“Nothing, baby. I’m fine,” Jax mutters, trying to pat my hand to reassure me.
“It doesn’t look like nothing!” I cry. “Oh, your poor face.” Tears are battling to fall down my face.
“Skull and Torch decided to welcome him into the family,” Keys says.
“They what?” I screech. Anger and sadness rush through me.
“Reckon they welcomed him in really well,” Keys says and it pisses me off. I bury my elbow in his stomach. “Hey! What was that for?”
“For being an asshole,” I grumble.
“Baby, calm down. I’m fine,” Jax chokes out. He’s not fine.
“You don’t look fine.”
“Well, I am, and I’d be better if my woman would come over here and give me a kiss.”
“In a minute. Though I’m not sure where I’m supposed to kiss you. Your lips are all swollen and bruised,” I wonder, grabbing a bowl from the kitchen. I fill it with hot water in the bathroom, grabbing some alcohol and antibiotic cream. I add a whole box of bandages thinking there’s no way it will be enough.
“Baby—”
“Don’t you baby me. Where were you? Why didn’t you help him?” I look to Keys for an explanation.
“He tried,” he tells me, defending his brother.
“Funny, he doesn’t look like he’s been ran over by a pack of wild animals,” I complain.
“Honey—” his voice is so hoarse.
“Don’t you honey me.”
“What are you mad at me for?” he asks, like an idiot.
“You’re trying to get yourself killed. You promised me you would be okay!”
“I wasn’t trying to get myself killed.”
“I don’t think I want a woman,” Keys states grabbing a couple beers out of the fridge. He hands Jax one, but before he can get it, I grab it and set it on the table, settling on my knees in front of the couch so I can try and clean him up.
“You can have it after I get done bandaging you up,” I tell him.
“Baby, no offense but the beer might help the pain more than what you’re doing.”
“Will the beer help you when these cuts get infected? Oh crap, Jax! Is anything broken? We should get you to the hospital and let them check you out. I can’t believe you!” I shake my head as I assess him, debating where to start.
“I don’t have anything broken, and honey getting home on that bike was about all I had in me. I’m done here.”
“You drove home?” I ask, and yes, I’m definitely still screeching.
“No. He rode, on the back of my bike, like a chump. He did better than I thought. Of course, I handcuffed him—”
“You handcuffed him? Oh my God! You let him handcuff you to the bike? Are you crazy? What if he had wrecked or something?”
“Why are you yelling at him for? Technically, it’s your family who did it and this was nothing compared to what they could have done,” Keys grumbles falling back into the chair so that it scoots a good six inches. I’ve decided I really, really don’t like him.
“It was nothing?” I ask Jax, and I’ve gone from screeching to whispering in no time flat as it starts to dawn on me what Jax has endured.
“They took it easy on me baby,” he whispers softly, his eyes fluttering. He’s spent. Not even a nickel left of him.
Easy? He looks like they almost killed him! Suddenly, the gravity of the situation—of everything begins to settle in. My family did this. My family almost killed him. This is all my fault. With that thought tears begin to fall. I fall back on my ass and just let them well up and flow like a steady rain over my cheeks. I can’t stop them. It’s like a dam broke and more and more just keep flooding.
“Come on, sweetheart, don’t cry,” Jax says doing his best to sit up even if he is in all kinds of pain, and that makes me cry harder too. He wraps his arms around me as sobs rack my body. “Bree, baby, you’re killing me here.”
“Christ. I know I don’t want a woman now,” Keys says to no one, and if I wasn’t in the middle of a meltdown I’d throw the bottle of rubbing alcohol at him.
“Bree—”
“They hurt you!” I sob.
“It looks worse than it is,” he tells me, trying to smile, but his poor lips won’t let him give me my smile. The one that spreads completely and makes my stomach tingle.
“Because of me! This is all my fault. Everyone’s right. I should have stayed away from you,” I cry in despair, my head dropping down. I got Jax hurt. In response, Jax’s hand tightens up around my neck until it’s almost painful. I pull my watery eyes up to him, and his beautiful face is blurry from my tears to the point I can only see the bruised colors that are starting to bloom further along his skin.