“But she won’t. If I don’t get it for her she’ll sell herself for her next high.”
Vivian purposefully glanced around the penthouse. “No one’s here for her to do that with now, and she’s too weak to go back to where she came from. I know it won’t be easy for you to hold her against her will, but you actually have all the power right now to get her through this. If you have the energy, that is?”
“We can’t stay here.”
Vivian glanced at him, then speculatively back at Evelyn. “I don’t think moving her would be wise.”
“You’re staying,” he said, putting the issue to rest. “Pearl can stay until she’s well enough to move. At that point I’ll pay to have her placed in a rehab facility with the best doctors who specialize in this sort of thing, and she’ll get well.”
“She won’t go,” Evelyn said in the most defeated voice he had ever heard her use. He didn’t like seeing her so hopeless.
“Her other choice is to return to the streets and freeze to death. Surely once she finds her bearings she’ll realize the danger of that. There’s a blizzard coming in the next couple of days.”
She bit her lip nervously. “You don’t know what you’re inviting into your home, Lucian. You’ve never seen someone go through withdrawal before, watching them tear at their skin because everything is agony. She’ll soil your home and be so far out of her head she won’t care about shitting on your sheets or vomiting on your carpet. What do you plan to do when she comes clawing at you like a feral animal because she resents all of your help and would rather die than live with it? She doesn’t want a sober life. She’d choose death first. I know it.”
“Do you think I’d blame you for her actions when she’s sick? I don’t care if it’s a thankless, uphill, unending battle. I’m not letting you do this alone.”
Several agonizing seconds ticked by like fortnights. The scratch of Vivian scribbling something down on a pad of paper was the only sound as he stared challengingly into Evelyn’s tired eyes. He turned when Vivian touched his sleeve. She handed him a script.
“This is the name of a clinic outside of the city. Tell them I sent you and I’m sure you’ll have no problem getting her in. It’s pricy, but I doubt that will be an issue. She won’t be ready to move for at least three days. Maybe seven. She’s going to have to want to be clean or even the best facility, doctors, sponsors, and all the support in the world won’t help her. There are teas she can take. I’ll have a messenger send some over. She probably won’t eat for a few days. When she does, start light, dry toast, soft eggs. Nothing too heavy. You have my number if you need anything.”
There wasn’t much time to talk after Vivian left. It seemed the moment the door closed, a tornado of misery unleashed within the walls of the condo. Evelyn went right into action, her weak body obviously struggling to endure far past the point of her own exhaustion in order to be there for her mother.
Pearl carried on for hours without allowing Evelyn a moment’s respite. She screamed and feebly fought Evelyn back. It occurred to him the woman did not recognize her daughter. She often cried and called for Scout, rejecting Evelyn’s touch, calling her vile names, and accusing her of killing her baby.
She was out of her head, and he worried that perhaps she suffered from more than destroyed brain cells and hard living. This couldn’t be just from drugs. There had to be some level of dementia happening here.
Pearl’s endurance outlasted even his own. He ordered several linens and soaps up and it seemed they’d fallen through a rabbit hole into a world of revolving ups and downs, Evelyn as poor desolate Alice, Pearl the Mad Hatter, and he the frightened rabbit. He consistently caught himself standing back, watching as Evelyn carried on, tapping into an empty well of energy and putting effort forth to ease her mother’s mind and discomfort. There was no peace in the hours that followed.
Evelyn’s affection for such a hateful, spiteful person amazed him. She simply accepted Pearl’s behavior with stoic grace. Lucian knew he could never be as humble as she was in those horrid moments. He knew, even his mother whom he’d loved dearly, could not treat him as Pearl treated Evelyn and continue to be a part of his life. How Evelyn did not snap or retaliate left him speechless. He was completely inexperienced with such raw humanity.
Pearl shivered and glared as Evelyn bathed her with a damp cloth, cooling her sweltering, fevered skin as her temperature reached frightening heights. He feared many times they’d lose her, no matter what Vivian had said. Minutes felt like days, hours like years, and there was not an end in sight.
