Chapter 22
Piper
Ahumming sound filled my ears as I woke up. My eyes blinked open and I checked my surroundings. I was in the bedroom Antoine and I had...I tried to push up off the bed, then cried out as a sharp pain ran through my arm and I fell back onto the mattress.
I glanced down at my arm with tears in my eyes. My right forearm was bound and splinted. I wiggled my fingers and winced.
Oh, right. That bitch Theresa broke my arm.
Carefully pushing up with my other arm, I glanced around the bedroom. I was back on the plane, which meant we'd left Boris's house of terrors. Part excited and part pissed off that they hadn't woken me so I could kick Theresa's ass, I hopped off the bed.
Someone had changed me out of the red evening gown and had put me in a slinky pair of pajamas. The way my nipples were poking through the material of the tank top told me they'd also removed my bra. My legs chilled in the short shorts, and I was tempted to put on pants, but I wanted answers first.
One step toward the door and it opened. Darren walked inside, looking even more like he had a stick up his butt than usual. He wasn't even dressed in his usual butler attire. He had jeans and a t-shirt on, and his hair was all messed up.
Frowning, I stared up at him. "What's going on? Why didn't anyone wake me? And who changed my clothes?"
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Darren shook his head. "We're going home, if that wasn't obvious enough." He moved farther into the room and I backed up until I sat down on the bed. "The masters didn't want to wake you while your arm healed. They fed you their blood while you slept, but we had to wait until we got on the plane to do it. So, it'll take a bit more time to fix it. As for who changed you, Antoine did." He knelt before me, gesturing to my arm so he could look at it.
Wincing, I lifted it so he could check the wrappings and adjust the splint. "Where'd you learn to do that?"
Darren gave me a small smile. "Before I was a butler, I was a field medic. I had to fix all kinds of injuries in the war. Well, before I got sick."
"Oh," I said, staring down at my arm as he unwrapped and rewrapped it. I was always learning new things about these guys. I wondered if I'd ever know everything. Well, I had plenty of time left to find out.
My eyes drifted over to the side of the bed where my red dress lay discarded with my lingerie. My face heated. Antoine had seen me in those garters and corset. I wondered if he liked them. It was unfortunate that he hadn't been able to take them off of me while I was conscious. Maybe I'll have to wear them again for him. Just to see what would happen.
"Is everyone else in the other room?" I asked when he was done, standing. "I'm starving, but I want to know what happened to Theresa."
"Theresa?" Darren arched a brow. "What about her?"
I lifted my arm, growling, "That bitch is the one who broke my arm. Please tell me they at least slapped her around a bit. I wasn't doing anything to her and she just up and breaks it. So rude." I huffed and held my arm close to me.
Darren shook his head, not smiling at my joke. There was something off about him. Something off about this whole thing.
"I'm sorry to say that Theresa did not get slapped around. In fact, they didn't even know she had done it." Darren sighed and turned toward the door.
My brows furrowed in confusion and I stepped closer to him. "What do you mean? How else did they find me?"
"They didn't," Darren replied, leaving the room before I could pester him for more answers.
Irritated by the non-answers, I stomped into the other room to find the guys all lounging around in their seats. They weren't laughing or playing games. They hadn't even turned on the big screen TV. They were talking quietly until I came into the room and then suddenly, they were all silent.
What was really messed up was though I stood there scantily clad, not a single one of them ogled me or tried to hit on me. It was almost as if someone had sucked all the joy out of the room.
Getting more confused by the minute, I took a seat next to Rayne on the couch and I waited for one of them, any of them, to tell me what the hell was going on. When several minutes passed and no one offered up any information, I snapped.
"I give up. What's the joke here? What am I missing?" I scanned their faces and tried to read something in their expressions, but they were giving me nothing.
"There's no joke, babe." Rayne patted my knee with a reassuring smile. "I promise you, we aren't being dicks this time."
"Then what's going on?" I almost cried.
"What do you remember?" Antoine inquired from his chair, one leg crossed over the other as he watched me.
I slumped back onto the couch and winced as I jostled my arm. "I was dancing with Drake and you were all acting weird. A bit like now, actually, but worse. Then I told Drake that I wasn't stupid and knew you were hiding something. Then I ran out. Drake and I argued some more."
Allister snorted and Drake held his hands out in front of him in silent apology.