Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
STELLA
The sound of ringing filled the otherwise silent cab of West’s truck as I waited for the call to connect, silently willing Serenity to answer the unfamiliar number.
Seeing as I’d lost my purse—and the money I’d taken from the dude who negged me—somewhere between my beating and being rushed to the hospital, he’d been nice enough to lend me his phone to call my sister when we left the hospital.
I’d have preferred to have this conversation in silence, but since I couldn’t lift either arm up past my ribs to hold it to my ear, I had to put the call on speaker phone.
Serenity’s voice came through the line just before voicemail kicked on. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Stell? What number are you calling me from?”
How to answer that question without getting a million more in return. “That’s not important right now,” I told her. “Listen, there was a little . . . snafu tonight.” That was putting it mildly. “I wasn’t able to get as much as we were hoping.”
There was a beat of silence, then my big sister asked, “What kind of snafu?”
I once again forgot about my busted bottom lip and pulled it between my teeth before the stinging burn reminded me.
From the corner of my eye, I could see West casting a glance in my direction, thanks to the lights coming from his dashboard.
“Well, remember that guy from a few weeks ago? The one who works for O’Brien? ”
Her voice held a hint of panic as she asked, “The one who threatened to pluck all your feathers?”
West cast me a curious look, and I mouthed, I’ll explain later, before replying to Serenity. “That’s the one. Well, he found me tonight. And . . . did a little plucking.”
“Oh my God!” she cried through the line. “Are you okay?”
“I’m totally fine. It was nothing, really.”
“Bullshit,” West grunted from beside me.
“Who was that?” Serenity asked, then pulled in a sharp gasp. “Holy shit! Have you been kidnapped? Blink twice if you’ve been kidnapped. Wait, that won’t work because I can’t see you. Cough if you’ve been kidnapped!”
“You’re on speaker phone,” I said dryly. “And no, I haven’t been kidnapped.”
“I see that wild imagination runs in the family,” West muttered, and I could have sworn I heard a smile in his voice.
I would have reached over and punched him if my arms worked the way they were supposed to. “I’m with . . . a friend,” I fibbed. “It’s his phone I’m calling you from because I lost mine before the hospital.”
“Hospital?” she shrieked loud enough to make my eardrums bleed. “Stella, what the hell happened? And don’t tell me you’re totally fine. You’re in the hospital!”
“I’m not in the hospital. I was at the hospital, and now West’s giving me a ride home.”
“Wait, West? As in the hotty that busted you at the hotel bar that you’ve been stalking online for—”
“Shut it!” I barked, ignoring the shit-eating grin I could see plastered across West’s face. “Just shut it. Yes, it’s the guy from the bar. Now let’s move on.”
“Okay, fine. But what did the doctors at the hospital say? What happened?”
This wasn’t going to be fun. “I have a few cracked ribs, a sprained wrist, and a tiny concussion.”
“Oh my God!” my sister cried in a panic. “That’s not being totally fine, Stella.”
“Thank you,” West grunted.
I whipped around on him and shot him a glower. “Now you shut it.”
“That’s some very serious shit! Dad is going to lose his mind,” Serenity continued.
“You can’t tell him,” I rushed out.
“Stella, this isn’t something you can hide from him. He’s going to find out as soon as he sees you. We can’t keep this a secret anymore. It was serious to begin with, and now it’s just gotten a million times worse. You were attacked!”
“I know, okay?” I let out a frustrated huff and squeezed my eyes closed, leaning back against the head rest. “I know. I don’t want to argue anymore, all right? I feel like shit, and my head is killing me.”
“I hate that you’re hurt, but I’m done with this shit. We’re a family. We always have each other’s backs. We’re not supposed to keep secrets.”
Guilt that I’d made her keep things from my parents ate at my insides. “I just hate the thought of Dad worrying himself sick.”
“I know, but that’s kind of the gig when you have kids.
” I knew she was probably thinking, it’s also the gig when you fleece a criminal and put your kids in danger, because I was thinking it too.
But neither of us would say that out loud.
It just felt too much like a betrayal of the man we loved so damn much.
“You’re on your way home now? With that hot guy? ”
Damn the invention of the speaker phone and meddling, loud-mouthed sisters. “Yes. West’s taking me home.”
“How are you planning on getting in if you lost all your stuff?”
