What They Don't Know (Won't Hurt Them Trilogy #1) (17 page)

“Okay,” I whisper.
We begin to pull away from the house and I notice all of my tires are
flat.

“Cruz! Look!” I
inhale sharply. He slows down and ducks his head to see what I’m
pointing at.

“Dammit!” he yells.

“Cruz. What’s going
on?”

“Nothing, Bria.”

“You can’t just
tell me nothing when I’m looking at my car with flat tires. That’s
NOT NOTHING to me. Why did you go back in the house, Cruz?”

“To lock up, Bria.”

“But you don’t know
my security codes.”

“I reset them.” He
looks over at me with a very serious face. “Bryant and I have been
there with you the past few days. No need to set them then.”

“Why would you need
to reset them?”

“Bria, your codes
were common, anyone could get into that house.”

“You mind letting me
know what it is? It is
my
house.”

“It’s your
best
friend’s
birthdate. Now, can we go to the hospital?
Bryant needs you.” If I had not known any better, I would think his
tone was sarcastic just then.

“Yes, let’s go; but
this conversation isn’t over, Cruz.”

“Honey, it doesn’t
concern you. LET IT GO!”

“I will when you tell
me what in the hell is going on.” He just stares through the
windshield and drives away. We ride to the hospital silently. I know
I won’t get any more answers out of him, so I just try to forget
that my car—my precious car—is on four flats. What the fuck!

* * *

I limp through the
emergency room, and a nurse comes rushing to me with a wheelchair.

“Ma’am, are you
okay? Let’s get you seated and take your vitals. Wait, you were
here last night.” The nurse confirms as she looks at me with a
curious eye.

“Yes, I was. I’m
not here for me.”

The attractive nurse
looks up at Cruz; he’s clearly somewhere else. He doesn’t even
notice she’s trying to get his attention.

“Cruz?” He has his
hands in his pockets, clearly trying to hide his uneasy mood.

“Yeah, right.” He
comes out of unfocused trance. “Can you please tell us where Bryant
Morgan is?”

“Oh,” The nurse
says. “Yes, Morgan is in room six. Are you family?”

“I’m not; she is,”
Cruz says to the nurse.

“Okay, let me get you
back there, okay?”

It’s… Shit, I don’t
know what time it is and this chick is lit like a light. What’s she
been drinking? I’m fucking tired and she’s HAPPY! HAPPY! JOY!
JOY!

“So you and Mr.
Morgan are?” she asks.

“Brother, he’s my
brother,” I lie. “How is he?”

“He’s responsive
more now than he was when he came in. His girlfriend is quite the
character. She left mumbling something about being a babysitter.”

“She’s a bitch,”
I retort.

“Yes, that too,”
the nurse agrees. “Here we are. By the way, are you Bria,?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Yeah, he’s been
saying your name.” She side-eyes me. “You two aren’t related,
are you?”

“Yes and No,” I say
to her. “We’re close. He’s like my brother.”

“You’ll need to
contact his next of kin. Because of the amount of alcohol and drugs
in his system, he’ll need to be released to a family member or
spouse. State law.”

“I’ll call his
parents.”

“Fine, I’ll leave
you two alone. Oh, and the guy who came in with you.” She mouths
‘hot’ as she walks out. I just shake my head.

I don’t like
hospitals and tubes, it gives me the shivers. “Ugh.”

“Bree… Bree…
Bree… Please, Bree.”

I slowly walk to his
side. “Bry, I’m here. Bry?” He’s so pale; I can’t believe
the way he looks. He looks so sick and so not like himself. Oh, my
God, my vibrant healthy Bryant. I start to sob. That’s when I feel
a strong hand on my shoulder. Cruz holds me from behind in a warm
hug. I just stand there with this man I met less than two weeks ago,
crying over my best friend’s almost deadly mistake. With my head
down, I turn in Cruz’ s arms and rest my head on his chest. His
mood seems to have changed from the car. He’s caring and gentle as
he stands here holding me while my sobbing subsides.

“What have the
doctors said?” He sounds concerned.

“They haven’t come
in to speak with me yet, but I have to call his parents.” I shake
my head. “They won’t release him unless it’s with parents or a
spouse.”

“Shit! What the fuck
happened?” Cruz asks in shock.

“The nurse said his
alcohol and drug levels were so high that they are surprised he’s
responsive.”

“Bryant’s a healthy
guy, Bria. Once whatever was in him is flushed out, his body will
start to take back over.”

