“You need to see a doctor. If you were unconscious, you could have a concussion. Grant, take her to the hospital and have them check her out.”
Me? “What? Why can’t you?” I asked. I didn’t need to be taking her anywhere. I was gonna beat the shit out of August, but that didn’t mean I wanted to haul Nan around.
“I’m going to find August. I need you to take her to get checked out. Please,” Rush said, standing up. “I’ll call Blaire and explain.”
Which meant he would make sure Harlow knew what was going on and why. I just hoped she understood. Rush believed Harlow was strong enough for this emotionally, but I wasn’t sure I agreed. He didn’t know how insecure she really was.
“Can’t I find him?” I asked.
Rush shook his head. “No. I have Dean to make sure I don’t serve time. You don’t.”
He had a point.
“He doesn’t have to take me. I’m fine to stay here,” Nan said.
Rush looked at me, silently pleading. Shit.
“Okay, I’ll do it.” I looked at Nan. “Can you walk?” I asked.
She nodded and stood up. “Just a little dizzy.”
Rush put his arm around her and I let him help her to the truck. I wasn’t touching her. I would help, but I wasn’t touching her.
I followed them to his Range Rover. He put Nan in, then turned to me.
“I’ll take Nan’s car. Get her completely checked out.”
“Call Blaire and check on Harlow for me,” I replied.
He nodded. “Doing that now.”
I didn’t say thanks. He owed me that much. I walked around the Rover and opened the door. I climbed in and slammed the door to get out some frustration. It didn’t help.
“You didn’t have to take me,” she said.
“Yeah, I did,” I replied.
“Because you still care,” she said with a hopeful tone in her voice.
“No, because of Rush,” I replied, and turned to head for the hospital, which was a good thirty minutes away.
“Do you really mean that?” she asked.
“Yes, I really do.”
“But you said once that you loved me,” she said, sounding hurt.
I had been drinking. The sex had been great. “I was in lust. What we had was good at first. I’d enjoyed it. Then I realized you weren’t the one. You were nasty and mean and shallow. And so was our sex.”
She made a small gasp. I didn’t care if my words wounded her. I knew she was hurt, and I hated that she’d messed around with someone who would hit a woman. That was it. Nothing more.
“Is sex with her better? She’s too unpracticed to be any good.”
That was what Nan would never understand. Sex would never be more than sex for her because she didn’t have the heart to look deeper. To actually feel something for another person.
“Nothing can compare to Harlow. Nothing comes close to touching it” was all I said.
My private life with Harlow was just that: private. I wasn’t sharing it with Nan.
Harlow
I heard Blaire talking on the phone in the kitchen as I stood just outside on the balcony. She had explained on the ride over that Nan had been badly beaten up by August. Or that was what Nan had said when she called Rush.
I could see in Blaire’s eyes that she wasn’t sure she believed that story. But she had understood Rush’s need to go. I also understood that he needed backup if it was true, and Grant was his brother—or the closest thing he had to one.
But the image of Grant holding Nan and comforting her was haunting me. I hated that I was being that selfish. I wasn’t a selfish person. My feelings for Grant were making me different. I didn’t exactly like some of the differences, either. If Nan had been beaten up by August, then she needed her brother and Grant. They were the only two men in her life she could trust.
“That was Rush,” Blaire said from behind me.
“How is she?” I asked, unable to look back at Blaire. I was afraid she’d see what I was thinking in my eyes, and I was ashamed.
“She was telling the truth. Rush said he had beat her pretty bad, and she was knocked unconscious.”
My chest hurt, but it wasn’t in sympathy for Nan. It was for me. It was because I could see Grant slipping away from me. I hated myself for that. Was I truly that cruel?
“Rush is going to find August. He sent Grant with Nan to the hospital. He said he wanted her checked out.”
So Grant was with her. Alone. This was it. He was a sucker when it came to Nan in need. I had seen how he had chased after her before when he felt she needed someone.
“Rush wanted you to know Grant didn’t want to take her. He guilted him into it.”