Page 13 of Stone Deep
“Oh, it was smooth all right,” I said. “She just had other shit on her mind.”
Cleveland’s beer belly wobbled as he laughed. “I’ll say, the chick walked to the back of the bar and pulled a gun on three assholes sitting in the corner.”
“Nice. Sounds like your kind of woman,” Colt said to me.
“In more ways than I care to bring up here in mixed company.” I looked over at Jade and Amy.
“Yeah?” Colt asked with a questioning lift of his brow.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Would you two stop it,” Amy said. “Pretty soon you’ll be spelling out the dirty words so that Jade and I won’t be able to figure out your code talk for Slade getting laid.”
Hunter grunted and stood from the chair. “This story is getting long and boring, and I’m hungry. Cut to it, Slade. Why were those guys after you?”
“Not completely sure about their connection to the girl, but I had to mess them up a little to get her out of the bar safely. Apparently, I humiliated them on their home turf, and they weren’t too stoked about it.”
“Ahh, you saved the little wood sprite?” Jade asked. “How sweet.”
Cleveland snorted. “How come she can call her a wood sprite and I can’t?”
Hunter dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder. “You really need to learn more about women, buddy.” My brother looked over at me. I thought briefly about the expression on his face when he’d reached me after I’d jumped from the van. I’d never seen him look that scared in my life. Evenwith all the shit we’d endured as kids and teens, he’d never looked the way he had out on that onramp.
Hunter stopped in the doorway, nearly filling it completely. “Glad you pulled that one leg out of the grave. Now enjoy your hospital dinner of cream and mush, I’m going out for a double cheeseburger.”
“Double cheeseburger.” Colt turned to follow him. “I’m all over that.”
“Real nice. I hope you get heartburn,” I called to them as they walked out.
The lure of cheeseburgers made Cleveland follow close at their heels. Amy kissed my head, and Jade did the same. “Hey, butt-pain”—Amy smiled down at me—“glad you’re all right.”
EIGHT
BRITTON
The unwieldy box made it hard to navigate my way into the elevator. A nice man held the door open as I slipped inside. My insides were wobbling like a bowl of jelly. I had no idea how he’d react when he saw me, but I was betting on him telling me to get the hell out of his room. That was the reaction I was steeling myself for. All of this had gone so wrong, and it had been completely my fault. Slade had just stepped in to help me and because of his selfless courage, he’d ended up in a hospital bed.
I stopped in the hallway outside of his room. I could hear the television, but there weren’t any extra voices. I was relieved. If he had visitors, it would have been even harder to walk in. I took a deep breath, hid behind the big box and half-tiptoed into the room. The television turned off.
I lowered the package with the remote control car, an exact replica of my sister’s Subaru, and peered at him over the top of the box. Hospital beds usually made people look withered and sickly, but he looked just as lethal and hot as ever. The black ink of his tattoos contrasted sharply with the white sheets and pale green wall behind the bed.
“Tink?” He sounded truly surprised. “Didn’t expect to see you again.”
“I’m sure the better phrase would have been ‘didn’twantto see you again.’”
“Nah, this wasn’t your fault. I thumped the guys, and apparently, their egos were pretty fragile.” He smiled and I nearly broke into sobs at the sight of it.
“So, you’re all right?” I couldn’t keep the waver from my voice.
“Takes more than a six inch blade to take out a Stone. Although, I’m not sure if it was six. Might have even been eight.”
I laughed. The toy car shook in the box.
He lifted his hand. “Uh, is that for me? I fucking hope that’s for me. And if it is, then please tell me you remembered batteries.”
I held up the bag with the batteries.
“You are better than any one of Santa’s elves,” he said enthusiastically as he tried to push to sitting. He grimaced in pain. The sheet rolled down exposing the extremely large piece of gauze taped to his side.