“What the fuck was he
doing with drugs?”

“Who knows, Bria?
Women make you do strange things when you’re in love, or claim to
be anyway.”

“I really can’t
stand that bitch.”

He looks at me as if I
said something harsher.

“Women are vicious,”
he says as he looks down at me.

“Cruz, I’m not;
it’s just she… she really hurt him.” I pull away from him. I’m
not mad that he doesn’t know. Bryant wasn’t as strong with her as
he is alone. Don’t get me wrong; he’s stronger now, and his will
to live is much stronger than before.

“What’s really with
you and him, Bria?”

I shake my head at
Cruz’s question. “Not here, not now.”

“Okay, when and
where, Bria? Because if you keep holding this in, it will fucking end
you.”

“It’s nothing to
tell.”

He puts his hands in
his pockets, and now I know it’s a coping mechanism for him. He’s
fidgeting. “Like hell it isn’t, you two are full of shit. I
should have…” he goes silent.

“Bree,” I hear
Bryant call out to me again. I go to his bed.

“Bryant? Are you
okay?” He’s opening his eyes but he looks like he’s been hit
with a two by four.

“I’m sorry, Bree.
I’m sorry.”

“Shhh… Bry, don’t
talk; get some rest, okay.”

“Bree, don’t be m…”
He goes silent. He’s fallen back asleep.

“Hi, I’m Dr.
Childs.” I’m startled to hear behind me before I turn to see the
doctor. Cruz is standing beside him and they’re looking at me as if
I have a second head growing from me.

“Are you two
relatives?”

“I am,” informing
the doctor of my lie.

“I'm a business
colleague,” Cruz responds.

“Okay. He can't be
released until tomorrow. We want to keep him overnight to make sure
his body doesn't go into shock or have any side effects from the
flushing we did earlier. It’s 4:50 a.m.,” he says as he looks at
his watch. “I'm sure after twenty-four hours he will be good to be
released.”

“Okay,” I say,
still half sobbing.

“Doctor, can you tell
us anything about the drug that was in his system?”

“Only that's it’s a
higher dosage of a sex drug; you know like ecstasy. What we found in
Mr. Morgan's system was deadly. I'm not even sure how he survived.
Also, a low-trace dosage of a performance drug was in his system,
maybe a few days old.”

I look at Cruz
suspiciously and roll my eyes. He looks back at me with an
intimidating stare. His jawline is grinding and I feel a bit off
because of it. He's never intimidated me before… Okay, maybe he
has, but he'll never know.

The doctor continues to
speak. “His BAC was 0.041 past the 0.080 limit.” Shaking his
head, he continues. “With the drugs and the alcohol, I will say
this again. I truly don't know how he survived. I’ll be submitting
a report to the police. I'm not sure who accompanied him; but from
the looks of this situation, he could have been drugged.”

I gasp for air and my
eyes tear up. “Excuse me for a minute.” I limp quickly out of the
small emergency room. I stand against the ledge and the rail that
runs along the wall in the triage area. I'm trying to contain my
emotions but all of that flies out of the window when I see her.

“YOU FUCKING BITCH!”
I scream and all of my will to stay calm comes lashing out at Cass,
the one person who I could commit a crime against. And I attempt it
tonight. I lunge at her, grabbing her neck.

“OH MY GOD! You crazy
whore, let go of me.” And I do. Only to punch her in her eye... and
her nose... and her eye again.

“Ahhh! MY GOD, I'M
BLEEDING,” she screams.

I don't care that my
ankle is still wrapped up. I tackle her to the ground and place my
knee on her chest. I raise my fist to punch her again. I'm quickly
lifted in the air. “Let go of me! LET GO, CRUZ!” He has me in a
bear hug. He's so much bigger and stronger than I am. I'm not sure
why I even bother.

“Arrest her! Fucking
arrest her!” Cass yells. “I'm bleeding! Oh my God!” she
continues to scream. None of the nurses attends her. Her hair is
disheveled and her face is bleeding. I'm not sure from where and
there are signs of a swollen eye, maybe both. I laugh hysterically.

“You fucking crazy
bitch!” she spits.

“I'M CRAZY! I'M
CRAZY! LET GO OF ME, CRUZ!”

“Bria, calm down!”
Cruz growls. Cass lunges for me but hospital security restrains her.
Still no one on the hospital staff tries to attend to her injuries.
Cruz has an undeniably strong hold on me. He pulls me close to his
body so that my back is to his front. “Honey, you're out of
control,” he states calmly. “Calm the fuck down before you get
into more trouble than I can get you out of.”

