Chapter 14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Ghost
Kieran and that stupid gun.
I swear, the dude had a holster for it in his ass crack. If something even so much as breathed crooked, he was there… ready to feed it bullets.
Not today, my guy. Not today.
I saw the muzzle of his ass accessory before I even noted him, not intimidated in the least. I think it goes without saying that I penciled in bullets under minor concerns.
I’d also go ahead and tell you that fear required effort, but I’d be a liar because Pip wasn’t doing anything but existing, and here I was, scared as hell.
It all happened in a split second. Pip taking off, the door bursting in, and Kieran’s gun acting like it was the main character around here.
Just before he got a splinter embedded in his forehead from the solid wood door, I pulled him into me and spun. He was still tucked into my arms when I made a three-sixty and stood facing Kieran, who loomed darkly in the doorway.
“Don’t you knock?” I wanted to know.
“This is my house.”
So he liked to keep reminding everyone.
I sniffed the air. “Is that French toast?” I never knew he could cook. He’d been holding out on me.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Kieran asked, eyes sweeping the premises like he was FBI before dropping them to Pip, who straightened immediately.
“He yanked out his IV!” he tattled.
Kieran’s dark, reproachful eyes snapped to me.
“Whose side are you on?” I accused. How many times did I have to save his life for him to have a little loyalty?
“He almost shot my face off—again!” Pip exclaimed as if that were an excuse.
Dramatic.
I patted his head. “If he wanted to do that, he’d have to aim lower.”
Pip’s outraged gasp made me grin over his head.
Kieran rolled his eyes and stuffed the gun into the back of his pants. “It sounded like a pack of toddlers in here, all hopped up on sugar and bad choices.”
“Just because you’re a dad now doesn’t mean you’re an expert on kids,” I chastised.
“I’m not a dad,” he grumbled.
“But I just heard you call our fish your babies on the phone,” Haz said from somewhere out in the hall.
“Oooh, do tell,” I sang.
Pip tried to pull away from me, but I tightened my grip. The motion caused sharp pain to radiate up my arm and into my neck, but the minute I let go, he’d probably try and leave again.
Kieran stepped out of the doorway, revealing Haz standing right behind him with a huge tray of food in his hands. My stomach howled like I’d been personally wronged by hunger.
“I told you they can eat in the kitchen,” Kieran told him.
“You let me eat in bed,” Haz pointed out.
“Yeah, and I had to get new sheets because of the mess you made.”
Haz walked farther into the room. “Ghost is a patient. He needs rest.”
The glass holding orange juice was overfull, and every step he took made some splash over the rim. The silverware clinked together, and the mug of coffee was also dangerously close to spilling. He didn’t seem to notice, though, just continued toward the bed.
“He’s just grumpy ‘cause we slept on the couch,” Haz explained. “But he made this for you. I only poured the juice.”
That would explain the spillage.
I glanced at Kieran, pressing a hand to my chest. “Oh, honey, you cooked.”
“Get out,” Kieran declared.
Haz tripped on the edge of the rug near the bed and nearly went down. Kieran’s entire life flashed across his face, and I let go of Pip to steady Hazard and the tray of good eats before it all crashed to the ground.
“I really think we should get some new rugs,” Haz said, twisting to look at Kieran.
Kieran’s eye twitched. “Put the tray down.”
I took it from Haz, and he immediately went to Pip. “How are you this morning, Rett?”
“I’m okay. Thank you so much for letting me stay here last night. And for letting me borrow this shirt,” he said, plucking the front of the T-shirt away from his body.
I saw a flash of him taking off the shirt he’d been wearing yesterday to try to stop my arm from bleeding.
“You can stay anytime,” Haz volunteered, and I slid a glance at Kieran to see what he thought of that but was distracted when Pip said, “I need to be going.”
Absolutely not. Over my cold, dead body. “Come over here and eat, Pip.”
He didn’t even look at me. “I’m not hungry.”
“You’re eating.”
“But that’s for you, Ghost.” Haz worried. “You need—are you bleeding?”
As if I would sit down and shovel food in my mouth when Pip was sitting here with nothing. Frankly, I was going to have to talk to Kieran about his hospitable ways. Or lack thereof.
It was one thing to be an asshole to me but something else altogether to be like that toward Pip.
“He ripped his IV out,” Pip declared. Apparently, he liked telling people that.
Haz’s multicolored eyes whipped to mine, one blue and one green, emphatically staring. “Did you fall out of bed too?”
“What?” I wondered and glanced at Kieran, who let out a long-suffering sigh.
“He ripped it out when I tried to leave,” Pip explained.
“Doc said to leave it in until he gets here later,” Haz retorted.
“I don’t need it.”
“Do you feel like your organs are floating?” Haz asked seriously. “That’s how I feel every time Kieran makes me get an IV.”
