by Tess Oliver
She reached forward and took my hand. “If you need a place to stay just let me know. Our house is small, but my mom won’t mind and she’s a great cook.”
Her generous offer made me feel guilty for cutting her off and dismissing her so quickly. “Thanks, but I’m fine. Meet you in the lunchroom at noon?”
“Sure thing.” She left looking more than a little hurt, but there wasn’t one moment of the weekend I could tell her about. It had started with my insane plan to point a gun at Damon’s brother and had ended in a motel bed with a complete stranger. I was still having a hard time convincing myself it had happened.
I leaned back in my chair and waited for my desktop to load. My reflection, Perris’s reflection, stared back at me in the monitor. That was the hardest part. Not being able to pick up the phone and dial my sister’s number to tell her about my weekend with the incredibly hot guy who saved me from getting pulverized and who had me pressed up against the wall of a motel room for the best sex I’ve had in a damn long time. I didn’t have that option anymore. Nina was a friend and we could talk about a lot of things, but I’d only ever told my deepest secrets to Perris. Now I had to keep them buried deep inside.
Tanner from accounting knocked on my cubicle. His arms were filled with reports, data that I had to enter into the system. “Here you go. I’m afraid it’s a big pile for Monday.” He looked down at me. He was one of those guys who had more fashion sense than most women, and it was obvious he spent a lot of time in front of the mirror. “You all right? You look like you were out late.”
Everyone in the office had their nosy parker hats on today. “I’m just peachy, Tanner. Anything else?”
“Nope. Just wanted to make sure you were all right.” Everyone knew that my twin sister had died and that I’d taken it extremely hard. In truth, they’d all been really supportive.
He turned to leave, looking just as hurt as Nina.
“Wait, Tanner.”
He turned back around.
“I’m sorry for sounding bitchy. I didn’t get much sleep last night. But thanks for asking.”
“Sure thing, Britty. Let me know if you need some help with those.”
I opened the first of many folders and sighed at the pile in front of me. My mind had been anywhere but work lately. As I pulled up the first report, my phone buzzed. I glanced at it and sighed again. The good thing about texts was that they could easily be ignored. I put the phone down and got to work. Three minutes later, it rang. I knew who it was before I picked it up.
“I’m at work,” I said sharply.
“You didn’t come home last night.”
“Told you I wasn’t going to come home.”
“Damn, Britton, we need to talk. What the hell are you doing? Are you still out chasing fucking ghosts? She’s gone and there’s nothing anyone can do to bring her back.”
I blinked back tears. “I’ve got work to do and as always, Ryan, thanks for being so damn understanding.” I hung up.
Two seconds later the phone rang again, and I was pissed enough now to answer it. “And another thing—”
“Britton?” The deep voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it at first. “What the hell are you up to? Two of Kyle’s friends just got arrested.”
“Damon?” I sat forward. I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears. “Where are you?”
He laughed. “As if I’d tell you.”
“I just need to talk. I need to know. And I want to collect her things, her diary, anything that meant something to her.” I heard the edge of hysteria in my voice but couldn’t stop it.
“There’s nothing to talk about. Why do you need her stuff?”
“Because you are a fucking douchebag, and I don’t want you near anything that belonged to her.”
“I’ve got it in a box. I was going to dump it.”
“Holy shit, you’re such a fucking asshole.” A few heads turned from surrounding cubicles, and I shrank down in my chair. “You never deserved her.” My voice broke.
“Yeah, you’ve told me that before. But the truth is, Britton, you just don’t want to face the fact that your sister was a drug addict. And she died of an overdose because that’s what junkies do.”
His words were so cruel, so harsh, that I had a hard time absorbing them. He’d left me frozen with hatred. I wanted so badly to see him hurt. I wanted him to suffer like my sister had, like I had.
“Now, leave my brother alone. He’s just lucky he wasn’t with his buddies when they went after your friend.”
I sat up. “What friend? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re little stunt Saturday night triggered some ugly retaliation against your tattoo boy. He embarrassed Kyle’s buddies in their usual hangout, and they were pissed. They went after the guy.”
My hands were shaking so much I nearly dropped the phone as I sat forward. “What do you mean? What the hell are you talking about?” My coworkers were trying hard not to pay attention, but it seemed everyone’s ears were turned my direction. I lowered my voice. “What did they do?”
For a second, it seemed he might hang up on me. “Damn it, Damon, I won’t go near Kyle again. What the hell did they do?”
“Heard they stabbed the guy.”
I braced my free hand on the desk to keep myself upright. Every drop of blood drained from my face, and the Plexiglas cubicle walls seemed to swirl around me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Nina walking toward me. I was sure I would puke right there on my desk and on the day’s stack of files. Nina stepped inside and looked down at me with worry.
I lowered my face and voice. I didn’t want her to know anything that had happened. “Tell me, tell me right now, is he dead?”
The word ‘dead’ made Nina gasp.
“Don’t know. I just know they arrested Kyle’s buddies. Now stay the hell away from me.” He hung up, and the phone slipped from my hand and bounced on the floor.
