The boxer stood sock-jawed beside Brody, his hair wet with sweat, eyes glued to the two women.
“No, but I have a girlfriend.” Kane finally admitted, his cock twitching as he watched the two women enjoy one another.
“I don’t see her in the room.”
“No, she doesn’t like watching me fight.”
“Then give this redhead something to do with her mouth.”
Kane removed the towel from around his neck, tossing it to the bench beside him, as he moved around the back of the brunette. Sully flew around him with his belt hanging open and hand in the process of freeing his cock. He bent down, gripping the hips of the brunette, pulling her ass in the air and sliding into her. He locked eyes with Gino, a silent challenge of who could last longer.
Kane lined himself up with the redhead as instructed, his girlfriend, Nikki, a distant memory as the girl from the ring took him all the way in, her lips touching his pelvis.
Refusing to be left out, Brody dropped his pants, grabbing the hair of the brunette and pulling her toward his hard dick. He’d heard the reputation of the Vitale men, ruthless motherfuckers if you chose to cross them. But this, fucking the shit out of two hot women was something Brody could get used to. He’d gladly turn a blind eye if it meant the kind of cash Gino offered and free pussy to boot.
The bitch was tighter than Sully assumed, instantly regretting not sliding a condom on. But it was too late, the game was underway, and he’s determined to win this time.
Gino could tell Sully was barely hanging on. He’d heard from the woman who worked for him about his little brother’s lack of stamina. Gino paid attention when his elders spoke, his father’s advice on pleasing women, and his uncles on maintaining control so the bitch got hers.
“Treat a whore the way she deserves, but don’t give her any reason to bitch to her friends later about you. You never know when you will want to fuck them.”
Brody felt the tingle of an impending orgasm, he’d never been a selfish lover, wanting the girl to enjoy it as much as he did. Reaching down, he gripped the brunette’s breast, twisting her nipple which made her moan around him, sending his cock further into her relaxed throat and pushing him over the edge.
Sully knew the end was near when the brunette’s pussy clenched his cock tightly with her orgasm. Bowing his head as his balls tightened, he pulled his dick from her cunt, sliding it easily into her ass where he allowed his orgasm to fill her.
Gino inwardly celebrated as Sully sank to the bench behind him, the redhead had come twice and, by the feel of things, was headed for a third. When the pressure in his balls became painful, Gino slapped the redhead’s ass sending her over the edge before he pulled out, spilling his shit on the back of her legs and shoes. Securing his belt, Gino picked up Kane’s discarded towel, tossing it to the sated girl before turning without a care and walking out the door.
Gino made his way passed the cleanup crew and several people waiting to catch a glimpse of the winner, including a handful of giggly girls dressed as if they’d been to a club. Tipping his head in their direction, Gino reached for the door when a familiar faced stepped in his path.
“It took longer than I thought,” Niko handed Gino a folded piece of paper. “But I located where Mario went.”
Gino unfolded the sheet, staring hard at the block letters on the page. “What in the fuck?”
3
“Yes, Mr. Parker, three-thirty and I swear not to tell Mr. Steadman what time you’re coming.” Kristine assured the gentleman on the phone, holding back the words she wanted to shout at him, chastising him for the petty rivalry between the two farmers. Instead, she kept her eyes glued to the handful of red lights flashing on the base, more farmers waiting to schedule their delivery.
Kristine went to work for the County Coop the minute she turned fifteen and received her worker's permit from the state of Kansas. It wasn’t the ideal place to work but growing up poor left her with limited options. Her boss, Mr. Cullison promoted her to the accounting department the day after she graduated high school. He encouraged her interest in numbers, helping her pick out classes at the community college and secure enough funding to pay her tuition. Last semester, however, the largest of her grants was cut due to cutbacks, so she began working as much as possible to keep a roof over her and her granny’s head and afford the last stretch in getting her degree.
Ending the call and pressing the button for the next, Kristine chanced a glance at the desk opposite her only to find Grace typing away on her cell phone, smacking on a piece of gum like a cow chewing cud, ignoring the work she was hired to do.
