The Revenge (The Insiders Trilogy #3)(11)

My shoulders seemed a little lighter .

Five weeks later

I was straddling Kash.

My legs around his waist.

He was sitting up against the bed’s headboard, his hand to my neck, and he angled his head, taking my mouth harder. He was thrusting up into me. I was riding him. My hands were bracing against the headboard behind him.

It was hot.

Everything was buzzing.

Good. Not good.

I was—I was writhing. I was needing.

I was feeling.

Then I was screaming and I was climaxing, and my body began shaking.

My body wouldn’t stop shaking.

I was crying.

Kash was holding me, cradling me to his chest.

I was lying down.

He was smoothing back my hair.

He was whispering to me, telling me he loved me.

I felt safe in his arms.

Loved.

Warm.

I didn’t want to feel warm.

Why didn’t I want to feel warm again ?

Six weeks later

Kash

She was waking up.

I could tell. It was small, but it was significant. A little bit, every day.

I was the only one who noticed. No, that wasn’t true. Seraphina had noticed. She was smiling more around Bailey, drawn to her, reaching for her hand and hugging her more often.

That was good.

And one night at the dinner table, Bailey turned to me, tears in her eyes, and asked, “Do you know where my laptop is?”

Matt dropped his fork. It clattered on his plate.

Seraphina gasped.

Marie had been pouring some milk into Cyclone’s glass and cursed. “Dios!”

Cyclone looked up, squinting at Bailey.

Peter’s eyes filled with tears. His hand covered his mouth.

I smiled back at her. “I’ll get it for you after dinner.”

She smiled back. “Thank you.”

She was waking up.





SEVEN

Bailey


Holy fucking hell, my chest hurt.

I woke and everything hurt. Everything ached.

My eyeballs. My arms. The hairs on my fingers. The nails on my toes. Even the nuclei in my cells. They were pounding in agony.

I jerked upright and I gasped for breath, bending over, my hands clutching at my chest.

Christ.

I felt like I was having a heart attack.

God.

Jesus.

What the ever-loving fuck was happening to me?

But I knew.

The bed was empty. I looked over, saw it was three in the morning, and I was having so many different types of flashbacks all at once. I was panting and gritting my teeth just to get through wave after wave of slicing pain. And the other flashback—the bed was empty. Kash had been here. He’d come to bed with me, so I knew he wasn’t gone on another business trip. He would’ve woken me and told me if he had to leave last minute .

I ignored all the extra aches cutting into every orifice on my body.

Padding barefoot, I went to the bathroom and used some mouthwash super quick. Raking my fingers through my hair, I grabbed one of Kash’s sweatshirts. He had these large ones that dwarfed me. I could’ve stopped and grabbed some pajama pants or sweats, but I kept with my sleeping shorts. His sweatshirt fell almost to my knees. It was fine. And then, without taking the time to realize my feet were cold and I should grab some socks or at least some slippers, I headed out.

I didn’t recognize the night guard, but he straightened from the wall where he was positioned when I stepped into the hallway.

“Where is he?” I asked, before he could say anything.

His hands came together in front of him and he stood even taller. He nodded forward. “In the basement gym, ma’am.”

Ma’am.

I grinned at that, literally hearing Chrissy chuckling next to me. “You’re just like me now, girly. Ma’am. What a hoot.”

Yeah. A hoot.

I padded past him and headed for the elevator that went past the main section of the house. Going inside, I hit the basement floor, and there were two guards waiting for me.

I paused, seeing Josh as he was eyeing me. “Don’t you ever sleep?”

He grinned. “I sleep when your man sleeps.”

I narrowed my eyes.

His grin deepened. “So that’s rarely, ma’am.”

I bared my teeth. “Don’t you start with that ‘ma’am’ shit.”

He just laughed. “Would never entertain the thought, ma—”

I growled.

He amended, still chuckling, “Bailey.”

I scoffed, “Better.”

If anyone had asked me last summer where the gym was on the Chesapeake estates, I wouldn’t have had a clue. I would’ve rolled my eyes and said something sarcastic like, “Of course there’s a gym; it’s alongside the Olympic-sized pool,” but now I knew exactly where it was, and it was right next to an Olympic-sized pool, though the pool was only two lanes wide. It wasn’t built for playing and horsing around, not like the pool outside, which had a complete slide with it.

Heading farther toward the gym, I was shocked to not hear sounds of grunting and punching from inside. Instead, the door to the pool was open.

“He had some extra energy to work off.”

I glanced sideways, not having heard Josh walking beside me.