Chapter 58
Neither my father nor Leo came back that night or the next.
I’d be worried, but Leo messaged Kratos to say it might be a few days.
We spend a lot of time doing mundane things, trying to pass the time.
The house might as well be abandoned, aside from us.
My mother doesn’t leave Dom’s room, and as much as I want to see him, I can’t bring myself to go back.
He looks dead, and that’s not something I can stand to think about.
Not when I knew he only took that bullet for me.
It takes two days for me to walk again, and even then, I can’t do much without feeling exhausted. It’s driving me crazy, but the guys are trying hard to keep me distracted. Sex and the gym are firmly off the table until I’m cleared by the doctor and my stitches are removed.
Today is day five, and we’re attempting a movie marathon in the theater room. But even though it had everything we could ever want, I just couldn’t seem to enjoy it. I made it through the first movie, but just barely.
The guys could tell, and, thankfully, scrapped a day of movies to take me down to the sauna.
I felt bad about ruining their plans, but I was grateful they were willing to do something else.
I was too close to the edge to enjoy any downtime for too long; so many things were still left hanging in the balance.
The sauna room was just down the hall from Dom’s room, the one with wooden benches I’d seen the other day.
I had no idea what to expect, but one thing’s for sure: it wasn’t for the guys to all strip down.
I stand in the little room with them, unable to decide where to look as all six of them pull off every article of clothing they wear before wrapping themselves in towels that hardly cover their junk.
“You're drooling, Doll,” Zan says with a chuckle, leaning over to hook a finger under my chin, pushing it up to snap my mouth closed. I hadn’t even realized it was hanging open, but really, who can blame me?
They’re fucking hot and naked minus a tiny piece of cloth, and I clench my thighs at the growing wetness I feel between my legs just from looking at them.
“No,” Kratos says as he strolls past me and further into the room, where it opens up and has the benches, and I glare after him. He doesn’t need to specify. I know what he means.
No sex.
How could I forget? They’ve only been telling me for the last two nights. Irritated, I swat Zander’s hand away, which only makes him laugh harder.
“Don’t be like that, Doll,” he coos, reaching for me, but I turn my back to him. That doesn’t stop him from wrapping his arms around, though. “It’s not like we don’t want to fuck you.” He says, pressing against my back, and I can feel his stiff cock through his towel as it pokes me.
Not helping.
“We just don’t want to hurt you, is all,” he says, his voice full of concern that instantly has my anger melting away.
“I know,” I tell him, turning to bury my face in his chest and wrapping my arms around him.
Doesn’t mean I like it, but I understand.
“We only have to make it a little while longer. The doctor said you can get your stitches out this weekend, and your legs are getting better every day. I know this isn’t what you wanted, but we’re all alive.”
Again, his finger tucks under my chin, this time tipping my head up so that our eyes meet.
“You faced your demon, and you won, Jade. That’s something worth celebrating, even if it’s not exactly the way you wanted.
The hardest part is over. Now, we have the rest of our lives to figure out everything else.
Together.” His smile is so sweet that I can’t resist pushing up on my toes to press my lips to his.
He’s right. I know he is, but it’s hard to believe it’s really over.
I press forward further into him to deepen the kiss, wanting just a little more, but before we get any further, Zander’s gone. I stumble forward a step before I catch myself. My eyes fly open to find Rick dragging Zander away as he fights him, pouting.
“What part of ‘I’ll cut your balls off’ wasn’t clear enough for you?” Rick grumbles but doesn’t even struggle, even as Zander flails around like a fish out of water.
“I wasn’t going to do anything!” he whines, looking back at me.
“I just needed a little taste to get me through, man,” he insists, but I can see the heat in his eyes, and I know he’s lying.
The guys have been really careful about leaving us alone together, and I can guess why.
If any of them would give in, it’d be Zander.
Not only for himself, but because he just can’t seem to tell me no, no matter what I ask of him.
Trent’s chuckle from behind me has me spinning to face him. I hadn’t even realized he was there with Zander’s little distraction.
