#Player

by Cambria Hebert

  I made a sound. “What if I’d been naked?” I gasped.

  “You aren’t.” He shrugged.

  I went back to fighting with the brush and my hair. After a couple seconds, my arm sagged. I was too tired for this.

  Braeden took the brush out of my hand and started working it through the tangles. I was momentarily shocked at the gesture, but when I recovered, I said, “You’re brushing my hair?”

  “I had to. The way you were mistreating it, I’m surprised you aren’t bald.”

  “Ha-ha,” I quipped.

  For such a big guy, he had a surprisingly light hand, and frankly, he was doing a better job than I had been. “You’re pretty good at this,” I observed. “Does this mean we can have sleepovers and paint each other’s nails?”

  “What do you think I am? A drag queen?” He gasped as he continued brushing.

  I laughed. “Is that a no to the nail polish and face masks?”

  He let out a curse, and I laughed again.

  “That’s a hells no.” But then he grunted. “But you know I’m here for you, right?”

  The genuineness behind his words pierced my chest. He’d gotten in. I hadn’t meant for it to happen, but Braeden had wiggled his way right into my heart. “That’s what big brothers are for, right?”

  “You got it.”

  Overcome with emotion, I spun and hugged him around the waist. He hesitated for a second but then returned the embrace fully. I couldn’t help but sniffle against his shirt.

  Embarrassed, I pulled away. “I’m sorry. Tonight’s just been a lot. I know you aren’t really my brother.” He was here because of Romeo. I needed to remember that. Getting attached to so many people wasn’t a good idea.

  “Fuck that,” he argued. “We might not be blood, but you’re my family. That’s not going to change.”

  I turned away and suppressed a sniffle. I couldn’t have this kind of conversation right now. I was too busy trying to hold it together. I clung to the numbness that cloaked me like a lifeline, because once it was gone, I was afraid I might fall apart.

  “Hey,” he said, gruff, and grabbed my arm to pull me around. “You hear me?”

  I nodded. “I hear you.”

  “You’re trying to be tough for Rome right now. I get that. But I’m not him. I’m not gonna go postal if you tell me how messed up you feel right now.”

  Tears flooded my eyes.

  He understood.

  He held open his arms. “Bring it in.”

  I half laughed, half groaned.

  “You gonna leave me hanging?” he said, his arms still spread wide.

  I stepped forward, and he folded me against him. A few tears slipped out from beneath closed lids and a sob racked my body.

  “It’s all right,” he murmured and patted my back. “I’d cry too if my face looked like yours.”

  I started to laugh, but it turned into a weep as the floodgates opened. It hurt to cry, the way my body heaved and shook. I was already so sore and so tired, but once I started, I couldn’t stop.

  My God, I was making an ass out of myself, crying all over Braeden like this. But he didn’t say anything. He just hugged me.

  Well, occasionally, he assured me my face would go back to normal.

  A few minutes passed, and I forced myself to get it together. The last thing I wanted was for Romeo to come back and see me crying all over his best friend. He didn’t need to deal with the hot mess I was right then.

  I pulled away from Braeden and wiped my eyes with the backs of my hand. “I’m so sorry,” I murmured, my voice thick.

  “Nothing to be sorry about,” he said, no trace of sarcasm in his tone. “You know Rome is a lot stronger than you think.”

  I nodded. I knew that. Romeo was the strongest person I knew. But I didn’t want to be a burden. I didn’t want to be someone he had to look after.

  “This place officially blows,” Braeden announced once I was finished getting myself together. “Let’s find Rome and get the hell out of here.”

  “Yes, please!” I didn’t have to fake the enthusiasm in my voice, because getting out of the ER was definitely high on my priority list.

  Braeden grabbed the bag off the bed and my wet boots by the wall. “This it?” he asked.

  I picked up a white plastic bag the nurse had given me with extra bandages and ointment for my wrists and nodded.