“Good morning, Bishop County Coop, this is Kristine how can I help you?” Anger raged in her belly as answering the phones was primarily Grace’s job. While she was willing to help, she wasn’t going to do her job for her. Trouble was, Kristine hated confrontation, and as much as she would love to snap her fingers to gain Grace’s attention, it was easier to remain silent and answer the phone. Maybe this was the real reason Jonah stayed with her, knowing she would accept most anything he did and allow the pseudo-relationship to continue. As Kristine ended the final waiting call, the door to the office opened, the devil himself standing inside the door.
Jonah hadn’t been this nervous since Sheriff Laramie almost caught him and his buddy Grayson skinny-dipping in the Coop pond when they were seventeen. His father would have skinned him alive for using his bolt cutters to open the fence and made him pay for the repairs. Money was something Jonah never developed the ability to hold onto, which is why he needed to fix things with Kristine, while he didn’t particularly care for her, she did provide a place to crash when Grace or one of the other girls he visited tossed him out.
“Hey, Baby.” Jonah cooed, using the voice he’d mastered to gain entry to more than a few pairs of panties. Moving across the room, he laid the flowers he found in the dumpster behind the grocery store on Kristine’s desk, resting his body against the wood, leaning over in her direction. “These are for you.”
Kristine looked from the wilting pedals to the cavalier grin on Jonah’s lips. While she appreciated the gift, she suspected the reason behind it was anything other than kindness. “I’m allergic to daisies,” she reminded Jonah, pushing the bouquet across her desk with a pencil, catching an eye roll from Grace as she twisted a new bracelet around her wrist.
The frustration from this morning reared its ugly head, no doubt this new piece of jewelry was the reason Jonah needed money for gas. Kristine held her gaze on the sparkling diamonds, ignoring Jonah's half-hearted excuse at being a bad boyfriend and promises to do better. She saw red as a ringing phone in the room went unanswered while Grace traced the bracelet with her index finger, their gazes locked in challenge as Kristine stood from her chair, a lifetime of cruel pranks and jaded words whispered loud enough for her to hear fueled the sharp words poised on Kristine’s tongue ready to meet their intended target.
Not one to back down from anything, Grace lowered her arms, rising to her full height. She hated Kristine Smith with every fiber in her being, despised the way Jonah called her name when he came hard inside her. Grace would have moved on, but she was stupid in love with the asshole, and she knew he was in love with her too, he’d told her so when he gave her the bracelet.
Stepping around her desk, Grace was about to stake her claim on Jonah when the door to their boss’s door opened and Mr. Cullison dipped his head through.
“Kristine, that was the fire department on the phone. Rose found your granny unconscious, they think it’s a stroke. They have her in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital.”
All thoughts of confrontation vanished in an instant, her mind blank as the shock of the news blanketed over her. Granny was all she had, not always in the best of health, but she took care of herself, went to the doctor once a year and didn’t smoke or drink excessively. They grew their own vegetables, and limited the amount of sweets, mostly due to the lack of money, but they both looked after them
selves.
“I have to go,” Kristine spoke to no one in particular, searching the area around her for what she didn’t know.
“Let me drive—"
“No,” Kristine held up her hand, stopping the offer before Jonah could finish his sentence. She needed to get to the hospital, make sure Granny was okay, she would deal with this miserable individual later.
Opening her bottom drawer to retrieve her purse, she caught sight of the trap she’d set to capture Jonah’s sticky hands, a fake container Rose made up for her. She briefly considered covering it, but that would take time, seconds she didn’t feel like wasting.
Sliding the strap of her purse on her shoulder, Kristine pushed past Grace, stopping short at the corner of her boss’s door.
“I’ll call you later, Mr. Cullison. Let you know if I’m coming back today.”
Grady Memorial Hospital was a step above an Urgent Care, but far from a major hospital. They delivered babies, managed a few surgeries, but anything major was sent to Wichita.
