26. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
Noah
Sleeping in the hospital is like driving down a dirt road and getting no dust flying behind you. It's unlikely to happen. They keep checking my vitals, asking if I need anything and how I’m feeling. I wanted to yell at them that I was fucking sleeping. Why would I need anything? I’m yawning as TJ walks in with some coffee.
“Rough night?” He smiles at me.
Nodding, I take a sip of the coffee he brought me, “They kept waking me up all fucking night. I think when I get home, I’ll probably sleep for two days straight.” We laugh. “Thanks for coming by. Mom and Dad were running errands this morning. Physical therapy is going to come before lunch so I’m awake for them.”
“No problem. I wanted to go over the plans for the body shop with you since I’m having the architect meet us here. He’s coming at about nine so we have about two hours to get this thing rolling. Ruby gave me her wants and needs for the new place.” He rolls his eyes. “I want to go bigger than just the two bays. What do you think?”
“I think that’d be great. I also think if we could buy the store next to us, we could have a parts store. We can show them where we get our parts and it will all be under your umbrella. I noticed the other body shop doesn’t have that so we could branch out to it.”
“I didn’t think about that at all. I’ll send a text to my realtor to see if it’s available for sale. If it is, I’ll check it out.”
“I have money to buy it if it’s not crazy.” He nods.
“I don’t want you to buy everything. I have money too.” He sounds upset.
“I was saying that, but I also know how insurance companies can be when it comes to giving money out. There’s an investigation going on.” He seems to relax with that. “I don’t throw my money or my trust fund baby status around. I don’t like using it unless a friend needs help. We are going to be business partners after all.”
“Sorry. I’m on edge. Luca showed up at the club last night and tried to get Amelia to sell.” I sit up straight and regret it the moment I do. It feels like my skin is ripping off my body.
“God damn it!” I yelled out in pain. “I need to stop moving so fast while the skin is healing.” TJ keeps quiet. I notice as we talk, he keeps watching me. “I’m fine. The doctor said this is normal. The old skin they tore off needs to form new skin. I move, and it tugs. It sucks. I forget it sometimes because all I’m doing is lying around here.”
“Well, let's do some work.” We spend the next two hours working on this and when the architect came in, it was fun watching him work on his iPad to see our wants and needs come alive.” He would turn it around every once in a while, to get our approval. His realtor even contacted us about the building. When the architect left, I called my mom about doing a transfer to TJ so we can buy the building. “Now that we have the store, we will need to research what are best sellers and what are hard to find parts, too. I want us to be the go to shop in the area. Fuck the internet shopping for parts.”
“The computer should’ve backed up, right? We can use those to track what we did and go through different cars in the area.” TJ nods. I look around near the door to see if anyone is close by and I everyone seems to be busy. It’s almost time for a vital check, so we have limited time to talk. “Do you know if Amelia found the guy?”
“She doesn’t talk about club business. If she did, she won’t tell me until it’s over. So your guess is as good as mine.”
“I told her I wanted my turn with him. I don’t think she’ll let me do anything.” I sigh. TJ goes to say something, but I shake my head as I see a couple of people walking this way. “We’ve got company.”
“Mr. Cameron—Tanner Baxter, nice to see you.” Luca stands there with two black eyes. “What happened to your face?” The question comes out before I could stop myself. Luca shrugs. “What do you want?”
“I wanted to check in on you. I heard last night you were in the building when it exploded. We got to talking and wanted to take care of your medical bills.”
“Thanks, but no thanks.” I want to cross my arms, but I’m not showing this jackass weakness.
“Do you need anything from us?” He asked looking between TJ and me.
“No. We want nothing from you. We’re good here so you can go back to whatever rock you crawled out from.” TJ spoke up. “We are not selling. My partners and I are rebuilding.” Luca’s green eyes darken to almost black. He’s not happy we aren’t giving in to his demands. He nodded before turning around on heels to stalk out of the room.
“He’s not done. He’ll figure out ways to get to us. With my parents in town, I need to warn them to only talk to people I trust.” TJ nods. “Do you think I should ask Amelia for some protection for them?”
“It wouldn’t hurt to ask. This bombing is bringing out the cockroaches, that’s for sure.” I stare at him not really understanding the cockroaches comment. I can’t ask him about it because physical therapy arrives. He stays until my parents show up. He’s laughing as I stumble around at first. I flipped him off almost a dozen times before he left. I took a nap after lunch as I’m worn the fuck out. I’m hoping Amelia will be here in my hospital bed with me. I miss having her in my arms.