Page 47 of Patchover Fright Night
“Jesus. Tonight was a fucked up shit show, and we’re all lucky we fucking survived it, but…”
I think Micro and I were both holding our breath at his words, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“… fuck… look, it kinda felt like old times, us working together, and having each other’s backs. I didn’t even feel like I was waiting for another knife, so I dunno. Maybe… maybe I won’t feel like killing you next time I see you.”
I could feel the tension in Micro’s shoulders, as he stared at his lost friend, the one person I knew he desperately wanted back in his life.
“Yeah?”
Torch grinned, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, just… don’t push it, let it happen…”
“I bet he says that to all the girls,” Grace said with a giggle, breaking the frozen tension of the moment, and making both men grin. Maybe one good thing had come from this crazy night after all.
Chapter Nineteen
Finally, the place hadmostly emptied of people, except those who lived on site, and a few who’d brought camping gear to sleep under the stars, even though in October that’s sometimes a risk, even with the somewhat milder English weather. Soph and I had planned to sleep over, on a blow up mattress in my office, but since that went up in smoke, our only option would be to go home for the night, and honestly, the idea of sleeping in a proper bed, after all this shit, sounded like fucking heaven.
“Let’s get out of here,” Sophie said, grabbing my hand and practically dragging me to her van, and how the fuck she had any energy at this point, I had no idea, because I was hanging on by a fucking thread.
I think I even dozed off as she was driving us home, because the next thing I knew, she was dragging me back out of the van, and up to the house. I swear, this woman was fucking heaven-sent, because she helped me freshen up, doing her best not to get my many bandages and dressings too wet, and then intobed. Jesus fuck, the second my body hit the mattress, it felt like everything in me finally let go of all the tension I’d been trapped in, for the hours of hell we’d gone through tonight.
“How the hell are you still functioning, babe? I feel dead, and you’re running around taking care of me?” I wanted her off her feet, and resting too. She was the one carrying our child inside her, after all. Thank fuck nothing had happened to them tonight. I’d have been destroyed if it had, because they were my world, and my future, all wrapped into one.Fuck. It hit me then that something could have happened, and we may not even know it yet.
I shot up from the mattress with a groan, and reached for her, sitting her on the bed, despite her attempts to keep fussing over me.
“Baby. You’re okay, right? You and the little one? Nothing happened tonight that… that could have…” I trailed off, dropping my eyes to her stomach, because I didn’t even want to put words to my fears, because wasn’t that just how you jinxed the best things in life?
“We’re fine, Micro. I promise we’re okay. I stayed out of the trouble. I never got injured, unlike some people,” she raised her eyebrows feistily at me, “and I didn’t even breathe in much smoke, because you saved us. You got us out.”
Jesus. My body slumped again, and I took her down with me, draping her over me the way I liked, because then all of me could touch all of her, and keep her safe.
“Micro! I wasn’t finished. You need more painkillers for-”
“I need you to rest with me, baby. You’re so sweet to look after me, but you don’t have to. I’m fine.”
“You were shot,” she grumbled, “again.”
I had a feeling she wasn’t about to let me forget that anytime soon, so I used it to my advantage.
“Yeah, and that means I need to rest, and I need to keep you close. You know, for my wellbeing or whatever. You’re the glue that holds me together, babe.”
She relented, and let us get some sleep, which I think happened pretty much the instant I stopped speaking.
Tesio / Grease
The beauty of concussionis that it doesn’t fucking let up, making sure you feel like shit for way more hours than a little knock on the head should. I woke up late the next morning, after the Halloween Crapshoot from Hell, and it was the throbbing of that head that woke me, rather than the head I’d rather was throbbing, preferably while I was feeding it to a certain cop. I think I even fucking saw her in my messed up dreams last night.
“Jesus fuck,” I groaned, sitting up and gripping my head, as I waited for the room to decide to stay in one fucking place.
The buzz of my phone made me grimace, and I hit the speaker button without looking at who was calling, because that would have needed my eyes to focus on actual words.
“Tesio,” the Don’s imperious voice rang out in my room and I cursed, grabbing it, and taking him off speaker, because someone could fucking overhear the prick.
“Morning, boss.”
He made a kinda sniffy noise, and I rolled my eyes, which, by the way, also really fucking kills when you’ve had a head injury.
“How’s things?” I asked him, maybe a bit snarkily because I was feeling like shit, and I knew he was about to chew me out.
