Booker snorted. “Keep dreaming.”
I checked and changed Booker’s dressing, all the while enjoying their banter. To an outsider, they might have sounded like they couldn’t stand each other, but I figured differently. All the Reapers, including Grimm, had a hand in the betting pool about them sleeping together, but I didn’t need to join. I believed they’d already fucked each other without anyone else being the wiser.
Their little act didn’t fool me, though. Seeing the way Zak had sat with Booker all night, I was pretty damn sure the fool was in love with Booker, but they were too busy trying to convince themselves otherwise to acknowledge it.
Bandage firmly in place, I gently helped Booker back into a sitting position. He was a tough son of a gun to be able to argue so much while he was obviously in pain. I had planned to send someone to fetch him over-the-counter painkillers. I wasn’t able to write prescriptions without them being cosigned by Dr. Collier, but I hadn’t needed to. Grimm had his own pharmacy in one of the back rooms, and as far as I had seen, there wasn’t a damn substance that I couldn’t get back there.
I peeled off the gloves and threw them into the trash receptacle by his bedside. I handed him two capsule pills and the glass of water that was on the bedside table.
“What are those?” he asked, ignoring Zak’s last statement.
“They’ll make the pain easier to handle,” I told him. “Don’t be an ass and take it, Booker. I promise Zak won’t think of you as less of a man because you’d rather take some pills to deal with your pain.”
“Yeah,” Zak agreed. “And maybe if you’re all doped up on pills, I’ll get you to confess how much you really love me.”
Booker pointed a finger at a laughing Zak, but his attention was firmly fixed on me. “Get him out of my room, and I’ll take them. I don’t want him anywhere I can see him but can’t punch him in his stupid face.”
“Deal,” I agreed and handed over the pills and glass to Booker.
“Wait a minute,” Zak protested as I shooed him out of the room. “You can’t send me away. Grimm put me in charge of keeping an eye on both of you. What if Booker needs to use the little boy’s room? He’ll never get there on his own.”
“I don’t need a fucking sitter, Zak!” Booker grunted at him. “So kiss my ass and get the hell out of here.”
I groaned at Booker’s fighting words. Zak came to a dead stop, and I couldn’t get him to budge. He aimed a smile at Booker, making an obscene gesture with his tongue. “Is that your way of asking me to toss your salad?”
“Jamie!” Booker snapped.
“Zak!” I pleaded, shoving his shoulder. “Don’t rile him up so much. I already have a hard time with him. Will you go sit in the mess hall with the others and try to call Grimm again to find out what’s the holdup?”
“Their interrogation took longer than they planned,” Zak replied. “They have some, err, things to dispose of before they return home.”
“He’s not stupid, Zak,” Booker said from behind me. “Just shut up and go before you chase off Grimm’s boy. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to explain to him that you said all the wrong things.”
Zak took a step back to the door. “Fine. I can see that I’m not wanted, so I’ll just go.”
When he left, I closed the door behind him and turned back to Booker, frowning when I saw he had drunk all the water, but I wasn’t certain if that was with the pills or if he was just pretending.
“Grimm will be fine,” Booker said, his tone gruff. “He knows how to take care of himself. Plus, he has you and Joel to live for. He knows how important it is to stay alive.”
“And what keeps you alive, Booker?” I asked casually.
“I have family,” he replied but didn’t elaborate.
“And you have Zak.”
He scowled at me. “Zak’s a pain in my ass. That’s what he is.”
“And he was so worried when you got shot,” I said softly. “He’s always such a fun guy, but when we brought you back here last night, your blood dripping all over the floor, he was ready to rip into anyone who would stand in his way. He didn’t allow anyone else to sit with you for the whole night.”
Booker didn’t reply, and I walked over to his bed. “Is it so hard to see yourself with him? He has a mouth on him, but he’s cute as fuck, and I bet he wasn’t serious about you having to bottom too if you’re really scared of doing it.”