  He threw back the curtain and led the way to the door, stopping to pick up the now empty duffle he’d brought in for Romeo.

  Before he opened the door, he turned and regarded me with serious eyes. “BBFL?”

  I blinked. “What?”

  He seemed appalled I had no idea what he was talking about. “Big brother for life,” he said like it was obvious. “BBFL.”

  I grinned. “Yeah, BBFL.”

  He held up his fist, so I bumped mine against his. It was my first official fist-bump as a sister.

  Seconds after we stepped out in the hallway, Romeo rounded the corner and smiled when he saw us. But his smile slipped when he drew closer and his eyes narrowed on my face. Then he slid a glance at Braeden, his stare dropping to the front of his shirt. I followed his gaze and noticed the wet spots on his chest from where I cried all over him.

  Romeo’s narrowed eyes snapped back to me.

  He knew I’d been crying.

  “Dude, you get the papers or what?” Braeden said, drawing Romeo’s attention.

  After a lingering look at me, he glanced away. “They’re up front. The nurse said we could just sign them on the way out.”

  “Good. Let’s go,” I said, hurrying past the guys.

  Romeo caught my hand with his. “Wrong way. Nurse’s station is this way.”

  “Is anyone else hungry?” Braeden wondered out loud. “I’m starving.”

  Romeo grinned. “Dude, I could eat a horse’s ass right about now.”

  He glanced at me and winked. I relaxed, and we walked hand in hand down the hall.

  “Pizza?” Braeden said. “I’ll go get us a few pies and bring ‘em back to your place.”

  As we rounded the corner, Romeo and Braeden had a lively discussion about what toppings and who could out eat who per slice. I didn’t really remember the last time I’d eaten, though the idea of food didn’t really appeal to me just then, but I knew they’d bully me into eating it.

  As the guys argued over pizza consumption, my eyes went all the way down the hall to where it opened up on the left at the nurse’s station. The elevator a little farther down dinged open, and two uniformed police officers stepped out onto the floor.

  My steps faltered a little, and Romeo’s hand tightened around mine. Both guys stopped talking and stared at the officers as they spoke quietly to a nurse who pointed toward a room across the hall from the desk.

  The officers went immediately to the room. One opened the door and waltzed in, while the other took up station outside the door.

  A sick feeling dropped into the pit of my stomach. Sticky tentacles of foreboding wrapped around the back of my neck, and my skin crawled with goose bumps.

  Our steps slowed as we approached. The nurse saw us and smiled, but my face had frozen and I was unable to smile back. I peeked into the room where the officer was and saw nothing but a drawn curtain. The breath I’d been holding leaked out between my lips like I was a flat tire with a hole.

  The tension in my back eased, and we stepped up to the paperwork the nurse had ready.

  “Sign here and here,” she said to Romeo. As he did, she went on to say, “Your parents have taken care of the rest of the paperwork for you.”

  Then her gaze turned to me. I saw the flash of pity in the depth of her eyes before she replaced it with professionalism. “Would you mind stepping over here? I have a few more documents to go over with you before you’re finished.”

  “Sure,” I said and released Romeo to step farther down the long counter.

  Romeo’s dad appeared, and the three men started talking quietly.

&nb
sp; “There’s been a problem with the insurance card you provided,” the nurse said, drawing my complete attention.

  “What?” I took it out of her hand and glanced down at the insurance card I’d used practically all my life.

  “This policy has been cancelled.”

  My brows snapped together in confusion. “That’s impossible.” I glanced up at her. “I’ve had this insurance my whole life.”

  “Through a parent?” she asked.

  I nodded. “My father.”

  “Has he recently lost his job?”

  “No,” I denied. “He’s a contractor.”

  The nurse seemed slightly uncomfortable. “Maybe he forgot to pay the policy.”

  He’s in deep debt. He has a gambling problem.

  Valerie’s accusations assaulted me once more.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  The nurse thought I’d been talking to her and took a step back. “I’m afraid, without insurance, we’re going to have to bill you. Would you like to pay a portion up front, right now?”

