Page 28 of The Bad Brother
I SHOULD’VE SEEN THIS COMING.
I should have known that after the bomb I dropped on Ethan at the club a few weeks ago that he’d find a way to get even. Make me pay for getting the better of him in front of his fiancé.
I got sloppy.
Let my guard down.
And now here I am, bleeding all over Sloane’s hardwood floors.
“ Sloane !” River calls her name, the near hysteria I hear in her tone feels like getting cut all over again. Riv’s got a thing about blood. Falls apart at the tiniest drop. I’m not exactly sure what it is but, if I had to guess it has to do with her parent’s accident.
“I’m okay, Riv,” I tell her, trying to reassure her over the shrill whistle of a tea kettle. “It’s not that bad.” That’s a lie. I can feel the blood running down my leg. It’s pretty fucking bad.
Hearing footsteps, I lift my head to see Sloane hustling down the steps so fast I’m afraid her feet are going to get tangled up enough to pitch her down the stairs.
“River.” Landing on her feet, Sloane rushes toward us.
“Grab a chair from the dining room and bring it into the kitchen,” she says, her commanding tone cutting through River’s hysteria and snapping her back to reality.
While River rushes to follow directions, Sloane steps in front of me and tucks her hand under my chin.
Lifting my head just enough to look me in the eye, she frowns like she doesn’t like what she sees. “What happened?”
Before I can tell her, River hustles past us with a chair, dragging it into the kitchen. “Now what?”
“Shut off the kettle and then go upstairs and grab every clean towel you can find,” Sloane tells her without hesitation. As soon as River is moving again, she flicks a hard look at Cade. “Get him into the chair so I can see what’s going on.”
Austin and Cade shuffle me into the kitchen, right behind River who cuts the burner on the stove before bolting for the sleep loft.
The silence that replaces the shrill whistle of the kettle is so deafening, my ears are ringing.
Setting me in the chair so that I’m straddling the seat, Cade drapes me over of the back of it, handful of bloody bar towels still pressed firmly against my back, trying to staunch the flow.
Coming around to the front of me, Sloane hunkers down again while River tears the linen closet apart upstairs. Frowning again, Sloane looks me in the eye. “What’s your name?”
“I’m not in shock, Peach,” I tell her in a quiet tone. “I just need you to stitch me up.”
Still frowning, she looks up at Cade. “Do you know what happened?”
“We’re not sure,” Cade says. “He was between fi—” Realizing he’s on the verge of saying too much, Cade looks down at me and I give him a barely perceptible nod, telling him that it’s fine.
To keep talking. “He was between fights, walking through the crowd when suddenly people started screaming and—” Cut off by River’s footfalls on the stairs, Cade shakes his head.
“Sera’s downstairs by herself,” he says. “I need to go?—”
“Go on,” Sloane says, just as River rushes toward the kitchen with a stack of clean towels. “Take care of your sister.” Replacing Cade’s hand pressed to my back with her own, she tips her chin at the door. “I’ve got this.”
Giving her a grateful head nod, Cade disappears back downstairs to help his sister clear out the bar. Towels dumped on the kitchen island, River lets out a shaky breath. “Now what?”
“Now go with Austin to get my emergency trauma kit out of the trunk of my car,” Sloane says “My keys are right there next to my duffle.
Frowning, River shakes her head. “But?—”
“River, I need you to help Austin get my trauma kit,” Sloane says, in that same I’m in charge tone. “We’ll be fine until you get back.”
River hesitates but only for a moment before she rushes out the door, Austin close behind. As soon as the door bangs shut behind them, Sloane looks down at me. “Stabbed or slashed?”
“Slashed.” Feeling my mouth twitch at her blasé tone, I match it. “Blade slid right through me. If I had to guess it was a razorblade of some kind.”
Giving me a nod, Sloane sighs. “These towels are completely saturated. I think it would be better if you?—”
“I’m not going to the hospital, Peach,” I tell her in a matter-of-fact tone. “If you don’t want to help?—”
“I’m a doctor,” she says, her tone just pointed enough to dig at me.
“ Want has nothing to do with it.” Shaking her head on a sigh, Sloane circles around to stand behind me, hand still pressed against my back.
Reaching out, she snags a fresh towel off the stack River brought down.