“I’m not scared of anything,” he returned, but he stared up at the ceiling, refusing to answer me. “And why all this talk about me so you don’t have to think about Grimm not being here?”
It had been working. Touching on Booker’s problems meant I was too busy to take note of how long Grimm was gone and what he could possibly be doing.
“He’ll be back,” I answered. “He promised.”
He looked as if he wanted to say something, then just nodded and sighed. “You’re really good at this doctoring shit, you know that?”
I gave him a placid stare. “I went to med school and intern at the hospital now.”
“Yeah, I know. It was just so hard thinking of you as Dr. Jamie. Maybe I’d have been nicer to you when you were a teen if I knew you’d grow up to one day prevent me from bleeding out.”
“Yeah, right. You loved getting me into trouble with Grimm. Why?”
The color that rose in his cheeks told me I was right on the money. “So maybe I did because I thought if Grimm could see you as a troublemaker, he would get rid of you.”
I gasped, stepping back from him.
“No,” he protested. “I don’t mean to get rid of you like that. Look, I could tell that Grimm was taken with you. No matter the crazy stunts you pulled, he kept you around. For instance, the day he found you in his bed naked, begging him to fuck you. He should have cut ties with you immediately, but he just gave you a spanking you probably enjoyed the entire time he was doing it.”
I placed a hand behind me over my bottom, remembering the spanking. “You’re wrong. I didn’t enjoy it at all. He was vicious, and he wouldn’t stop for anything. I’d never seen him so angry in all my life.”
“Well, what did you expect? You were jailbaiting him, playing on his weakness when you knew damn well he couldn’t touch you.”
“What are you getting at, Booker?”
“What I’m trying to say here, Jamie, is that Grimm is one heck of a guy,” he answered gruffly. “And he lives one heck of a life. He doesn’t deserve for you to love him and leave him when the going gets tough, and you haven’t even seen the half of it yet, boy. You need to know for certain that this is what you want because if you get in too deep, then walk out on Grimm, you’ll gut him. He has been betrayed before, and he doesn’t let people get close to him easily, but when he does, he tends to dive in feetfirst, and that’s not always a good thing for him.”
Well, this was a change. Many people would warn Grimm away from me, but here someone was warning me. I was intrigued that he thought I had so much effect on Grimm, but at the same time, I was offended.
“I would never betray him.”
He closed his eyes, his face looking pale and exhausted. He had lost a lot of blood and was still feeling the effects of it.
“You see that you don’t.” He expelled a long sigh. “He tried everything he could to get you away from him, you know. Although he and your father don’t get along, he even got the chief to agree to him paying for your tuition so you could leave town.”
Stunned, I stared at Booker, who burrowed down into the foam of pillows.
“Don’t know what they put in those pills,” he mumbled. “Makes me too damn tired.”
My heart raced in my chest as Booker fell asleep. I couldn’t believe Grimm had paid my tuition for college and med school. I’d always wondered how Dad could afford the fee without breaking the bank. He never wanted to discuss it with me, always commenting that it was his problem to worry about and not mine. He must have really wanted me out of town too if he had taken money from Grimm.<
br />
I walked out of Booker’s room and down the hall, still reeling from the shock of it all. I bumped right into Cass, who stepped out of a bedroom, Mort right behind him. Those two were always at it. Mort always wanted to fuck, and it worked out in Cass’s favor, since he seemed happiest when he was servicing one guy or two.
“I told you I don’t do that anymore,” he was saying to Mort. “I’m saving myself.”
“What for?” Mort scowled at him. “Everyone else has already dipped their dick inside your fuckhole.”
I should have walked on, but for some reason my feet were rooted to the spot, and I took in the scene.
Cass shrugged, staring at his feet. “Grimm says I might find someone to, you know. To love me.”
Mort snorted, and Cass glanced up, his big beautiful brown eyes drowning with tears.
“Fuck, you’re serious,” Mort said, stopping abruptly. He scratched at his chin, looking uncomfortable. “Ah, I-uh-I suppose you can. Everyone can find love.”
