Page 8 of Reconciling the Consequences

She wondered what that meant for the state of her house. How much damage had the fire caused?

Kara brushed her teeth and ran her hairbrush though her messy blond hair the best she could with three broken ribs. There was no way she’d be able to put it in a ponytail, not with her hand and wrist in a cast and the other arm covered in stitches. She would need help for that.

She was dying for a shower.

She would have to settle for food, though.

She opened the bathroom door just as Kevin walked back into the bedroom carrying a plate of food and a glass of milk. She smiled at his thoughtfulness. She waited while he set everything down on the nightstand, then came back around to help her hobble over to her bed.

“Whose bedroom is this?” she asked, realizing the smell of sandalwood was faint.

“Johnny’s,” Kevin replied as he helped her lower back down on the bed.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “And whose idea was that?” she snapped.

“His.” Kevin shrugged.

She didn’t even know why she was surprised. Johnny was a controlling asshole on a good day; why would she expect anything different from him? “Of course it was,” she retorted.

A smile tugged at the corners of Kevin’s lips, but she ignored it. Once she was situated back in bed and her leg was propped up again, he handed her the plate of food. Her stomach growled as she took in the two pieces of wheat toast buttered and slathered in strawberry jam. There were two pieces of bacon and two sausage links as well.

“Thank you.” She sighed softly, accepting the plate.

“No problem, babe.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“I’m still upset with you,” she added.

“I know.”

“OK.”

After Kara ate breakfast and took more pills, Kevin handed her the remote to the big-screen TV that was mounted on the wall across from the king-size bed. It was one of those fancy ones that looked like it was a picture frame, not a TV.

Kara had her choice of streaming services to browse through and settled on a random Avengers movie. She knew she would probably doze off, as the meds made her drowsy. She would hate them if she weren’t in so much pain without them.

The next time Kara woke up, Derrick was lounging in the bed next to her. He was playing a game on his phone, and a different Marvel movie played on the TV. “I’m mad at you,” she informed him by way of greeting.

A deep laugh rumbled out of his chest. “I’d expect nothing else, baby girl,” he replied with a nod, unaffected.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m hungry,” she informed him.

He smirked. “You’re cute when you’re crabby.”

She glared at him, but it was more in annoyance than anything with heat. “Why did you ghost me last week?” she asked instead.

She watched his face fall as his playful smile dropped. “Kara.” He sighed, finally looking up from his phone and turning to her.

She stared at him, taking in his shoulder-length brown hair and his thick, bushy beard. His bright green eyes were guarded. She noticed the dark circles under his eyes. Like Johnny and Kevin, he sported a black eye, though his and Kevin’s were nowhere near as bad as Johnny’s had been.

He at least looked like he’d been put through the wringer. “I’m sorry,” he started, and she waited. “I’m sorry that we didn’t reach out. That I didn’t reach out. We could have texted more and called at least once or twice. There was no reason for us to completelyghostyou even though we had shit going on. In the end, it would have been safer for you to know what was up so you would know to watch out for yourself… When Johnny said he’d pulled you out of the house…” Derrick shook his head. “Honestly babe, we all spent the last week thinking that one of our enemies tried to kill you because of the shit we have going on right now.”

Kara stared at him confused. “The club shit?” she asked.

He nodded. “I know you don’t want to know a lot, but we’re beefing with another club right now; trade routes have been disrupted. One of our guys, a brother, was killed last week,” Derrick explained.

Kara’s heart stopped in her chest. The pain in his green eyes was deep; it cut her to the core. “Derrick,” she murmured and ran her hand through his shaggy beard. “I’m sorry you lost a brother.”

He nodded solemnly. “Thank you, but I’m not telling you to excuse our actions, but because of that, we should have kept in touch, at least let you know what to look out for. Shit, not left you aloneperiod.”

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