Page 21 of Other Woman Drama (Content Advisory #4)

Eighteen

My patience is basically like a gift card. Not sure how much is left on it but we can give it a try.

— Webber to Silver

SILVER

Eedie came running up—I could practically feel the vibration from her flip-flops smacking against her feet—and I winced when she inhaled sharply and said, “What happened?”

Instead of explaining, I said, “Did you get my message? I didn’t mean to miss your first class. I was at work, and I stupidly left my phone at home.”

“I got it,” she replied softly. “It’s okay. What happened to you?”

I leaned into Webber as he helped me out of the car, my arms threading around his shoulders like I’d done to Jasper when he’d helped me out at my dad’s place.

Though Jasper’s arms around me felt nice, they didn’t feel anything like Webber’s.

In Webber’s arms, I felt like my heart was whole.

In Webber’s arms, I felt like my whole world was right.

In Webber’s arms, I felt like I could conquer the world, despite not being able to see.

“That officer bitch did it, mostly,” I heard and felt Webber rumble. “But Barry punched her straight in the face and knocked her down and confused her enough that she couldn’t fight back against the officer.”

“What?” she asked. “Is that why Mom sent me here?”

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t want you around either one of them anymore.”

Eedie didn’t say anything, and Webber mumbled, “Do you want to walk or me to carry you?”

Walking felt like hell. Being held by him felt like hell, but at least I was in his arms so…

“You can carry me,” I mumbled back against the skin of his throat.

He growled and held me like a child as he walked with me into his house.

“Daddy, what do you want me to get? Are you taking her to your room or the couch?” Eedie asked.

“Couch…” I started to say, but Webber interrupted with, “We’re going to take her to my room. Get her in the shower and wash off all the blood. Then we’re going to have a movie day in my bed and eat lots of junk food if she’s up for it.”

That sounded like the best form of heaven I’d ever heard.

“That works for now, but Aella will eventually hear about this and be racing over,” I pointed out.

“Well, it’s a good thing I have a big bed, huh?” Webber asked.

“Daddy has an Alaskan king. He got it when he and Mom divorced. I talked him into it. You’re welcome,” Eedie snickered.

I tried to smile, but it only broke the cut on my lip open again, so I stopped. “I’ve never seen an Alaskan king in person. Only on photos or the television.”

Not that I would be seeing it now, since I was practically blind because of my swollen shut eyes.

“It’s pretty sweet…” Webber paused. “Until you have to order four-hundred-dollar sheets for it because they’re special order.”

I winced.

Four hundred dollars was my food budget for three months.

“I can see how that’d be an issue,” I murmured.

Even talking now made my face hurt.

The pain medication they gave me at the hospital might be wearing off.

And I was scared to tell him because he might want to take me back.

The only way that Chevy wasn’t here right now freaking out alongside Webber was if he was in surgery and didn’t know. Chevy and I had grown pretty close since he’d married my sister, and I counted him as one of my closest friends.

For him not to be here meant that he couldn’t be here.

And since I was technically okay, and whoever he was working on probably wasn’t, I was okay with it.

“I’ll go get her some of my clothes,” Eedie said. “And leave them on the bed.”

“Thanks, honey,” Webber murmured.

I heard the difference in the acoustics and decided we must be in the bathroom.

I was proved right when he sat me delicately on the vanity and said, “Sit here. I’ll help you undress once I get the shower hot.”

I sat and only let out a small groan when my butt hit the hard surface.

“Based on your bruising pattern, I’m guessing you were curled up into a ball, and she was only able to hit your left side,” he offered as he moved away.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Tell me from start to finish what happened,” he urged.

The shower turned on, and then he was back, helping me undress.

He took the IV out of my hand and then replaced it with a Band-Aid before I started explaining.

“I don’t really know what happened with my dad.

He was spouting all this crap about my mother, and I must’ve said or done something to really make him mad, because he punched me in the face,” I said.

“I’ve never been hit like that before. I was stunned, and it hurt so bad that it took me a couple of minutes to orient myself.

By then he was leaving, but he left the door open to my apartment. ”

I explained the rest while Webber gently helped me into the shower.

He washed my hair while I told him about how Cadence Moran entered my apartment.

He rinsed my hair out while I told him about how Moran had taken advantage of my vulnerable position.

He applied conditioner while I told him about how I feared for my life.

He ran his soap over my body, and the scent of man filled my nostrils as I told him what she’d had to say when I’d heard her break my chair—by that point, she’d hit me in the face on the other side of my eye, and I hadn’t been able to see.

