Barber Shop Ink - Book 3: Riverworth

by Penny Blush

  “Okay.”

  Although it all sounded ominous, I would do anything to heal as fast as possible and get home. I would make a deal with Lucifer Morningstar himself if it meant that I could heal and get home without being covered in scars and bruises so deep they were black.

  “You will look like a rotten banana for a while because the drug speeds up the healing process, it will also bring out all your bruises. Your skin will hurt, it will be painful and tender. The rapid healing is - there's not nice way to put this - but it’s a toxic process. The medication will force your body to expel those toxins.”

  “Meaning what?” I asked wearily already knowing I wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “Your body will leach the toxins from your system. Your skin and hair will feel grimy, you will want to shower all the time. You will feel the need to go to the bathroom, excessively.”

  “Number one or two?”

  “Both.”

  “Fantastic.”

  “Some people have nausea and vomiting.”

  “How long would this carnival ride last?” I asked.

  “Depending on how well your body reacts to and tolerates the drug maybe two weeks, maybe a month.”

  “Fun times.”

  I dropped my head back against the pillows to think. Really, there wasn't much to think about. I couldn’t go home looking like I’d just survived a fist fight with the Hulk during a high-speed crash. Memphis would be so upset, and Jaxon would be so angry.

  Rock meet hard place.

  Ugh! It was a few weeks off feeling disgusting, nauseated and possibly tripping balls, versus Memphis feeling guilty for the rest of his life.

  “Jupiter, you don’t have to decide now.” Uncle Charlie said softly. “You can take a few days and think about it. There’s no rush.”

  “Do you have this illegal magic drug on you?” I asked Doc Collins ignoring my uncle.

  “I do,” Doc nodded.

  “The longer I wait to make a decision about taking the drug, the longer it will take me to heal. Which will delay me getting home. There’s no decision to make. Let’s do it.”

  Doc Collins pulled a pale blue bottle of pills and a tub of what looked like moisturiser cream out of his bag.

  “Take one of these pills every six hours. Do not take more than one. It will not help you heal any faster. It will mess you up. I’m serious, stick to the prescription.”

  “Yes, doctor.”

  “Put this cream on all your scrapes and cuts. In a week when the stitches are out you can put it on them. Do not use it before the stitches are out.”

  “Yes, doc.”

  “Do not leave her alone.” Doc Collins turned to Uncle Charlie. “Especially not while she sleeps or when she’s in the bathroom or showering. Do you understand me? She is not to be left alone. Her blood pressure could drop, she could pass out and further injure herself or worse. I’ll come by each day to check up on her. But, for the first couple of doses I’ll be here to give them to her and monitor your reaction to the drug.”

  Uncle Charlie and I both agreed and assured Doc Collins that his instructions would be followed to the letter. He handed me one of the pink tablets and a glass of orange juice, staying in the room speaking with Uncle Charlie in hushed tones. I sank down under the covers making myself as comfortable as I could, letting my mind wonder as I gazed out the window. After an hour all I felt was drowsy, the aches and pain were gone, and I felt oddly numb. I was more than happy to comply when Doc Collins ordered me to sleep.

  “I need to check on my other patient.”

  “Your other patient?” I asked sleepily.

  “Your friend Apollo. I’ll see you in a few hours Miss Jupiter. Get some sleep.”

  Chapter 50 Jupiter

  I slept.

  I woke.

  I ate.

  I drank.

  I showered.

  I slept.

  I had little else to do for two weeks but concentrate on getting better. When I was awake I was twitchy and irritable always snapping at whoever had the misfortune of being my babysitter. So, I took my medicine, ate to keep my strength up and slept. When I woke I felt grimy and hot like I had run a marathon in a nylon suit and then decided to take a nap. I showered scrubbing myself until I felt clean. While I was in the bathroom the housekeeper would come in and change my bedding. I would climb back into bed and the cycle would repeat.

  Whenever I was talking to Memphis or Jax, I asked my babysitter - Malcolm - to leave the room. I would have him wait out on the landing, so I would have some privacy.

  It took some work, but I managed to convinced Memphis and Jax that lying low was the best for now. It was a little touch and go for a while with them both threatening to get on a plane to drag me home or at the least come and stay.

  I kept telling them that there was no point in coming all this way when I was stuck in the house, it’s not like I could go sightseeing or anything what with having to lay low and all. At one point I put the phone on speaker and called my uncle back into the room and confirm that I hadn’t run away to join his circus again. They didn’t like that I was staying with Uncle Charlie, but both saw that for now, it was the safest place in London.

  It was a little better after that, but it still took me many more phone calls to convince them both that I had every intention of coming home and that the wedding was still on. I had left so suddenly he was worried that I would never come back. The truth was that I couldn’t get home fast enough. I had locked down Memphis’s passport before I came to London it was the only thing stopping him from being here.

  I recovered slowly from my injuries with the aid of Doc Collins magic pills and lotion. He was right, the side effects weren’t fun. Within a few minutes of taking the medication I became exhausted and would crash out for hours. I would wake feeling nauseous, dehydrated and starving. I was covered in bruises that the medication advanced, making them bloom and go through the colour change process in a few days instead of weeks. I looked like I went a few rounds with a prize fighter and lost, big time. My hair was oily and disgusting, it didn’t matter how many times I washed it, it never felt clean. My face broke out in pimples the size of Rhode Island, it was like I got hit with all my puberty hormones at once.

