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Having Lexa with me made it a little easier to bear, but I would rather have been left all alone and let her run around like a carefree little girl, than have her keeping me company because she was healing from a gunshot wound to the arm.
“I don’t know, precious,” I told her honestly. “Someone is just having a little cry. They will be okay.”
I hoped.
Whoever was crying sounded like their heart was breaking, and my own ached for them. Grabbing the remote off the nightstand, I switched on the television and turned up the volume of the cartoon channel it was still on from the night before.
Seeing that her favorite show was on, Lexa set up in bed and watched avidly as some blue cat went to school with his adopted fish brother. I tried to keep up, but some of those other characters were just too weird for my mind to follow. Instead, I pulled one of the new books Flick had given me from the nightstand.
Now that I was confined to this room and bed for the foreseeable future, I could at least catch up on some reading.
A quick tap on the door was the only notice I got before it opened and Raven walked in with Max on her hip.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as she placed her son beside her daughter.
Max immediately started jumping up and down on the bed, but a look from his mother had him flopping on his diapered bottom and then flipping onto his stomach to watch cartoons with his sister.
“I’m fine,” I assured her. “You and James can calm down anytime now. Trust me, it will make the next seven-plus months so much easier.”
She grinned. “Tell that to Spider, I dare you. If I were you, I would just accept it. He’s going to be a mess until those three are here and you’re all healthy again.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled.
She laughed then turned her full attention to Lexa. “Are you in any pain, baby?” she asked softly as she gave Lexa a kiss on the nose.
Seeing this softer, more gentle side to Raven always made my head spin, but it was when she was like this with her kids that I saw just how human she really was.
“I’m okay, Mommy,” Lexa told her with a small smile. “It doesn’t hurt as bad today.”
“Good. If it starts hurting too much, though, you tell Aunt Willa.” She carefully lifted the girl’s arm, checking to see if the stitched wound had heat to it and ensuring the stitches were still holding strong. “Looks good, kiddo. Give me some sugar. Momma’s got to get back to work. Are you hungry?” Lexa gave her a kiss then shook her head. “Willa?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
A pounding on a door outside my room caught everyone’s attention, including Max’s. He hopped down off the bed, and his mother followed him over to open the door and stick her head out to see what was going on.
“Raider, what are you doing?” she demanded.
“Someone’s in my room. I swear, Rave, if it’s Whitney in there causing more trouble, I’m gonna kill the bitch.”
“Watch your language,” she snapped at him.
“I don’t think it’s Whitney,” I called out to them.
Raven glanced back at me. “How do you know? Have you been getting out of bed? Spider is going to lose his mind if you keep running around, woman.”
“No. Lexa and I heard someone crying earlier. I don’t think it was Whitney.”
“Use your key,” Raven advised her brother.
“I did. There’s something leaning against the door. At first, I thought it was Quinn being pissed at me again, so I didn’t want to chance hurting her. But I just got a text from her asking what I wanted for lunch.”
Leaving my door open, Raven walked out into the hall. Moments later, I heard her knocking on Raider’s bedroom door. “Who’s in there?” she called out.
Lexa started to move off the bed to investigate, but I caught her, shaking my head. “Stay with me. Mommy can take care of this on her own.”
Her bottom lip pouted but she nodded, turning her attention to the TV set but glancing toward the door every few seconds.
Heavy footsteps sounded down the hall, and my heart gave a little lurch because I recognized the sound of his walk. I saw his big frame move past our door just as his voice reached my ears. “What’s going on?”
