Page 120 of Forever Fighting
Dutifully, he sucks in a deep breath, fully expanding his lungs, and releases it slowly. He’s in a lot of pain with that, likely having cracked a rib or two or four. But it doesn’t seem to be puncturing his lung. At least nothing terribly obvious. I shift around to his back, and there’s a large purple and a black welt over his right kidney.
I curse under my breath, but I don’t touch it.
“Survey says?”
“Very likely a renal contusion and some fractured ribs. If you’re lucky. It could be a lot worse, but I don’t have CT vision.”
“What about my face, Braelyn?”
A tear hits my cheek. “I’m so fucking mad at you right now.”
“I know, baby,” he says, his voice soft and tender. “Come here, okay? Come where I can see you. I’m sorry. I know you’re upset, but I couldn’t say anything, and I can’t really tell you more here either.”
Jesus. What is going on?
Pulling my big girl panties on, I force myself back around the table to him. Then I slowly lift my chin and bite my lip so I don’t sob. Not to be ironic or cheesy or anything, but he looks like fucking Rocky at the end ofRocky 1where he’s crying for Adrian and his eye is all swollen up and his face is a bleeding pulp of a mess.
Roman’s right eye is completely swollen shut, and that side of his face is so bruised, there’s hardly any pink skin remaining. He has a gash that’s still bleeding pretty heavily, and I feel like abitch because I didn’t look at his face first, and he’s been bleeding like this.
I grab some gauze from my bag and press it to the wound, feeling worse when he winces.
“You either have a maxillary or orbital fracture or both.” I can barely get the words out. His hand comes to my hip, and he holds me close.
“I know. I felt it when it happened.”
My eyes close, and I release a tremulous breath.
He squeezes my hip. “Tell me why you’re mad at me.”
I shake my head, and he pulls me in a little closer.
“Braelyn, tell me why you were mad,” he urges.
I don’t open my eyes as I ask, “Do you know any redheads?”
“Redheads?” he repeats as if the word doesn’t make sense to him. “You mean other than Quinn? Does she even count as a redhead? Or Keegan and Kenna?”
“Yes, she counts and no, I don’t mean Quinn or your cousins.”
“Baby, look at me. I know it’s not a pretty image right now but look at me please.”
My eyes snap open, only to narrow.
His other hand comes up to my shoulder. “Talk to me. I can’t fix this if you won’t tell me what’s up.”
“Have you ever hooked up with one of your waitresses?”
“No,” he answers quickly, his one good eye on me. “Not ever. I’ve never touched an employee. Why?”
I shake my head. I really should have known it wasn’t what she said. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something. I want to know.”
“Argh!” I take his hand and place it back over the gauze for him to apply pressure against his cheek. Then I dig through my bag until I find those stupid pictures. The ones I crumpled and shoved to the bottom.
He takes them from my hand, studies them, and says, “Where did you get these?”
“Asshole, that’s not the response I was looking for.”
