Chapter 38 Hard As A Cast
HARD AS A CAST
The door slid open to reveal Grandma, her face poised in a scowl as I stepped into her office. Shaw sat in the chair opposite her. I stood in the doorway. I knew I wasn’t invited all the way in yet.
“Scott, why are you here?” Her voice was almost calm, like one of those television grandmothers that soothed you into trusting them. April Blackett was no TV grandma though. She was cold, calculated and untrustworthy.
“I want to kill Midas,” I responded. There was no sense in trying to outsmart her by building on her ego. I could never understand her motivations, and I wouldn’t pretend to either.
“Why?” she questioned. I glanced towards Shaw and instantly regretted it. The look he gave me told me I was in shit.
“He’s betrayed you,” I stated firmly. I didn’t know if that was the case, but I would be damned if I said I was still hung up on Summer. The woman I was born to hate but never could.
“So? What concern is it of yours?” She poised herself. She was waiting for me to misstep.
“We do not forgive traitors in our midst, help me kill him and in exchange I will do as you ask, I will take Uncle’s place.” I swallowed thickly as I swayed slightly on my feet.
“Done playing lawyer already? What happened one wrong case?” Shaw baited. He was always good at hinting my lies. I bit my tongue, focusing my attention on April.
She laughed, her gray hair falling across her shoulders as she stood up. Although close to eighty, she was still just as magnificent and terrifying. “I don’t need you to take his place, you are weak. Pathetic. A coward.” She listed.
It was true; I couldn’t deny it. I stood there as she came around the desk, her posture straight despite the years it tried to beat her down. “But, I do need you. So I will grant your request,” she commented.
She turned and pushed a buzzer on her desk, and a voice answered back, “Yes Mrs. Blackett?”
“Send her in,” she commanded.
Send who in? I stepped out of the doorway just as the door slid open. My heartbeat caught in my chest as the woman walked over to Grandma and bowed to her, kissing her cheek in greeting.
“What the fuck?” It tumbled out of my mouth before I could catch it. A knife sailed across the room and nicked my ear before it slammed into the wall behind me.
“Mind your tongue boy!” April shouted as Shaw lazily twirled the twin knife around on his fingertip.
I flinched as I let the blood drip. “I am sure you know my sweet granddaughter, Melody already?” April asked.
I remained silent. I was the only grandchild, uncle never had any children and Dad wasn’t keen on having me. I was a mistake.
“Hello Scott,” Melody smiled as she took the remaining open chair as April made her way back to the other side.
“What do you want me to do?” Fear filled my voice as I waited for the verdict.
“Melody has been raised by me since she was a little girl, she’s the closest thing I have to a daughter, but she isn’t blood.
You on the other hand despite the whore of a mother are my blood.
You will fuck her, you will impregnate her and you will give me a grand baby.
” April’s voice left no room for argument.
“Your joking right?” I laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to fuck her now that I know she’s working with you?
” I questioned. I was digging myself a hole.
Was Melody all a lie? I backed up, my hand catching on the slide of the door.
If I could run, I might make it out of the building alive.
A knife slammed into my hand and a scream ripped out of my throat.
I felt the bones break with the force of the impact, and my body shook in pain.
“You weren’t planning on running were you Scotty?” Shaw calmly walked towards me as I tried to keep the pain from leaking on my face. “Tell us the truth, will you? We hate lies. Tell us the real reason you are here.”
I swallowed as all the gumption left me. What could I say that would get me out of this situation? Panic rose in me as my eyes darted towards Melody and then back to Shaw. “Shaw,” Melody’s tone had shifted from the sweet innocence tone I had known to be her voice to a cold, more calculated one.
“Oh come on it wasn’t his dominant hand, it’s all in good fun,” Shaw laughed as he jerked the knife out of my hand.
I screamed and cradled the bloodied mess to my chest. Sure, I had broken my hand a time or two fighting in Uncle’s rings, but this was a whole different world of pain.
Bruises formed in the skin where it had sunk.
My knuckles looked like I had caught it in a blender and the bleeding did not cease.
“Stop toying with him, he might need his hand later. I have a doctor that I would call unless you prefer to call one in these situations? Or do you wish for him to suffer with his pain madame?” Melody asked April, who had watched the interaction without a care.
She had a large cigar poised between her lips.
As the smoke filled the, room she just puffed on it as I stood there in pain.
I knew better than to say a word now. My fate was sealed regardless of my desires.
She tipped the cigar in an ashtray and steepled her hands together, “Call the doctor, get it set and then take him to the shop,” It cold and calculated.
I didn’t even blink as I fell under her scrutiny.
“With any luck the child will turn out more like its mother than you,” she seethed.
She didn’t want a mixed baby; I knew it.
She was a racist bitch, and the very sight of me constantly pissed her off.
Shaw was no exception. His Italian bloodline irked April, but not to the same extent as my melanin skin.
I knew that was one reason she didn’t care to have me in this business.
I was a disgrace to everything she stood for, and I was a constant reminder of the failure of her son.
I stood there, sweat beading on my forehead as I fought the urge to moan in pain.
Shaw’s hand clasped on my arm. He wouldn’t move until dismissed, and I was secretly gratefully he was grounding me at the moment.
My head swam with the pain as the blood pooled on the floor in front of me.
“And Melody dear, do take care of that cut lip, we don’t need it getting infected,” Her voice was scary soft now, concern obviously laced into it, and I shuddered.
Motherly tones just felt off coming from her.
Melody’s fingers touched her lip in shock and she glanced towards me, or was it Shaw, before she nodded, “Yes madame.” April waved her hand dismissively as she picked up her cigar and turned towards the large window Done with us for now.
