28 Seconds: A House of Valentine Novella (6 page)

“Don’t send a stranger to get me ever again.”

Something in my voice made all the men turn my direction. Cole motioned for space and the table cleared instantly, leaving nothing but his shadows.

“My apologies.”

“Can I ask you something? All of you?” I dropped heavily into the cushions.

“Can you?” Al asked, pushing a glass of water my direction.

I nodded my thanks and swallowed several gulps while balancing my other glass in my hand. “You are a bunch of good looking guys, right? I mean, all of you are damn cocky about it so it’s not as if I’m telling you anything new.”

Tony leaned forward, eying me closely. “Just how much have you had to drink?”

“She’d say that sober, I assure you.”

“I’m kinda starting to love her, Cole.”

“You all have that sexy, danger thing going on. You all carry guns, you all dress impeccably well…”

“Ariana.”

“Stop staring at me, Cole. I’m not trying to be a smartass. I’m asking with complete candidness.”

“Candidness?” Al asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is that even a word?”

“Yes. My point is, you can pretty much get a girl at any time, right? If you go home alone it’s by choice, right?”

“How much
have
you had to drink?”

“Just two. It’s probably the GHB which is...”

“What?”

“Wait, what-”

My eyes darted to each of them who were now sitting up and staring at me. “Which is my question. With everything you guys have going for you why is it necessary to spike a girl’s drink in hopes of getting laid?”

Cole and Tony were beside me instantly, caging me into the cushions. Cole was checking my wrist and Tony was trying to take my drink out of my other hand.

“Give me the glass, kid.”

“I’m not done.”

“Ariana, give him the fucking glass.”

I took a long gulp and then handed it to off. “So...why is it necessary?”

“I fully intend to get laid tonight. Do you see me spiking any drinks here?” Tony asked as he sniffed the glass. “How do you know it’s GHB?”

I shrugged. “It just is.”

“We keep a test kit behind the bar,” Al provided. “I’ll go grab it.”

“Cole, my heart rate is a million times better than yours right now so will you just stop?” I jerked my arm away from his grasp. I closed my eyes trying to stave off the memories that were starting to leak back into my psyche.

“Ariana, look at me.”

Al tossed the test kit at Tony. I could hear them moving about but I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

“She’s right. It’s positive. How the hell could she know that?”

“It’s salty,” I murmured. “Unless you add lemon juice or something else acidic, it’s salty.”

“Again, how the fuck does she know that?”

“Ariana-” Cole demanded.

“Just talk to me, okay? It’s hard to focus and I need to focus on something.” I took his hand and pulled it to rest on top of my thigh, rubbing it back and forth. “I’ll burn it off in fifteen minutes but, please, just distract me until then.”

“How about I distract you by kicking his fucking ass?”

“Cole, take a look at her, brother.”

“Ariana, do you know who did it?”

“Of course. The big guy with the sapphire tie...the one with tiny fleur de lis.”

“Get him.”

“Cole-”

“I know, Tony, I know! Just go find him. As soon as he learns her name he’ll be running...get to him first.”

“I miss her so much.”

Cole’s hands were soft on me, shuffling me to stretch out and lay my head in his lap. His hand drifted to my stomach, his thumb making tight circles on my ribs.

“Your touch makes it better,” I murmured.

“I think that’s the liquid X talking, baby girl.”

“It’s not fair you keep telling me no because I’m a stupid Valentine. I didn’t even know I was a Valentine and I have extremely happy memories of your hands but nothing else in my whole life is happy and-”

“I know you aren’t meaning to say that out loud in a public place.”

“No, sorry, I’m not.” I shook my head trying to get my thoughts in some sort of order. “It’s a power thing, isn’t it? Slipping the drug to women? It’s not as if they are hard up.”

“Yes, it is. How bad are your memories swirling right now?”

“They aren’t. I’m fine.”

“Ariana,” he murmured, “you haven’t stopped crying since you first sat down at the table.”

My hands flashed to my face and, sure enough, I was drenched with tears. I frowned. I’d really thought I’d been holding it together. “Do all of you pharmaceutical drug dealer type people just carry random drugs around in your pocket? Is this something I have to look forward to every fucking day?”

“No, we don’t. At least not in the Valentine family. It’s something we’ll have to watch for, though. Your system reacts differently.”

“My system reacts just as it should. It’s the suppression of brain function,” I argued. “For everyone else it makes things happy and euphoric. For me, it means I can’t consciously block out all the things I need to block out.”

I could hear someone join us and knew it had to be the bigger guy, the fun one….Tony, I reminded myself. “Did the girl high on X just breakdown the human physiological effects of a drug?”

“Biochem major,” Cole chuckled.

“Seriously? That’s priceless.”

“Fuck you,” I grumbled.

“Did you find him?”

“Yeah. We’ve got him in a back room. Cole, he’s a Valentine.”

I could feel Cole’s entire body tense beneath me. “Not anymore,” he hissed. “Remove his brand and get him the hell out of here.”

“I’ll have it taken care of.”

“How much longer?” I whimpered.

“Too long,” Cole said, shuffling me in his lap. “Repetitive sounds, did you say? Or something to focus on?”

I nodded.

“Tony, gather up some glasses for me, would you? Spike some of them with whatever you can buy off the assholes here and then you and Al come back, all right?”

“Cole, are they gone?”

“Temporarily.”

“How could you...I mean, men have come for me my whole entire life...how could you...why would you ever send a stranger to get me?”

“Ariana, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think-”

“Why haven’t you asked about the memories this time?”