“My god, Brit, who was that? Who’s dead? You look awful.”
I tried hard to slow my heart, but it was thumping wildly in my chest. It took me a second to gather my wits. “Uh, sorry to scare you, Nina. That—that was my mom in Iowa. My Uncle Charlie had a stroke.” Part of the story was true. My uncle had had a stroke—three Christmases ago. I couldn’t tell Nina the real truth without her thinking me horrid. And I was horrid. I’d pulled an innocent man into my insane obsession. I forced a smile, but I wanted to curl up into a fetal position on the floor of my office and weep. “Thanks for being worried, but I’ll be fine. He’s not dead, and the prognosis is good. It was just a shock to hear, is all.”
She didn’t look the slightest bit convinced.
“Really, Nina, I’m fine.” I put my shaky hand on the stack of files. “I need to get back to work.”
Reluctantly, she turned and walked back to her desk. I yanked the monitor around so that no one could see what I was doing. I searched for local news stories, and the first one to come up was the stabbing of a local fisherman. Again, I felt the room sway as I clicked on the article. I nearly melted into a puddle of relief when I read that he was recovering from the attack in a local hospital. I wrote down the information and jammed the sticky note into my purse.
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, hoping the dizziness and nausea would slow. Poor Slade. He’d stepped in to help, and he’d wound up in a hospital bed. When the hell had I managed to let my life get this out of control?
Chapter 7
Slade
Amy’s judgmental brow shot up the second she walked into the room and caught me taking a slip of paper from the very cute, very helpful hospital volunteer. I folded the paper in my fist. “Hey, Street. Hey, Jade, this is Bonnie.” I double-checked her nametag. “Yep, this is Bonnie. She just brought me a magazine to read. Freakin’ awesome
room service at this hotel.” I winked at the blue-eyed hottie leaning over my bed. “Thanks, and I’ll see you later, Bonnie.”
My brothers squeezed into the room next, and Bonnie looked a little frightened as she scooted past them and out the door.
Amy glowered down at me.
“What? She was just bringing me a magazine. She’s here volunteering.” I grinned up at my sister-in-law. “She’s racking up those community service hours for college.”
“Bingo,” Amy said. “For college, which means she’s in high school.”
“She said she’ll be eighteen in six months. I won’t call her until then.”
Amy’s hand shot out, and she held up her palm.
I dropped the paper with the phone number into her hand. “Fine, but you sure have become a bossy woman since you married my brother.”
Jade sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand. “How are you feeling, sweetie?”
I looked at Amy. “See how nice Jade is and she called me sweetie.”
“Oh no, I completely agree with what Amy just did.” Jade reached up and pushed my hair back off my forehead. “You still look pale.”
I rested my head back. “I’m starting to feel myself again. The painkillers are a nice bonus.”
Jade pulled her hand from my forehead, but I grabbed it and placed it back. “I was one step from the grave, you know?”
Hunter pulled up the only visitor chair and sat. “The blade missed all the important stuff. Not that you have much of that inside of you. It was basically a flesh wound.”
I turned to him. “Yeah, well you looked pretty fucking scared when you saw my flesh wound.”
Hunter ignored the comment. “You were sleeping when we got the call that they hauled those dicks into jail. You’ll have to give a statement. I already gave mine, but since you still haven’t told us why the hell it happened, I wasn’t much help.”
“It’s kind of a weird, long story, and I don’t really want to go into it right now.”
“I’ll tell you,” Cleveland said enthusiastically as he jammed his pillowy, six foot plus frame into the already crowded room.
Nurse Simmons walked in. She was a cool lady who’d raised six foster kids and was now raising two grandchildren because, as she so creatively put it, her daughter had been great at coloring and was the best finger painter in her kindergarten class, but it had all gone downhill from there.
Nurse Simmons jammed her fists on her hips. Her gaze moved around the room. “I guess this is what they call wall-to-wall visitors.” She shook her head. “Don’t stay too long. Even though he’s recovered like Superman, he needs his rest. Oh, and the three of you”—she pointed at Colt, Hunter and Cleveland—“try not to scare people on the way out. The three of you together look a little intimidating.”
Jade covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. Nurse Simmons walked out. Colt turned to Hunter. “I’m not sure I like her attitude. What about us says intimidating?”
“You’re right,” Amy said. “Choir boys, that’s what people will obviously assume when they see you strutting down the hallway.” She looked at Cleveland. “We’re all ears. How did this happen?”
“He doesn’t know the whole story.” I shot Cleveland a look that told him he really didn’t need to go into it, but he ignored my silent warning. He had everyone’s attention, and if there was one thing Cleveland loved, it was having everyone’s attention.
“So, we’re sitting at this bar, Cuckoo’s Nest, a place an hour or so north of here, good beer and low prices.” He added a little plug for the place before continuing. It earned him a sharp throat clearing from the owner of Lazy Daze.
Cleveland realized his mistake and offered a hasty apology. “Of course, it’s nothing like Lazy Daze, the finest beer drinking establishment this side of the Pacific.”
