look he and Milo shared, but we didn’t have time for this.
“Tell me more about Pinetree. It’s going to take more than just a recommendation to get Freddie in there.” Maybe I could use my credentials to get in. But I wasn’t licensed in every single state, so that might be a crap shoot.
Why the fuck would her family stick her in a place like that? The image of her hurrying away from the hotel like Hell itself was at her heels replayed through my mind. How many signs had we missed? The abuse. The trauma. We all put it down to Eric.
I had.
What if that was just a layer of it?
Irritation scraped over every nerve. I flexed my hands, the urge to break down a door or a neck flooded me. Freddie had been so damn worried. Now I was.
“Pinetree Psychiatric is a private facility located on eighty acres in upstate New York. It’s not quite as far as Buffalo, but it’s in the same area. It’s designed to be a quiet, isolated retreat where privacy is key. No one gets in that isn’t a patient or one of the staff.”
The details she offered were precise.
“How many times did you try to get in?”
“Only twice,” she admitted. “The first time, I let them escort me off. But the second time, I climbed the wall and tried to sneak in.” She gave a little shrug. “I didn’t do it as well as Em would have, but I was able to see that, while it looks like a resort on the outside, the interior is very different. I recognized some of the people there. All of them are from wealthy, influential families. The security is ridiculous and after my little excursion, I’m afraid I made it worse.”
Her grimace was almost sweet, but she was a kid and maybe she had encountered resistance, but how much and why?
“Look, whatever they are and whatever they’re doing, when she comes out of there—she’s different. She’s forgotten things. Sometimes she gets it back.”
“But not always?” Milo’s voice was sharp and the anger might be leashed, but it was there. He wasn’t one to shout. He never had been. Quiet and deadly, his voice softening until you had to strain to hear it.
Lainey shook her head. “I don’t think so, but I haven’t ever been able to really ask her about it because…”
Vaughn gripped the back of the sofa. “Because she doesn't remember going to that place, does she?”
“No—and she would have told me if she had.” The absolute certainty and quiet conviction convinced me. The sound of a fist crashing into a wall behind me merited a glance. Drywall flaked away from a fresh hole left by Jasper’s fist. Kellan white knuckled a grip on a chair. Vaughn glared into space, a muscle in his jaw ticking.
Liam stared at the ceiling, his whole body rock still, but it was a lie. The tension coiling around him was like a viper, ready to strike. Rome was the only one who hadn’t said a word. Even Freddie seemed calmer.
Then that made sense. As awful as the news was, they were a step closer to getting her back. “I need to make some calls,” I told them. “Don’t move until I get back.”
No matter how much money Liam and the girl Lainey threw at this, I needed to know more about the facility and the doctors there. I needed to know what they’d likely done to Little Bit.