Page 106 of Ballistic

I dragged my attention to the left, where Doctor Emberle sat in the chair beside the bed.

“I read you that story during one of our sessions. I always found it a fascinating dynamic, the way some patients preferred one over the other.” He sat back, crossing his legs. “Tell me, Eden, with all you’ve experienced these last few weeks, which would you choose? To forget? Or to remember everything?”

Perhaps it was his question that sprung an image of Dax’s handsome face to mind, so vivid and clear, the visual brought tears to my eyes. He was shrapnel in my heart, potent venom still pulsing through my blood. “To remember everything.”

“We’re such emotional creatures, aren’t we?” He pushed up from the chair and came to a stand at the end of the bed, gripping the bars below my feet. “When we want something bad enough, we’re willing to suffer so much pain. Pain we couldn’t otherwise bear. Like a mother suffering the birth of a child. Or a doctor, mourning the disappearance of his favorite patient.” His finger trailed up my leg, leaving a phantom sensation that failed to draw anything more than disgust. “Do you have any idea what I went through? The danger I put myself in just to find you?”

“You’re sick.”

“That seems to be what most of the men you’ve fucked have in common.” His hand drifted higher, drawing my gown up my thighs. Didn’t matter if I fought him, or screamed. He’d undoubtedly had the nursing staff turn off the cameras in the room. “You leave behind a trail of obsessed men. Why do you think that is, Eden?”

Instead of answering, I fought to ignore the feel of his hands massaging the inner part of my thigh, far too close to that forbidden place he’d always taken joy in touching.

Hand still between my legs, he walked around to the side of the bed. “You’re so strong, but vulnerable at the same time. You make us want to care for you and break you. It’s maddening, really.” He leaned forward, as if to kiss me, and I turned my head away from him, feeling his hot breath against my neck.

“Go fuck yourself.”

“You need a bit more time. I understand. You’ll come around soon. You always do. We’ll pick up our sessions once you’re feeling … compliant.” A light pat to my thigh, and I felt the gown slide back down my leg. “We have all the time in the world now.”

With tears in my eyes, I kept my gaze turned from his and listened to his footsteps signaling his retreat.

“I hope you like the blue walls, love” he said, and at the click of the door, I let the tears escape.

41

Dax

Striding up to the hospital, I pulled the cigarette from between my lips and flicked the butt onto the sidewalk. One of two things was about to go down before the end of the meeting: I’d be taken away and locked up in the bowels of the hellhole hospital for throttling a doctor to death, or Doctor Emberle and I would come to an understanding.

Either outcome had my nerves rattled to shit, as I strode past the receptionist at the front desk.

“Sir? What’s your name? I’m afraid you can’t go back there!”

“I’ve got a meeting with Doctor Emberle. Under the name Wolfe,” I answered, keeping on toward the elevators.

“Yes, I see that Mister Wolfe, but you can’t just …” Her voice faded with the closing of the elevator doors, and I pressed the button for the third floor, where I’d gone the last time I’d paid the shithead a visit.

I chuckled at the thought of what I must’ve looked like to her. Probably like a disgruntled ex-patient coming to shoot up the place, in my black leather jacket and dark jeans, with a gun she couldn’t see strapped to my hip. Hell, I could’ve been. Depended on what the asshole had to say.

If Nicoleta, or Eden as it were, happened to be holed up in the place, no way he’d tell me outright. I’d have to get crafty with my words and keep one step ahead of the head-shrinking little cocksucker.

The doors opened onto offices, and I barreled forward like a freight train, toward the door with his name across it. Didn’t even knock as I entered.

“Mister Wolfe. How nice to see you again.” He didn’t seem surprised to see me at all, actually. Bitch must’ve alerted him that I was on my way up. “You said you had some important information for me. Please.” He gestured toward the chairs in front of his desk. “Have a seat.”

I was already on my way there.

With visions of hauling his ass through that big window behind him, I sat down in the chair. “She came back.”

“I’m sorry?”

“She came back. You asked me to get in touch when she came back.”

His slow nod turned into a frown. “I see. Is … is that the news you came to tell me?”

Asshole wouldn’t have let me up if I’d told him anything else. “Yeah. I came to make you a deal. You give me the original recording of the video with Dawn, and I’ll return her to you.”

His brows winged up, and the insincerity on his face flipped my warning flags off. “That’s … quite a trade off. The video, for Nicoleta. I, um … I guess I was under the impression she meant more to you than that.”