"Sounds like he ought to be the one apologizing for that business. 'Bros before hoes.'"

Marc rolled onto his side taking the sheet with him. He curled his legs up to his chest practically assuming the fetal position. "She wasn't worth losing my brother over."

"Hindsight's twenty-twenty, Doc. You just relived the same pain you felt as the drama unfolded back then. Pretty intense for what, a twenty-two-year-old?"

"Twenty-three."

"Fuck. You didn't know shit about women at that age."

Marc grinned. "Still don't." He wrinkled his brows together again.

Adam ran his hand through his short-cropped hair. "Listen, we're going to need a debriefing about all this over the next several days as you continue to process what happened."

Marc nodded.

"Friends don't use SERE School resistance tactics on their friends. I need to know if we're okay with each other after what I put you through."

Marc cocked his head. "You did what I asked you to do. Why wouldn't we be okay?"

Adam felt a weight lift off his shoulders. "I will say you were a damned hard nut to crack. A simple BDSM interrogation scene wouldn't have worked."

"I agree." He remained silent for a moment. "I don't know if what I remember ever happened or not."

"Flashbacks and memories are going to hit you in small blasts for a while, especially the next week. Just be prepared. Don't worry too much about what's real. Memories are fluid and pretty unreliable as far as truth goes; just look at eyewitness accounts. The important thing is what you take away from the process. What you need to focus on are the feelings wrapped around those memories."

He thought some more before hiding a yawn. "I hope it's worth it. I'd hate to have put you through this for nothing."

"You aren't getting rid of me yet. The aftercare period is probably more important than the scene itself. Grant's here, too. Damian's getting ready to head to California to prepare for the wedding, but he also contributed to the scene."

"I don't remember Damian much, but definitely Grant." The expression on his face made it clear he didn't remember her fondly. Adam grinned. "I never knew when I was hallucinating and when it was real."

"They weren't the only ones there. Remember anyone else?

He thought a bit and his eyes opened wider. "Karla! How's her hand? Why the fuck didn't you let me take a look at it?"

Adam grinned. "Mindfuck. She's fine. I just needed you to think something had gone wrong. Only way you'd believe I'd abandoned you while restrained was if I lost my head because I thought Karla was hurt."

"Shit, Adam. I thought..." Marc didn't finish the thought.

"Remember anyone else?"

Angelina?

Marc didn't say her name, though. No doubt he'd conjured up memories of her. Wishful thinking. The whole scene had been for her-rather for him to be able to break down barriers that were keeping him away from her. But Adam wouldn't have allowed her into the room to see the state he was in if even half of what he remembered about the scene was true. She wouldn't have understood.

He grinned. More than likely, she'd have strung Adam up by the balls for hurting her man.

Her man.

"What's so fucking funny?"

Marc almost didn't say, but spoke anyway. "Just had this image of what would have happened if Angelina had found me strung up in the dungeon. She'd have strung you up by the balls, I think, for hurting me."

"Don't be so sure she didn't."

The smile faded from Marc's face. "You mean she was there? When? What did she see?"

His face burned with shame that she'd seen him in that state. Why didn't he remember her?

"We needed someone to talk to you in Italian once you regressed to your younger years in Italy. She knew about the scene already somehow. My guess is Karla tipped her off. How she stayed upstairs until we called her down shows some damned fine discipline."

His girl. He'd helped a little with that maybe, but she had been strong from the get-go.

"I didn't think she'd be able to add anything to a SERE scene, but that girl has your six. Thinks on her feet, too. Oh, and she definitely would have strung me up by my junk if I had tried to keep her away from you."

Dio, he what had she seen and heard? Would she still wanted to be his girl? Had Marc learned anything from the scene that would help him straighten things out with Angelina?

Marc remembered Mama's talking with him at some point. "Please tell me you didn't have Mama down there, too."

Adam grinned. "No, that would have been Angelina. She's quite good at mimicking voices. She also did the voice of Gino's mama and maybe some others, too."