It wasn’t until long after the sun had set and begun to rise that Pearl had finally exhausted herself. Evelyn was a shell of carbon and flesh, barely holding herself upright. In the corner sat a pile of wasted linens he knew would have to go directly to the incinerator.
Pearl fell back with a weak sigh that didn’t fit her intrepid fight. He waited, skeptically, for her to rouse once more. Convinced her shattered mind substituted itself with an unstoppable will, when her breath leveled out, he remained. But she only slept. The forgotten clock told him twenty-six hours had passed since they arrived back at the condo. He had thought he’d rescued them from the depths of hell, yet now he was convinced he had brought the devil into his home.
Evelyn slipped into the chair like a wilted flower. Her vacant eyes still wouldn’t leave Pearl’s face. She seemed a delicate soul, barely held together by withered threads, yet the set of her shoulders told him she would rally again if her mother needed her. Her fortitude baffled him. He was exhausted, but she wouldn’t give up her stoic vigil.
Quietly slipping from the room, he called the front desk to order food and several trash bags. He also ordered a maid’s cart to be brought up, knowing Evelyn’s pride would forbid another employee she saw as her peer to clean up after Pearl. He would tend to the mess, because there was no way he was allowing her to exert another ounce of energy.
The food came and he quietly placed it in the living room. Returning to the guest room, he found Evelyn slumped in her chair, holding her head up with one weak hand. She looked to be asleep, but he knew she wasn’t. Her heavy eyes watched her sleeping mother’s form through tiny slits.
“Evelyn,” he softly whispered. Her motions were slow and delayed. She turned to face him with great effort. “You need to eat. Why don’t you go clean yourself up and I’ll stay here with Pearl.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but her verve had simply been too depleted to try. Weakly nodding, she stood on shaky legs. He helped her gain her equilibrium and waited as she staggered with the grace of a zombie into the bathroom.
As the door closed behind her, Lucian went to the hall and pulled the maid cart in. Careful not to disturb Pearl, he slipped on gloves and began bagging up the soiled linens, then sanitizing every surface. He heard the shower running and wondered how Evelyn was even still standing.
By the time the room was disinfected and put back to sorts, he called Dugan to come handle the disposal of items, knowing Evelyn wouldn’t want people unnecessarily wondering at her private business. He held on to the maid cart, figuring they’d need it again, and simply tucked it out of the way.
She returned to the room, looking depleted and beaten. “You need to sleep, Evelyn. She’s resting now and I promise to stay with her and wake you if she stirs. Take your rest while you can so that you have your strength when she wakes.”
She nodded and turned to go to the master bedroom. He waited until she was asleep, then went to clean himself up.
Once he washed up and changed into fresh clothes, he returned to Pearl’s side and settled into the chair beside the bed. Lucian drifted in and out of a restless sleep. Pearl moved very little, but often moaned quiet, agonized whispers of nonsense.
He had lost all sense of time. His phone had continued to ring until he finally shut it off. People would have to go on without him for the next few days
. His priorities were here, with Evelyn.
Chapter 33
Skewer
A severe attack to a valuable piece that compels it to move
Lucian felt the weight of her gaze on him before he’d fully awakened.
“Am I in a hospital?” Pearl looked frightened and pitiful compared to the uncontainable force from the day before.
“You’re at the Patras Hotel. I brought you and Scout here.”
“Scout’s here?” She asked the question with evident doubt.
“She is. I hope you know your daughter loves you very much.”
Pearl moaned and gripped her stomach, curling into herself as sweat beaded on her brow. “Get Scout,” she groaned. “I need Scout.”
“Your daughter’s sleeping.”
“Get her!” she shouted. Knowing Pearl would only continue until she woke Evelyn up herself, he stood with resignation and much dislike for the woman resting in his home, and went to wake Evelyn.
Keeping an eye on the guest room door, he carefully sat on the bed of the master bedroom and touched Evelyn’s cheek.
She started and came awake immediately. “Is Pearl—”
“Pearl’s fine. She’s awake and asking for you.”
