Page 28 of Reckless

Somehow, I got home. I assumed from Simon, but when I next opened my eyes, I was in my bed. There was an IV jabbed into the crook of my elbow and my ribs were wrapped in some kind of stretchy gauze.

What the fuck had happened?

I sat up, needing to use my arms to help me. It was fully dark outside and what little light was filtering in came from the streetlights. Where was my phone?

Glancing around, there was a bottle of water and some pills on my nightstand with a note that said, “Take two— S.”

The thought of Simon made my blood boil. What fucking game was he playing here?

The sound of my front door opening and closing got my attention. Simon’s head appeared in my bedroom doorway with a smile on his insufferable face and a beer in his hand. “Oh, good. You’re up.”

How could he just walk in here like he hadn’t fucked me over. If my body was in better shape, I’d have my hands wrapped around his large neck right now.

“Woah, don’t get up. The doctor said you have a few bruised ribs and need to hydrate and rest.”

“What the fuck, Simon?”

He tilted the beer up to his lips and took a drink. “My uncle wanted to kill you. Said you were taking too long to find whoever had fucked the family over. That you’d changed and we couldn’t trust you anymore. That his gut is never wrong about people and his gut was telling him you’d turned on us. This was the only way I could convince him to spare you. And me. If I hadn’t participated, I would have been in an unmarked grave right next to you. He might talk a big game about handing me over the family business, but I know him too well. He’s as likely to kill me as much as the next guy who pisses him off.”

I wanted to believe him, but my ribs were still screaming from the beating.

“I told you. I told you I didn’t want to get involved with anyone. And now he’s fucking threatening her for even being around me. What was all that business with her sister?”

Simon had the good sense to appear guilty. “He’s been taking women to this place he calls the compound. Apparently, it’s where all his rich and famous contacts meet up to let loose.”

“And Stella’s sister is there?”

He nodded. “Along with a bunch of others.”

“For what reason, Simon?”

He leveled his gaze at me that suggested I knew exactly why they were taken there.

My stomach roiled. I knew the Underwoods had some shady dealings in their time. But this? This was new information that had me seething.

He took another sip of his beer and leaned against my door frame. “We’ll find a way out of this.”

“How? He owns everyone in this fucking town.”

“I’m working on it. But you have to trust me.”

This was a disaster. I knew fucking better than to let myself get close to someone and now the exact thing I was so afraid of had come to bite me in the ass.

“Where’s my phone?”

“Right here,” he fished it out from his back pocket and walked over, handing it to me.

The screen had been cracked, probably from when I was knocked out. And there was one heartbreaking text at seven thirty from Stella, that just had my name with a question mark. The best thing to do was to walk away from her. But I couldn’t guarantee that Carmine wouldn’t follow through on his threat and involve her regardless of if I was still with her or not. Fuck. I had to warn her. She hadn’t told me about her sister, but we had just met. I hadn’t told her about my past either.

But now that I knew the Underwoods had her sister, I needed to come clean and tell Stella the truth. And if I could help not just her sister, but every single person they’d taken to that compound, I would.

Chapter Thirteen

STELLA

Gemini

Not everything is as it seems.