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She grins and hops off the table—right onto my lap.
“Thanks, Doc!” she chirps, albeit a little hoarsely. “You’re so good to me.”
I brush my fingertips over the bruises on her jaw. Kendrick might not have hurt her, not really, but he did go too far. Again. “Bun, hon, did you use the safety measures?”
“Huh? Oh, that. Nah. I’m fine.”
“Bunny …” I throw a bit of chiding into my voice, hoping she’ll listen. “You can’t just let him do whatever to you. If it hurts, you have to signal him to stop. One of these days, he’s going to do something I can’t fix here in the clinic.”
She dismisses my warnings with a wave of her hand. “Nonsense. I liked it. Why would I have stopped him if I was enjoying it? That’s silly.”
I give up with a sigh, resting my head on her chest. Bunny hugs me close, and we sit like that for several minutes before we’re interrupted by Neil.
“Oh! Shit, I’m sorry. I just thought I’d get my hand checked out. It’s throbbing a bit today.”
Sitting back from Bunny, I wave him over. “Don’t worry about it. I might need to rewrap it, or you might just need some ibuprofen. Come on over, and I’ll take a look at it.”
Despite the fact that I’m clearly working, Bunny stays in my lap. She toys with the ends of my dreads as I check out Neil’s injured hand. There’s a bit more swelling today than yesterday, though my guess is he’s been on the computer too much with it. Ever since Keys gave him one to borrow, he’s been messaging that Bunnyluv friend of his. Even something like too much typing can aggravate his injury. I grab a bottle of ibuprofen from our makeshift med cabinet and shake a few out into his good hand. “Here. Take these and ask Kendrick for an ice pack. We keep some in the cafeteria, next to the popsicles. Lay off the computer for a bit if you can.”
Neil nods his understanding of my instructions and heads towards the café, leaving me and Bunny alone again.
“C’mon, Bun. Let’s go follow him. Get some breakfast.”
Bunny sighs and stands, pulling me to my feet as she goes. “Fine. Breakfast it is.”
We hold hands while we walk down the hall, though Bunny is unusually quiet, even considering the laryngitis. Finally, just before we get to the cafeteria, she stops in her tracks and turns to me with sorrowful eyes.
“Doc, do you think Kendrick is mad at me?”
Where’s this coming from? “Why would he be mad at you? That guy’s head over heels for you. You know that.”
She lowers her gaze and scuffs a toe against the floor. “Yeah, but just because he loves me doesn’t mean he can’t be mad at me. I brought another guy back to the Burrow, and I can tell he’s not exactly happy with that.”
“Does it makeyouhappy to have Neil here?”
“Well, yeah. He’s sweet. He’s like a shy Keys—like a combination of you and Keys, actually. Smart and quiet, but still cute and fun.”
I crack a grin at that. “I’m not cute and fun?”
Bunny’s jaw gapes open. “I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Teasing!” I nudge her shoulder, and she giggles. I forget her rejection-sensitive dysphoria sometimes, her tendency to assume that people are going to abandon her. Sometimes she doesn’t understand when a joke is just a joke, and she worries that she did something wrong. Bunny tends to internalize any strife around her, to take responsibility for it even if it wasn’t her fault.
As we enter the café, Kendrick meets us at the door with Bunny’s “going-out” gear in hand. I look from the baseball bat to Kendrick and back, worried about the implications. Did something happen?
Kendrick’s ice-cold gaze is enough to answer my question before I ask it. Somethingdidhappen.
“What’s up, baby?” Bunny asks as she takes her stuff from him.
“We’ve gotta move out. Cops caught some Vipers trashing the office where Neil works. He definitely knows something, Bun. There’s no way Ramsey would risk that kind of exposure unless he was after something specific.”
While I don’t like the idea of Bunny going out after the Cobra’s men, I know that Kendrick has trained her to be able to hold her own against almost anyone. “Need me to tag along?” I ask.
“Nah. The cops have already been to Neil’s office. This is strictly information-gathering. In and out. The scene’s clear. We should be back in no time.”
“Why not just have Keys run surveillance? Surely the place has security cameras he can hack into instead of you guys going there in person …”
Kendrick shakes his head, and Bunny starts to change right here in the hallway. In the cafeteria, Neil’s jaw hangs open, and he drops the ice pack from his hand as he drools over Bunny’s lithe body.