“Yes, everyone can, and you definitely deserve it too, Cass.” I took the boy by the elbow and steered him away from Mort. Together we walked into the mess hall. Seeing Zak sulking into his dinner, I pulled Cass behind me over to the table.
“Thanks for sticking up for me,” he stated. “Grimm was right. Nobody respects me.”
“Now, don’t be ashamed for liking sex,” I told him. “It’s your body, and you can fuck anyone you want to until the right man comes along.”
“But will the right man want me?” He blinked at me, chewing at his bottom lip viciously. “Mort is right. Everybody and their grandfather have had a turn with me. Who would still want me?”
“What are you going on about, Cass?” Zak asked. “You’re fucking gorgeous.”
That put back some color in Cass’s cheeks. He released my hand, walked over to Zak, and perched his ass in the other man’s lap without asking. I shook my head and claimed a chair to Zak’s right, pulling his dinner plate to me.
“Hey!” He swatted at my hand. “Go get your own.”
I clutched the plate, refusing to let go. “I’m hungry, and Booker really made today difficult. I prefer eating off your plate, and you can get me second helpings. Besides, you’ve got your hands full with Cass.”
“Will you love me?” Cass blurted out to Zak, who spluttered, staring at the boy who looked up at him expectantly. It was a bit pathetic to watch. Almost as pathetic as I had been going after Grimm all those years.
“Cass, that’s not how it works,” I told him. How old was he exactly? He had a simple mind that was endearing if not a bit worrying.
“What do you mean?” he asked me.
“I don’t think Zak’s available,” I replied. “He already has Booker’s grumpy butt to worry about.”
“Oh, you and Booker?” Cass slid down Zak’s lap posthaste and stood.
“No, there’s no Booker and me.”
But Cass nodded with a smile. “It makes sense. You and Booker.”
“There’s no Booker and me!” Zak rose to his feet. “I’m going to the kitchen and away from this conversation.”
He stalked away, and Cass blinked at me. “Did I say something wrong?”
Before I could reply, a large frame came to stand at my left. I glanced up at the imposing figure of Clem glaring at me.
“You’re sitting at the wrong table, rent boy,” he growled at me. “Why don’t you go back to the corner where you belong?”
I had forgotten all about the eating arrangements.
“Let him be, Clem,” Mort spoke. I hadn’t even realized he had entered the mess hall.
“Only members sit at this table,” Clem insisted. “I didn’t make the rules. I just enforce them, so why don’t you two get going?”
“You know what you are, Clem?” Mort said, stopping at my other side. “A fucking bully who picks on guys who are one-tenth of your size.”
“I don’t have a fucking problem taking you down.” He swung at Mort, but out of nowhere, Zak appeared and pushed Clem back. His fist only hit air.
“What the hell are you doing?” Zak demanded.
“This fucking table is for patched members only!” he snapped. “We earned the right to eat here. Why should they get to eat at this table by lying on their backs?”
I’d had just about enough of Clem. With Grimm gone and enduring a hellish day taking care of Booker, I finally cracked.
“You know what, Clem?” I asked calmly, although inside, I was raging. “We don’t just lie on our backs as I’m sure you already know. We like it in other positions too, so probably think about that when you’re wondering why the guy in your bed isn’t satisfied.”
“Why, you little cunt!” Clem made a step toward me, but Zak blocked him. Mort stood beside Zak, and so did the two prospects who had been chatting at the other end of the table.
“Come on, man,” Mort said. “He should be treated with respect. Not just because he’s the prez’s boy, but because he fucking saved one of our brothers’ lives. He’s a doctor, and we never know when we’ll need his assistance, so you need to get with the program and be nicer to the doc.”
I placed a hand on Mort’s arm and smiled at him. “That’s okay. I wouldn’t want to share a table with him anyway. Cass and I will go.”
Before I could move, footsteps entered the mess hall. I glanced up and gasped at the twins. If they were here, Grimm had to be around as well. They had been together.
