Page 17 of Forever Your Touch (Manwhore #4)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Mason woke up to the sound of screaming.

He jumped up, bleary-eyed, and looked around.

It was coming from outside, and it was definitely Jo.

He ran, and a fear so deep it ached settled in his chest. Ripping the door open, he bounded down the steps, and he would never forget the sight that greeted him.

Jo lay on the ground, her leg under the lawnmower—the still running lawnmower. The more she tried to get out from under it, the more she screamed. Ray’s mother stood frozen on the front porch of her house, staring in absolute horror.

Mason, however, was not frozen. He ran and shut the thing off before trying to move it away from Jo. Her leg was a bloody mess. The blades had ripped all through her lower calf. His hands shook as he tried to assess the damage.

“Is she okay?” Mrs. Daniels asked, finally coming over.

“No, she’s fucking not okay,” Mason snarled. “Call 9-1-1 and then bring me some towels. We have to stop the bleeding.”

The woman didn’t say a word, just disappeared into the house.

Fuck. Mason ran his hands through his hair. She was still crying, but at least she’d stopped screaming.

“What the fuck were you thinking, woman?” Mason tried to straighten out her leg to see where the worst of the bleeding was coming from. Her scream stopped him cold. He was hurting her more and that’s the last thing he wanted to do.

“Here.” Mrs. Daniels shoved a bunch of towels at him.

“The grass needed to be cut.” Jo whimpered when he lifted her leg up to slide the now open towels under it. He wrapped each one as tightly as he could. There were too many cuts.

“Mrs. Daniels, you’re going to have to help me. Press down along the top half, and I’ll do the lower half. Put as much pressure as you can on it. We have to try to stop the bleeding.”

He waited until she did as he asked before taking several deep breaths. He needed to calm the fuck down or he’d yell at Jo.

“ Moye dragotsennyy , why were you out here cutting the damn lawn when you know how accident-prone you are?”

“I asked Ray if he could cut the grass this weekend, and he said he wasn’t going to have time. He was going fishing with his dad, and he had to leave early tomorrow for work. No one else was going to do it, so I did.”

“Motherfucker!” Mason seethed with anger. “It’s his fucking job to fucking cut the grass. Not yours. You should never have been out here doing this. If your bastard boyfriend can’t find the time to cut his own damn grass, then I’ll fucking do it from now on to keep you safe from yourself!”

Both Jo and Mrs. Daniels gasped, but for entirely different reasons.

“How dare you speak of my son like that?”

“No one has to keep me safe from myself.” Jo’s angry eyes bored into his, the blue so brilliant, it could make the deepest oceans weep. “I’m perfectly capable…”

He put a hand over her mouth. “No, Josephine, you are not. The bloody mess under this towel says you’re not. When you need the damn grass cut, you call me.” He closed his eyes, trying to get a handle on his temper. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Because you were exhausted.” She cried out when she moved her leg.

“Don’t move.” He locked his hand around her calf, making sure she wouldn’t. “I might have been tired, but it doesn’t mean I can’t help you. I’m your FIBB, remember? We discussed this last night. It’s my job.”

The wail of sirens sounded. Thank God. He needed to get her to the ER before she bled to death. The towels they had wrapped around her had already soaked through.

Mason and Mrs. Daniels moved out of the way while the EMTs worked. He couldn’t stop the wince at her scream when they moved her from the ground to the gurney. Shit, shit, shit.

He pulled out his phone and called Keith. Thank God he picked up.

“Yo, Mase. How’s it going?”

“It’s Josephine. There was an accident.”

“What the fuck? Is she okay?” Fear, the same fear Mason was feeling, bled out of the phone.

“No. She was trying to cut the fucking grass, and I guess she slipped and…hell, I don’t know what the fuck happened, but her leg ended up under the mower. It’s pretty bad.”

“Fuck.”

“Call your parents, and I’ll call you as soon as I know more…” He paused when the EMT asked if anyone was riding with them. “Mrs. Daniels, can you ride to the hospital with her? I’ll follow in my truck.”

“I can’t. I have a lot to do today.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. She’s your son’s girlfriend, the woman he loves, and you can’t go to the hospital with her?”

“She’s not my daughter.”

“Thank God for that small miracle. I’ll ride with her. One of my brothers can pick up my truck.” He gave the woman one last disgusted look and climbed in the ambulance. “Piece of shit.”