Marc relaxed a little. At least Mama hadn't witnessed him humiliated and broken.

Never show them your weaknesses.

Marc tried to replay more of the scene, but a pounding headache and the need for sleep made it difficult to concentrate. "Lots of people were there who are gone forever. Gino. Aunt Emiliana." He knew they weren't real, but in his mind they'd been very real again for a short time. "There was a woman who took care of Gino and me. Mrs. Mila..." He shook his head. "I can't remember."

"Others?"

Unable to fight back another yawn, Marc covered his mouth.

"That's enough for now. You get some more rest. Someone will be with you at all times until we release you from this scene."

Marc nodded and closed his eyes.

"I just had a thought, though, given how many times you were talking to Gino."

"What's that?"

"We'll be out near Pendleton for Damian's wedding Memorial Day Weekend. How would you feel about getting together with some of the Marines who served in the unit with Gino?"

Blood pounded in Marc's head and he opened his eyes again. He hadn't realized how far he was from forgiving Gino until this interrogation scene. What could talking with a bunch of strangers do to resolve his issues with a long-dead brother?

"I'm not sure."

"Think about it. You know how you grunts talk in the barracks and during down time. You wondered once after you were injured in that shithole whether he'd been a good Marine or if he'd even wanted to be one. I know he was a damned fine Marine from the perspective of being his master sergeant, but I think hearing what his peers thought of him might help you put things in perspective with his memory."

Marc's eyelids grew heavy again. He didn't want to think about that right now.

Too tired.

"I'll think about it."

"Fair enough. Get some sleep."

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

"Where is he?" Angelina glared at Karla the moment she walked into the kitchen. She needed to get to Marc. Where had Adam taken him after that nightmare of an interrogation scene ended? She needed to save him from himself. How could he have agreed to something so risky and detrimental to his health? Angelina had been battling a mixture of sorrow, frustration, and rage ever since she'd called Karla an hour ago to check on him only to have her friend let slip that he'd barely started to come around two days after the scene ended. Why hadn't anyone called her?

Because you abandoned him again when he needed you most.

"Don't make me tear this place apart looking for him, Karla, because I will."

"Angie, I wasn't even supposed to tell you as much as I did. Adam said you didn't want to be involved in the aftercare. That Marc wouldn't want you to see him like this."

She swallowed hard. "It's too damned late for that. Marc involved me when he invited me into his life last fall, letting me in as far as he could. How was I supposed to know why he couldn't open himself up any further? I just thought he was being a stubborn Italian man."

Angelina's frustration melted into a simmering anger. "He's not going to shut me out again. Adam asked me originally to be there for the aftercare. I had no idea it would take this long. Think how you would feel if that was Adam and someone was keeping you away from him."

Karla started toward her, but Angelina took a step back. "Look, Angie, I had no idea what those two had cooked up before this scene started and never could have imagined anyone would willingly go through what Marc agreed to do, but he made the choice to take the scene far beyond the edge of safe and sane. He was risk-aware. This has been terribly hard on Adam, too. He loves Marc like a brother."

"He has a strange way of showing it."

Anger flashed in Karla's eyes. She clenched her jaw before taking a deep breath. "You don't want to go there, Angie. You haven't seen how tormented Adam is about this. Last night, he leaped up from lying next to me in bed, jumped over me, and landed on the floor on the opposite side of the bed." Her hand went to her belly and her voice cracked with emotion. "If he'd landed on me and the...baby." Karla shuddered. "Now he says he won't sleep with me starting tonight for fear of hurting us. I know this interrogation scene churned up something in him..."

For the first time, Angelina noticed the dark circles under Karla's eyes. That Adam cared enough about Marc to have nightmares made her finally open her eyes and let her anger dissipate. This added stress couldn't be good for Karla or her baby. Everyone had to be totally exhausted from the havoc this scene had unleashed in their small community. They were a family, and this nightmarish scene had affected each one in some way. Time to regroup.

