House Rules(81)

The doctor pulled back the curtains to the cubical farthest from the door. The cuts and bruises around her face seemed that much worse next to the stark white sheets. Her skin was peppered with gauze and tape, and I could see a cast peeking out of the side of her gown. I slumped down in the chair next to the bed, afraid to touch any part of her. There was barely an inch of her body left unscathed. If she would have just listened to me. If she had gone to my place instead of home. If we hadn’t argued.

If.

Rage, revenge, sadness, and pain all warred for my attention, but I had to shove rage and revenge to the back of my mind. Until Ashton showed up, there wasn’t much I could do.

The doctor gave me a general update, which I barely heard. The whole time his lips were moving all I could think about was that maybe Dad and Ashton were right. Maybe nothing in the world was more important than the woman who held your heart—not even the business. The ache in my chest deepened when I realized that it had taken for this to happen, for Tess to be attacked for me to see I needed her much more than I needed my father’s approval; than the business. She was everything.

“Miller?” a soft, sweet voice called from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder and there stood Elena. Glassy, red rimmed eyes stared back at me. The doctor was nowhere to be seen. I hadn’t even heard him leave the room.

“Hey.”

She stepped forward and rested a hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry. How is she?”

I screwed my face up, trying to remember some of what the doctor had said. “A few broken ribs, a broken wrist, plus a concussion.”

I returned my focus to Tess, her bruised and battered face taunting me. I had a damn good idea whose fault it was and I wanted to ring the bastard’s neck. Elena’s small hand covered mine and I felt some of the tension in my hand release, the knuckles returning to their normal color rather than a strained white.

“Why don’t you take a walk? Give yourself time to cool down. I’ll stay with Tess.”

The desire to stay by her side warred with the desire to hunt down Ray Wasden and beat him to within an inch of his life. I should have ended the prick after the tire incident, but I’d let Tess convince me to leave it alone. That had to be the first time in my life where I’d walked away. Never again. I would never leave her in a position where she wasn’t safe. Even if she didn’t like it, that was tough. Nothing like this was ever happening to her again.

“Miller?”

My head snapped up.

“Go,” she said. “Ashton will be here in a minute. She’ll be safe while you’re gone.”

Not that I didn’t trust Elena, but Tess was stronger than her and look at the mess she was in. Having Ashton there would settle my nerves.

“Hey.” Ashton pulled back the curtain, smiling at Elena who had taken my vacated seat. “I’d ask how you’re doing but you don’t need small talk. You need to go. Tess will be fine with us.”

He wasn’t talking about a walk. He knew I wanted Ray found. It had been the same for him when Elena’s ex attacked her. It killed him that she had to handle it on her own.

“I’m going. Can you do me another favor?”

“Name it, it’s yours.” His voice was solemn. Ashton and Elena saw Tess as part of the family, and family was sacred.

“I need you to call a moving company. I want Tess’s shit out of that place and into mine before she gets out of the hospital.”

He nodded and handed me his keys. I left the room, the only thing on my mind was my hands around Ray Wasden’s neck, choking the life out of him, but I knew that wouldn’t happen. After I made Dad understand what Tess meant to me, there was no doubt in my mind that he would come up with something a little more creative.

The day was clear, the sun high in the sky. Tess would have noticed the leaves on the trees and the birds starting to head south. I noticed these things now but only because of the influence Tess had had on my life. She worked hard in school, but she always stopped to notice the things around her. Somebody was going to pay for trying to end such beauty.

I had no idea of the time. I just knew the longer Wasden was out there, the farther he’d be able to get. I pulled my phone from my pocket, made my call, and waited two rings before someone answered.

“Have you found him yet?”

“We think he’s staying with a friend in a house on the outskirts of town,” Charlie answered.

“Don’t give me think. I want that asshole at the club within the hour. I don’t care what it takes, that motherfucker better be in front of me in sixty minutes. My only requirement is that he’s breathing when he arrives.”