“We can walk around the house,” he suggests, one arm still around her waist and the other holding her shoulder. “It’ll help with the muscle aches.”
She pauses at the suggestion, unsure if she can bear the pain that each movement earns.
“Come on, Ariana. You’ve got some fight in you. I know you do,” he coaxes her.
She obliges and takes a few steps with his help.
Fifteen minutes of walking in circles around the cozy living room and she was ready to call it a day. Instead of helping her back to the bedroom, he gets her comfortable on the couch. There’s no TV but she didn’t need the noise anyway. The noise inside her head is loud enough. The voice of her mother telling her to be strong repeats over and over. Louder and louder. It used to be a method of coping and to give her encouragement.
Now, the words only sound like a death sentence.
Marcus sits in the chair across from her. He seems stumped by the crossword puzzle book he’s working on. He must have felt her staring because he arches an eyebrow and looks at her.
“Wanna try?” he asks with a smile.
She shakes her head. She’d never get a single word right. Uneducated. That’s what Isabella and Cristian had called her. She barely finished high school and there was no way she would have been allowed to go to college. Her income, if anyone wanted to call it that, came from the Romanos.
“Do you know how I got here? Or why I’m here?” she asks.
“You’re here because someone cares about you,” he answers. He closes the book and puts the pencil inside his shirt pocket. “You’re here because you need help.”
Someone cares? Since when? She doesn’t ask anything about that for now.
“I’m a substance abuse counselor, Ariana. I wouldn’t be here if someone didn’t think you are worth saving.” He folds his hands over his lap and patiently waits for her to think over what he’s telling her.
He hasn’t answered any of her questions though.
“Who?” she manages to ask. “Who brought me here.”
“The Kings,” he answers. “I don’t know how they did it. I was only told that you needed help.”
The Kings?
Moments pass as she remembers each one of them from the dinner. She can’t even remember how long ago that was because she didn’t know how long she’d been left at Eden nor how long she’s been here.
Jasmine. Sweet, sweet Jasmine. The little girl was so smart and so full of life. Vivacious. Sunshine and rainbows. Everything that she wanted to be. Carefree.
Free.
Jasmine’s family loves her. That much she was sure. She’s seen the way everyone circled to protect her from Isabella. A beautiful and caring aunt. Uncles who are sinfully gorgeous. A father who she believes would kill to protect his child.
She can only hope that things will stay that way once Isabella marries Adam King.
And if Isabella is set to marry Adam King then the Kings are a big deal. They’d be lethal and merciless. They’d be rich and dangerous. She’s seen their estate and can only imagine what they have in power and fortune. There’s no way Isabella is going to let him slip through her sharp claws. Not without a fight.
Her gut churns at the thought. If he’s the total package and Isabella is already enamored by him…by all the Kings…then she’s going to be in deep shit once Isabella finds out where she is.
Maybe lying down and dying now will hurt less than what’s to come.
Chapter Eleven
“You’re getting stronger, Ariana. You should be proud of yourself,” Marcus commends her after yet another yoga session.
She’s never done yoga before but finds it enjoyable. In fact, she never wanted to stay fit. She’d always thought that if she could gain weight, she’d be less appealing by men and would be left alone.
“Why has no one come for me?” she spontaneously speaks and asks Marcus.
It’s just been her and him inside the house for the past two weeks. Sometimes, they’d practice yoga outside in the backyard. The sun shining on her skin felt amazing when they get the chance to be outside. But it’s been a rainy couple of days.
“I’ve requested it to be this way,” Marcus replies, moving into a lotus position. “It’s part of the process. We need to calm your mind, Ariana. No outsiders, no noise.”
That’s the problem. No noise means she’s lost in her head a lot, playing out scenarios and anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. Every scrape of the door has her on edge, thinking that Isabella and Cristian have come for her.
“You’re safe,” Marcus says as if she’d spoken her thoughts out loud.
“How can you be so sure?” she asks, moving into her lotus position.
“You’re not where you think you are. You’re under the Kings’ protection now. They won’t let anything happen to you if they can help it,” Marcus answers confidently.
If they can help it. Keywords there.
“They want something from me, don’t they?”
“I’m sure they do. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that you recover through this. I can assure you also, that they know your progress and that they want you to stay clean. Is that something you want?”
She nods her head. “Yes. I want that more than anything. I never had a choice though.”
“You have a choice now. Some days, it will be harder than others to resist because your body will lie and tell you that you need the drugs. Your mind will play tricks on you as well. So we have to teach you how to cope with times like that.”
“Thank you,” she tells him for the first time. Because Marcus, whatever his reason for being here and whatever he’s getting out of this, seems to take his job seriously. He seems genuine about her recovery.
“The doctor will be by today to give you a physical check-up,” Marcus tells her with a warm smile.
Marcus mentioned that the doctor, Dr. Heinz, would be by but he never said that Adam King would be here as well.
She dares to sneak glances at him while the doctor does his routine workup. Thank God Dr. Heinz isn’t going to draw blood. She can’t even fathom seeing a needle at the moment and he must have made the assumption early on. He tells her right off bat that he won’t be doing so.
As she answered the doctor’s various medically-related questions, she can feel Adam’s eyes on her. It makes her nervous. It makes her paranoid and anxious. Is he waiting for her clean bill of health so that he can hand her back to Isabella?
It takes just over an hour before the doctor leaves. Adam meets him by the door and they speak but she can’t make out what’s being said. To her surprise, Adam shuts the door behind the doctor and then returns to comfortably sit at the couch. He gestures for her to take a seat while he unbuttons his suit jacket.
She can’t remember another man as beautiful or as perfectly put together as Adam. Not even Derrick King who is his twin. Identical twin or not, Derrick scares her shitless. She sees the menace behind Adam’s eyes too but knows she’s safe as long as he isn’t provoked. Where Adam’s gorgeous grey eyes are patient, his brother’s grey eyes seem murky and easily aggravated.