Page 69 of Nightmare’s Playground

Then, as if just realizing how awful I looked, her chin started to wobble.“You’re not fine!”

My smile evaporated. “Hey, hey. I’m fine, baby,” I said, going to her. “Please don’t cry. It’s all good now. Swear to fuck. It’s all good now.”

She buried her face against my chest, and I grit my teeth to keep from groaning in pain.

“I didn’t want this.”

I nodded. I knew she didn’t. My woman was a good girl who saw most of the world through rose colored glasses, and I was going to make sure she never lost that.

“Kiss it better, Joy,” Pee Wee grunted from two stools down. “He’ll live.”

Denali shot him a look. “That’s my fucking sister.”

Pee Wee jerked his chin at me. “She ain’t his sister.”

Nope. She sure as hell wasn’t.

I smiled.

“Let’s go home.”

Helping me to the Jeep, Joy didn’t say a word.

She remained quiet as she helped me into my seat. She was quiet when she closed the door behind me, and she was quiet when she pulled out of the lot.

Something was up.

My girl, the one who never stopped talking, was silent.

And it was killing me.

“Babe.” I sighed. “I need to tell you something.”

Her hands tightened on the wheel. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Fuck. She was still mad.

“It’s important.”

Her eyes darted from the road to me. “What?”

I stared out the windshield with my one good eye, praying once she knew the truth, she wouldn’t kick my ass to the curb.

“When I went to prison?” I started.

I felt her eyes come to me again. “What about it?

Here goes everything.

“I deserved to be there.”

She did a U-turn in the middle of the road. “Babe.” I glanced over my shoulder in the direction we should still be going. “Where the fuck you going?”

“The hospital. You clearly hit your head harder than I thought.”

I snorted a laugh, then groaned when my ribs smarted with pain. “Fuck. Don’t make me laugh.”

“What?” Her eyes flicked my way, and I could see her confusion.