Chapter 8
EIGHT
brITTON
The unwieldy box made it hard to navigate my way into the elevator.
A nice man held the door open as I slipped inside.
My insides were wobbling like a bowl of jelly.
I had no idea how he’d react when he saw me, but I was betting on him telling me to get the hell out of his room.
That was the reaction I was steeling myself for.
All of this had gone so wrong, and it had been completely my fault.
Slade had just stepped in to help me and because of his selfless courage, he’d ended up in a hospital bed.
I stopped in the hallway outside of his room. I could hear the television, but there weren’t any extra voices. I was relieved. If he had visitors, it would have been even harder to walk in. I took a deep breath, hid behind the big box and half-tiptoed into the room. The television turned off.
I lowered the package with the remote control car, an exact replica of my sister’s Subaru, and peered at him over the top of the box.
Hospital beds usually made people look withered and sickly, but he looked just as lethal and hot as ever.
The black ink of his tattoos contrasted sharply with the white sheets and pale green wall behind the bed.
“Tink?” He sounded truly surprised. “Didn’t expect to see you again.”
“I’m sure the better phrase would have been ‘didn’t want to see you again.’”
“Nah, this wasn’t your fault. I thumped the guys, and apparently, their egos were pretty fragile.” He smiled and I nearly broke into sobs at the sight of it.
“So, you’re all right?” I couldn’t keep the waver from my voice.
“Takes more than a six inch blade to take out a Stone. Although, I’m not sure if it was six. Might have even been eight.”
I laughed. The toy car shook in the box.
He lifted his hand. “Uh, is that for me? I fucking hope that’s for me. And if it is, then please tell me you remembered batteries.”
I held up the bag with the batteries.
“You are better than any one of Santa’s elves,” he said enthusiastically as he tried to push to sitting. He grimaced in pain. The sheet rolled down exposing the extremely large piece of gauze taped to his side.
“Oh god, Slade, I’m so sorry about that. Does it hurt a lot?”
“This? I’ve had worse.” He leaned back against the pillow and took a steadying breath as if just pushing to sitting had taken all his strength. “Besides, having you walk out on me without a goodbye hurt more.”
He gazed at me for a long moment. I’d forgotten how dark green his eyes were.
“Guess I wasn’t expecting to feel that way. But seeing you now, Tink, I’m really glad you came by. And not just because of the cool remote control car.”
I put the box on the ground and sat on the edge of the bed. “You jumped in to help me the other night. I shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I’m just in a really bad way right now.” There was no way to stop the tears. He was being so easy about everything, it actually made me feel worse.
With some effort, he reached up and turned my chin toward him. “Why are you crying?”
I swiped at a tear. “I don’t know. Maybe you need to get mad and call me a crazy fucking bitch or something.”
“Hey, crazy fucking bitch.” He lifted the corner of his sheet. “Why don’t you slide in next to me? I can still hold you on this side, no stab wounds or enormous bandages.”
I grabbed a tissue from the nightstand by his bed and wiped my nose as I carefully climbed in next to him.
His body was warm and comforting. I leaned down against his chest and his arm went around me.
“I was at work when I heard that you got stabbed. In fact, that guy Damon, the one I was looking for, he’s the one who told me. ”
“Yeah? How the heck did he know?”
“The guys that attacked you are friends with his brother.” I peered up at him and wasn’t prepared for the impact his nearness would have on me. I hadn’t just been imagining how incredible he was. “They were arrested.”
“I heard. So you talked to the guy you were looking for—your sister’s boyfriend, right?”
“Yeah, he’s lower than the gum stuck on the bottom of a shoe.”
He chuckled and then winced and pressed his hand against the gauze. He sucked in a long, slow breath until the pain subsided. “Did you find any of the answers you were looking for when you talked to him?”
“He wouldn’t talk about it, and I still don’t know where he is. I know it sounds stupid and it won’t bring Perris back, but I need to know what happened.”
“Do you think Damon killed her?”
“He’s evil but I don’t think he is capable of murder.
Besides, he swore to the police he wasn’t even there.
He had some friends back him up. It was a drug overdose, but I know he supplied the stuff.
I have so many questions. Was it an accident?