Amy nodded. “That’s better.”
“Anyhow, this fine little creature walked in,” Cleveland said, stepping in it again.
“Creature?” Jade asked. “You’d better be talking about a pretty little mouse, Cleveland.”
“Fine little woman.” He bowed in another quick apology. I was hoping this second misstep would put an end to the topic, but apparently, even negative attention was enough to push the big, furry guy on. “She was really pretty. Looked like a little wood sprite or one of those magical fairies.” He shifted a quick glance toward the girls to see if he needed to offer yet another apology. Neither of them looked stoked about his storytelling method. Cleveland looked at me for support.
I waved a hand at him. “Carry on, dude, I don’t think I could fuck it up any better than you’re already doing.”
He shrugged his round shoulders. “Anyhow, I’m busy gawking at the newcomer, and smooth as stone here—” Cleveland waved his hairy, meaty hand at me. “He comes up with some funny line about her losing her fairy dust or something.”
Jade looked over at me.
“Trust me, it sounded much smoother coming from me,” I said.
Cleveland chuckled. “Yep, I’m barely finding my tongue to speak, and Slade is firing off some catchy opener. But the funny thing is, she ignored him.”
Colt chuckled. “Maybe it wasn’t much smoother coming from you after all.”
“Oh, it was smooth all right,” I said. “She just had other shit on her mind.”
Cleveland’s beer belly wobbled as he laughed. “I’ll say, the chick walked to the back of the bar and pulled a gun on three assholes sitting in the corner.”
“Nice. Sounds like your kind of woman,” Colt said to me.
“In more ways than I care to bring up here in mixed company.” I looked over at Jade and Amy.
“Yeah?” Colt asked with a questioning lift of his brow.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Would you two stop it,” Amy said. “Pretty soon you’ll be spelling out the dirty words so that Jade and I won’t be able to figure out your code talk for Slade getting laid.”
Hunter grunted and stood from the chair. “This story is getting long and boring, and I’m hungry. Cut to it, Slade. Why were those guys after you?”
“Not completely sure about their connection to the girl, but I had to mess them up a little to get her out of the bar safely. Apparently, I humiliated them on their home turf, and they weren’t too stoked about it.”
“Ahh, you saved the little wood sprite?” Jade asked. “How sweet.”
Cleveland snorted. “How come she can call her a wood sprite and I can’t?”
Hunter dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder. “You really need to learn more about women, buddy.” My brother looked over at me. I thought briefly about the expression on his face when he’d reached me after I’d jumped from the van. I’d never seen him look that scared in my life. Even with all the shit we’d endured as kids and teens, he’d never looked the way he had out on that onramp.
Hunter stopped in the doorway, nearly filling it completely. “Glad you pulled that one leg out of the grave. Now enjoy your hospital dinner of cream and mush, I’m going out for a double cheeseburger.”
“Double cheeseburger.” Colt turned to follow him. “I’m all over that.”
“Real nice. I hope you get heartburn,” I called to them as they walked out.
The lure of cheeseburgers made Cleveland follow close at their heels. Amy kissed my head, and Jade did the same. “Hey, butt-pain”—Amy smiled down at me—“glad you’re all right.”
Chapter 8
Britton
The unwieldy box made it hard to navigate my way into the elevator. A nice man held the door open as I slipped inside. My insides were wobbling like a bowl of jelly. I had no idea how he’d react when he saw me, but I was betting on him telling me to get the hell out of his room. That was the reaction I was steeling myself for. All of this had go
ne so wrong, and it had been completely my fault. Slade had just stepped in to help me and because of his selfless courage, he’d ended up in a hospital bed.
I stopped in the hallway outside of his room. I could hear the television, but there weren’t any extra voices. I was relieved. If he had visitors, it would have been even harder to walk in. I took a deep breath, hid behind the big box and half-tiptoed into the room. The television turned off.
I lowered the package with the remote control car, an exact replica of my sister’s Subaru, and peered at him over the top of the box. Hospital beds usually made people look withered and sickly, but he looked just as lethal and hot as ever. The black ink of his tattoos contrasted sharply with the white sheets and pale green wall behind the bed.
“Tink?” He sounded truly surprised. “Didn’t expect to see you again.”
“I’m sure the better phrase would have been ‘didn’t want to see you again’.”
“Nah, this wasn’t your fault. I thumped the guys, and apparently, their egos were pretty fragile.” He smiled and I nearly broke into sobs at the sight of it.
“So, you’re all right?” I couldn’t keep the waver from my voice.
“Takes more than a six inch blade to take out a Stone. Although, I’m not sure if it was six. Might have even been eight.”
I laughed. The toy car shook in the box.
He lifted his hand. “Uh, is that for me? I fucking hope that’s for me. And if it is, then please tell me you remembered batteries.”
I held up the bag with the batteries.
“You are better than any one of Santa’s elves,” he said enthusiastically as he tried to push to sitting. He grimaced in pain. The sheet rolled down exposing the extremely large piece of gauze taped to his side.