  For two weeks I just felt icky, but I was recovering. My ribs were feeling less tender every day. My muscles ached less from my injuries, just more so from misuse. I had forced myself to get up and move around, I needed to do more than just shuffling from my bed to the bathroom and back again.

  Every day I felt better, moved more and slept less, but I was still sleeping between ten to sixteen hours a day. When I was awake I was lethargic, wanting to do nothing but lay around watching movies, most of the time ever making it to the credits before I let sleep claim me. Because of this, I made sure all my phone calls were made before I took my next dose, not wanting to fall asleep while talking to Memphis.

  The medication Doc Collins had given me was some serious magic. I could see why governments and large pharmaceutical companies didn’t want anyone to know about it let alone on the market. It would revolutionise the medical industry, speed up injury recovery times, reduce the need for pain medication - but where was the money in that?

  Uncle Charlie was spending a lot more time with me. He tried to at least have one meal with me, usually dinner. He would have his meal brought up with mine and he would just sit with me while we ate. He would stay until I fell asleep or if I had more energy that day we would sit and talk. Eventually, we spoke about everything that had happened, everything from the day of the attack in Scarlet up to now.

  “We can talk about it later. When you’re feeling better,” Uncle Charlie said when I suggested we should get into it.

  “Now is probably the best time,” I shrugged, propping myself up on the pillows. “I don't have the energy to throw a punch.”

  So, we talked.

  “I don’t know if I will ever be able to forgive you for your part in everything,” I
said settling back into my bed. “But, I don’t think I hate you as much.”

  “I’ll take what I can get.”

  “Thank you, for this.”

  “For what? For looking after you? Jupiter, you are my niece, I love you. Of course, I would look after you. You don't have to thank me for that.”

  “No. Well, yes for that but also for talking with me about it all. When I got home I was so broken, physically and mentally,” Uncle Charlie cringed at that. “I didn't know how to cope. Jax tried his best. Henry helped but no one wanted to get into it with me. Anytime I tried to talk to Jax about it he would tell me he didn’t want to hear it. Not because he was being a dick, but he couldn’t hear it. It hurt him to hear what I had become, what I had done, what had happened. He saw what had happened, what had been done to me, he didn’t need to hear about it as well. Henry, well he had lived that life and just wanted to move on.”

  When I returned home after the beat-out, it had been a hard time not just for me but for Jaxon. He didn’t know how to cope with me. My physical injuries he could deal with; he could treat because he could see them, he could see them healing, but my psychological injuries he could not, and it scared him.

  “I had to find a way to deal with everything by myself because I couldn’t talk to anyone else about it. It wasn’t like I could see a therapist and discuss how I used to kill people for a living. Then had to endure a beating to get out, so I ignored it. I pushed it all down and refused to think about it or talk about it and just kept fake smiling, faking happiness until it wasn’t fake anymore.”

  “I’m so very sorry,” Uncle Charlie whispered apologetically, reaching out to take my hand. “You should never have had to go through any of it.”

  “No, I shouldn’t have. But, that’s the shitty thing about all of this. I could have stopped it.”

  “I didn’t give you a choice,” he replied meekly.

  “I could have refused, in the beginning. I should have refused. Even after I started I could have stopped. I could have called Jax and told him what had happened, told him to come and get me. I could have gone to the police or the consulate. There were a million things I could have done to stop it all or to get out, but I didn’t. So, you see this is not all on you. Yes, you may hold the lion's share of the burden of events, but I had a choice. In the end I was a willing participant. I had to accept that. Like I said I may not forgive you completely, but I don’t hate you so much anymore.”

  Being able to talk about it. What I went through. What I did, made me feel lighter. I could see now what I couldn’t back then, that Uncle Charlie thought he was doing the right thing. He thought that he was giving me a way to channel my anger and fear. That by making me into Morningstar, giving me all the control would help me to feel less hopeless, no longer a victim. He wasn’t going to win any uncle of the year awards but the realisation that his intentions weren’t all bad helped to lift a dark mark off my soul.

  I may not get into the good place when I die, but at least I will die knowing I let the anger, hate and ugliness of it go. That I made peace with it. For better or worse it made me who I am today.

  “I’m just glad it’s all over now and you can go home and have a great life without the chance of this resurfacing.”

  “There will always be a chance that someone will find out and use her against me,” I sighed.

  “Didn’t you know?” Uncle Charlie smiled. “You died.”

  Chapter 51 Jupiter

  Morningstar was dead.

  It was official, there was a coroner's report and all.

  Uncle Charlie handed me a file and told me to read it. Anxiously, I opened the file. The first thing I saw was an official looking death certificate reporting that a Jane Doe, otherwise known as Morningstar, was killed in a motor vehicle accident. I looked up at my uncle, he just tilted his chin towards the file, I should keep reading. There was enough evidence in the folder to convince even the most sceptical of sceptics that Morningstar had, in fact, died.