"Karla, I'm sorry." She blinked back tears. "I'm out of line." She glanced away and noticed a bouquet of a dozen long-stemmed roses on the counter and a box from a jewelry store next to it. Angelina thought the garishly hot-pink color of the roses a strange choice, but didn't say anything. The roses were just the thing she needed to defuse more of her anger. Karla's birthday was today! "Oh, God! I completely forgot!"

Karla waved her hand away. "It's not important. Adam always sends me flowers. That he remembered my birthday with all that's going on now floored me." Tears sparkled in her eyes. "He's not as tough as you all seem to think."

She walked over to her friend and hugged her from the side, avoiding her protruding belly. "Karla, I'm not angry at you. Or Adam. I know everyone is trying to do what Marc asked for in that damned video consent. Just tell me where he is."

Karla waited so long to respond that Angelina stepped back. After a silent exchange, Karla's gaze strayed toward the hallway.

Surely they didn't still have him in the dungeon, although the hallway also led to the upstairs. She expected him to be in a comfortable bed now. "I'll knock on every door upstairs and down until I find him."

Her friend sighed and leaned her hip against the counter. "Adam took him up to the room at the opposite end of the hall from our bedroom. Doctor Mac ran IV fluids the first twenty-four hours to stabilize him. We couldn't take him to a hospital or they'd have hauled half of us to jail on charges of torture, unlawful imprisonment, and abuse."

No goddamned kidding.

"Marc's mostly slept today, but Adam and Grant have kept watch over him in shifts twenty-four/seven, and Doctor Mac will check on him again after the clinic closes tonight. He's never been alone."

At least they'd gotten that part right. "Thanks-now go sit down before you drop. You look exhausted, too."

"Angie-I'm so sorry I played any part in this, but I had no idea the scope of what they'd planned."

Angelina nodded but couldn't take time to discuss it further. Marc needed her. She rushed down the hallway to the stairwell and shot up them two at a time. She and Marc had played upstairs in this very bedroom once after watching an intense fireplay scene in one of the theme rooms downstairs.

Steeling herself for the battle she knew would be coming, Angelina knocked quietly on the door. She didn't want to wake Marc if he still slept. His body needed all of the rest it could get after the ordeal it had been through.

The door opened about a foot, and Adam blocked her from entering or looking into the room.

"I need to see him."

Rather than let her inside, Adam opened the door just wide enough to step through into the hallway, forcing her to take a couple of steps back. He closed the door behind him. She noticed he hadn't shaved in days and didn't look as if he'd been getting much sleep.

"Adam, if you think you can keep me out of there-"

"Quiet."

Adam used to intimidate the hell out of her, but no more. She wouldn't allow him to keep them separated. Marc needed her.

"Tell me how he is. Is he going to come out of this okay?"

Adam scrutinized her so intensely she almost took another step back but willed her body not to submit to him. He might be a Dom, but he wasn't her Dom. No, he'd just broken her Dom and reduced him to an almost infantile state.

"Everything's going as expected."

Angelina's hands flew up as she spoke, unable to keep her emotions under control, but she kept her voice at a harsh whisper. "How can you say that? Has he come out of it? Is the old Marc back yet?"

Adam pointed a finger at her as if she were a petulant child. "You listen to me..." Again she fought hard against the urge to back away.

Stand your ground; Marc needs you.

"...Marc chose to do this the way we did it, no holds barred, because he wanted to be able to come to you afterward without any barriers keeping him from committing to you. We only did what he asked us to do."

Was Adam trying to convince her or himself?

I will not cry.

But she did and hated every tear that rolled down her face. Her nose clogged, and she had to force her words out of a constricted throat. "I never wanted him to do anything like that for me. I would never have asked such a thing."

Mio Dio, what have I done to him?

Marc loved her in his way. She thought pushing him to prove it by letting her into his life completely would get him to move forward from where he'd gotten stuck. In the process, she'd nearly destroyed him.

"Adam, I need to make this right. Why won't you let me see him?"