Page 60 of Roses Are Dead
I nodded. “That’s right, a bed. Come on.”
It wasn’t lost on me that there were at least three rooms with mattresses in them I could choose from. I picked the nearest one for expediency. Wolf swept around us and tugged the sheets off, tossing them into a pile in the corner.
“I’ll grab clean ones from my room.”
Bear fell to the mattress and landed diagonally across it. Face first was good, face-planted was not. I shoved his bulk to the side and curled in to use my body weight as leverage to position him better. His hand trapped my waist and tugged me close.
“This is what I’m talking about.” The slur was back, worse than before.
I made certain he was on his side and comfortable before paying attention to anything else.
We’d gathered a crowd. Not only Wolf and KC, but almost a half-dozen more men stared at Bear and me.
This wasn’t an audience participation moment. “Get out. Only one of you needs to stay to watch him, but not all of you.”
“Woman, if you drugged him, we’ll all stay to make sure he’s safe from you.” I couldn’t identify who’d spoken, but the nods that got passed around meant they thought I’d done this. A few of them snickered and made crude comments about watching us follow through with Bear’s sex jockey comment.
“Fine. This is my formal protest and a warning. You’ll have to explain your voyeurism to him when he comes to. He doesn’t deserve your ridicule. He needs help and a friendly face when he wakes up. Not your ugly mugs being dicks to him.”
“That’s so fierce. She’s gonna give Tits a run for her money.” KC nudged Wolf as he spoke.
Wolf’s jaw worked to one side. “Everyone out. This is Bear’s blue hair moment—Officers and KC only are allowed in. Rose stays. The rest of you assholes, find Skinner or Hickey and get them scrubbing through the interior feed. Find out who the blonde woman she mentioned was and detain her. Now!”
The room cleared almost instantaneously.
“Blue hair moment?” I asked.
KC pointed a thumb at Wolf. “Prez passed out at the wrong party and got a bad buzz cut and dye job he didn’t want.”
I flinched and gathered one of my loose braids.
Bear laughed and leaned heavier on me. “You smell so good. I wanna eat you.” His breathing was too slow and heavy as he burrowed his face into my neck. I could barely move because his weight had trapped me. What hair hadn’t fallen loose was stuck under my shoulder. I shifted, so it wasn’t as uncomfortable.
KC held out a hand. “Need help?”
If it wasn’t guaranteed that I’d rip my scalp off trying to break free, I’d have taken it. “I’m good.”
“You sure? He’s not small.”
Bear certainly wasn’t. “I’ll survive. Do you know anyone who’s got medical training? I don’t like how slow his heart rate is.” It was even more sluggish than before.
“Probably a good idea. KC, call Ma. Tell her what’s going on.” Wolf crouched near the mattress as soon as KC left the room. “She’s a nurse. And you sound like her. Why?”
“In college, I was an RA with a biochemistry major and a past. Identifying date rape drugs and helping victims was an unlucky by-product of my history.” I swallowed the memories. I’d given Wolf the sanitized version of my villain origin story. He didn’t need to know the ugliest parts of it.
His scrutiny meant I hadn’t sold it very well. Finally, he said, “You know Carl.”
I sighed. “Duh. Why do you think I cultivated that unhealthy psychosis?” Sarcasm laced my words.
He thought about it for a moment before asking, “Did it work? Did you exorcize your demons?”
Unfortunately, I did not.
14
Bear
My head felt like a bag of chisels. The chemical taste in my mouth was steeped in the toxicity of whatever was killing me. I barely moved and saw white stars behind my closed eyelids. I groaned because while I needed to move, it only meant more pain. But if I didn’t move soon, I’d puke on myself.
