Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,44

it was covered in a thousand ant bites it was so itchy?

I heard murmured voices, but I’d given up on trying to open my eyes because the concrete glue on them felt too heavy.

But then I heard Caiden’s voice murmuring to someone else in the room, and wouldn’t you know…my eyes ripped right through that concrete.

Caiden was standing at the foot of my unfamiliar bed, talking to a woman dressed in scrubs.

I was at the hospital. And Caiden was here.

I wanted to cry, run away, do something.

I needed Jackson.

Caiden must have seen my distress, because he turned his attention away from the nurse and held up his hands cajolingly like I was a wild animal about to attack.

My whole body was trembling, and I started looking around the room for my purse so I could call someone…anyone.

Jackson.

The nurse finally moved her eyes from devouring Caiden’s face and came over to me.

“Hey, sweetheart, glad you’ve woken up. You gave us all a scare.”

Sweetheart.

The word spiked a thousand memories that I would pay anything to not remember. I wanted to think that the flashes I was seeing weren’t real, but he’d touched me. I could feel his touch. And I didn’t know why I’d acted like that. How had I drunk so much?

I began to weep, gut wrenching sobs, like I hadn’t done since…well, since Caiden actually.

Was something wrong with me that I just didn’t see things coming? Never in a million years would I have thought that Landry would do that. Never in a million years had I thought that Caiden would do that.

It was official, there was something terribly wrong with me.

But it still didn’t explain how everything had happened tonight.

I didn’t remember drinking so much.

“You were drugged,” Caiden said quietly to me. He’d been watching me silently. I’d felt his hot gaze on me, and it made me want to tear off my skin.

“Drugged?” I repeated numbly, the words failing to register properly in my brain.

The nurse patted my hand. “A mixture of molly, Rohypnol, and ketamine. You’re lucky to be alive, sweetie. Any stronger doses, and you would have been dead. It was the perfect combination.”

I stared at the nurse in disgust. She sounded almost…impressed.

I started to cry again, because man, did it fucking suck that I didn’t have a mom who I could call to help me right now.

I looked at Caiden through my tears. He looked devastated, like he could feel what I was feeling.

“Did Landry… How did you…?” I didn’t know what questions to ask first. Everything was a tangled, jumbled mess, and I just wondered when I was going to catch a break, because honestly, it didn’t feel like I could handle this.

He rubbed his forehead, like he always did when he was stressed, and I leaned towards the familiarity. “I was there with some guys from the team. It took me a little bit to connect the dots, but I saw him slip your waitress some money when he went to the bathroom just a few feet away from our table. I thought he was just tipping her or hell, paying her for sex later or something. But then when the tray of shots came to your table, he picked up a shot and kind of turned away from the group for a second, looking down at it. It was the one he gave you.”

He took a deep breath, and I could almost hear the shame and regret in that breath. I braced myself for what he was going to say next.

“But again, I’m an idiot and I was a little bit drunk, so I didn’t connect anything. Until you started acting so weird on the dance floor. I’d never seen you so…”

“So sexual?” I asked, my face flushing. Because I could remember now how good Landry’s skin had felt against mine, how much I’d wanted him. How much that hadn’t made sense.

“Yeah, that,” he responded, shifting uncomfortably as his gaze flickered away from me briefly in embarrassment before returning. “When he walked you off the dance floor and then picked you up to take you out of the club, I finally came to my senses and knew something was wrong. I drove after you guys and reached you right before he was about to…”

“About to rape me,” I finished for him in a whisper.

I felt…so dirty.

“I need to shower. And maybe call…Lane.” I wanted to call Jackson, but I didn’t feel like I could say that in front of Caiden. “Have you