Page 56 of License to Kill

I couldn’t decide if I desired his protectiveness or wanted him to leave. Sleep wouldn’t help, but at least I’d dodge the problem for a while.

Bright and early the next morning, I dealt with my discharge papers, but I couldn’t finish them in time to escape before Jake hunted me down and insisted on keeping me company. Of his parents, I saw no sign. Had I, I would have driven all three of them off, and I think Jake knew it.

I wanted the assholes to show up. After a night in the hospital, I wanted to take my bad mood out on somebody, and I had a great deal of baggage I could unload on the pair of them. I’d even fling a few zingers Jake’s way unless he presented a convincing argument for why he should be granted asylum from my foul mood.

“You’re not going to go away, are you?”

“Desjardins suggested you go home, get some rest, and see how you feel tomorrow. I told him you were busy being discharged.”

“I could have done that myself,” I snapped.

“I know. In my defense, he called me so he wouldn’t bother you if you were still asleep.”

Damn it. With my luck, my boss would start hinting I should go to damned counseling with Jake. He seemed like the type to poke his nose in my personal business when given an excuse.

He probably liked Jake.

Why did I always have to be surrounded by assholes?

I forced myself to relax my shoulders and draw a deep breath to cool my temper. “Why are you here?”

“I’m worried about you.”

Hadn’t the time for that long gone by, ended right around the same time I’d told him we were through? More importantly, hadn’t the time for that ended at the same time he’d considered divorce papers and put everyone else over me? “Well, don’t. I haven’t changed my mind, Jake. I don’t believe you’ve changed yours.”

He flinched at that. “I was a stupid idiot. I hadn’t changed my mind about us. I allowed my insecurities to come between us, but I hadn’t changed my mind about us.”

“Actions speak louder than words, Jake. You can say that all day long, and I won’t believe you. You abandoned me, and I’m not some toy for you to be able to resume playing with because the latest toy is no longer interesting to you anymore.”

“You were never a toy.”

“No, I’m just not what is acceptable in your family. I’m worse than a toy. I was promised a lot of things that fell apart the instant I asked for the one thing nobody wanted to give me. No, I wasn’t a toy. I was a trophy.”

“You are not a toy or a trophy.”

I stared at him. “Why don’t you just do us both a favor and go away?”

“You weigh less than ninety pounds, Karma. You should weigh one fifteen in your prime. You fainted because you weigh so little and aren’t eating enough. I’m worried, and nothing you say will change that. My first order of business is to take you somewhere for something to eat, and then I’m going to follow you home, tuck you into bed, and wait until lunch. I will then feed you again. In your current condition, I expect two large meals will send you directly into a stupor, so you’ll end up sleeping again until dinner. After a week of this, if the doctor is correct, you might look less like a skeleton. So, let’s skip the bullshit. What do you want for breakfast, and where do you live?”

Damn it. As always, I had no trouble believing Jake would live up to his threats, as he refused to quit once he decided something, a little like me before I’d been shattered. “I’m not impressed.”

“If I cared if you were impressed, I’d be heartbroken. You wanted space. I gave it to you. Now that I’ve run into you in a freak coincidence, and knowing you have managed to more than half kill yourself in the matter of a few months, I’ve changed my mind. So, no. I’m ignoring your bullshit, and I will continue to do so until I’m satisfied you’re not going to end up in the hospital again.”

With my roommate having beaten me through the discharge process, there’d be no one to witness Jake’s death if I could figure out how to use something as a weapon. Would the IV stand be enough to break through his thick skull? “I am contemplating a triple homicide with no doubt of guilt so there won’t be any point in a trial.”

“My parents will not be involved in this whatsoever unless you invite them.”

“Until they hunt me down after I finish killing you.”

“I’m willing to take my chances. What do you want for breakfast?”

I shot a glare at him, finished signing the paperwork, and left the room to hunt down the nurse so I could finalize my discharge and escape from the hospital. With no sign of being deterred, Jake followed me.

Twenty minutes later, grumbling over the absurd rule of discharging patients in wheelchairs despite having walked around to handle my paperwork, I wheeled myself out, slapping away Jake’s hands whenever he tried to take over. I would have made my getaway a great deal faster if I hadn’t kept fighting him off.

He found me amusing, which annoyed me even more.

“You’re not going to win,” he informed me while we searched for a cab. “And since you have refused to say what you want for breakfast, I’ll choose for you.”