The EMTs looked like they agreed with his estimation of the woman.

The squawking coming from his phone made him remember Keith. “Shit, I forgot you were there.”

“Did that bitch just refuse to go the hospital with my sister?” Keith was quiet. It was his tell. When he got quiet, you got worried.

“I’m going with Josephine to the ER. You want to talk to her?”

“Yeah. I want to talk to her.”

Jo took the phone from Mason, her eyes wide. She’d never seen him this angry in the short time she’d known him. He looked ready to murder someone, preferably Ray’s mom.

“Keith…” The tremor in her voice belied how brave she was trying to be.

“You okay, Jo Beans?” Anger vibrated in Keith’s voice.

Not that she could blame him after overhearing Ray’s mom.

If it had been Ray and her parents, either of them would have ridden to the hospital with him, despite how much they disliked him.

They would have done it because of how much she loved him.

“No, I’m not okay, Keith. It really hurts.” Tears spilled over. She wanted her brother so much right now. He was always the one who was there every single time she’d seriously hurt herself growing up. She just wanted her family.

“I’m getting on a plane, okay? I’ll be there as soon as I can. I promise.”

“Thank you.” She pulled in a breath, the sound gasping and full of tears. “Here’s Mase. I can’t talk anymore.”

She didn’t bother to listen to the rest of the conversation. All she could feel was the blinding pain in her leg. Why had she even tried to cut the damn grass? She knew she was prone to accidents, being the biggest klutz on the planet. It was such a stupid move on her part, but she’d been mad.

Pissed off at Ray. That was all she seemed to be anymore.

He’d come home, apologized for his behavior, and then gone to his parents’ for a couple hours instead of being with her. Then this morning, when she’d asked if he could cut the grass, he said he was going fishing with his dad.

Again, everything but being with his girlfriend.

She’d told him she’d cut the damn grass, and he’d just nodded and said “Thanks” while he got his fishing gear together. Didn’t stop even once to think about her inability to stand on two feet for very long.

A part of her was starting to think maybe Keith and the rest of her family were right.

Ray loved her; she knew that. She saw it in his eyes.

What they’d gone through, well, it bound them forever.

But sometimes love wasn’t enough. Maybe the past should be left in the past. The more she was here without anyone telling her what she didn’t want to hear, the more she was starting to realize they were right.

Especially since Mason came into her life.

He’d been so angry she hadn’t woken him up to the cut the grass. Had Ray been standing there, she had no doubt Mason would have beaten him to within an inch of his life. And right now, she might even welcome that. Ray knew she could get hurt, and he hadn’t cared.

But she’d been the one stupid enough to try to do it.

It was as much on her as it was Ray. She knew better.

Especially after the last time she’d tried to mow the lawn back home and this nearly happened.

Her dad had saved her from any real harm.

He’d been as upset as Mason too, but she’d only been trying to help out. He’d been so tired that day.

She felt the ambulance stop. The pain radiated all the way up her leg when it did. Jo knew without even seeing the x-ray and whatever other kind of test they ran she’d really screwed up this time. God only knew what kind of damage she’d done to herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She was rushed to a trauma room and away from Mason.

She tried to explain what happened while they worked to get the bleeding stopped.

It hurt like hell, but she was already woozy from blood loss.

Once that was done, she was taken to x-ray and then to have an MRI.

During all this, not once did they give her anything for the pain. Bastards.

All this took about an hour, and she was grateful when they finally took her to a room in the ER to await the results. They came and did blood work too.

“Miss?”

“What?” Jo blinked, not realizing the nurse was even in the room.

“Do you have insurance, honey?” The nurse was young, not much older than herself. She seemed nice, her smile sympathetic.

“I do. I just don’t have my purse with me. Can I have someone bring it in later? Or maybe call my dad. My insurance is through him since I’m still in school. He might be able to give you the policy number.”

“That will work. What’s his number?”

Jo rattled it off and then started answering the nurse’s questions. One of her jobs must be admission work since Jo was taken to a trauma room instead of check-in on arrival.

“You go to school at NYU?” the nurse asked when she inquired about Jo’s occupation.

“Yeah. I’m a sophomore there.”

“Me too.” The girl grinned. “I’m getting my RN. I got my LPN license at the vocational school my senior year in high school. My name’s Beth.”