  “I told you I would make sure you were out for good and that this life would not follow you home.”

  Through his connections Uncle Charlie had made it look like Morningstar was in the car with Nicholas Vex when it had slammed into the truck and caught fire. There was a body, burnt beyond recognition. CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts confirming that Morningstar was seen with Vex on the day of the incident. There was a picture of Vex and Morningstar sitting at the same table in his café, images of them walking down the street and getting into his car. Traffic cam images of them in his black Audi throughout the city. The clincher was dash cam footage from the truck seconds before the accident.

  I called Jax and Memphis to let them know as the story was about to break so they wouldn’t freak out.

  “So, it’s over. Everything, all of it. It’s over,” Memphis said as he watched the news clip I had sent him reporting the accident and death of both Vex and Morningstar.

  “Yes, Baby it’s over. It’s all in the past now and it won’t follow us into the future.”

  “What time?”

  “What time, what?” I asked confused by his question.

  “What time will I pick you up from the airport? You can come home now, right?”

  “Not just yet, but I’ll be home soon, I promise. With all the media coverage about the accident there has been whispers of speculation it was a cover up to get Morningstar out of the country. So, it’s best if I wait until it blows over.”

  “Are you ever coming home?” There was hurt in his voice.

  “Baby of course I’m coming home,” I insisted. “We have to play it smart for a little while longer. I don’t know about you, but I want to make sure that Morningstar is gone for good. It won’t be too much longer I promise.”

  “You’re not trying to avoid me, are you?”

  “Baby, you know there is nowhere I would rather be than with you. but, I need to make sure that Morningstar stays dead.”

  My injuries aside, I was telling the truth, I needed to make sure that Morningstar stayed dead. I wanted to make sure that the carefully orchestrated lie was believed by everyone. The only people who knew Morningstar was technically still alive were Uncle Charlie, Georgiou, Gianni, me and Apollo. People I knew who could be trusted, all accept Apollo.

  Apollo the unknown quantity.

  I hadn’t seen or heard from him since the night Vex died. Malcolm had pulled into Uncle Charlies estate and into the garage the roller door closing behind us. Before Malcolm had even killed the engine, Apollo was out of the vehicle and at my door lifting me out of my seat.

  “I can walk you know,” I grumbled.

  “That may be, but you can’t keep your eyes open. We can’t have you pass out, then bleed out on the stairs, now can we?”

  I was grateful for Apollo insisting he carry me. By the time he carried me into my room I was so exhausted that I didn’t think I would have had the energy to tackle the stairs myself.

  “Please take me to the bathroom,” I said as he went to lower me to my bed.

  “Miss Morningstar, you need to rest and allow Doc Collins to look after you,” Malcolm insisted.

  “And I will, but first I need to use the bathroom and shower before I do anything,” I pleaded.

  I didn’t mention I would call Memphis and Jax before I saw the Doc because I didn’t know Apollo. Yes, he helped end Vex. Yes, he saved me, but I didn’t know who he was. I hadn’t even seen his face, he still had his helmet on, so I wasn’t about to mention my family around him. I had just gotten rid of one threat to my family I wasn’t about to invite in another.

  “I’m getting sick of saying this but, Jupiter Calliope Riverworth get your ass home,” He growled, the words rumbling up his throat, making me shiver.

  “Yes Sir. I will, I promise, but we have to make sure it’s safe for me to do so.”

  “I don’t like it, but you're making sense,” Memphis grouched.

  “I’m sorry Baby, I promise I will make it up to you
when I get home.”

  “You have a lot of making up to do. Don’t go making any plans for at least a week.”

  “Sounds like I will be busy,” I teased.

  “You will be very busy and naked. Very, very naked.”

  “Just me?”

  “To start with.”

  “Let’s face it Memphis. The second we see each other we’ll rip each other’s clothes off and fuck right there in the arrivals lounge of the airport.”

  “True enough.”

  “I love you Baby and I miss you and I can’t wait to come home.”

  “And marry me.”

  “Yes, Baby and marry you.”

  Chapter 52 Hedge

  I ended up staying in London for an almost two months. I only planned on staying for a week, two at the most but then I got hurt. I couldn’t keep telling Memphis that I had to lie low, that would only work for a little while but then fate stepped in and helped me out.

  There was a baggage handlers’ union strike and then a malfunction with the landing system at Heathrow which effectively shut down the skies over London. Sorting out the backlog of flights bought me another week and a half. Kelly and Sam came home, and I told Memphis I wanted to spend more time with them before I came home, he wasn’t happy, but he understood.

  I used my extra time in London wisely.

  From the moment Doc Collins gave me the all clear, certified that I would not cause myself any further damage Malcolm was on my case.

  “Okay princess you have fifteen minutes to get up get dressed and be in the kitchen,” he declared the morning after I got the all clear.

  “Malcolm what the hell?” I muttered pulling the blankets over my head as he walked to my oversized windows throwing open the curtains.

  “Doc gave you the all clear to get active again, so let’s go.”

  “He said I could be more active, not that I had to jump straight back into full training. I’ll go outside walk around the gardens later, besides its six in the morning.”