Evelyn rushed to stand and he eyed her wearily. She’d lost weight over the past two weeks. Her skin looked pale and her arms frail, but most disturbing was the change in her eyes. They had lost so much of the vibrancy he’d seen when they first met.
Pearl was sitting on the edge of the bed when Evelyn approached. He stayed at the door and observed them together.
“Scout,” Pearl sighed with obvious relief. “Baby, where’s my stuff? Someone’s gonna steal it.”
Evelyn smiled sadly. Gone was the glint of laughter in her crystal eyes. Her mouth held no happiness. He wanted to shake this rotten women for what she’d put her daughter through.
“Momma, your stuff’s fine. Don’t worry about that now. You’re sick and you need to get well.”
Pearl only half listened as Evelyn went on about how worried she was and how delirious with fever Pearl had been. Her mother scratched at her arms, her eyes jerky and her demeanor skittish.
As Evelyn was professing how relieved she was that she was awake and showing signs of life again, Pearl interrupted, “Scout, I need some money. I need a fix. Can you get me one? It hurts, baby. Make it go away.”
His hate for this despicable woman doubled in that moment as her words visibly cut through Evelyn. Pearl was too entrenched in her own selfish need to notice what she was doing to her daughter. She was no mother.
He watched as Evelyn again stiffened her posture, refusing to be worn down. She was so incredibly strong. He’d never seem someone appear so beaten and so resilient at the same time. She was astonishing.
“Oh, Momma, no. You can’t do that here.”
“Then I got to go.”
“Momma,” Evelyn said taking her mother’s hand. “You’re sick—”
Pearl snatched her hand back. “Why you always bossing me? You’re not the boss of me, Evelyn Scottlynn Keats! I am your mother—”
“Then act like it!” Evelyn suddenly snapped. Her voice cracked and in a much softer voice she said, “For once in your life act like it. You almost died. I know you don’t care, but what am I supposed to do without you?” She stood shakily. “Not this time, Momma. I’m not letting you go back to that. You’re going to get through this because you owe it to me.”
With pathetic sluggishness and pitiful strength, Pearl’s hand came up to slap her daughter.
Evelyn caught her wrist with surprising preparedness. “Stop it!”
She released Pearl’s arm as the other woman tugged. Pearl, now feeble, nearly fell back with her own ungainliness. She sneered at her daughter, “You little bitch! You’re doing this on purpose, you hateful thing. Always jealous of how much they all like me. You’re stupid! Do you hear me? Do you, stupid girl? Where’s my daughter? I want my daughter! Scout!”
Lucian was speechless. The woman shouted cruel words in Evelyn’s face and she barely flinched. She did cry, but silently and without visible emotion. As the tirade continued, he’d heard enough. He stepped in and took Evelyn gently by the shoulders and steered her out of the room, slamming the door hard behind them, stifling the insane diatribe.
Evelyn was nonresponsive as he laid her back in bed. He didn’t know what to do, so he curled in behind her and held her as she wept, kissing her hair and offering any comfort he could provide. She silently sobbed for several minutes and eventually Pearl’s screeches quieted.
Soft sniffles broke the silence every few minutes. “She didn’t mean it,” she finally muttered. “She doesn’t know.”
Her skin was cool to the touch as he ran is fingers over her arm. “I know, baby. I know.” But he didn’t. He couldn’t understand because he’d never seen the like.
Chapter 34
Quiet Move
A move, which does not attack or capture
Vivian’s final warning had been an understatement. The four days that followed Evelyn and Pearl’s arrival at the condo had been one trial after another. Evelyn barely spoke. She tended to Pearl, bathed her, fed her, cleaned up after her, took unending abuse from her and slept. While she slept, Lucian tended to her mother.
As they dropped Pearl off at the clinic Vivian had suggested, she was sedated and easily dealt with. Lucian understood that she could not be held there against her will, but the clinic was out in the middle of nowhere and Pearl would be stranded. His only hope was that, as Evelyn’s mother’s appetite returned, she would find the steady supply of food, heat, and shelter worth more than her need to inject herself full of dope.