“She told me that I needed to tell you that if I didn’t get her brother to her by the end of the week, she’d kill me.

My sister. My nephew. And your daughter.

She said we had four more days, and she was going to start picking them off one by one, saving me for last so I could witness it all and hopefully convince you to find her brother. ”

Since I couldn’t see Webber, I couldn’t tell how mad he was by the end of my explanation.

His touch had never gotten any rougher than a whisper across my skin.

His voice remained even.

His soothing sounds remained just that—soothing.

However, I didn’t need to be able to see or hear his anger to know that he was angry.

Who wouldn’t be after what I’d just told him about his daughter?

He helped me out of the shower, and his hands were so achingly soft as he toweled me dry.

He helped me into one of his shirts and then handed me a toothbrush with some toothpaste on it before saying, “Sink’s right here.”

I brushed my teeth and used the bathroom, achingly aware that he was close by.

When I was finished, I felt around for the door that would lead me out of the bathroom and nearly lost my life when my foot hit a wet patch on the ground.

I was caught by a hard, overwhelmingly welcoming body.

“Careful,” he said quietly.

I pressed my forehead against his chest and couldn’t stop the moan that left me. “That hurt.”

He may have caught me as gently as he could, but still.

“Come to bed,” he urged softly in my ear. “I’ll get you some medication.”

He gave me something amazing and I eventually was in no pain as I lay in bed and listened to Eedie and Webber talk quietly about the movie we were watching.

I was so comfortable and warm that I found myself falling asleep without another thought.

“My job,” I said the moment I woke up, in enough pain that it woke me.

Even worse, in my panic, I forgot that I couldn’t see and started panicking even more.

It was seriously scary not to be able to see.

I couldn’t even pry my eyes open—and I’d tried—they were that swollen shut.

“I’ll have Apollo handle it.” I assumed Webber dialed Apollo, because Apollo’s voice filled the room around me.

“Webber, what’s up?” Apollo asked, sounding distracted.

I knew Apollo well, and he probably was distracted.

He always had something brewing, and he would never slow down, even with him running for state office.

“Need some help,” Webber explained everything, and Apollo hummed. “On it. I’ll just do her work remotely, and they won’t notice she’s not even there.”

That was sadly true.

Most nights, I was the only one there, and I arrived after everyone left.

And, since I was traveling around to various departments throughout the hospital, they might not even know I wasn’t there if they came looking for me.

“Good, thanks, man,” Webber said as he hung up.

The silence stretched, and I yawned, which was the wrong move, because holy hell did my jaw hurt.

I must’ve let out an inadvertent whimper because I felt the bed shift, and then heard Webber walk out of the room.

I had no clue what time it was, but Webber didn’t seem to care that it was probably early in the morning.

I hated that I disturbed him, though.

I hated even more that we never got to his side of the explanation.

I curled into a ball on my unabused side and closed my eyes.

The bed shifted again, and Webber said, “Here.”

I took it, and only when Webber was back in the bed beside me did I say, “What happened that night, Webber?”

He cleared his throat, then explained what had happened.

He then told me about what my dad had said, and how he’d reacted.

He then started to apologize, and that’s when I realized that he blamed himself.

“You need to tell me what happened to Moran’s brother,” I murmured quietly. “Was that his body in the car we dropped off that night?”

Silence.

“Just tell me this,” I said quietly. “Will he ever bother my sister again? Because if he’s out there, we need to figure out a way to make it to where he doesn’t touch them again.

My sister’s gone through enough in her life.

She doesn’t need to add bogus CPS calls, and threats of taking her child away to her issues. ”

Webber was still silent.

I felt around the bed until I encountered his large body and grabbed his hand, tugging on it lightly.

He moved closer.

When he was a breath away from me, I said, “I won’t ever judge you, Piers.

I don’t care that you took him out, because it was more than apparent that he was gearing up to continue his reign of terror campaign on your club.

Good leaders take care of threats. I just want to make sure I don’t begin a relationship with a man that’ll be heading to prison soon.

Just don’t be sloppy, and make sure that if you are doing what I think you’re doing or did, that you do it only to people that deserve it. ”

I felt him exhale against my lips, but the pill he’d given me was starting to really take effect.

My tongue felt heavy, but I did manage to get one more thing out before I fell asleep.

“And if you hurt me again, that’ll be it for us,” I said. “I’ve lived in abusive situations my whole life. I deserve to be happy.”