Did she do it on purpose?” I thought about everything that had happened since Perris’s death.
Even though we’d buried her six months ago, I still had no closure.
“Damon disappeared right after she died.”
“That’s a little suspicious.”
“I think so too.”
I smoothed my hand over Slade’s chest. There was so much strength and power under my palm, being next to him made me feel safer than I’d ever felt in my life.
But he wasn’t mine. He was a moment in time in my shaky existence, but he was an extremely memorable moment.
“To be honest, I’m not completely sure what I’m looking for or what answers I need to hear to make this heartbreak go away. ”
“If she was your twin sister, then I doubt there is anything that will take it away. You just have to learn to live around it.”
I looked up at him. “You’re pretty damn deep, considering this.” I waved my hand over him.
He laughed but cut it quickly short. “Shit,” he groaned, “that hurts. Don’t think I’ve ever been referred to as this as often as I have since I met you. I think I’m more partial to Bolt.”
A nurse walked in. Her eyes rounded behind her glasses as she noticed there were two heads instead of one in the bed. “Mr. Stone, visitors are not allowed to crawl into bed with you.”
“Really? Huh. It seems like people would heal a lot faster in here if you let visitors—”
The nurse didn’t wait for him to finish. She walked over, yanked up the sheet and shooed me out.
“She’s really little,” he said. “Don’t you think you might make an exception for me?” He smiled up at the nurse, a stern woman who almost looked on the edge of softening her stance. She walked over and checked his I.V. bag.
“Dinner is coming down the hall.”
“I’ll try not to get too excited. Lunch was scary bad.”
“That’s how we get you to leave faster,” she quipped as she walked out.
I opened the box with the toy car, and after a major battle with the plastic packaging around the batteries, we got them loaded into the car and remote.
Like a little kid, Slade grinned as he held the car and spun the tires.
“I might be going out on a limb here,” I said, “but I’ll bet, when it comes to the rules, racing a remote control car around a hospital room is right up there with visitors climbing into your bed.”
“Yep, and that’s why people always leave here feeling worse than when they came in. Besides, this room is too small.” He handed me the car to put on the ground.
He turned it on. It buzzed like a swarm of bees as it raced out into the hallway. Seconds later, it came buzzing back into the room.
“You aren’t really into following the whole rules of society thing, are you?” I asked.
“This coming from a girl who marched into a crowded bar and held a guy at gunpoint.”
“You’re right. Carry on. Just hope you don’t trip anyone or give some old guy in a wheelchair a heart attack.”
Slade moved the lever, and the car zipped out the door. He spun the control to bring it back, but it didn’t return. “Hmm, must have hit something.”
The same nurse returned holding the car in her hand and wearing an even sterner expression than before. “I won’t even discuss this unstated rule. Please save the toy for home.” She handed it to me with an admonishing glance. I put the car into its box.
The nurse left in a huff.
I sat on the edge of the bed. “Well, I’m really glad you’re going to be all right. I guess I should head out. They’ll be bringing your dinner soon.”
He took hold of my hand. “Can I see you again? I know you took off while I was sleeping, which should’ve been my cue that you don’t really want to see me anymore, but—if you wanted to see me again. Think we might have fun together.”
“My life is sort of complicated right now.”
“Right. Got it.” He looked slightly hurt as he leaned back against his pillow. “Thanks for the car. Take care of yourself, Tink, eh?” The way he looked at me made me question my sanity. Why the hell would any girl in her right mind walk away from him? But then, I wasn’t in my right mind.
I got up. Everything in my head and heart told me to just walk out.
That would be the end of it, and Slade would just be an extremely good memory.
Instead, I walked to his nightstand. I had no right to do it, but the few hours I’d spent with the guy had been the best few hours I’d experienced in the last six months, heck, in the last year.
I picked up his phone, punched in my number and returned it to the nightstand.
I looked over at him. “Just if you feel like calling. No pressure. There aren’t many people like you around, Slade.”
Before I could walk away, he took hold of my hand and pressed my knuckles to his mouth. He kissed my hand. “Funny, I was just about to say the same thing about you.”
He released my hand. I could still feel the heat of his touch as I walked out of the room.