“Much. Now, let’s go help with the horses.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
RYKER
Ilay in bed, holding Penny tightly to me. She was softly crying when I took her away, but I didn’t want her to see the others hit Apollo too, it clearly upset her. But hearing what he said to her, and knowing I wasn’t there to soothe her at the time, it just gutted me.
We lay there for a while before I speak. “It’s okay, Penny, I’ve got you now. You’re never going to lose me again. In fact, you’re going to be so sick of me being around you all the time.”
“Impossible,” she whispers, making me smile.
“Will you give me a kiss?” She pulls her head away from my neck and kisses me gently. I stroke her hair and study her face. “I missed you so much. Watching you being ripped away from us like that, It killed me, it killed all of us. We’ve been freaking out, afraid of finding you dead.”
“I’m so sorry Ry, I know I keep throwing you into these bad situations.”
“No, Pen, don’t apologize for that, I love your sense of adventure, don’t change. Just maybe be a little more… careful, hmm?” She nods and I smile, giving her a soft kiss on her nose. “Looks like everyone’s heading this way,” I tell her as I see the guys and the horses outside the cave. It looks like they’ve decided not totie up the horses, knowing they won’t want to leave the oasis, as they remove their saddles and reins and make their way into the cave. I smile when I see Brax is still dripping wet, it’s just like him to ignore that. But as he drops his pack, he sifts through it for dry clothes.
Indy comes in and sits down on the other side of Penny.
“Hey Sugar, how are you feeling?” She turns towards him, then glances around until she sees everyone is there, alive and well.
I can visibly see her shoulders relax when she answers, “I’m okay.”
“What the fuck?” Silver asks as he storms over, dropping to his knees beside Indy and gently grasping her wrist, holding her hand up. “What is this?” I sit up, frowning.Was that a bandage?Why hadn’t I noticed that?
He looks down before grabbing her other hand and seeing another bandage. “And this? You guys should have told us straight away.” He gently places her hands down before moving to a seated position as he lifts his bag strap over his head. He quickly pulls out his magical cream and places it on the bed before he starts to unbandage her hand. Brax joins us, sitting at the base of the bed with his hand rubbing Penny’s calf, watching Silver work.
When he gets the first bandage off, we see her hand is all scraped up. “What happened here?” Silver asks.
“I was making rope for a hammock to sleep in. Working with fibers is hard on my hands, I guess.” We all turn to glare at Apollo, who throws his hands up in defense.
“I didn’t know!”
“Why did she need to make her own bed?” Brax grumbles.
“I told her to sleep in this one, I even picked her up and put her in it the first night, but she refused after that.”
“Where did you sleep?” I ask her.
She glances at me before biting her lip, her gaze returning to where Silver is applying the cream. “On the ground by the fire.”
“Apollo, what the fuck, man?” Indy asks.
“It’s not his fault, he’s telling the truth, he told me to take the bed, but I didn’t want to be a…”
“Burden,” I grit out through clenched teeth. She looks at me nervously and I try to release the tension. “I’m sorry, Penny, come here.” I move a leg so she’s sitting between mine and she leans back against me as I wrap my arms around her.
Indy starts unbandaging her other hand and we all gasp a little once we see her skin.
“It’s from the sandcrawler. Apollo stitched it up.”
I watch as Silver frowns at the wound. “He did a good job…”
“But?” she asks.
“But the cream won’t work with the stitches. We have to take them out.”
“Okay, you can take them out.”
