Risk (Gentry Boys #2) (23 page)

Chase caught me before I fell.  He eased me down to the ground while Cord pressed a towel against my face. 

I looked back at the ring.  No one had done anything about Jester yet.  He was lying there and issuing these gurgling little moans.  I saw what I had done to him.  He lived, but the injuries to his arms were severe.  He would likely never be capable of fighting again.  The thought was a relief. 

The boys were looking me over.  I flinched when Cord poked at my knee.  I heard him turn to Chase and mutter something about the hospital. 

Gabe Hernandez recovered his wits quickly.  He came strolling over with a false grin a mile wide.  “Knew you could get it done, Gentry.” 

Declan stepped in front of him.   His voice was low and deadly. “Did you now?”

Gabe blinked up at him.  “Of course.  This is the best partnership I could have asked for.”  He withdrew a pile of cash and held it out to me.  “Your cut.  It’s not all there but I’ll get the rest to you next time we sit down to talk strategy.”

My cousin grabbed the cash.  He counted it carefully.  “Looks like there’s only about ten grand here.” 

Gabe kept his smile plastered to his face.  “Creedence will get the rest of it soon.  I understand it’ll take him a few weeks to recover-“

“He’s done!”  Cord stood.  “Keep the rest of your fucking money.  He is
done
.” 

Chase immediately stood up too.  

Gabe wasn’t impressed.  “Like hell he is.” 

Deck chuckled low and deep. It wasn’t humor.  If Gabe had an ounce of sense he would back away quickly.  Deck leaned in and grabbed Gabe’s shoulder.  “I know what you’ve been up to,” he said in a murderous voice.  “These boys are done with you.  I don’t ever want to smell your stink around another Gentry again or I’ll have to have some conversations with people who don’t like being double crossed.  You get me?”

“You don’t know a fucking thing,” Gabe growled, his smile gone, his plastic demeanor crumbling.     

Deck shook his head.  “Don’t fuck with me on this, Hernandez.  Your shit will be laid bare.” 

That scared Gabe Hernandez enough to back off.  He didn’t even glance at me before disappearing behind the suits as they settled bets and resumed their party. 

Cord and Chase went to either side of me and helped me to my feet. 

“Can you walk?” Deck asked.

I limped, leaning heavily on my brothers.  “Barely.” 

Declan slapped my back.  “You’re my new hero, Creedence Gentry.  Now let’s get the hell out of here.” 

Cord and Chase half carried me back to the parking garage.  My face was bleeding like crazy and my knee throbbed a little more with every heartbeat but as we pulled out of the garage I opened the window, inhaling the smoky night air. 

Declan pulled alongside the truck at the first light.  “We better get out of here before Jester’s buddies come looking for payback.”  He glanced behind him.  “Let’s head for the freeway.” 

Cord jerked his head in my direction.  “We’re taking him to St. Luke’s.” 

Declan revved his bike engine.  “I’ll meet you there.” 

Chase peered around the seat and looked at me.  “Keep that towel against your face.  It’ll take a mess of stitches to close that shit up.  You hanging in there, Creed?”

“Yeah,” I said slowly, as I listened to Cord calling Saylor to let her know I was alive.  “I’ve never felt better.” 

The cloud over my head had evaporated. Impossibly, I was free. 

I was free!

Truly

Stephanie wasn’t a talker.  I never minded droning on for a half hour or more but some people, like Steph and Creedence, didn’t have that natural tendency to unleash whatever was rolling around in their heads.  After Steph had exhausted herself all evening trying to keep my mind off Creed’s fate, I let her off the hook. 

“Really Steph, you can cut it out,” I said, interrupting her awkward descriptions of someplace called Coney Island.  “I appreciate the effort but nothing is going to distract me from obsessing over whether my boyfriend’s going to be in a body bag by the end of the night.” 

Steph checked the time on her phone.  “You should know something soon, right?”

“Yes,” I grumbled miserably.  “I’ll know something soon.” 

“Chase wasn’t in class today.  I actually looked for him although I didn’t know what the hell to say.”

“I didn’t realize you guys had formally met.” 

She looked embarrassed.  “Creed must have said something to him.  He sat down next to me one day and started saying all this crap about how pretty I would look in a dress.  Then he asked me if I had a dress.  Then, before I could answer, he decided I would wear this fictional dress when he took me out to a dinner I’d never agreed to.  He said he would buy me an entire basket of fried chicken.” 

“What did you say?”

She grinned.  “I told him to fuck off.”  Then her smile fell away.  “After class this afternoon I saw him outside, just sitting on a bench, ignoring all the girls who were always buzzing around.  He looked so damned miserable that I sat down next to him for a while.” 

“He say anything about Creed?”

“No.  We didn’t talk.  After about twenty minutes he stood up and said, ‘Thanks, Stephanie.’  Then he walked away.”  She sighed.  “I feel for the poor bastard.  Hell, I’ve got a brother.”

“You have a brother?  You never mentioned him.” 

Stephanie coughed and flung her long hair to the side.  “Yeah.  I used to have two of them.” 

