Page 19 of Watched

He seethes through his teeth from my applied pressure to the gaping cut.

“I want these people found!” my father demands as we stand outside Blade’s hospital room.

“Yes, sir.” The older male officer nods. “I’ll leave Carter here to question your son when he wakes up.”

The younger officer moves past us, positioning himself beside Blade’s door.

“We have a detailed security system in that apartment complex,” my father rages, the vein in his neck popping. “Each door and the elevator are inaccessible without a card.”

“I understand, sir.” The officer’s yellow eyes almost roll. “We’ll look into it.”

“Find them, or you’ll be out of a fucking job.”

“Alexa.”

I hear a rasp call from Blade, and I race through the open door. Hooded eyes follow me, and he snarls, disappointed I’m not who he called for. I pull a chair across to sit beside him, my gaze drifting to the large plasters covering his back with over a hundred stitches holding the skin and muscle beneath.

I had a thought while racing to the hospital behind the ambulance that this may have been the Huxleys retaliating for Blade attacking Rome. I’d hacked Rome’s phone while Blade was in surgery and discovered Rome hadn’t had contact with Xander since the night they were researching my family.

“Water,” Blade croaks. “My mouth is a fucking desert.”

I take the water bottle from the table beside him, and his face etches in pain as he lifts to his elbow to take it.

“Blade,” Dad calls in a panicked tone I’ve never heard before. “What the fuck happened?” I reach out to take the almost empty bottle, and Blade’s droopy eyes look past me. I glance over my shoulder to Carter in the doorway. “Give us one fucking minute,” Dad spits, slamming the door shut.

Blade draws a deep breath before beginning to explain everything I already watched on the security cameras. “I was in the gym and then went to go back upstairs. Three people in balaclavas jumped me on the third floor. I knocked one of them out and sent them flying down the stairs, but two tasered me and then pinned me against the wall. They sliced my back and said, ‘you thought running off to London would protect you?’ I managed to knock one out, and the other was dragging them away when I stumbled up the stairs and put in the pin for our apartment.”

Warmth drains from my body, and my muscles stiffen; I know they witnessed the involuntary reaction my body just had.

“Rain?” Dad drags a chair across to sit beside me.

“I-I.”

“Speak.”

“Ezra Smith,” I confess.

Blade’s brows furrow. “Our media teacher who was arrested for selling child pornography?”

I nod. “I had access to his computer. One day, we were grading assignments, and he left the room to go to the restroom. A message came through on his private laptop. I got a glimpse of it, and it said, ‘I want more of the kid.’ He was referring to you.”

Blade arches a brow.

“I had a meeting with the principal,” Dad queries. “He said evidence was anonymously sent to the police, but that was…what? A year after you both left school?”

Once the news broke about Ezra, Dad pulled his funding to the school, ceasing any involvement with them, but the principal and superintendent had no clue who they’d hired.

“It was killing me,” I admit, tugging at my hair. “I knew about it and the mountain of people associated with him. I debated sending it in earlier, but I was worried about the consequences if they discovered it was me.” I meet Blade’s dead gaze, my own guilty. “I saw the opportunity to send it in a day before we moved here from Los Angeles.”

The sick fuck only got five years for what I sent in, but I had others taken down with him.

Blade groans, trying to adjust and ease the pain. “Nothing good will ever come from trying to play hero, brother.”

Dad sighs, leaning back in his seat and shaking his head. “You should’ve told me, son. I could’ve had the stupid fucks taken out in prison.”

“I tried.” I peer across to him. “They put them in solitary, and the guards were untouchable. Either they’d bought them out, or they had protection from someone else. I’d begun negotiating with a guard anonymously two months ago, but she refused every cash offer.”

Dad stands and adjusts his black coat over his suit. “Blade, you tell that officer the story you said and keep quiet about the rest. Rain, you will help purchase an estate under an alias for you both to live in and a garage with ten new cars registered under other aliases. You are to swap cars before you leave the city and when you return.” His eyes narrow on me. “Your incessant need to prove your independence will get you and your brother killed.”