Page 96 of Ramshackle
“Are those…drugs?” Is he joking, or…nope. He’s serious. His hand roots around in the bag, picking one out with a frown, dropping it back in, and digging for another one. “I don’t do drugs,” I tell him when it’s clear that’s exactly what they are.
Gabriel’s head pops up. “Oh. Good, good.Nastyhabit.” He pinches another pill and smiles when he sees it, then pops it in his mouth without hesitation. “Don’t mind me. I’d go crazy if it weren’t for these. Too many re-lived torturous memories and all that.”
Fucking hell.
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea. I don’t want you to have to go through this—”
“Nope.” He grabs my hand, pulling me up and leading me to my bed. “We’re doing this. I’ve got you. We’re going to stick it to whoever this guy is, and then you can use that leg to kick his ass.” We stop at the bed. “You’re going to want to lie down and close your eyes.”
Gabriel kicks off his shoes and hops on my bed, scooting to the other side and lying down. “If it didn’t hurt so bad, I would stand, but if I have a preference—and I do—then I’d rather feel it lying down on a comfortable bed, wouldn’t you?”
He has a point.
I sit on the bed and lie back as the others gather around us. Gabriel puts his hand on my messed-up knee. Then someone takes my hand. Craning my face, I find Jackson with his hand over mine.
“I wouldn’t touch her if I were you, good sir,” Gabriel tells him when he spots it. “You’ll feel and see everything, too.”
Jackson smiles. “Good.”
“Jack, no.” I try to tug my hand free, and the next thing I know, the other three have pulled chairs over and have their hands on my leg. “What are you doing? Absolutely not. I don’t want you guys to see—”
“What you went through for us?” Dane snaps. “If you didn’t have to go through it too, I’d ask him to make me feel every second of pain you went through on that island.”
“That’s not what I want,” I grit out.
“Sorry, beautiful, but let us do this,” Kellan speaks up.
Aiden’s thumb circles my ankle, his gaze intense on my knee. “None of us are leaving, Gabriel. Let’s get started.”
Gabriel chuckles. “You’re all crazy. I like you.” He closes his eyes. “Now, picture the moment right before he shot you. I need at least thirty seconds to a minute before it happens. Tell me when you have it in your mind. Once it’s there, I’ll trigger my gift.”
A minute before.
Great.
I was murdering people a minute earlier.
I picture the indoor training room. The wood lacquer floor and boring gray walls. Mallory passed out at Holt’s feet. And Gordon watching me with crazed eyes as I use my gift to kill three people at once, tied to chairs in the middle of the room.
“Now.”
Heat flares in my knee, and I think I might have rushed too far in my memories, but I’m still picturing the three innocents in my mind. It must be his gift.
My memories begin to play out from there without my doing anything. Finishing the kill. The gunshot. White-hot, excruciating pain as I cry out and then collapse to darkness.
Chapter twenty-eight
Raegan
I scream, grabbing formy knee and finding firm resistance. Something squeezes my hand, but the other one is free and swings toward my knee. It’s stopped before I can reach it, and my arm is pulled back over my head.
The pain needles into my knee, stabbing and blinding me with pain. I struggle against whatever’s holding me down, fighting back and then going rigid when the pain becomes too much.
“Let her heal you, beautiful. It’s almost over,” Kellan’s voice cuts through the pain, reminding me that I’m not back with Gordon.
Warmth spreads through my knee, and the pain recedes.
I open my eyes to find the guys at my side, Cassandra between them as she concentrates over my knee. Gabriel thrashes on the bed next to me.