“Because I know you’d tell me, baby girl. The drug doesn’t give a damn what you want to keep private, but I do. Come on, sit up. We’re going to play a game.”

“Childish.”

“Okay, a test. Is that better?”

Tony and the other shadow were back, lining up a set of glasses along the drink table. They ranged from icy blue to glowing green with a few coffee colored ones thrown in. Once they were laid out, the men dropped to sit across from us.

“Is my test not to pass out after drinking all this shit?”

“If you can do that, I’m stealing you away from him,” Tony laughed. “What are we doing here, Cole?”

“Ariana, tell me if any of these are spiked and, if you can, what’s in them.”

“Cole, that is-” the quiet one was protesting.

I found his soft indignation hysterical and began laughing. “No, no. It’s okay. Great actually. I can do this. Focus,” I smiled and squeezed Cole’s hand before picking up the first glass.

I swirled it, smelled it and then pushed it back. “Ketamine.”

“Correct.”

I picked up the second glass and only had to smell it before passing it back. “LSD.”

“Correct.”

The third was dark, almost syrupy and I frowned at the smell of it. I stuck my pinky in it, tasted it, and then my eyes narrowed. “You know this kind of soda isn’t actually made with cocaine, right? Not spiked.”

Tony laughed so hard it made his body shake and I knew I was going to love him.

“Correct.”

“Xanax, really?” I grumbled on the next. “Who carries Xanax to a club?”

“Tourists.”

“Fucking tourists,” I whispered but my entire body spasmed and Cole’s hand was fast on my waist. The other men were laughing, they hadn’t noticed my reaction, and I fought to control the memories from the night of the bonfire.

“Ariana-”

I offered him a half hearted smile. “Last one, right?” I picked up the glass and swirled it, smelled it, tasted a pinky full and still couldn’t find anything. “Not spiked.” Confident, I took the shot down in one swallow just as Tony and Al both lunged for me.

I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong.

My brain launched into a full mental seizure, flashes of memories, lights, places and people colliding in rapid fire succession.

“What the hell is that?” Cole’s arm were around me, gripping me tight to his chest, but I was struggling...and winning.

“Modafinil, isolated for Valentine.” Same calm, reasonable voice as always.

“Of all the choices...”

I could hear Cole’s voice but didn’t care. I broke free of his grasp, grabbing my head and rushing toward the exit. They were on my heels fast, wrenching me back, but the music and noise made everything a technicolor swirl and I dropped to my knees.

“Beach, please,” I begged.

I was over Tony’s shoulder in seconds, closing my eyes as the world began to spin with all the movement. I felt his steps stumble as we hit the sand across the Boardwalk and then he sat me down. Cole knelt in front of me, cupping my face in his hands.

“Ariana, look at me. Look at me!”

“Cole, what the hell-”

“Coffee,” he ordered, “find her coffee.”

“The last thing a Modafinil overdose needs is caffeine,” Al offered.

“She’s not like others. Get the damn coffee.”

“Cole,” I whimpered. I dropped my head between my knees, clenching my skull as the visions kept coming. “I can’t make them stop.”

“Tony, how long?”

“She burned the liquid X off in half the time so, three hours maybe?”

“She’ll be suicidal in five minutes,” Cole spat, rubbing my arms up and down as if trying to keep me warm. “Ariana, baby girl…”

His pleading tone caused my eyes to open. He looked so broken and helpless...and angry. He was so very angry. I touched my hand to his face, stroking his cheek. “Don’t be mad. Please don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad,” he promised but I didn’t believe a word of it.

I turned in the sand, grabbing Tony’s pants legs. “Tony.”

He dropped down to my level and I smiled. “He’s wrong isn’t he? You do carry drugs with you. You have to. Just in case.”

“I don’t-”

I tugged on him again, my tears now desperate. “Tony, please-”

“Yes.”

“Lorazepam?”

“What’s she talking about?”

“It’s in clinical trials as an overdose treatment. No fucking clue how she knows that though.”

“Half lora, half diphenhydramine.”

“Do you have it?”

“It’s in trials, Cole. It might work or it might just drop her into a fucking coma.”

“Tony, do you have it or not?”

“Yes. The shop right there should have generic diphen.”

“I’ll get it. Dose her the lora.”

“Cole-” Tony tried but he was already gone. He turned dark eyes my direction. “Is whatever flooding your head really bad enough to chance killing yourself?”

I took his hand, squeezing it as hard as I could. “Yes.”

He tipped my chin up, letting a finger drift down my hair as he stared at me with an intensity that left me feeling like my entire soul was completely exposed. He nodded as he reached some decision that was, thankfully, in my favor. “You’re going to-”

“Pass out, I know,” I murmured, dropping my head back down against my legs and starting to rock myself. “I promise, I’m am 500% okay with that, Tony.”

“How the hell do you know all this, kid? It’s not in a textbook and you damn sure aren’t an addict.”

I shook my head, willing Cole to move faster before I started saying the things teeming through my head.

“Here,” Tony tucked a pill into my hand. “Al here has the coffee or Cole will bring water-”

I downed it dry and went back to rocking. It seemed like hours but Cole was back minutes later, ripping open the medicine and handing me two pills. I swallowed them with the water this time and then looked at all of them. “He killed them did you know? Did all of you know and just not want to say anything?”

“What?”

“Franco, my father. He strangled them both while I was-”

Cole’s lips were soft on mine, cutting off my words. “Quiet, Ariana. You need to be silent now.”