“What are those?” he asked, but he already knew.
“Bars. You want some?”
God, yes, he wanted some. He wanted the entire baggie full.
“I’m drawing,” he said. His hands were shaking as he pulled the tip of his pencil over the seductive texture of the sketch paper.
She popped several Xanax into her mouth and swallowed them with a chug from her beer. She set the bottle on the night stand and then returned to resting on her back. “Adam?”
He looked over the drawing, checking for anything he missed, and added a small mole to the under curve of one full breast. Hell, he might as well make the drawing as realistic as possible since he had a living model at his disposal.
“Hmm?”
“Will you hold me? Just until I fall asleep. And then I’ll be okay. I won’t dream on this stuff, so I’ll be okay.”
His first instinct was to refuse, but she was staring at him so hopefully that his resolve crumbled. “Yeah, okay. But just until you fall asleep.”
He set the completed drawing aside, and she smiled at it. “Now those are my boobs,” she said.
He chuckled and lay down beside her. “Glad you approve.”
Nikki shifted, resting her head on his shoulder, and snuggled into his side.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He didn’t mind. He kind of liked feeling that someone needed him. Even if it was as a pillow.
“For you,” she said and pressed one of her pills into his hand. “It will help you forget her.”
He stroked her silky hair with his free hand, and she relaxed against him. Soon her breathing became deep and regular. Even though he was exhausted, Adam didn’t have such an easy time falling asleep. He held the pill she’d given him pinched between his thumb and forefinger and stared at it. What could it hurt? It was just one pill. It wasn’t as if it would even make him all that high. It would just take the edge off, let him relax. Allow his mind to clear. Maybe even make sleep possible. A lot of power to do good in this little pill, he thought.
What could possibly be so bad about swallowing one little pill?
He should call Madison and talk to her about his thoughts, these undeniable urges to self-medicate. But she’d left him, and he had no one to turn to.
The drugs had always been there for him; they had never failed him. Fucked him up and fucked him over, oh yeah, but they had always given him exactly what he’d needed. Or so he’d thought. Through all the rehab and treatment, had anything really changed inside him?
He still wanted to live outside of reality. Reality hurt. It sucked.
So what harm could it do?
Just one little pill.
What harm?
Chapter Sixteen
Something hit Adam hard in the belly. He sucked a startled breath into his lungs and blinked open his eyes, trying to focus on whatever was hovering above him. Turned out to be Gabe’s chick glaring down at him looking entirely pissed off. Weird.
“How could you?” Melanie bellowed at Adam and slugged him in the stomach again. “How could you take advantage of her after everything she’s been through this weekend, you fricking asshole?”
Adam managed to catch her fist before she pummeled him again.
“What the hell?” he growled, not close enough to awake to put up with this sort of bullshit.
“Do you even have a conscience?”
Well, that was debatable, but in this case he didn’t have a clue what had the woman so riled up.
The warm body resting against his side groaned in protest as Melanie shifted her attention elsewhere.
“Nikki,” Melanie said, shaking Nikki’s shoulder vigorously. “Nikki, can you hear me?”
Nikki was out cold and considering the number of Xanax she’d swallowed, Adam wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“What did you give her?” Melanie said, her voice taking on an edge of desperation.
“Give her?” Adam said, his confusion quickly turning to annoyance. “I didn’t give her shit. Why don’t you ask her what she gave me?”
“Nikki, what did you take? Wake up. Talk to me!”
“Let her sleep, for fuck’s sake,” Adam grumbled. “She’s emotionally exhausted.”
Adam rolled out of bed and into Gabe’s fist. If Adam had had solid footing, the blow to the shoulder might have snapped his collarbone, but it merely knocked him back onto the bed. He wasn’t sure why he was being attacked. He hadn’t done a goddamned thing wrong.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Adam yelled and jumped to his feet, both hands fisted.
“Did you drug her so you could screw her?” Gabe said, his voice low and those bright green eyes of his narrowed to slits.
“What?” Adam glanced at the half-naked, unconscious woman on the bed and finally realized what it must look like to a couple of nosy jerks. “I didn’t screw her.”
“Then why is she naked?” Melanie screamed at him before turning her attention back to her friend. “Nikki? Nikki, open your eyes.”
“She isn’t naked,” Adam pointed out. “Just topless.”
“Melanie?” Nikki said in a slurred voice.
“Yes, it’s me. What did you take?”
“She took Xanax,” Adam said. “She said it helped her relax. And sleep.”
“How many did she take?” Melanie asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not her keeper.”
“You sure you didn’t take advantage of her?” Gabe asked.
“I was just drawing her.” He flung a hand out toward the sketch pad propped against the lamp on the night stand. “And we were both tired, so we fell asleep.”
“And how many Xanax did you take?” Gabe asked, a look of disappointment on his lean face.
“Not that it’s any of your fucking business, but I didn’t take any.”
Gabe scratched his eyebrow, drawing attention to the pair of dark bruises around his eyes. Bruises Adam knew he’d earned the night before when he’d provoked the guy who’d hurt Nikki. Gabe’s need to defend and protect the woman was a bit odd, but Melanie was the one truly freaking out. She had Nikki sitting on the edge of the bed, her naked torso swaddled in the covers.
“Did he do anything to you?” Melanie asked as she stroked the hair from Nikki’s ashen face. “If he did, I will fucking kill him, I swear.”
Nikki’s lower lip trembled, and her eyes filled with tears. She ducked her head to avoid Melanie’s imploring gaze.