Evelyn cried silently as she stared out the window the entire way home. He called and had chicken and dumpling soup sent up ahead of their arrival. He also asked for melon wrapped in prosciutto and a hot fudge sundae, but knew it would probably go to waste.
They dined in silence. Evelyn finished her soup but touched nothing else. He moved the tray to the hall and ran a bath for her. Her tears had subsided through supper, which relieved him, but her continued silence increased his concern.
His fingers combed through her soft hair, pouring water over the thick strands and rinsing away the shampoo. She passively allowed him to bathe her. While cleaning her fingers and removing the dirt under her nails, she suddenly burst into tears again. Unsure what to do, Lucian reached for a towel, lifted her out of the tub and held her as she cried.
Her warm tears burned through his shirt and the dampness from her hair soaked into his sleeve. He stilled when the light caress of her lips danced over the flesh on his throat. It was no accidental touch. Lucian turned and stared into her tired eyes.
She cupped his unshaven cheek and whispered, “Make love to me, Lucian. Take me away. Make me forget the last few weeks.”
Tucking a strand of damp hair behind her ear, he met her gaze. “You’re tired.”
“Please.”
His lips swept softly across hers and she leaned into the caress. His hands moved to her bottom and he stood, holding her slight body in his arms as he walked back to the master bedroom. Laying her back on the blankets, he stared at her as he slowly removed his clothing. The curtains hadn’t been drawn and moonlight pooled onto the bed from the balcony doors, snowflakes dancing in the shadowy night’s reflections.
His hands gently removed the towel from her body and she lay before him naked. Her small pink nipples puckered under his gaze and her hip cocked to one side, her legs twisting in absolute female perfection. He reached for the covers and pulled them over them as he crawled in beside her. Her skin was cool. His heated skin was in such contrast as he drew her close, pulling her under his protective embrace, wanting to shelter her from all the pain.
Softly, he sipped from her lips. His thumbs coasted over her delicate jawbone as h
e tipped up her face to meet his kiss. Her body cushioned his as her small hands drifted over his flesh. The satisfaction her touch brought him on so many levels was almost too much to bear. The pressure of the past few weeks unraveled inside of him. He was exposed, raw, and more helpless against his passion for her in that moment then he had ever been.
She owned him. He was completely possessed with his need to have her in his life. Such vulnerability would normally be unwelcome, but his mind couldn’t fight the power she had over him. She was what gave him purpose. She altered his perspectives and made the unbearable bearable. She was his drug, his addiction. She was his heroine.
Closing his mouth over her breast, he drew her downy thighs apart. Her body was moist and warm, ready. His tongue licked at the sensitive flesh of her breasts, pulled on her nipples, and his fingers opened her tender folds. Kissing a trail over her soft belly, his mouth moved over the delta of her sex, now dusted with soft brown hair. His lips lowered and he tasted sweet ambrosia.
Lucian drank from her folds as if she were the fountain of youth. Her legs curled over his shoulders as her needy cries filled the room. When she came, it was intrepid and breathtaking, such an honest release lacking any modest insecurity.
Pulling her to his chest, he rolled to his back and brought her atop of him. Her thighs spread over his hips, anointing his stomach with her dewy arousal. She braced her hands on his chest as she seated herself over him.
Once their bodies were aligned he caressed her cheek and whispered, “I love you, Evelyn. Don’t leave me again.”
Her gaze drilled into his as a tear slid from the corner of her eye. She lowered herself onto him and he thrust slowly to meet her halfway. Her fingers scored his flesh as he moved under her, holding her tight. Her hips rocked and swelled with refined motions and he studied her, experienced the sensations of their bodies combining in every sense.
The sight of their bodies meeting, their pelvises kissing with each thrust, the sound of their moans and breathy sighs muffled by their closeness, the taste of salty skin as they stole kisses, the fragrance of their combined need; it was the most complete sexual experience of his life. Never before had he known the need to be so tender and savor every slide and shift, every sigh and breath.