Walking toward me, he drops a towel into my hands. I look up at him as he stops to press a soft kiss on my forehead.
“Get naked and then wrap up in this so that Zander doesn’t completely lose it, huh?” he says with a chuckle before heading off to join the others.
I stand there for a moment, watching him until he turns the corner and disappears. Bits of their conversation echo back to me, and a smile pulls at my lips, hearing both Kratos and Rick give Zander a hard time.
Poor guy.
Without the pain medication, I’ve been doing pretty good, or as good as I can, considering I was shot less than a week ago.
The first day after being off the IV was terrible, but I didn’t want to take the pills.
I had too many bad experiences with medication at this point.
The guys didn’t like it, hated the idea of me just dealing with the pain.
I made it through the first day, but just barely, and by the time we went to sleep, there was no hiding how bad it had gotten.
We’d all come to the decision to sleep in the same room.
None of them liked the idea of being too far from me, and I wasn’t very fond of it either.
We found the largest room, and Rick and Kratos brought over another bed from a neighboring room.
Even with two beds pushed together, it was a tight fit, but we made it work.
I woke to find all six of them crowded around me in various states of panic.
They said I was screaming in my sleep, and with the pain I felt when I woke up, I believed them.
I hated making them worry about me, but there was no hiding it, especially if I was going to cry out in my sleep.
No way I could stay up all night without them noticing.
In the end, I agreed to take the medicine at night. It wasn’t a perfect solution and didn’t stop the pain, but I didn’t wake up screaming again.
Now, standing here with the towel in my hand, I’m torn about what to do.
Clearly, this is what one does to go into a sauna, but a good portion of my lower half is still covered in gauze.
My upper arm is still wrapped from where a stray bullet grazed me; it was deep enough that it also needed stitches.
I’d seen the way the guys looked at my wounds.
They’d taken turns helping me get changed and shower the last few days, even when I insisted I didn’t need it.
Every one of them got the same dark look in their eyes when they saw the bandages that wrapped my body.
Guilt.
I knew that look all too well. I’d lived with it for years, and try as they might, they couldn’t hide it from me.
I let the towel slip through my fingers and fall to the floor.
Making my way to the guy's piles of clothes that sit on a bench near the door, I grab the first shirt I see. It takes me a second to strip down, being careful not to rip my stitches. A sense of pride rushes over me as I stand in my underwear. It might be a simple task, but it’s one I couldn’t really manage alone just two days ago.
I leave my underwear on and toss the shirt over my head.
I have no idea whose it is as it drapes over my body, falling to my mid-thigh.
The size doesn’t really help me. They're all so much bigger than I am. I should probably know whose shirt it is, but with everything going on this last week, I haven’t been paying as close attention as I once did.
I pull the shirt up over my nose and take a deep breath, and the scent of apples and bourbon fills my senses.
Jake.
A smile tugs at my lips as I walk down the hall to join them, and I wonder how long it will take them to say something about my choice of shirt.
The second I turn the corner, they all take notice. They turn to look at me. No more arguing, no more talking as they watch me. My steps falter as I look back at each of them.
“Killer?” Kratos says, his voice full of question and concern, but I wave him off before starting toward them again.
I’m not in pain, or not much, and I know that’s what he’s worried about.
But I don’t really know how to explain it was them that stopped me in my tracks.
Looking around, seeing the soft looks in their eyes, the same eyes that have seen so much.
These men are ruthless, mean, criminals even, but that’s only a part of them.
The piece they give to me is so much more, and I’m still just happy to be alive, let alone get to be with them.
Sometimes, it hits me that this life is ours. We fought for it, and we won.
It didn’t take Zander long to whine about me wearing Jake’s shirt, which, of course, gets them all going.
I sit and watch them for a while, unsure what the point of being down here is when we could do this same thing with clothes in just about any room of the house.
Don’t get me wrong, this would be great in like a week when sex is back on the menu.
Fuck, I don’t even need sex, not really, but they're careful tiptoeing around me, isn’t it?