TABOO: THE COMPLETE SERIES(14)
“What does he have over you?” Jake asked when I couldn’t respond. But I couldn’t respond to his current question either.
“I’m sorry, Jake.” The minute I finished speaking, the double doors opened with a loud burst, Mace's telltale grand entrance. “You can’t tell anyone we know each other,” I whispered to Jake and he looked confused for a second. “Just trust me.”
“Hello, Doc!” Mace walked in and saw Jake was up.
“Mace,” I said with my usual lack of enthusiasm. It no longer bothered him, that was our thing. He would be all “Doc this, Doc that” and I’d be trying to get rid of him.
“The patient's up I see,” Mace said and Jake didn’t say a word. Mace touched Jake’s cheek and Jake flinched away from his touch. Mace grinned. “You’re feisty, I like that!” Mace turned to me. “After all who doesn’t love a challenge, right Doc?”
I took out a form and a pen. “There’s some paperwork I need you to sign.”
Mace ran a finger over Jake’s cheek and Jake looked like he was about to throw up. “I’ll be right back, sweetheart.”
“Is it too much to ask you to be nice to the kid?” I said when Mace started signing. “At least for a while.”
Mace scoffed. “Don’t worry, Doc. I’ll be nice to him. I’m just making jokes. It’s kind of our thing, isn’t it Jake?”
I wished Mace would stop pushing all my buttons. It was getting harder and harder to not speak my mind and let him treat Jake that way.
Finally, though, the paperwork was finished and Jake had to be discharged. Even with Mace’s help, he had trouble getting up. It would be a while before that boy could walk straight. But I had done pretty much everything I could do.
Jake started crying again when I looked at him. Fuck, that hit harder than anything else so far. He wanted me to save him. He deserved it. He deserved to be saved from the monsters. It pained me to watch him leave like that, I wouldn’t know how he was, how was I supposed to live with myself?
The guilt pestered me. Made it impossible to think of anything but Jake. What if those monsters hurt him again? What if the next time around, the damage isn’t something a medical professional can fix?
“Mace, hang on.” I went over to the cart and got the bag. “You forgot his medicine.”
Maybe that gave me two more seconds to look at Jake. Maybe I was going nuts because I’d never felt that way about anyone before.
“See you around, Jake.”
No matter how much I wished he wouldn’t have to leave, he did leave.
He was gone and I stood there like a sad pathetic loser who had just given up on the one thing that he cared about. As much as I wished there was a way I could take away his pain, I knew this was only the beginning of his suffering.
JAKE
We stepped into the room and it was all new to me.
I looked around. The place was lavishly furnished, with pretty much any ornate thing you could think of and the bed in the middle was a deep red that matched the upholstery, set off by a light beige tone on everything else including the walls. Giant paintings on every wall that truly amplified the fact that the room was large. Scented candles on the nightstand and the light from sconces bathed everything in a calm, soothing glow.
“Not bad, huh?” Mace said. “This is the special wing. Weldon said he needs you here. You should be grateful. Not everyone gets to be here. Not even us. This is on a separate floor. The only ones allowed in here are Master’s whores like yourself and whoever else he chooses.”
“I’m not a whore,” I said.
I don’t know why I even bothered. It wasn’t as though Mace would suddenly realize the error of his ways and become a good person.
“You will be,” Mace’s rejoinder pissed me off. I was about to set him straight with another response when I backed up one step and my back hit something sturdy like a wall. But there wasn’t a wall behind me when I had entered, so I turned…
To find a pair of green eyes staring back at me.
He was tall—that was the first thing I noticed besides the eyes. Stubble that matched the brown hair on his head, a face that seemed chiseled out of marble and a body to match. His body was tanned and muscular, athletic. I don’t know why I couldn’t stop staring.
“Sir… I wasn’t expecting you so soon.”
Mace’s words filled me with anger. I knew the only person he could be calling ‘sir’ would have to be…
“Weldon,” the tall, green-eyed man held out his hand for me to shake. “Weldon Cross.”
I realized I had never truly seen the man who’d tortured me all that time. The only time I did see him was back in the dungeon but even then, the dim lights had kept his features hidden in shadows for the most part and I wondered if that was intentional. I wondered if I was having the privilege to see him this way because I was a special whore, like Mace said. Mace nudged me in the back so I had to shake his hand. Weldon must have known this but it didn’t seem to matter. His grip was firm, and his hands were a little rough.
“Sir, would you like me to…” Mace began but Weldon interrupted him. “I’ll take it from here,” he said, and Mace didn’t question it. He simply left the room and now it was just the two of us in there. Awkward didn’t begin to explain what it was like, standing in the same room, the same world that he occupied when I should have been standing at least fifty feet away from him after everything that happened. I couldn’t believe how far my father had sunk this time, how selfish he must have been to make the decision to bring us here. And that brought me to the thoughts of my brother and I was back to wondering if he was even alive and back to hoping that my fears were unnecessary.