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I groan. “Why did you say throw up?” I cover my mouth with my hand and sprint out of the kitchen to my bathroom. I just make it to the toilet before I’m heaving the contents of my stomach into the bowl, which isn’t much since I’ve barely eaten today.
I continue to retch when I hear Jay and Lee enter the bathroom behind me. From the corner of my eye, I see Lee crouch down next to me. He holds my hair up and rubs soothing circles on my back as I continue to hurl. The vomit stopped a while ago, but I can’t seem to stop dry heaving.
“Go get her some water,” Lee tells Jay. After a few more moments, the gagging finally subsides.
“Take some deep breaths,” Lee says, his voice low and soothing. He’s still rubbing my back as I wipe my mouth with some toilet paper.
“I need to lie down,” I rasp, my throat sore and raw. Jay comes back with a glass of water and hands it to me. I swish some of the water around in my mouth to rinse away the acrid taste, then I take a few sips. Lee helps me to my room and into bed. My skin is clammy and sweaty, and now I’m shaking so hard I swear I can hear my bones rattle.
“We need to tell Ezra she’s sick,” Jay tells Lee.
“No,” I say quickly. “I don’t want him to worry.”I don’t want him hovering over me while I’m not feeling well, is what I don’t say, because I’m still not happy with him right now.
“He’ll kill us if he found out we knew you were sick and didn’t say anything,” Lee explains.
I shake my head. “No, he won’t. I’m an adult. I don’t need him treating me like achild.” I glare pointedly at Jay. He holds his hands up in surrender.
“Fine. But don’t be surprised when you find our heads on stakes when you wake up tomorrow morning,” Lee says. I’m sure he’s just joking, but with a guy like Ezra you never really know.
“Thank you,” I tell them. And I mean it. It means a lot that they won’t report to Ezra about every single thing I do. I’m not a prisoner here, and I refuse to be treated like one.
Well, Iamkind of a prisoner, but I still won’t be treated like one.
They start to leave, but I grab Lee’s wrist as Jay walks out. He turns and looks down at me, a question in his hazel eyes. “Thank you,” I say again.
He shakes his head, carefully removing my hand from him. “No need to thank me, darlin’. I’d do it for anyone.” With a kiss to my knuckles and one last glance, he leaves, shutting the door quietly behind him.
Appetite sufficiently deceased, I curl into a ball, wrapped in the soft thickness of my down comforter. I dig my toes deeper into the blanket, desperately wishing I had my fuzzy socks right now. I’m going to have to tell Ezra tomorrow that I need my own things back.
Once the roiling nausea subsides, I’m finally able to succumb to sleep.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
LEE
“Fucking nasty,”I mumble, shuddering as I follow Jay down the hall towards the opposite side of the house to the basement.
“Stop whining,” Jay taunts from in front of me. I push him so he loses his balance and falls against the wall. Dodging his fist, I sprint down the hall before he has a chance to punch me.
We climb down the stairs to the basement and enter the room where Donny Boy is being held. He’s suspended from the ceiling in chains, feet barely touching the cold, hard ground. He’s unconscious, which is good for him, considering more of the hell we have in store for him.
Ezra, who’s spent most of his day down here, is sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, scrolling through his phone like there isn’t a half-dead asshole sitting six feet away from him. Blood splatters his clothes and hands.
“How long’s he been out?” I ask, hopping up onto the metal table against the wall.
“About twenty minutes,” Ezra says, pocketing his phone.
“Maya’s sick,” I blurt out.
“What?” Ezra stands up so quickly he knocks the chair over. “She was fine the last time I saw her.”
Jay shoots me a glare, but I ignore him. I get off the table and follow Ezra out of the basement. When he’s about to reach the hallway to her bedroom, I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “She’ll be fine.”
He whirls on me, worry in his eyes. “If she’s sick, she not fuckingfine, Lee. I need to take care of her.”
He goes to turn around, but I grab his arm this time, forcing him to look at me. “Ez. She’sfine. The only thing you’ll accomplish right now is waking her up and pissing her off.”
Ezra takes a few deep breaths and nods, walking back down the stairs to the basement. I follow after him. “Was it something she ate?”