“I don't need your
help, Cruz,” I say breathlessly. With a tighter hold, he walks us
forward while he guides me to a secluded area in the hospital. Still
holding me tight, I feel him start to harden on my ass.

“You can't be
serious,” I growl. Cruz backs himself against the wall and breathes
in my hair. His breathing is short and quick.

“God, you can damage
me,” he reveals.

“Cruz, let go of me.”

“Bria, I won't let go
of you. Please get hold of yourself.” His breath is still labored.
“I won't be able to control myself with you this way, honey,” he
says. I can feel him rest his head back against the wall. I can also
feel how noticeably hard he is. He sighs and blows out a long breath.

“Can I trust you to
go back out here?”

I laugh. “Absolutely
not!”

“Honey, that poor
girl.” He's laughing and talking at the same time. He has let go of
me, and I turn with my arms folded.

“It's not funny,
Cruz,” I scoff.

“Yes it is.” Cruz
nods. “I guess you made it raccoon season.” He's still laughing
that both her eyes will be blackened by morning. His laughing is
contagious as I start to laugh with him. He's even more attractive as
he smiles.

“Bria, you can't go
around knocking people out.”

“I know! She pissed
me off by coming back here.”

“Bria, that's his
girlfriend.”

“That's not his
girlfriend,” I say, cutting him off.

“Okay, Bria,
whatever. You can't kick her ass every time she's around.”

“Like hell I can't.”

Cruz has both of my
hands by my side; his eyes are closed. When he opens them, they've
gone dark. I'm close enough to know his breathing has quickened
again. I look away and I can feel his breath on my ear. He speaks
softly.

“Listen to me Bria,
the quicker you calm down, the quicker I can rectify this.” He
pulls my hand to his hard cock. I pull my hand away, but he takes
hold of it again. “This is what you do to me. You have no idea.”

“Cruz? You're a
perv.” I pull away and walk back toward the ER floor.

“That may be true,
honey, but how does that make you feel?” I turn and look over my
shoulder at Cruz pushing himself from the wall.

“It doesn't,” I
whisper.

* * *

Making our way back to
Bryant’s room, I spot policemen at his door. I stop in my tracks
and Cruz pauses close behind me. He places his hands on my waist and
whispers in my ear, “Just wait here, honey, I will handle this.”

“Okay,” I whisper
back. Cruz walks over to the two policemen and shakes hands with one
who’s a bit taller than he and the other officer. I slowly walk
into Bryant's room; there's a nurse in taking his vitals.

“Hello.”

“Hi,” she replies.

“Has he gotten any
better?” I softly question the nurse.

“Actually, he has;
he's more conscious now.”

“Was there any
damage?”

“The doctor will be
in shortly; he's speaking with his family.”

“Whose family?”

“Mr. Morgan's
family.” The nurse raises her eyebrows. “That's also why the
police are here.”

“Why are they here?
And where's his family?” I ask.

“Right now the doctor
has them in a private consulting room.”

“Is there a female
with them?” I ask.

“The bloody one?”
The nurse eyes me suspiciously.

“Uh, yeah.”

“No, she was
arrested.”

My eyes go wide. “Why?”

“Illegal distribution
of narcotics and assaulting an officer,” Cruz informs us as he
enters the room. I turn to see he's followed by the two policemen he
was talking to. Oh shit, I'm going to be arrested, and I start to
panic. I can't run or do anything to get out of it. I'll admit I
tried to choke Cass to death, and I'd do it again knowing she gave
Bryant drugs. I take a slight stumble back.

“Whoa, honey, you
okay?” Cruz catches me by the arm when he sees I’m shaken.

“I am. I'm just…”

“Hey, come here.”
Cruz pulls me to him. He puts his arm around me and holds my head in
place against my chest. How could this tough, egotistical man be so
gentle with me? His arrogant, demanding ways can fill my body with a
rush of anger. Yet he makes me feel a throbbing pulse with every
touch.

He's tightly holding
me, as he whispers in my ear, “You're going to be fine; they're
here to question Bryant when he wakes up.”

A rush of relief comes
over me. I'm not jail material. I mean I can kick ass but my career
is lucrative right now. My side business hasn't started, but I'm sure
it will be lucrative. Cruz lets go of me and looks down at my face.
“Are you going to be okay here? There's something I need to take
care of.”