  My head was spinning, my face was beginning to throb, and the nurse was looking at me like she expected me to pull out a wad of fifty-dollar bills and toss them on the counter.

  “I don’t have my bag with me,” I stuttered. “I don’t know what happened to it.”

  It was lost with my phone and my glasses.

  I glanced up. “I don’t have any money.”

  Some of the kindness left the nurses eyes. “We’re going to have to bill you.”

  “Okay.” What the hell else was I supposed to say?

  “All the information you put on this form is correct?” She turned it around as if I needed to verify my own address.

  “I didn’t lie,” I said, a bite in my tone.

  “Sign here.” She pointed to a line.

  I grabbed a pen off the counter and signed.

  “Here.” She pointed again.

  I tried not to show how badly my hands were shaking as I signed again.

  “The billing department will be in touch.”

  “Thank you,” I said, a little hollow, and tried to smile.

  But it was a lost effort.

  A muffled yet familiar voice rang out through the hall, followed by a bit of maniacal laughter.

  “Well, look who it is!” he yelled.

  My body jerked and my head whipped around so fast that the room tilted on its axis.

  There in open doorway of the room being guarded by police was Zach.

  Chapter Four

  Romeo

  Her eyes were puffy.

  Well, her one eye. The one that wasn’t practically swollen shut thanks to fucking Zach.

  Her skin was blotchy, and if that weren’t enough to prove to me she’d been crying, the tear stains on Braeden’s shirt were.

  I decided calling her out on it right there in the hall wasn’t the way to go, so I bit back my frustration and the slight jealousy I felt knowing it was Braeden she cried to.

  Knowing Rimmel, she probably was trying to hold it all in because she thought I’d been through enough.

  My girl was stubborn like that. And that stubbornness extended deep into a protective streak that I wondered if she even realized she possessed. It was like an automatic reaction with her—an instinct, like a momma bear with her cub.

  She protected herself fiercely. It’s why it took me so long to get in and why she still struggled to let in anyone else (like my mother who freaking went and ruined it).

  But I got in.

  And now that protective instinct extended to me.

  And from the looks of Braeden’s shirt, I’d say he’d somehow gotten in too.

  Her family was growing, but her future was threatened on so many fronts.

  She was probably scared as hell.

  My mother finally got the hint that I wasn’t going to soften no matter how many regretful looks she threw my way and left, but my father stayed behind so he could drive the Hellcat back to my place. I couldn’t with my arm all jacked up, and Rim was in no condition to be driving.

  As we walked down the hallway, I resisted the urge to pull her close. Instead, I kept our hands entwined and joked with B about pizza. That little piece of normalcy felt good, even if we were experiencing it in the middle of the ER.

  When the cops stepped off the elevator, I felt the change come over Rimmel. The wariness in which she moved and watched the two men.

  We’d already talked to a few officers hours ago when we’d been admitted, but they would have more questions. From the way they questioned me, I knew they barely got a thing out of Rim. I heard the nurses in the hall telling them she was in shock and they’d have to talk to her later.

  I answered as much as I could, but the truth was I hadn’t been there for all of it.

  Only Rimmel had.

  There were gaps that only she could fill in. Gaps I was terrified to know the answers to.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I watched her exchange with the nurse at the end of the counter and I could have sworn I felt a change in the air the longer the two women spoke. It seemed like Rimmel recoiled from whatever the nurse was saying and the nurse was overcome with a sudden air of snootiness.

  I didn’t like snooty bitches.

  Especially when their snootiness was aimed directly at my girl.

  I was about to inject myself into the conversation when there was a bit of a scuffle from across the hall. The officer standing at the door jerked upright, his posture going rigid. I couldn’t help but notice how his hand hovered over a Taser in his belt.

  “Well, look who it is!” a slurred voice rang out.

  What. The. Fuck.

