Canvas & Keys

1. Don't Mess With Me When I'm Pissed

Chapter 1

Don't Mess With Me When I'm Pissed

Even at the point of desperately needing sleep, going with barely any over the past two weeks, I was surprisingly awake. On top of not sleeping much, I barely spoke a word, hardly eaten, and didn't leave the place I'd been for those two weeks.

Ash hadn't made a move or a sound either, lying in the bed with the pillows behind her head and an IV stuck into her arm to keep her hydrated.

Two weeks. That's how long it had been since Vince and the Order had thrown her, unconscious and bleeding, out onto the gravel drive in front of Paddon Manor.

Let's play a game, his note had read.

I was ready to play. Vince Peters didn't know what was coming for him.

It was just a matter of time...but Ash had to wake up. I had to know she was okay.

Two weeks. Two weeks and barely any indication she was going to be.

We didn't know what all she's been through at the hands of the Order or if any of the others were alive. Both the Brotherhood and the Knights were trying to track them down, but with no luck, even with Drake and Cruz's help.

Not even Flannery, who was their insider to the Order, had contacted them, even when they had tried to contact her. Every number she had was disconnected, every email coming back unanswered. Before, it was only going to take one thing for her to get herself on Hattie's Hit List...and she was now second from the top, right under Vince Peters himself.

But for now, Ash was my main concern. And after...well, I knew a way of getting on Vince's radar. I didn't have to go find him. He knew where I was every minute of every day. One word and they'd get me.

A knock on the door broke me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see Emmy with Violet behind her. They both smiled as they came inside, but hesitant, reading my mood into my mood just by my expression.

"No change, huh?" Violet asked, stepping up to the side of the bed as she looked over Ash.

"There hasn't been a change in two weeks, other than her bruises and cuts healing," I stated.

Violet was one of the top doctors in Australia and in the Brotherhood. She, her husband Miles, and their daughter Lacey had been in Rome, Italy, where they spent half the year living. Luckily, they were there and Violet flew over immediately when Emmy called.

Theo, Juliet's husband and the Knights' lead doctor in their town of Pallandino, Italy, had also come when John called an emergency meeting between the Brotherhood and the Knights.

His and Violet's assessment of Ash were the same – several broken ribs, a deep muscle bruise on her left thigh, broken nose, gash on the back of her head, lacerations on her wrists from rubbing against handcuffs, and many more cuts and bruises all along her body.

With the amount of injuries she had, I was almost glad she hadn't woken up so she wouldn't have to feel the pain of it all. The one thing they couldn't assess until she woke up was the psychological effects. We all knew what happened with Emmy whenever the Order got to her. We didn't want the same thing to happen to Ash.

"Why won't she just wake up already?" I asked Violet as she checked her breathing and heart rate.

Violet sighed, shrugging as she shook her head. "I'm not really sure. When we took her to the hospital in London and did all the scans, nothing was abnormal. She doesn't even have a concussion, which is something, given the blow she had to the back of her head. There are still so many things about the mind we don't understand. Maybe she just needs it to heal because, medically, there isn't a reason for her to be in a coma. I've given her medication for pain, but that wouldn't knock her out."