“If the laceration is anywhere near your spine, I’m calling 911,” she tells me, letting me know she doesn’t give a shit about my feelings when it comes to hospitals.
If she thinks it’s warranted, she’s making the call with or without my consent.
Before I can argue with her, she lifts the bloody towel pressed to my back.
“Well?” Spinal injury wasn’t on my radar but now that she said it, I’m suddenly worried.
“Close,” she tells me while applying a fresh towel to my back. “But not close enough to cause concern.”
“I guess you’d know,” I tell her quietly.
“You’re the doctor.” When she doesn’t say anything back like that’s right I am or oh, so now that you’re bleeding out on my kitchen floor, you suddenly believe me, I feel even shittier.
“Colt called you Dr. Merrick when he saw you the other morning,” I say by way of explanation.
“I’m sorry. I saw you sitting there with River that day and I thought?— ”
“I know what you thought,” she says quietly. “You made it abundantly clear.”
“I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life,” I say, telling her the truth.
“I wanted you. I wanted you so fucking bad, that I… but then I saw your bracelet and…” Running out of truth, I lift a hand to give my face a rough swipe, glad she’s standing behind me and I can’t see her face.
“I reacted badly. I treated you like shit and I’m sorry. For everything.”
“How many times have you been in here while I was at work?” she asks. I don’t have to ask her how she knows I was in here. I bought out a grocery store and stuffed it into her kitchen cabinets. She’d have to be blind and stupid not to notice.
“Three.” I tell her the truth again. “This morning after you left and again this afternoon. The first time doesn’t really count, I guess, since you were here.
” Saying it pulls up the memory of her sleeping on the couch in my T-shirt.
No panties. Freshly fucked pussy exposed.
How badly I wanted to bury my face between her legs and wake her up with my tongue.
Feel her pussy work itself against my mouth while I licked her clean.
Hear her moan my name while she came on my face. “Sloane?—”
Before I can give a voice to whatever the fuck kind of nonsense that’s about to come out my mouth, I hear Austin and River pound their way up the stairs.
Looking up, I see River carrying what looks like a large red tackle box, Austin hot on her heels.
“Is this it?” she asks, her color slipping about three shades when she sees the wad of blood-soaked towels on the counter next to me. “I?—”
“Yes,” Sloane says, that commanding tone of hers pulling River back from the edge. “That’s it. Go ahead and set it on the counter, thank you, River.”
I look past River to Austin standing quietly behind her. He hasn’t said anything this entire time and I know the guilt is eating at him. The sooner we get back to business as usual, the better off everyone will be. “What’s the situation downstairs?”
“Quiet. Everyone tore out of here when…” Almost as pale as River, Austin shakes his head. “Jen, I?—”
“This isn’t your fault,” I tell him. “This is on me. I got sloppy. I should’ve been paying attention and I wasn’t.”
Austin frowns at me like I just lied to him. “But it’s my job to make sure that no one?—”
“I need you to take River home.” Trusting him to take care of River for me will do more to show him that I don’t blame him for what happened than my telling him ever will.
“Take her home and make sure she’s safely inside before you leave, alright?
” After tonight, there’s nothing I wouldn’t put past my brother.
Hurting River to get to me is absolutely something he would do.
Austin looks at River before looking back at me because he understands. He knows what I’m worried about. “Alright.”
Looking at River, I give her what I hope passes for a reassuring smile.
“Sloane says I’m going to be okay,” I tell her.
“She’s going to stitch me up and send me home.
” When I say stitch me up , River sways on her feet but manages to stay upright.
Like it’s her cue, Sloane places a light hand on my shoulder.
“I promise you he’s going to be okay, River,” she says in a tone full of confidence and reassurance. “This is what I do, remember?”
“Yes,” River says, giving her a jerky nod. “Okay.”
“Let Austin take you home. I’ll call you tomorrow.
I’ll come get you for your shift. We’ll stop at June’s on the way back—how’s that sound?
” June’s is a diner not far from the police station that serves cinnamon rolls as big as dinner plates.
I watched in awe while Riv’s housed three in one sitting, the first day I met her.
Eyes wide and glistening with unshed tears, River swallows hard before answering. “Sounds good.”
Giving Austin a quick get her out of here look, I watch while he pulls River out the door. This time when it closes behind them, it’s with a quiet click.