  My entire body went rigid and the rage I thought had faded out with all the adrenaline suddenly burst to life inside me.

  I reacted without thought and bolted across the hall. The officer at the door jumped forward as if to block my path. “Why isn’t he in a cage?” I growled.

  Braeden wrapped an arm around my waist as if to restrain me, and my father moved to my side.

  “Roman, this is not the place,” he said calmly.

  “That cast looks good on you,” Zach said, trying to move closer to the doorway.

  There were two officers in the room with him. One in uniform and one wearing a suit with a badge clipped at his waist. Both men moved on either side of him, ready to spring.

  “No contact with the victims,” the one in the suit told Zach.

  “Victims!” Zach guffawed. Well, he tried.

  His face was jacked the hell up. He couldn’t even talk right.

  As he stood there, he swayed on his feet like he was going to fall over. The left side of his jaw was about twice its normal size, a deep purple color, and looked a little crooked. Zach’s lip was split and had just a bit of dried blood at the edges. Both his eyes were black and his nose was swollen. Judging from the white strip across the bridge of his nose, I guessed it was broken.

  His “boy band” hair was completely ruined, matted with blood and a small section above his right temple shaved where a gash had already been stitched up.

  The way he hunched over as he stood made me think he probably had injuries I couldn’t see, and just that thought calmed me down.

  I hoped he was suffering. He deserved every last one of those bruises, and I was proud I put them there.

  Zach noticed my appraisal and his mouth turned up as far as his swollen face would allow. Then his gaze swung away from me, beyond where we stood.

  I knew exactly who he was looking at.

  My muscles bunched and Braeden’s arm tightened. “Rome,” he cautioned.

  “Stop,” said a low voice from just beside him. “You might jar his arm.”

  Braeden pulled back, and Rimmel stepped up in his place. Her small hand lay on my chest with ever so light pressure. “C’mon. I want to go.”

  I tore my eyes from Zach and looked down at her. She was exhausted and scared.

  I wrapped my good arm around he
r and started leading her away.

  “Can you still feel the water flooding your face and blurring your vision?” Zach’s words floated out into the hall, and Rimmel’s body tightened. “I still think about the way your body folded to the ground when my fist connected with your face.” He wheezed out a breath. “Your cheekbone must really be throbbing.”

  I spun away from Rimmel. “You son of a bitch!” I lunged past the officer, but he caught me and shoved me back. Pain radiated down my arm and across my chest. The feeling only fueled my anger.

  I kept going, and Zach laughed. The laugh turned into a cough and the cough turned into some kind of asthma attack.

  All three officers jumped toward me, and I relented, holding up my hand in surrender. Before I walked away, I glanced back at Zach. He was still coughing like a fiend. Rimmel called my name, and everyone else stood by on alert, waiting to see what I would do.

  I didn’t do anything.

  Because Zach fell over.

  He literally crumpled to the floor in the midst of his coughing attack.

  The officers all moved away from me and rushed into the room, one of them yelling for the nurse. She rushed past us into the room, and we all stood there watching as Zach gasped for breath on the floor.

  Rimmel appeared beside me, and I pulled her against my chest.

  “Get him on the bed,” the nurse instructed. “I’ll go get the doctor.”

  She rushed out of the room and down the hall as the officers picked up Zach and towed him toward the bed. His head fell back as they moved, and from an upside-down angle, his empty stare fastened on where we stood.

  And then he smiled.

  He had fresh blood on his teeth.

  Rimmel shuddered, and I pulled her away. The four of us headed toward the elevator as someone stepped off.

  Behind us, the doctor and nurse were rushing into Zach’s room, and one of the officers appeared back in the doorway.

  “What the hell is this!” the man who just stepped into the hall bellowed. His voice was very commanding and oddly familiar.

  “Robert,” my dad said, a tone of regret in his voice.

  It was Zach’s father.

  “Why is the doctor rushing in my son’s room? Why are you out here? What the hell have you done!” The last question was directed at me.