My body felt hot, too hot as Shaw dragged me down the halls of April’s mansion.
I could barely see straight as my feet stumbled along.
Maybe it was the bloodless or the adrenaline from the days’ events ran its course.
If I had to guess, it was around three or so in the morning, when we made it to the work station the doctor had set up.
If I had known any better, it was like his own medical staffroom.
I looked at the various glass cabinets equipped with jars and bins of supplies.
The small cart the doctor had to his left held a variety of devices from cast plaster, to cotton, and some other things I assumed were for stitching up my hand.
When he glanced up to see us walking in, he knitted his brows together.
It was a strange reaction to someone on grandma’s payroll.
His eyes met Melody’s before they cut to me and the broken, bloody hand I held to my chest.
“Hey Karter, sorry to call you so late, but there was a bit of an accident mind stitching up my fiancé for me?” Melody’s singsong voice was back and I almost jumped out of my skin at the one eighty she threw me for.
“Ah that’s no problem I was helping a colleague anyways,” he beamed at her like they’d been friends for ages and she wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
The action was accompanied by her whispering something into his ear, and his laughter echoed around the mental room.
“I can certainly relate, well you know,” he winked up at her.
Shaw’s whole body tensed. It wasn’t much, but I could practically feel the envy roll through his veins.
He dropped me like a sack of flour onto the not so soft surface beside the doctor and yanked Melody by the arm.
A hushed set of whispers came from them both as they shoved through to an adjacent room.
The door slammed shut behind them. “What do we have here?” Karter, the doctor asked as my eyes focused back on him.
He looked familiar but I couldn’t place where I’d seen him.
He was definitely a good ten or so years older than me.
I stared at him. His blonde hair was short, textured with an undercut, and his beard was a natural box with a fade.
Grays littered his hair, giving him that sexy older man vibe.
My dick stirred in my pants at the thought of what a man like that could do, all authority—It reminded me of Jones, except he was a more rough Italian capo.
I laughed when I realized that I hadn’t replied, too caught up in admiring another man’s sex appeal. Fuck, was I gay?
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. My hand met an untimely knife, pretty sure it’s broken by the way it’s screaming in agony anytime I move it,” My face reddened, and I couldn’t stop eye-fucking the man in front of me. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“No worries, It’s the face, no one can resist it,” he stroked his beard and made the classic think face before chuckling out, “Kidding, it’s most definitely the dick, have to swat those greedy cunts away or risk losing an eye, I’m very fond of my eyes you see.
” My eyes automatically rolled down his physique to see the outline of a bulge and I snapped my eyes back to his.
The vulgarity in which he talked made me forget my circumstances.
Just something about how he defused the situation made me relax just a bit.
I laughed nervously as he dawned some gloves and examined the fingers on my wounded hand.
“It’s definitely not the sun god looks—maybe the hair,” I replied.
This cocky doctor was something else. He knew he had the looks and charm on his side.
It must have gotten him far in life, and I couldn’t blame him for using it to his advantage.
“The students seem to think I’m some Apollo personified but I don’t see it, sun never shines brighter for me,” His words were cool, measured, with a little hint of something else.
I wasn’t sure exactly what. I barely noticed when he stuck the needle in my hand what I did notice was the absence of pain. My mouth went dry at the relief.
“You are something else that’s for sure,” I licked my lips, wetting them. Karter took every apprehension out of the air and made it his own personal mission to comfort. It was something I hadn’t felt in ages, and yet it felt like home.
“Well you know what they say,” he smirked as he started stitching my wound closed. I blinked in amazement that he was just so casual.
“What do they say?” The words left my mouth before my mind could process.
“What’s the point in living if you can’t fuck your way through the rough days along with the great days,” his laughter boomed across the room, and I couldn’t help but join in.
He returned to his stitches after a few moments and I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face whenever he’d make another comment about work or his students.
“Alright let’s get you a cast, just remember you can’t rub one out with this plaster of paris it’ll hurt like a bitch or so I’m told,” he shrugged.
Karter grabbed the fish-netting stuff from his tray, sliding it in my hand and then slid the cotton pads on.
His hands moved in a way that told me he’d had his fair share of casting broken bones and once he angled my hand in the proper position, he started rolling the wet material around.
I watched in awe; it was the first time anyone had actually given me a cast for a broken bone.
Once he was done and the plaster had dried, he slipped something metallic into the edge of my cast.
“What’s — ”
“Ah something for later, remember don’t mutilate them if you can but enough damage will cause a bleed out.” Karter’s voice was low and serious now, it was a jarring difference but I blinked at him in confusion.
“Okay?”
He slapped me on the shoulder as the doors to the other room opened and a disheveled Shaw came walking in. Melody, a few steps behind, looked like she’d won that argument.
“Is he done?” Shaw ground out.
“Just about, remember they are responsible for more than swimming,” he winked at me and saluted towards Shaw in mock respect.
“Thanks professor, I’ll get your bill settled and walk you out,” Melody swayed her hips and looped his arm in hers as they walked together.
Shaw huffed a long sigh and jerked me out of my seat.
It finally rang a bell where I had seen Karter before.
He was the professor at the University where Melody worked.
The library was probably where most of his students lived.
Something told me he was a hard ass when it came to assignments.
I watched them walk out together, laughing about an oversized cat.
You could tell their friendship stretched deep, and I had a pang of jealousy.
I wanted that with her. I craved the normalcy of it.
Shaw was unusually moody. I knew by watching their interactions that they both shared a past. Hell, it was probably just as fucked up as everyone else’s past.
“Come on we have a good little walk down,” Shaw’s voice held that unnerving glee. That same glee when he caught Cole, Summer and me together. I shuddered at the sudden cold in the air as we walked down the halls to the stairwell.