My Life In Ruins

25. I Love My Amazing British Boyfriend. Wait...Love?

Chapter 25

I Love My Amazing British Boyfriend.  Wait…Love?

“Callie!”

I jumped, turning back around to face the front of the car, only to find Brielle climbing over the center console and into the backseat with me and Max.  Once she’d righted herself, her arms were around me, squeezing me tight.  My side stung in pain.

“Oh, my God, are you okay?  I can’t believe what happened!  Are you hurt?  Oh, my God, look at your face!” she gasped as she pulled back to look at me.

I smiled, though I was biting my lip to keep from crying out because of my side.  “I’m fine.  Just a couple of cuts and bruises.”  I winced as I took a breath.  “Maybe a cracked rib or two.  But other than that, I’m fine,” I said, smiling again.

Brielle shook her head.  “A cracked rib or two?  What happened?”

I shrugged, wincing again.  I really needed to stop doing that!  “It was the night Edmund took me.  I wouldn’t breathe in the chloroform, so he had his guy punch me.  It was a lot harder than it probably needed to be.”

I looked over at Max, who was looking absolutely murderous.  And seeing the way Dad’s eyes were narrowed in the rearview mirror, I knew he felt the same.  

“I’m fine now,” I said, taking both Max’s and Brielle’s hands in mine.  “Really.”

Brielle sighed.  “But you’ve been gone for almost a week.  It’s crazy to think that he’s had you for that long!”

I smiled kind of guiltily.  “Well, I’ve only been awake since yesterday, so it doesn’t feel that long to me.  I did miss you guys like crazy, though.”

I think a better time to tell them about being drugged for almost the past week would have been when we weren’t driving in the car and safe in our hotel room.  Dad, Brielle, and Max all started talking at once, all vowing to kill Edmund the next time they saw him.  After everything that had happened, I was hoping that we wouldn’t be seeing him for a long time. 

“Would all of you calm down?” I asked, trying to shut them up.  “I said I was fine.  Yeah, I might have been drugged, but I’m not now.  Again, just calm down.”

I leaned back and put my head against Max’s shoulder.  My eyes drooped, but I didn’t know why I was feeling so tired.  I think it might have been because of all of the excitement at the museum. 

I didn’t fall asleep, though.  I didn’t want to, not when I was finally back with Dad, Brielle, and Max. 

Yeah, I should have missed my dad and Brielle the most, but it was Max who I did.  I mean, we were together now, right?  I should have missed him.  But now that I was back with him, his arm around me, holding me tight to his side as he kissed the top of my head, I realized just how much I missed him when I was gone. 

I know I shouldn’t have been feeling this way when I’d only known the gut a few weeks and we’d only been together for…well, basically a day…but I was. 

It was about an hour later that we were pulling up to a hotel in a little town outside of Madrid.  I guess Dad wanted to be extra cautious so Edmund wouldn’t find us.  They must have already been checked in because we didn’t even go to the front desk after we walked into the lobby. 

“We got here early this morning,” Max said.  He must have known what I was thinking about.  “We actually left right after your dad met with you and Edmund at dinner.”

When we got off at what must have been our floor, we walked to what looked like an ordinary hotel room door, not the double doors of a suite like we usually had.