Page 10 of Endure the Pain
I knew that. Even though I didn’t know where or how he and Louie had gotten rid of Tom and Tina’s bodies, I trusted them.
Oh, Louie.
He was avoiding me. He’d barely spoken to me while I'd been in the hospital. At first, he'd seemed to be fine with Jamie and I being back together, but his carefree smile had lost its brightness the longer he'd hung around in the hospital with us. Each time Jamie kissed me or touched me, Louie’s jaw would visibly clench, or he’d look away. When he couldn’t seem to stand it any longer, he'd stood abruptly from his chair and left without saying a word. I'd wanted to call out to him, stop him from leaving. Jamie had squeezed my hand, drawing my attention, and shaken his head. I hadn’t seen Louie since.
Pulling me out of my thoughts, Jamie’s fingers twiddled with my messy braid before giving it a gentle tug. I leaned closer and his soft lips covered mine. My nose filled with his delicious woodsy scent and I reveled in the sensation of his lips moving with mine.What I wouldn’t give to get him naked right now…I was dying to take our kiss further, but the doctor had said I wasn’t allowed to have sex until she cleared me.
“You smell so good,” I said, sounding like a woman starved.
He chuckled. “I wish I could say the same.”
I mocked shock and playfully smacked his arm. “Excuse me, sir, but I’ve been a good girl and have embraced the bedrest. Isn’t that what you wanted? If you don’t like my lazy look, don’t let the door hit you on your tight ass.”
A mischievous smile pulled at the corners of his mouth before he leaned in closer, making me lie back on my pillows. He shifted on the bed until he was hovering over me, caging me beneath him with his knees on the outside of my thighs and his hands resting on the bed by my upper arms. “I find sweats and Cheeto stains hot as fuck.”
“Oh, really?”
“Really,” he said before he kissed my jaw and ran his nose along my ear, coaxing a full body shiver from me. “You’re so fucking sexy, I’d slide into you right now if I could,” he whispered in my ear, then kissed me heatedly. My toes curled into the mattress. He was getting mepretty worked up, until he had to ruin it by pulling away. “But you know what the doc said.”
I sighed frustratedly as he climbed off of me and the bed. “Fucking tease.”
CHAPTER 4
It’d been four weeks since the accident and I’d reached my breaking point. The pain of boredom was worse than being shot. I was determined to escape the confines of my bedroom to attend today’s family meeting. I’d heard Rourke was attending. He too had been ordered to rest up since the accident and had missed the last few meetings. Call it fear of missing out or boredom, I didn’t care, but if he was going, so was I.
In order to achieve my mission, I had to find a way to occupy Dean and Asher long enough to get ready and sneak downstairs without them trying to stop me. I had yet to speak with Finnegan and Gavin, the remaining few of Samuel’s inner circle I'd let live and who now answered to me. I asked Dean and Asher to go retrieve them for me. Asher was on board with the idea of getting out of the house. Dean, however, was being particularly stubborn about it. He could tell something was up, but the moment I started stripping to get in the shower, he grunted out of frustration and they both left.
I rushed to get ready after my shower by applying minimal makeup and braiding my wet hair to the side. I slipped on an emerald jersey knit dress that ended at mid-thigh and black flats. Excitement bubbled withinme as I strolled out of my bedroom. I was tempted to yell“Freedom!’”like Mel Gibson did inBraveheart.
I was feeling a lot better. Still a bit sore and I’d become a little winded by the time I made it to the stairs. The lack of exercise for the past month could explain that. Pushing on, I made sure to be careful going down the stairs.
“You should be resting, beautiful.”
Busted.
I froze in my descent six steps from the bottom. Standing in the foyer with one hand in his pocket, staring up at me, was the man who I hadn’t seen since I’d woken up in the hospital. I locked eyes with his beautiful sapphire blues and felt a little guilty at how my heart picked up speed.
Louie.
I couldn’t stop my gaze from gliding all over him. He was in a dark blue suit with black pinstripes and a black dress shirt and shoes. Like always, he wasn’t wearing a tie and his collar was left unbuttoned. He looked good.Really good.That thought tightened something in my chest and my hand squeezed the banister.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” I blurted.
He looked away. “I know.”
He knew?I took a step down, drawing his attention back to me. “Louie, I—”
The front door opened, interrupting what I was going to say, and in walked Dean and Asher with Finnegan trailing behind them. Dean and Asher noticed Louie first before their eyes landed on me. Both instantly turned annoyed.
“You owe me fifty bucks,” Dean said to Asher. Louie took that as his moment to escape me and slipped out of the foyer.
“You should be resting,” Asher said in a low chastising tone.
I ignored him and finished my way down the stairs. “Finnegan, how are you?” I greeted, stepping in front of him. He wasn’t pleased to be here in the slightest and obviously didn’t give a shit that he showed it either. We must have caught him at a bad time if his outfit was anything to go by. He was wearing black basketball shorts, a white T-shirt, tennis shoes, and a baseball cap on backward. He looked like he had just left the gym or was on his way to it. By the lack of smell, I assumed the latter was the case.
“Finn,” he corrected, eyeing me up and down with a scowl.
“Finn,” I repeated. Suppressing my urge to smile, the corner of my mouth twitched. I couldn’t care less that he didn’t like me. At least he wasn’t regarding me with utter loathing like he'd done with Samuel and Dylan at theexecution. “Where’s your friend Gavin?”