Horror crawled through me. “I thought I could get away when they first sent me to school. It was a boarding school. But my uncle—he didn’t like having me so far away. He really didn’t like that I had a roommate. So, he took her away. Well, he took away the room and I had to be by myself. Looking back—he always wanted me alone. The dancing…he knew I liked it, so if I wanted to dance, I had to ask him nicely. Then eventually, I got to go on tour. I was still alone but—I was farther away.”
“I ran away from the movie people,” Freddie said. “I did it a lot. I don’t even remember their names. I don’t want to remember them. I just know that I bled a lot and I hated people touching me.”
I shuddered. Understanding that just ripped through my soul.
“One day, I got picked up by the cops for vagrancy or some shit. But it wasn’t long before they came and got me, like they were real parents or something.” His laughter didn’t hold an ounce of humor. “I have no idea how they did it. I remember getting punished. I couldn’t walk after. It was why I was there when the cops raided the place.”
“That’s why I’m here,” I whispered. “I tried to get away after we were home. I punched him in the balls and wrenched his knee. I got away. I ran—but the fence—” I looked down at my hands. “He’s never going to let me go again. No more dancing. No more tours. Just me with him.”
“Fuck. That.”
I swiped at the tears on my cheek. “I’m broken, Freddie.”
“Me, too, Boo-Boo. Me too.”
When I leaned back into him, my head rested against his. “You think we can really get out of here?”
“I know we can,” he told me. “Liam and Rome aren’t that far away. If they don’t hear from me soon, Liam’s gonna raise hell. Boo-Boo, we’re going to get out of here. You. Me. We’re going home.”
If I ran, he would come after me. He would hurt them. Fear sank its icy claws into my spine. At the same time…
“Do you believe me?” Freddie whispered.
“Yes.”
Bad idea or not—I wanted to go back. I wanted…
“Then hang on, Boo-Boo.” He squeezed my fingers. “Just hang on. We’re going home soon.”
CHAPTER 25
LIAM
It was a little after four in the morning when I rolled out of bed and gave up on sleep. Rome sat in the corner of the hotel room we’d grabbed while we waited on Freddie. The point was for him to get in, find her, then contact us. So far, he’d been there several days without a word. It had bugged me enough that I had called them.
The staff had been less than forthcoming. “Limited to no contact is better for patients during their first seven to ten days,” the woman on the phone explained to me in the most unctuous tone. “Your brother is well, he has begun his therapy, and he is adjusting. We don’t want to disturb this delicate balance.”
Right.
“Tell the doctor I expect a return call within the hour or I’ll be making an appearance there and you can all explain it to me in person.” They wanted to placate me. I had zero interest in being placated. The cool, deadly tone and threat did what all the politeness in the world hadn’t managed to achieve. The doctor called me back.
He’d been singing an entirely different tune, however. “Mr. O’Connell, I understand your concern. The point of bringing your brother to Pinetree was to let us take care of him. Part of that is the isolation procedures. We need him to adapt and to be comfortable. It will encourage him to participate in group and we’ve already had one incident.”
Oh, really.
“And that was?”
“He had a bit of a disagreement with one of the therapists during a group session and attacked him.”
Real altercation or manufactured one? With Freddie, it was fifty-fifty. But he’d been damn focused when he went in there.
“I’m afraid we had to sedate him for a day and put him on lockdown, but he responded quite well. He’s also in a new therapy group and we’re seeing active engagement.” If the man’s attitude were any more oily, it would leak through the phone.
“Lockdown?” Fuck. “What exactly does that entail?”
“We’re hardly a prison, Mr. O’Connell.” Patronizing fuck was gonna get his teeth handed to him. “But we are a facility equipped to handle these kinds of slips. Lockdown essentially kept him in his room for twenty-four hours. His privileges were restored the next day.”
Right. “And the sedatives? I thought the medical paperwork made it clear he has a substance abuse issue…”
“Yes, as you also stated clearly upon committing him to our treatment. We have taken his past issues into account. The use of therapeutic pharmaceuticals is a common practice. His level of agitation was counterproductive. Attacking one of my staff is also not acceptable. Sedating him gave him a measure of calm.”
Goddammit. The doctor wouldn’t budge on that. He indicated they were still cycling through their treatment options, but Freddie was doing well. They could arrange a visit in four days, but the doctor wouldn’t bend on sooner. Seven days. Freddie had been in Pinetree for seven days.
The doctor wanted him there for another four. Having him admitted as a patient allowed him to look for Emersyn within their isolated walls. We needed to find her. Freddie was supposed to contact us as soon as he had made contact with her. Then we’d get her out.
Agitation vibrated under my skin. It was entirely possible that it was taking so long because Freddie and Emersyn weren’t even in the same ward or wing. Maybe he had to actually find her. That could be what punching the therapist was all about.
Or maybe he punched the guy because he was an asshole.
My thoughts raced in circles following the call. It made sleep damn near impossible and barring breaking into the joint ourselves, we were stuck in this holding pattern.
This was the plan.
The guys back in Braxton Harbor would be less than pleased. Especially Jasper. Every day since we’d left, he texted. Every. Single. Day. I’d talked to Jasper more in the last week than I had in the last year. It was kind of nice.
“I’m going on a run,” I told Rome. No way I could sit still here, not for another fucking minute. I needed movement.
My other half glanced up from his sketchbook. The weight of his stare followed me as I yanked clothes out of the bag. We’d basically kept everything ready to leave, even our toiletries were repacked after every shower. Speed, right now, was far preferable to comfort.
“Okay,” Rome said. He didn’t follow it up, but he nudged me to the side to grab his own clothes out. It was my turn to track his movements while he got dressed. From the moment I found him at my place, Rome had been… withdrawn was the only word for it. Where Freddie had been laser focused, Rome had been almost non-communicative. I still couldn’t believe him and Freddie had gone after, and then brought Lainey back.
Then again…
“We going?” Rome’s question knocked me out of my musings.
“Yeah,” I said, then dragged on my shoes. “You don’t usually go running with me.”