“I have a hide-a-key, remember?”
“That’s right. Okay, well, try to get some rest. Do you need me to come over and stay with you?”
I would have smiled if it didn’t hurt my lip so damn bad. “I’m good, but thanks. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“I’ll be over bright and early with a replacement cell.” That was one of the only good things about coming from a family of con artists. We had burner phones stashed all over the place. One less thing I had to worry about. “I love you, little sis.”
“I love you too, big sis.”
I ended the call on a sigh and passed the phone back to West. “Thanks for letting me use your cell.”
His gruff voice reverberated through the cab, giving me a little tremble. “No problem. Your sister sounds like she really cares about you.”
“She does. We might be a smidge more dysfunctional than other people, but we’re all really close.” I thought about my dad and how he was going to react when he saw me. “This is going to kill my father. He’ll blame himself.”
“Good,” West stated plainly. “He should. What happened to you tonight was his fault.”
My back shot straight, and I turned on him way too fast, tweaking my ribs and sending a lance of pain through my middle. “Ow, shit,” I hissed.
“Don’t move like that,” West scolded. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”
I gritted my teeth as I tried to find a comfortable position that wouldn’t hurt my ribs any worse. “Then maybe don’t talk shit about my dad, and I won’t have to.”
He turned to me for a second, one brow arched knowingly. “Is anything I said wrong?”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong. He’s still my dad. He’s not a bad guy, and I’m not going to let you—”
“I never said your dad was a bad man, grift. I said what happened to you tonight was his fault. Because it was. And the moment he sees those bruises and cuts on your face, he’ll know it too.
If he doesn’t already. You’re so worried about not hurting him that you probably haven’t stopped to consider he needs this little reminder.
If he’s the kind of man to deserve your support, even after this, he’d want to carry around that pain.
Trust me. It’ll be a living reminder to him, and he’ll never make this kind of mistake again. ”
He had a point, but I was sore and pissy, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of saying so.
Fortunately for me, he let the subject drop, and the rest of the drive to my apartment was in silence.
I was thinking about how badly I wanted nothing more than to climb into bed, pop a couple of the pain pills I got at the hospital, and sleep for twenty-four hours straight, when West’s headlights illuminated a familiar figure sitting on the sidewalk outside my unit.
“Just freaking great,” I grumbled as I gingerly reached for the buckle to my seatbelt.
West got there first, releasing it and easing it around me carefully. “There a problem?”
“Not a problem. Just a pain in the ass.”
He looked out the windshield and inclined his chin in Jason’s direction. “Take it you know that guy?”
“Unfortunately. He’s my ex.”
“Asshole couldn’t take a hint after you dumped his ass?”
“Other way around, actually,” I admitted. “He dumped me. Then about a year later, he had a change of heart, and decided he wanted me back. The hint he won’t take is that I’m over it and don’t want anything to do with him anymore.”
West’s brows went up, bafflement making those sherry eyes of his dance. “No shit?”
I felt one corner of my mouth quirk up in a barely-there grin. It was all I could manage. “I shit you not.”
A rakish smile wreathed his face. “I can run him off for you. I’m really good at shit like that.”
I had no doubt about that. My ex had been a football star back in high school, and he’d kept himself in shape to this day, but West still had at least two inches and several pounds of muscle on Jason.
“We can make him think I’m your new man.” Uh oh. Why did hearing him say that make me tingle in a few incredibly private places? “You know, since you think I’m hot and all.”
I’d never been more grateful for all the burned-out lights in the parking lot before. It hid the fact that my face was scalding red at that very moment. I was going to kill Serenity, just as soon as I gained back my full range of motion.
“That’s not necessary,” I squeaked. I really needed this night to end. “Anyway, thanks for everything tonight. I owe you one.”
I attempted to reach for the door handle, already dreading the sharp pain the movement would cause me, but before I could swivel all the way around in my seat, West’s hand landed on my arm and stayed me. “Just wait right there. I’ll come around and get you.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I started, even though the thought of being pressed up against his delicious smelling body again made me all kinds of tingly.
When we first got to the hospital, he’d literally picked me up from out of his back seat and carried me inside, holding on to me until they found me a bed.
And again, when we left, he lifted me from the wheelchair into his truck.
To say it was pretty awesome being in his big strong arms like that would have been putting it mildly. “Really, I can do this.”