Page 72 of Cash

“Not yet. Zane checked and he didn’t have a wallet or phone on him. We didn’t have time to search the house. Kira’s working on it.”

Kira was working on it…great.

More shame.

“She doesn’t have to do that. If you have a picture, I’ll⁠—”

“I see you’re not understanding what’s happening here, and now’s not the time to get into it.”

A hint of annoyance was breaking through the pain. I wasn’t a fan of being interrupted. But more than that I wasn’t a fan of being treated like I was a dim bulb.

“Not…understanding?”

I waited a few seconds for Cash to confirm I’d heard him correctly. I took his silence as him not feeling the need to verify. I also took those seconds to allow my annoyance to turn into irritation.

“And maybe you wanna clarify what ‘now’s not the time’ means?” I pushed.

I felt the bed move again. This time the movement was accompanied by Cash tagging my wrist and sliding his hand down to mine. I held my breath as he laced our fingers together. Only releasing it when I remembered this wasn’t some fairytale that ended with fireworks and unicorns dancing—Cash holding my hand in the dead of night after taking care of me and Cara didn’t mean anything. He was being sweet, something six months ago I wouldn’t think he had in him. Hot, sexy, loyal, deadly—yes. Sweet—no.

“Yeah, Stella, I’ll clarify. It’s been a shit day. You’re in pain. It’s late, Cara fell asleep watching a movie after wolfing down a bag of popcorn. I put her in my spare room, but my guess, after the day she had, sleeping in a bed that’s not hers, she’s not sleeping sound. I get you wanting to get into the nitty gritty but now’s not the time. What I’ll share now is, after we found you, Zane called in our doctor. He stitched up the worst of your gashes. Closed others with butterfly bandages and the rest of the welts he covered in Arnicare. Tomorrow, I need to change your bandages. In two weeks, Dr. Spenser will remove the stitches. He gave you morphine and left a bottle of pain pills. After the doctor saw to you, I brought you home. Zane and Nebraska drove Cara over. I told her you had the flu. It was the best I could come up with without freaking her out, but I didn’t want her rushing in my room asking questions, or worse getting into bed with you causing you pain. That brings us to now. You needing to take a pain pill and me needing to sleep off this nightmare of a day.”

Nightmare day.

He got that right.

And he’d said spare bedroom—so we were at Cash’s home.

Not a safehouse.

He’d brought us to his home.

Yeah, no. I had to shove whatever fanciful feelings that information provoked—Cash didn’t actually want me in his bed in his home—it was just probably easier than arranging a safehouse on short notice.

“Maybe I should go sleep with Cara,” I murmured. “You’re right about her being in a strange bed. She could wake up and need me.”

“You go to her but if she wakes up before you do and she sees the bruises around your neck what are you going to tell her?”

He hadn’t told me I had bruises on my neck. Though, I wasn’t surprised my brother’s dickhead friend left marks. Even with only flashes of the fight, I did remember the asshole’s hands around my throat—I just couldn’t remember how I’d removed them before he choked me to death. Or maybe he didn’t want to kill me. Damion probably would’ve been mad if I’d died; my brother was having too much fun torturing me.

Mad.

That was such a weak word for what Damion would’ve felt—infuriated would’ve been more like it. Enraged I’d died taking the account numbers he wanted to the grave. Incensed his time toying with me had come to an end.

I’d yet to formulate a proper response when Cash continued. “If she gets up, I’ll hear her. Cara’s covered, Stella, so are you. Take a pain pill and get some sleep. Tomorrow’s gonna suck, baby girl. We got a lot of ground to cover. It’ll be good we do that without you being tired as fuck-all and in pain.”

Stella.

He hadn’t called me Lore since I’d woken up in his bed. Actually, the last time he’d called me Lore was in his last voicemail. He’d started it calling me Stella but ended it calling me Lore.

Lore was dead.

Or at least she was supposed to be.

Though my brother had resurrected her earlier than I’d expected.

But here in Cash’s bed, I was just Stella.

And he was holding my hand.