Page 106 of The Addict

The man nodded, stripping his eyes down Alex’s figure before tossing him a small sheet of paper. “Take it.” He ordered. Alex caught it, still dumbfounded as the guy strutted off. Chelsea looked distraught. I didn’t think she had ever experienced a day in her life where she wasn’t the center of attention.

“What is it?” I asked.

Alex smiled weakly. “His number.”

Chapter twenty-seven

Beyond the Will to Fight

NOAH

Ijiggled the key into the door with the utmost care, jerking at every little noise that came from the lock as it clicked open. The house was dark, as I assumed it would be at this hour. I was hoping to reach my room before running into Damian, which I knew for a fact would be boiling with anger by the time he reached me. As I climbed up the steps, I prayed that Damian would have cooled down in the hours I had been absent from home, but then remembered a certain phone call that most likely kept him heated the whole day.

I glided to my room door with perfect silence, and turned the handle slowly, entering and tossing my house keys in the direction of my dresser.

I continued on to the bathroom but stopped halfway there, a sickening feeling forming deep within me.

The keys had not hit their destination.

Instead of the normal clatter of the metal clashing with the rich colored mahogany, I heard only the familiar echo of quiet around me. I knew that solid objects didn’t just vanish in thin air, so when I turned to flick the light switch on, I wasn’t surprised when I was halted with a hand on my shoulder.

“So where were you?” David’s deep voice questioned, a sharp tinkling sound filling my ears as he twirled the keys around his finger by the key chain loop.

I stood stock still. “I was at the movies.”

“Hmm,” David’s hand slipped to my neck and then past my shoulders to the small of my back. My muscles tensed up uncomfortably from the contact. David stepped in front of me, and although he was still shielded by the dimness of the room, I knew he was smiling by his tone. “Sounds like fun.”

I said nothing.

“Did you have fun, Noah?”

I wet my chapped lips with a swish of my tongue, filling in the cracks and soothing the ache momentarily. The sweat was beginning to form down the crease in my back where David’s hand remained. “Not really.” I answered with a whisper.

My vision blurred when David threw me forward, and despite me throwing my hands out to break my fall, my face came in contact with the hard corner of my dresser. My first instinct was to cover the wound from any other harm, but a warm flow of blood froze my hand in its tracks. I didn’t know how large the gash was, only that it lay directly beneath my right eye, and it was gushing. I couldn’t see straight.

I tried pushing myself up from the ground but was ripped from the spot on the floor before I could get my footing. David shoved me back into the wall. I coughed and tried to regain breath that wasn’t there, my head lolling to the side from the dizziness of the first impact.

“Bitch,” I spat out, uncaring to filter myself longer. I was hurting. I gripped the arms that pinned me so tightly to the wall and tried to use my weight to force him back. The attempt was futile, and I was spun around, my face smashing into the wall this time, leaving dark streaks against the paint. David pulled my arms back behind me, and crossed them, rendering me stuck and helpless, like a fucking hogtied animal.

“I love it when you try to fight me,” David hissed, his face resting gently on my shoulder. “You were never as strong as your brother.”

My air supply was cut in half from the closeness of David combined with my position of being pressed into the wall. I gasped in twice, wincing from the searing pain under my eye. The blood fled from the wound and dripped down my face. In the dark, the crimson fluid seemed almost black as it rolled down my skin, the flow only pausing when it reached my parted lips, where I could taste at the corners of my mouth as it continued past. I felt like retching.

“What do you want?” I asked, my whole body rocking with shivers.

“Noah, dear Noah,” David began, “As you know, I am a changed man.”

I kept my mouth shut from the vile insults that bubbled up in my throat. There is a time for everything, my mind reminded me. For the first time, I bit my tongue.

“And I am,” David continued. His tone seemed a bit surprised. I assumed that he was shocked at my silence to his “changed man” comment. Normally, my comeback would have been swift.

“I need you to understand something,” David cooed into my ear, and I found myself pressing closer to the wall to escape his beer stained breath.

“You’ve been such a little shit lately. Your mom has been all worked up about your choices and your fucking detox. She’s so fucking concerned about you, that she doesn’t even give me the time of day.”

My eyes widened.

David’s voice dropped to a dead whisper. “And you’re about to pay for her selfishness.”