Forty-Five
Branwen
If I stayed in my room any longer this morning, Stevie was going to come looking for me. I’d waited until the normal time breakfast was over and the guys left. The thought of seeing either of them this morning made me want to curl into a ball and die.
I’d been in bed last night and heard the female screams. Linc hadn’t even cared that his daughter might hear him. That she might wake up and be scared that someone was dying. It was way over the top. Yes, he had a big dick, but, Jesus, it wasn’t a weapon of mass destruction, and I doubted she had been a virgin.
Giving myself one more pep talk, I headed out the bedroom door and down to the kitchen. It seemed quiet. I didn’t hear anything until I was almost at the door. Stevie asked Jayda if she liked the color purple or pink better. There was no sound of masculine voices. A small twinge of relief came with that, and I peered in the door, just to be sure.
Stevie was on her knees, sitting on a stool, with a plate in front of her while Jayda leaned against the bar with a cup of coffee. No one else. Thank God. Maybe I could time it this way every day. Even better, I could dodge them altogether. Never lay eyes on them again.
Jayda looked over at me. “Morning,” she said. “Latte first?”
I nodded. “Yeah, thanks,” I replied, wondering if they’d said anything to her about last night.
I moved over to take the stool beside Stevie and put my arm around her shoulders to pull her close so I could kiss the top of her head.
“You slept late,” Stevie said.
“Yep.”
Jayda glanced back at me while she worked on my latte. “You okay?” she asked.
The flicker of concern in her eyes made me want to crawl under the table and stay there all day. Or the rest of the year. Probably the latter would be best.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied.
She didn’t call me out on it or push. I wondered how I’d feel about her if I had found her with Linc’s cock down her throat. It was hard to imagine hating her, but I wasn’t so sure. I hoped that day never came. I wanted to continue liking her. She would be in Stevie’s life, even when I wasn’t. It would help, knowing there was a woman here who I knew cared about her.
Stevie wiggled down off her stool when I let her go and ran over to where Maui lay, resting on one of the beds that had been bought and placed around the house for him. He saw her coming his way, and his head perked up as his entire body seemed to wag.
Jayda brought my drink over to me and set it down. “You didn’t have to wait up there so long,” she told me. “They weren’t here.”
Oh. They’d left. When? After Linc had apparently ripped the woman’s vagina open with his cock? The bitter thought settled over me. I needed to schedule an STD test today. I could ask someone to take me.
I didn’t respond as I took a sip from the cup.
She stood there, watching me as she chewed on her bottom lip. After a minute or so, she sighed. “Are you not going to ask where Linc went?”
I shook my head. Absolutely not.
The exasperated look on her face would be funny if I wasn’t a bitter, broken soul.
“Okay, fine. Don’t ask. I’m telling you anyway. They are both in the hospital rooms in the basement with Doc Burl.”
I set my cup down slowly. There were many questions that statement brought up.
“There are hospital rooms in the basement?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. Seriously, is that your first question?”
No. “Yeah, because that’s intense.”
Jayda tilted her head. “Look, I know you know who they are. When things happen, most of the time, they don’t want to go to a hospital. It involves too many questions. Police would be called, et cetera. They even have an operating room down there. Doc Burl works for them privately.”
Well, now that she’d explained it, that made sense.
She glanced over at Stevie, who was on the floor, playing with Maui, then back at me. “They got into a fight in here last night,” she whispered. “Linc lost it and attacked Luther. The women they had with them were screaming like banshees, and I came running in here to find them beating the hell out of each other. I had to mop the floor to get the blood up before I went to bed.”
Was she joking?
“What?” I whispered, my eyes bugging out of my head.
She smirked. “I dumped the pitcher of cold water over them while on the phone, calling Bane. They’d stopped by the time he arrived with Locke and Oz, but they were still seething and glaring at each other. They each have a cracked rib, which is what probably kept them from going at it again.”
I shook my head. “What in the world happened?”
They had cracked ribs? Jesus.
She waggled her eyebrows. “You.”
Me? I frowned. “What?”
She bit back a laugh and leaned closer. “All I know or got from their angry hissing and snarling was that Luther threatened to take care of you sexually if Linc didn’t stop leading you on and using you.”
That stung—no, it was more along the lines of a knife right in the chest.
“Seems you saw Luther naked and Linc getting a blow job. It escalated from there.”
I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my temples. I shouldn’t have come out of my room. This was worse than I’d imagined. Luther had gotten into a fight because I was pathetic. That was basically what she was telling me.
I looked up. “Why did Linc lose it?”
She gave me an amused look. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“No,” I said slowly, trying to figure out what I had missed in this entire thing.
Placing her hands on the counter, she leveled her gaze on me. “Because he is possessive of you. He gets jealous. Doesn’t like the other men to mention that you’re hot.”
Not for the reasons she was clearly thinking.
I sighed heavily. “That all has to do with Stevie. Not me.”
Jayda pursed her lips. “I don’t think so.”
It was. I started to explain that I was an easy lay for Linc and he used it to his advantage, but seeing as she was, too, but managed to not be clingy or territorial with him, she wouldn’t understand.
“Mommy, I want to go play outside,” Stevie called out.
Taking my cup, I stood up. “Okay,” I replied.
“Thanks for the latte,” I told Jayda. “And sorry about last night.”
She grinned at me. “I’d say it wasn’t your fault, but, well, it was.”
“What was youah fault, Mommy?” Stevie asked.
I heard Jayda cover up a giggle.
“Nothing. Get Maui, and let’s go outside to play.”