I knew her just well enough to understand when she was done with a subject.  I pushed Dolly off my lap and stood up.  “Shit Steph, I can’t just sit here and pet my damn cat all night.”  I balled my fists up and rubbed my knuckles into my closed eyes, welcoming the explosion of bright spots.  All evening I’d been having terrible flashes of Creedence lying in a pool of blood.  “This is awful.”  My voice was breaking.
I
was breaking.  Stephanie hugged me clumsily and patted my back. 

“Come on,” Steph said, pulling me to the door. “Let’s go see that chick.”  I opened my eyes and looked at her blankly.  She rolled her eyes.  “You know, your friend.”

“Saylor?”

“Yeah, her.  She’ll know something first.  Anyway, misery loves company and all that jazz.” 

Saylor hadn’t heard from Cord yet.   She paced continuously, ignoring her cousin when he tried to get her to sit down.  Stephanie sat at the kitchen table and stared at everyone mutely while I sank into the couch beside Millie.  She squeezed my arm. 

“You okay?”  She winced.  “Stupid question.”

Saylor stopped pacing and stared at her phone again, as if she could will it to ring. 

“Say,” I called softly, “come here.” 

She squeezed on the couch next to me and dropped her head.  Brayden reached across all of us and tipped her chin up.  She gave her cousin a weak smile.  Then her phone buzzed in her lap and she practically vaulted off the furniture.  I closed my eyes.  Someone, I didn’t know who, grabbed my hand tightly.  I knew my heart wouldn’t stop beating, not even if he was dead.  But I also knew that for a while I might wish that it had. 

I heard Saylor say Cord’s name.  Then there was dead silence for the longest second I’d ever lived through.  Saylor let out a cry I couldn’t identify as either grief or joy.  I opened my eyes.  She was looking at me.  She was smiling.  “He won!”

I didn’t scream or cry or dance around the room.  I just sort of deflated as the terrible tension vanished.  Until that moment I’d made myself believe I would never see him again.  Saylor’s words reached me as if from far away and I struggled to pay attention.  Creed was hurt.  I heard her repeat the name of a hospital. 

“I’m going,” I said as she ended the call with Cord. 

She nodded.  “Me too.” 

The others were very relieved about Creed but didn’t want to overwhelm him at the hospital. Brayden offered to drive Stephanie home since we’d driven over in my car but she insisted on walking back. 

“Did Cord say how bad he was hurt?” I asked Saylor as I drove the short distance to the hospital. 

“He said it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”  She was ecstatic.  “He made it, Truly!  He’ll be fine.” 

The emergency room wasn’t crowded.  We found Creed flanked by his brothers on one of the patient beds beyond the triage area.  He was wearing only a pair of boxers and scowling as a nurse tried to shove a gown at him. 

Chase was laughing.  “Dignity’s out the window when you’re in the hospital, Creedence.  Now behave and put the damn gown on.” 

Creed grabbed the gown and grumbled as the nurse left.  The right side of his face had a freshly stitched gash running across the cheek.  His chest was bruised and his right leg was stretched out on the bed with an ice pack carefully placed over the knee. 

Cord saw us first.  He held his arms open for Saylor and then smiled at me.  “Told him you’d show up.” 

I was staring at Creed as his brother spoke.  His head jerked up and his eyes locked on me with sudden intensity.  The penetrating look he gave me reminded me of that first night at The Hole. 

“Tallulah Rae Lee.”

I smiled.  “Creedence Gentry.” 

I went to him.  My hands traveled all over his chest, his arms, his face.  We kissed with a feeling deeper than passion and he lifted me up to the bed. I was aware that Saylor and the boys had quietly retreated after closing the bed curtain around us. 

“You’re real,” I said, trying to convince myself that he was here.  He was solid.  He was whole. 

“Yeah baby,” he groaned as it became apparent he wasn’t hurt badly enough to interfere with his urges.  I put my hand on him and stifled his groan with my mouth. 

“You’re all I thought about,” he whispered between kisses.  “I just wanted to earn the right to hold you again.”

I wrapped his arms around me tightly and he buried his face in my breasts.  “What happened, Creed?”

He slowly raised his head and sighed.  “It’s over,” he said tersely.  He pushed my hair from my face and kissed my forehead.  “He’s not dead, honey.”

I shuddered.  “But
you
would have been, wouldn’t you?”

Creed didn’t answer.  He ran his hands up and down my arms.  He kissed my neck.  “Come closer.” 

I looked at the flimsy cot, then glanced at the meager privacy afforded by the bed curtain.

“How?”

Creed picked me up in his arms and held me to his chest.  He grimaced in pain when I accidentally brushed against his knee.  

“Is it bad?” I asked. 

“Nah.  It’s a sprain or a ligament or some shit.  I don’t know.  They’re gonna put me in a machine to find out.”  He massaged my neck and brought his lips to my forehead again.  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. 

“For what, Creed?  I
want
to be here.”

His blue eyes were the same as his brothers’.  They were the sharp, vivid color of a desert sky.  They watched me with a tenderness I had never received from any other man.  Words didn’t come easy to Creedence and it seemed like he was choosing them carefully. 

