"So, what happened to Ben?" I asked, sitting myself up a little further. I ached all over, but it wasn't excruciating. Just a stiffness from lying in bed and what looked like a day's worth of bruises.
"He was caught off guard," Gen said, returning to her seat and stretching her legs out. "Something Mr Ben Tamati is not particularly familiar with. One knock to the head and he was out. We're not sure if it was McLaren's man; the guy who tried to run you off the road, or if there's more than one player involved now."
I let a long breath of air out and ran a hand through my hair.
"Thank God he's OK," was all I could think of to say.
"Abi was pissed at Pierce," Gen offered, fingering the book on the table next to her distractedly.
I frowned. If she was pissed off at Pierce, she'd be pissed off at me.
I struggled to a sitting position, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.
"Hey!" Gen chastised gently. "You should take it easy. Honestly, speaking from experience, that first step outta bed after a near fatal incident is hell on your equilibrium."
I swung my gaze back to the slim, super model blonde, wondering just what she'd been through to speak from experience.
"I'll take it slowly," I assured her.
"Do you want me to get Pierce?" she asked, stunning me immobile for a moment.
"Why the hell would I want you to do that?"
"Um," was all she managed to say at first. "Well, you know, he's your man, and all."
I blinked. Just how long had I been out and what had happened while I was?
I shook my head. Regretted the movement immediately. And said, "Ah, no. He's not."
Gen nibbled on her bottom lip delicately and stared at me for a second, then offered a small knowing smile.
"It took me a while to get it too," she admitted, but didn't make any sense at all. "I fought it, of course. I mean, how can they be so sure after so short an amount of time? It's the stuff of fantasy novels, isn't it? But eventually, with their determination and dogged pursuit, you start to see it. There'll be hurdles and crossroads, and all sorts of things springing up in your way, but although they'll tell you it's best to just go with the flow, I'm from the school of 'make 'em work for it.' Believe me when I say, it is so worth it in the end. And my mother always said, 'you've gotta make 'em work for it, Genevieve'." She laughed at herself, or her mother, I couldn't tell, and then added, "I sure as hell made Dominic work for it, anyway. You should make Pierce work for it too."
My mouth was hanging open a little, as I stared at the creature before me. What had she just said? Silence met the end of her speech, but I don't think Gen noticed it, or felt uncomfortable because of it. It was as though she was used to talking and having people stare at her in disbelief when she was done. She didn't looked fazed at all by my reaction. Just offered a shrug and a smile and started towards my side of the bed to help.
Before she made it, Kelly appeared in the doorway.
"Groovy. She lives." She took a look at my face, then flicked a glance to Gen's, then sighed. "You been running off at the mouth again, Genny-Benny?"
"Maybe," Gen said a little slowly. "You come to help?"
"Yeah. Everyone's in the kitchen and I thought I'd check on the invalid before dealing with the clusterfuck that's about to go down out there."
"Clusterfuck?" I asked.
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Abi's pissed off at Pierce. Ben's pissed off with everyone. Adam's trying to cool it all down. Nick's pissed off with Adam's attempt at civility. Pierce isn't saying a word, just standing there with beefy arms crossed over all that chest and scowling. Jason's stirring shit, because he's Jason. And Stone's just trying to eat all the doughnuts and finish his coffee before he's called back on the road."
I blinked, as Gen laughed uproariously. "Gotta love 'em."
"Yeah well," Kelly said, "now that Marie's awake, she can referee."
"Why would I referee?"
"Because your boy is about to be fed to the wolves, and by the way he's been looking after you and Daisy, and storming about like the world's about to come crashing down if you don't wake up any time soon, he deserves someone in his corner. And no one listens to me."
"Yeah they do," Gen said cajolingly.
Kelly snorted. "No. Marie, you have to get in there and save Pierce's arse."
"Why?"
Both women stared at me as if I was mad.
"Because he's yours, sweet pea," Kelly said. "Whether you know it yet or not."
They were all mental. But I did want to find out what was going on. At the very least, find out what Abi and Ben had to say. They were the ones directly affected by what had happened. I owed it to them to bear witness to their anger.