“Excuse me,” I said, sliding by Mort and Zak. “I just remembered I have something to do.”
Zak caught my upper arm. “Why don’t you stay here for a few minutes? Give them some time to settle down. You know? Let all that adrenaline rush wear off.”
I yanked my arm out of his grasp. “Sorry, I can’t. I need to know he’s okay.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Grimm
Killing someone was hard, but hard I could manage. Torturing them, on the other hand, was excruciating, especially when the victim was either too stupid or too loyal and would rather have their guts spilled than to share everything they knew.
I ruminated while I stood at the sink in my kitchen after several hours taking turns with the twins to torture the two men we had caught. The cleanup of all that blood had been the most difficult part. We had to make sure no trace of what had gone down in that container could be found. Then we dumped the bodies off.
I scrubbed the knives and watched the blood drain down the sink, washing away evidence that could link us to the “incident.” Thankfully, Jamie hadn’t been in when I got home, and I wanted to get everything put away before he saw them. It was one thing for him to know why I had been gone and another to have actual information that he might be plied by the cops or my enemies to give. If he saw and knew nothing, it was all speculation.
“Fucking assholes,” I muttered, putting one knife aside and reaching for the next to give it the proper sanitation it deserved. I tried not to think about all the time I’d wasted in almost twenty-four hours in a futile attempt to get answers. The screams muffled by gags still echoed in my head. The smell of the metallic odor of blood still filled my nose. The cuts and abrasions had been deep enough to hurt but not to kill.
At least not instantaneously.
They had insisted they didn’t work for the Bloodlets, but I didn’t dare believe them. If not the Bloodlets, then who? They had preferred death to giving up names. I was no closer to getting answers. No closer to knowing for certain who wanted to get to Jamie and why. I might have made enemies along the way, but none who would have been brave enough to attack me. None who would have a death wish, except for Gunner.
It had to be Gunner. That son of a bitch wouldn’t stop until I really had no option but to kill him.
“Daddy Grimm?”
I closed my eyes at Jamie’s soft-spoken voice at my back. I still had two knives left to take care of. The raw adrenaline I was drugged up on hadn’t dissipated as yet, and I wished like hell he wasn’t around to see
me like this.
“Hey there, Half-Way,” I said, trying to inflect a little cheer in my voice, but it fell flat. “Can you do me a favor and go back to the clubhouse for a bit?”
“You don’t want me with you?”
“Just for now,” I answered, still facing away from him. “I need some space.”
“Oh. Okay.”
The soft falls of his footsteps subsided as he did what I suggested. The one time I’d hoped that he would argue about leaving me, but I was giving him the easy way out. He didn’t have to stick around me and deal with the sour mood I was in. In the past, I would have fucked anything on two legs until I was out of my stupor, but that was no longer an option.
The footsteps approached again. I turned in surprise. Jamie had returned to the kitchen. He stood in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, chin angled stubbornly.
“I’ve changed my mind,” he stated, a tremor in his voice. “I’m not leaving. I don’t care if you spank me for disobeying you, but I won’t leave you, Grimm.”
Hope flared in my chest, but I persisted. “You don’t want to test the mood I’m in, boy.”
“Fuck whatever mood you’re in. I know you’ll never hurt me.”
He was right about that, but I couldn’t fathom why he would want to be with me when the evidence of what I had done was right before him.
With every new discovery, I expected him to realize how wrong he was about us. To realize he couldn’t truly love me. Not all of me anyway. Certainly not when Hyde came out, and even though it usually showed only when I was provoked, it was always there beneath the surface, waiting for that moment to emerge.
“Jamie, I’m covered in somebody else’s blood,” I said calmly, watching him for a reaction. “I spent all evening with the twins cleaning out a container that had blood splattered on the walls.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed hard as he swallowed. “Are those the men who shot Booker?”
Biker Daddy (The Grimm Tales of Smoky Vale Book 1) Page 19