Page 59 of Forgotten Comeback (Parisi Family #5)
Chapter
Fifty-Eight
Gavin
On two wheels, we arrive at Inferno’s place. I hop out and sprint around the car, picking up Taylor and hustling her inside.
“Place her down here,” Effie points to a hospital bed, and I gently release Taylor from my arms.
“Gavin, I’m okay,” Taylor says softly, holding my blood-soaked T-shirt against her arm.
But I’m not okay. I’m nowhere near okay.
Grabbing the closest thing to me, I fling a medical tray across the room.
“Get him out of here,” Effie says firmly.
“Gavin, let’s go outside,” John says, and I didn’t realize he was here.
“Out!” Effie shouts when I don’t move.
“Gavin, I’m thirsty.” Taylor locks eyes with me. Hers calm. Mine probably as disturbed as I feel. “Will you get me a drink?”
“Of course.” I try to match her calm, even though I feel like I might implode. “What do you want?”
“Can you get me boba tea from that place I like?”
“Sure, baby. Be right back.”
Once we’re out of the room, I get in John’s face. “If you don’t find that bitch and kill her, I’ll burn this goddamn city to the ground!”
“Gavin, calm down.”
Calm down? Calm down?
Disturbing laughter fills the hallway, and a chair’s now in my hands. It gets slammed against the wall, splintering around my feet.
John wraps me in a bear hug, telling me calmly, “We’ve got our crew out looking for Mia. We’ll find her. Take a breath for me.”
I do so, releasing it slowly.
“Come on, I’ll drive you to get Taylor her drink. What the hell is boba tea?”
“It’s tea and milk with these little ball thingies…” The realization hits me like another perfectly placed uppercut. “It’s an excuse to get me out of the room.”
He chuckles, releasing his hold. “Your girl’s a keeper. Come on, we’ll go find this boba tea.” His phone notifies, and he grabs it from his pocket. “Mia’s at the Diamond bar. You want a mugging gone wrong when she leaves, or do you want her brought in so you can do the deed yourself?”
I pause for a beat, taking one more deep breath and then exhaling. “Mugging gone wrong. That little bitch isn’t worth any more of mine or Taylor’s time.”
“Mugging gone wrong it is.” He slaps my back.
Taylor
“Good news. Just a little nick; you won’t even need stitches.” Effie prods the bloody divot in my arm with her gloved finger.
“Oww.”
“My apologies. Do you need pain medication?”
“What kind of doctor are you?” I wonder.
“In another life, I worked in home healthcare,” Effie tells me as she gently bandages my arm.
“You and Inferno both have the gift of deflection,” I inform her.
She smiles, but doesn’t comment, which only proves my point.
Now that she’s brought up pain medication, I realize my arm is burning like a mother. “I do need something for the pain, but I’m on several prescriptions, and I’m not sure how another medication would interact,” I warn her, spouting off my list of scripts.
“I’m sure your doctor has warned you to avoid NSAIDs,” she says, and I nod. “But opioids should be fine.” She moves to a cart, rummaging through it until she produces an unlabeled bottle. Shaking out two pills, she hands them to me.
“Thanks.” I swallow and chase them with a sip of water from the straw she holds in place for me.
“How are you feeling emotionally?” Effie asks, setting down the water glass.
“Pissed. My ex-situationship shot me.” It was always a one-sided relationship, and never again will I call that bitch my ex-girlfriend.
“Don’t blame you. Trauma’s a strange animal, though,” she warns. “Adrenaline takes over, and you think you’re fine in the moment; I want to make sure you’re fine when things settle down.”
“Do things ever settle down around these men?”
She considers. “Define settle down.”
“Ha, what I thought. I don’t want you to worry about me; I have therapy tomorrow, anyway. We’ll go over this new material.”
“May I suggest EMDR. It did wonders for—” She pauses. “Someone I know.”
The meds are already starting to make my head a little fuzzy, or else I would be nosy and ask who.
There’s a soft knock, and Inferno slips into the room. He and Effie exchange something quietly before Effie turns to me. “I’ll be back in a little bit to check on you.”
“Thanks,” I tell her.
Inferno comes to stand next to me, slipping his gloved hands in his pockets. “You took a bullet for my brother.”
“Yes, but we can’t be together, me Gavin and,” I whisper, tears welling in my eyes.
He examines me. “Why?”
“Gavin’s curse-breaking didn’t work.”
“Curse breaking,” he repeats without inflection.
“He loves me, and that means he’ll die. Everyone who loves me dies. It’s my curse,” I ramble.
He watches me past the point of politeness, and finally says, “A curse is only true if you believe it’s true. Want to break it? Break it here.” He taps his temple.
I do a double-take, because I swear his face shifted with that tap in a really unnatural way. “You’re wearing a mask.”
Is he? Or am I seeing things?
He flashes an enigmatic smile. “I will sit for a bust portrait at your studio, but only when,” he pauses, “you’ve broken this ‘curse.’” With that, he walks out.
My eyes become heavy, and I drift in and out of sleep, dreaming of a spider family who wears spider masks, and it’s really confusing for the other spiders, because why do you need a spider mask if you’re already a spider…
Something shifts the bed, and I know that strong body, that delicious masculine smell. “Hey, baby. You want a sip of your tea?”
“I’m going to paint your brother’s real face, not his spider face,” I tell Gavin with my eyes closed, snuggling closer to him.
“What?”
“I love you. But don’t say it back until I break my curse.”