Beneath Innocence (Deception #2.5) by Ker Dukey, D.H. Sidebottom Read Free Book Online Page B

were sharing about Blue’s condition, but the last piece of news we got was ages ago and gave us no real information.
    My knee wouldn’t stop bouncing up and down, sweat from withdrawals and the aches accompanying them was making me feel nauseous. 
    “I should have seen it,” Greg or whatever his name is again, mumbles. He was the guy I grabbed hold of in the corridor, he was pacing and running his hands through his hair, his worry genuine and showing signs of real affection for Blue. I wanted to know who he was to her but I couldn’t control my emotions and actions in this fragile state. If he told me something I wouldn’t want to hear I don’t know if I’d punch him or burst into tears like a little bitch.
    “I should have seen it coming,” he blurts.
    “We all should have seen it,” Slicer, Blue’s dad hisses. I felt his guilt as my own. Although I hadn’t seen her for so long I knew my actions played a part in her destruction.
    “It’s been too fucking long. What the hell are they doing, having coffee? Doing the fucking crossword?”
    Cade shakes his head sadly and slumps onto the sofa. My pain is his; it’s how it’s always been. Sitting beside him, I nudge him with my knee. He turns to me, the black lines under his eyes now visible that my eyes are actually focussing on life. “I didn’t mean what I said.” He frowns, confused. “About you and Faye being to blame.”
    He smiles and shakes his head. “I know.”
    I didn’t deserve him. Friends are there for one another, yeah, but Cade, he wasn’t just there for me, he was with me. I return his smile weakly and nod my head, thanking him without words for… well he knows what for. He was my brother, blood or no blood, he would stand by me and me him through everything.
     
    The door opens and we all stand like fucking soldiers on the Queens entry. “May I speak openly?” The doc asks Slicer, his gaze travelling around the room as he asks for consent to speak in front of us all. Slicer gulps but nods.
    “We’ve managed to stop the blood. Martha has had a transfusion and her body is already responding to that treatment.”
    “Oh thank God,” Slicer whispers, his eyes closing for a moment in relief.
    “However,” the doc continues. “Currently, we are more concerned with your daughter’s state of mind. It is obvious this was a cry for help and there is evidence of… of self harm.”
    “What?” All eyes move to me when I step forward, my heart clamping tight at the thought of what Blue had gone through. Cade grabs my arm. I allow it this time. “What do you mean she’s been self harming?”
    The doc looks at slicer who nods, giving his go ahead for him to talk to me. “By the looks of the scars on her body, along with some wounds from her attack, there is frequent cut marks consistent with someone who self harms.”
    “Fuck!”
    He turns back to Slicer. “As her next of kin, I need your permission to section her. She won’t allow it, they never do, but Martha needs help Mr Grant.”
    “She’s okay, Jen,” Cade whispers in my ear as he looks at me, his dark eyes appealing to me. “She’s going to be okay.”
    I need her to be okay but she hasn’t been, she’s been in emotional pain, pretending to everyone that she’s strong enough to cope with what happened to her but no one could. They fucking destroyed her over and over and that taints the soul, how could we just expect her to get over it. She was hurting herself, my soul was weeping for her. I need to help her heal and to do that I need to help myself. I was also self-harming in a manner of speaking, escaping the pain through medicating myself on narcotics. I was still just as broken up over everything that happened and never really processed it all. 
    I nod then pull him over to the edge of the room as the doc and Slicer make arrangement for Blue’s admission.
    Cade looks at me, his expression full of worry when he senses my despair. “I need help, Cade. I need you to