Kristine spent the half-hour drive silently praying for her Granny to be okay, chastising herself for being a horrible Catholic in leaving her rosary on the top of her dresser.
Sliding her car into park, Kristine laid her forehead against the top of her steering wheel, closing her eyes tight. “It’s nothing.” She began, picturing her rosary in her right hand. “The doctor will run some tests and we’ll be home before supper.”
Grabbing her purse from the passenger seat, she exited the car and headed for the entrance as an ambulance from another county pulled away. The overwhelming smell of disinfectant hit her in the face as the glass doors separated and the sound of ringing phones and a voice overhead asking for someone to call an extension. Kristine stood inside the door, searching the room for a nurse when her eyes landed on a desk against the far wall, large letters hung overhead reading registration.
“Excuse me,” Kristine called, even before reaching the desk, gaining the attention of the elderly woman sitting behind the counter. “My grandmother was brought here by ambulance.”
The woman looked up through thick glasses, closing what looked to be a romance novel by the half-naked man on the cover.
“What’s your grandma’s name, Sweetie?”
“Beatrice, Beatrice Smith.”
Kristine’s voice cracked with emotion, earning a saddened smile from the receptionist, who plugged away on her keyboard before turning to the phone on the desk, lifting the receiver to her ear.
“Sandy, I have…” The receptionist lowered the receiver slightly, her eyes shifting to Kristine. “Your name, please?”
“Kristine Smith.”
“Kristine Smith,” the receptionist repeated, turning her gaze back to the computer monitor, wrapping the telephone cord around her finger several times. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Kristine watched as the woman nodded her head, “Yes, ma’am.” Before replacing the phone on the cradle.
“Ms. Smith, if you will have a seat in the chair’s over there,” she pointed to the left of Kristine where a row of empty chairs rested against a wall. “The nurse will be out and take you back to her.”
Kristine thanked the elderly woman, adjusted her purse on her shoulder and took several heavy steps toward the waiting area. She tried to relax into the antiquated seat, its burnt orange color reminding her of the discarded sofa which sat on Jonah’s parent’s front porch. Its hardened fabric a result of years of weather and pet damage.
“Smith?” Kristine jumped up from her seat at the sound of her name, turning to her left to find a woman dressed in light blue scrubs, a stethoscope draped around her neck. Crossing the room without hesitation, she stopped just shy of the nurse whose name tag read Sandy, RN, recalling this was the name the receptionist used while on the phone.
“Hello, are you Kristine?”
“Yes. Is my grandmother okay? Can I see her?”
The nurse took a step back, swiping a card through a panel beside the door behind her. “Let me take you to her, the doctor can fill you in.”
Fear as she’d never felt before, ran cold through her veins. Kristine was foreign to hospitals and sick people, but it didn’t take a seasoned individual to know something was wrong.
Keeping in step with the nurse, Kristine followed the slender blonde into a large hall, the air around them filled with low conversations, machine alarms, and scrub clad individuals milling about. Kristine tried to keep her focus on the back of the nurse, avoiding the open doors on either side of her. But as the nurse made a sudden stop, Kristine’s world shattered as she took in the tiny woman lying in the center of the bed.
“Granny.” She cried, the fear pulsing through her justified, allowing the tears she’d held at bay to fall like tiny rivers down her face. Ignoring the nurse’s warning beside her, Kristine ran to the side of the bed, dropping to her knees, her purse falling somewhere along the way. Wires and cords ran in every direction, but it was the large tube taped to the side of her mouth which forced her fear to shift to terror.
“I’m so sorry, Krissy.”
Her eyes darted from the white tube to Rose’s distraught face, lines of dried tears blackened with mascara stained her cheeks. “I tried calling the Coop all the way here, but the phone rang and rang.”
“It’s okay, Rose. Crops are ready, so the phones have been crazy.” Standing to her feet, she wiped the tears from her face, the memory of her morning with Grace ignoring her duties filling her mind.