“I’m sorry that I thought being in your bed every night told you everything important.  Truly, you talk about how you feel and you tell me all the shit that matters to you.  You don’t hold back and that’s not something I was able to give to you.  But I swear I’m gonna try, honey.”  Creed held my face in his hands.  “I want to be the kind of man who deserves you.”

An ugly feeling swept over me as Creed stroked my hair and murmured words I’d waited my whole life to hear.  He assumed I’d been nothing but honest with him all along, that there was nothing about me that was sordid, disreputable. 

“I had a baby,” I whispered. 

He kissed me.  “What, honey?”

I pulled his hands off my face and looked straight at him.  “I had a baby, Creedence. Four years ago.  A girl, a daughter.  I gave her away without even holding her once.”  My hands covered my stomach, as they had a million times before.  Beneath my clothes was the faded scar where she’d been ripped out of my body after the labor began to go badly.  I gave him a bleak smile.  “So you see I haven’t told you everything.” 

Creed swallowed.  “You don’t need to talk about it right now.” 

“Yes, I do.  I tell you a bunch of colorful childhood stories and you think you know everything about me.” 

His eyes darkened with confusion.  “What the hell are you talking about?   I never said I knew everything about you.” 

A tear rolled down my cheek.  I couldn’t even make sense out of what I was saying.  “But you think I’m good and pure somehow.”

Creed chuckled. “I knew you weren’t pure.  I wouldn’t have come after you if you were.” 

“Do you want to know who my baby’s father was?”

“No.”

I made him listen anyway.  “He was my mother’s boyfriend.  I let him fuck me every which way about a hundred times and I didn’t care what I was risking or who he belonged to.  And that was just the beginning for me.  I let men use me, Creed.  Quite a few of them.”

He was getting angry.  He shifted and glared at me. “Lady, you want to hear details of every female
I
ever fucked?”

I didn’t answer him.   I looked away.  

Creed took a handful of my hair and turned my head in his direction.  “You want to hear about it, Truly?  You want to know about the tightest pussies I ever stuck it to or all the times some bitch wrapped her mouth around my dick?”

“No,” I whispered. 

He let go of me.  “Then why the hell are you trying to tell me about every man you ever spread your legs for?  Don’t you get it?  I don’t fucking care.”

I shut my eyes and exhaled.  Creed grabbed my hand.  He sighed.

“Truly Lee, who the hell ever told you that no man could find you worth caring about?” 

“Nobody,” I answered.  It was true.  It was just what I had secretly told myself. 

Without warning Declan opened up the curtain and poked his head inside.  “Got a lead on that shit you asked me to take care of.” 

“Thanks, Deck,” Creed answered as I climbed off the bed and smoothed out my clothes. 

Declan looked from one of us to the other and then smiled.  “Think I’ll go knock off somewhere tonight and then head out first thing in the morning.”  He took two steps to Creed’s side and slapped him on the shoulder affectionately.  He turned his head and winked at me.  “This is a good girl you got here.” 

“I know that,” Creed said quietly.  “Seriously, thanks Deck.  And don’t go getting swallowed up by that desert shithole.  You’ve always got a home here with us, brother.” 

Declan Gentry might be one of the toughest fellows I’d ever been in the same room with, but I swore he got a little misty eyed when Creedence called him ‘brother’. 

“Take care, man,” he muttered and then was gone. 

The sound of his boots had barely faded when the same nurse who had tried to bundle Creed into a hospital gown irritably flung the curtains open.  “It’s time for your MRI, Mr. Gentry.  However, I cannot wheel you through the hospital halls dressed like that.” 

Creed winced as he sat all the way up.  He looked down at himself.  “What the hell do you mean?  I’m not dressed at all.” 

I picked up the gown and began to unfold it.  “I’ll make sure Mr. Gentry cooperates.”  The nurse retreated and I accidentally tore the gown in two.  I threw it on the floor.  “And they’ll likely charge you about six hundred bucks for that piece of garbage.” 

“Hey,” Creed nudged me gently, taking my hand.  “It’ll be hours before they let me out of here.  You gonna hang around?” 

I kissed his knuckles.  “I should go.  Let you get all medically tended to.”

Creed seemed disappointed in my answer.  He gave me a faint smile though.  “Well you damn well better come kiss me before you go.” 

It was a struggle to pull away.  I wanted to stay with him.

“This isn’t over,” Creed warned me and draped the paper gown around his neck.  He was talking about our unfinished conversation.

I kissed his forehead one more time.  “Good night, Creed.”

Half an hour later I was back in my apartment, crawling into my lonely bed.  I got underneath my log cabin quilt and wondered what the hell I was doing there.  For days I’d been in agony over the possibility of losing Creedence.  I’d confronted my feelings for him and realized they were much stronger than I’d ever wanted them to be.  So why in the hell wasn’t I at his side? 

I sat up in the dark and swung my legs over the side of the bed.  After carefully pulling my shirt off I touched my stomach.  It never felt quite the same after the baby.  It always felt loose and empty. Sometimes I would dream about the confusing months of my pregnancy and swear that tiny girl had never left my body.  Maybe it was the same for every woman who ever carried a child.