I cackled. What a lightweight.
“If you drip blood on my carpet, you’re buying me a new house,” Kieran grumbled.
God forbid his house looked like someone—*shudders*—lives in it.
“In the bed, Pip,” I announced, gesturing with my head.
Ignoring me, he turned to Haz. “Do you have any Band-Aids?”
Haz nodded. “Kieran has a massive first aid kit in the bathroom.”
“Really?” Pip sounded just as impressed as Haz.
I didn’t know what was so special about a pile of Band-Aids and some peroxide, but whatever floated their boats, I guess.
When they both disappeared into the bathroom, Kieran muttered, “Gonna need to keep a whole clinic on standby for someone like Haz.” His eyes strayed to me. “And apparently you too.”
I scoffed. “I’ve had worse hangovers than this,” I declared, setting the tray on the bed, then turned toward my friend.
Before I could say anything, Pip appeared, carrying a carry-on-sized red kit by the handle.
It was adorable as hell. A pocket-sized doctor on call.
Instead of coming toward me with it, he veered toward Kieran, stopping in front of him. He was about the same height as Haz, maybe an inch taller, but he was thinner. So yeah, him standing there in front of big ass Kieran made him look fragile.
The urge to protect him was like a punch of adrenaline so strong I could feel it spreading through my veins. Mine.
“Here, use this to clean him up,” Pip said, holding out the kit to my friend.
I bristled, and Kieran’s eyes cut to me, then flicked away.
“No.”
“No?” Rett echoed.
Kieran crossed his arms over his chest. “He ripped it out. He can clean himself up.”
“How will he do it with one hand?” Pip wondered.
“If you’re so worried about it, you do it.”
Rett stood there for a second, stock-still, like he was in shock. But then, surprisingly, he recovered to shake his blond head at Kieran. “He calls you his best friend, but I have no idea why.”
Surprise flitted over Kieran’s face for a split second before he grunted and looked away. Pip turned around and headed toward me, and I sent him my silent thanks.
“Haz, come here,” Kieran grumped.
I ignored what they were doing across the room and focused on Pip, stepping aside and gesturing to the bed.
“You’re the one who needs to lie down,” he pointed out.
“Can’t blame me for trying to get you back in my bed,” I said with a wink.
“That’s my bed,” Kieran growled.
“Sit down,” Rett bossed.
I sat and slipped my legs under the blankets while Rett opened the kit on the nightstand, brows furrowing the second he took it all in. He shifted nervously and cleared his throat, looking through the various supplies, teeth sinking into his lower lip.
“What’s the matter, Pip?”
His voice was a little sheepish. “I’ve never even seen half this stuff before.”
I leaned over to pluck through the supplies to grab a wipe and a Band-Aid. “This should do it.”
“No. We need medicine too.”
“The doc gave me medicine already.”
“No. The kind you put on cuts to make them heal faster,” he said.
“I thought you didn’t know about this stuff?” I countered.
“I don’t, but one time, a pigeon attacked me, and I had to go to a clinic. They used some of it on me, and it really helped,” Pip explained.
“Ooo-weee,” I sang. “Did you just say you were attacked by a pigeon?”
“Yes. I got fired for it too. Wouldn’t even pay me for work because they had to pay the doctor bill.”
“The fact that you are still alive astounds me.”
“What kind of job has pigeons?” Hazard wondered from across the room.
“A job you aren’t ever getting,” Kieran deadpanned.
“A pigeon deterrent specialist,” Pip told Haz. “I thought it would be an easy job. I mean, how hard could it be to shoo them somewhere else? Turns out it made me feel like I was ruining their dreams, and they always refused to leave. They pooped a lot too.”
“At least fish stay where you put them.” Haz empathized. “Except for that one time a rainbow tetra just disappeared from its tank. I still wonder what happened to it.”
“The others probably ate it,” Kieran offered.
“Eat or be eaten,” I echoed.
Haz looked offended. “But they were friends.”
“Friends don’t eat friends.” Pip agreed.
Kieran looked at me and rolled his eyes.
Rett picked up a small tube. “Is this that stuff?” he asked, squinting at the label.
I glanced over. “Yeah, that’s it.”
“It looks different than what the doctor had,” he mumbled, cheeks pinkening.
“Can we get back to the pigeon attack?” It had probably tried to peck out his eyes. Jealous its eyes weren’t even half as beautiful as his.
“No,” he declared and ripped open the alcohol wipe. “Arm.”
I held up my arm, not even caring it was going to sting like a bitch when that alcohol slapped into my open wound. But it didn’t hurt at all. The sensation of his hand cradling my elbow silenced every pain receptor in my entire body.
“Is that okay?” He worried, tenderly wiping away the blood.
“Yeah.”