“She kept mumbling she had to talk to you…” Rose trailed off, her voice cracking with emotion. Rounding the bed, Kristine took the woman who’d helped raise her into an embrace, kissing the top of her head as they rocked back and forth.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Rose pushed away, pulling a tissue from her pocket, blowing her nose and wiping her eyes.
“We were sitting at the kitchen table like we always do when Birdie asked if I had any brown sugar. I said I thought I did so I went home to check. When I came back, she was lying on the floor, eyes in the back of her head and body a twitching. I called the fire department and then the—"
A knock from behind the pair halted Rose from finishing her sentence, Kristine swung her head toward the door, the sight of a man wearing a lab coat causing her heart rate to increase.
“Kristine Smith?”
“Yes,” she nodded, rising to her feet.
“I’m Dr. Griffin,” the man in the white lab coat extended his hand as he crossed the room, his skin cold against Kristine’s. “One of the Neurologists here at Grady. Dr. Owen, the ER attending called me when Mrs. Smith was brought in by ambulance.”
“Ms.” Kristine corrected, unsure why she felt the need. “My grandmother never married.” Adding with the best smile she could conjure.
“Forgive me,” Dr. Griffin defended, returning a small smile of his own, an alarm on the ventilator capturing his attention. “I shouldn’t assume based on a woman’s age and the presence of a grandchild she is married.”
Kristine instantly felt horrible for the correction, her grandmother’s lack of partner was the topic of many hushed conversations, none of them worth repeating. “Her first name is Beatrice, Dr. Griffin, but everyone calls her Birdie due to her obsession with wild birds.”
Dr. Griffin pulled the small stool from beside the heart monitor, mentally preparing himself to deliver the type of news no physician enjoys doing. “Ms. Smith, I believe in treating each of my patients as if they were a member of my family and by extension their family as well. You and your grandmother are no exception. I won't lie to you, in all of my thirty years as a physician I’ve never seen a stroke as severe as the one your grandmother suffered.”
Kristine’s hand found her mouth, Rose coming to stand behind her, gripping her arm.
“I want to run some tests, but I need you to prepare yourself to receive the results of these tests.”
“W-what kind of tests?” Kristine stuttered, Rose gripping her arm tig
hter.
“An EEG for one.” The acronym barely left Dr. Griffin’s lips when he saw the standard confused look cross Kristine’s face. “A test where we place these tiny electrodes on your grandmother’s head, and it tells us if there is any brain activity.”
“And you think…?”
“We won’t know until I get the results back. Until then I encourage the two of you to talk to her, do anything you can think of to bring her around, and…pray.”
Kristine stood in the center of the room, the beep of the machines echoing around her after Dr. Griffin excused himself.
“Come on, Krissy.” Rose moved around her, patting the hard chair she’d vacated moments before. “You sit right here and talk with your granny. I don’t know anything about EEB’s or G’s or whatever that doctor called them, but I do know everything those nurses do takes time, and lots of it. I’m going to head to your house and grab you some clothes and anything else you need for a long stay.”
Kristine slides onto the hard plastic chair, cautiously wrapping her hand around the thin fingers of her grandmother.
“Rose?”
“Yes, Love?”
“Under the recliner is a box of what looks like feminine pads, inside is my laptop and charging cord, can you remember to grab it please?”
“Pads box under the recliner got it. Anything else?”
Shaking her head, Kristine turned her attention back to the frail form of her grandmother.
Over the course of the afternoon, a multitude of nurses came into the room checking one tube or another, changing the bag of fluid hanging from a metal pole and offering her food or drink. While she welcomed the attention to her grandmother, she wished their visits brought better news.
When the combination of hunger and the need to use the bathroom became too great to ignore, Rose walked into the room, two bags slung over her shoulder and the box of pads in her hands.
“Lord have mercy,” Rose exclaimed as she stumbled into the room, clutching the box, but allowing the bags to slide down her arm. “Didn’t think I was ever going to make it back. There is a big accident on the highway, had to take the backroads most of the way.”
Leave Me Breathless: The Black Rose Collection Page 3