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Sure, we still had a lot of getting to know each other to do, but I very much doubted any of that would change my feelings.
“Alright, Dell, here we go,” Dr. Price said as he came back in with the banana bag and some baby wipes to clean off my skin so he could run the line. “That should help,” he said after hanging the bag. Reaching for his prescription pad, he filled out the script for more pain pills I likely wouldn’t take.
“I’m going to go ask the others to fill your meds,” Cillian said, giving me a soft smile. “Do you want anything else?”
“Electrolyte water,” Jass said, getting a nod from Cillian. “And some of that shitty candy she likes,” he added, getting a small smile out of me.
“I can do that,” Cillian agreed, going to the door, then hesitating.
“It’s okay. I’ll be right here,” I assured him.
“Don’t let her move,” Cillian ordered of Jass.
“I’ve got her,” Jass assured my brother, getting another nod out of him before he was gone. “Okay. How are you really?” Jass asked when we were finally alone. “I know you try to protect your brothers from the full truth,” he added. “But don’t be hiding shit from me.”
“I’m okay. Really. Really tired and icky,” I added, grimacing down at my clothes. “But okay.”
“Baby…”
“No, I mean it. I mean, I’m freaked out. Especially about him having watched me for so long. Even when I was underage. And, like, maybe it wouldn’t be so gross if it wasn’t through my bedroom window.”
“Baby, even if it was just you walking down the street, it was fucking creepy.”
That was true.
I was trying to minimize it.
Which maybe would have helped me process it in the short term, but I would always need to come to terms with the reality eventually, so it made sense to just get that all done with at once.
“I don’t want to go back home,” I told Jass. “I feel slimy just thinking about being in my room now. Even if Patrick is gone.”
“No if about it,” Jass told me, giving my knee a squeeze. “You won’t have to ever worry about him again.”
There was something in his voice that had me looking at him more closely.
And it was right then that I saw little traces of blood on his shirt and even on his arms.
I didn’t have to ask to know it was Patrick’s blood.
“My brothers are never going to let me come back to your clubhouse,” I said, hearing the whine in my voice, and not even trying to cover it up. I earned a whine after the day I’d had.
“Maybe not right away,” Jass agreed, not the kind of guy to give me false hope. “But we might be able to talk them into the motel for the time being. They can stay there too if they want to be close.”
“Do you think that they will… you know… be okay with you and me now that they know?”
“Don’t know, baby. Cillian can be hard to read,” he said, shrugging. “But let’s not worry about that right now. What matters is you feeling better. And getting you clean,” he added, giving me a smirk as he wiped some of the dirt off his arm that I’d transferred from my body.
Just shy of an hour later, we were all making our way back down the path we’d walked up. But this time, I insisted on walking myself.
“The motel puts everyone else in our business,” Cillian reasoned when we were all inside the SUV again.
“Cill, I don’t want to go home. I can’t,” I insisted, hearing the hitch in my voice, making his gaze shoot to the rearview to look at me.
“How about Nyx’s place?” Jass suggested.
“She’s texted ten times in the past twenty minutes,” Sean said.
We would all be welcome there.
And my brothers didn’t have to worry that Jass and I were going to try to hook up.
“That works,” I said, looking at Jass.
I didn’t know if someone texted to tip her off, or if she just so happened to see us coming, but Nyx flew out of the apartment building before we even made it out of the lot and toward the front doors.
“Girl, you are determined to put me in an early grave,” she declared, going for a hug, then thinking better of it—either worried about my filth or potential pain—and taking both of my hands instead. “Alright. Everyone in,” she demanded, waving toward the building.
The apartment buildings in Shady Valley were mirror images of each other, separated by a small courtyard where people walked their dogs or hung out on nice days.
They were newer construction, so everything inside was reasonably modern and in good shape.
Nyx lived on the fourth floor right in the middle of the other apartments because, she claimed, all the loudness reminded her of her hectic childhood.
