Five minutes later, the battle was on.
“You’re not being paid to sleep,” the cranky bastard snarled.
“Yet, I am,” she mumbled sleepily.
“I’m not fucking playing around!” Chase snapped.
“Neither am I,” Sloane said around a yawn as she closed her eyes and cuddled in closer to the comfortable leather seat, wondering if he could do her a favor and fume silently until it was time to go in for his appointment so that she could catch up on the sleep she’d lost last night because she’d spent the night double-checking his meds, cleaning the rest of the kitchen, and setting schedules for him.
“Then drive the fucking car!” he snapped, clearly unwilling to cut her some slack.
“Can’t do that. You have an appointment in twenty minutes,” she mumbled sleepily, ignoring the way that he’d talked to her.
For now.
She knew how to pick her battles and although she fully planned on addressing the way that he spoke to her at some point in the near future, now wasn’t the time. If she didn’t earn his trust, she might as well look for a new job and she had no doubt that his sister would be forced to put him in an assisted living home by the end of the week.
Sloane didn’t know this guy, really didn’t like him, but she’d hate to see anyone his age put in one of those places. She realized they were necessary evils, but for a guy his age it marked the beginning of the end. Coming back after that would be practically impossible. He’d waste away in a place like that and she just couldn’t let that happen without at least trying to help him.
She’d seen too many people lose every ounce of hope after going into one of those places. She didn’t know his story, but he was young and still had his whole life ahead of him. He didn’t deserve to end up like that.
So, she would suck it up, deal with his anger issues, the fact that he annoyed her in a hundred different ways and do her job. By the time that she was done with him, he’d have his life back and maybe, just maybe, he’d be happy.
That was the hope, at least.
She wanted that for all her patients, but she knew that his sister wanted that for Chase more than anything. She hadn’t told her much and didn’t seem as though she was planning on sharing anytime soon, but from what his sister had explained to her, he had a lot to be angry about and he absolutely refused to talk about it.
That was one thing that was going to have to change, whether he opened up to his sister or Sloane was able to convince him to go to a support group, he was going to have to talk about what happened if he was going to have any chance of moving on. Until then, she’d just have to play it by ear.
“I’m not fucking playing around,” Chase bit out, sounding pissed.
“I didn’t think that you were,” Sloane said, wondering if she should reschedule this appointment.
“Do your fucking job!”
“I am,” she mumbled sleepily, surprised when she felt herself begin to drift off considering how much bitching he was doing.
“You’re fired.”
“Sadly, I’m really not,” Sloane mumbled as she continued to drift off.
“Fuck that. You’re out of here.”
“Uh-huh,” she said around a yawn, knowing it would piss him off and doing it anyway.
Some might say that she was being a bitch, and she was fine with that, but they needed to have it out so that he knew that she wasn’t going to just give up and let him struggle.
“Drive the fucking car!”
“That doesn’t sound like the magic word to me,” she pointed out, because really, would it kill him to say please?
There was a moment of silence before he bit out angrily. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Then you know what I’m waiting for,” Sloane said, having absolutely no doubt that he knew exactly what she was waiting for. It was also the reason that she knew that there was no way in hell that he was going to give it to her without a fight.
“You’re going to be waiting a long fucking time then.”
“We’ll see,” Sloane said because she knew without a doubt that she would be winning the first battle.
Chapter 6
“Fucking bitch,” Chase mouthed as he discreetly texted Melissa, demanding that she fire the psycho bitch and come get him.
“She’s not going to answer you,” the psychotic bitch that his sister had obviously hired straight out of a mental institution said from where she lounged in the backseat.
“You don’t know shit,” he said, but something told him that she knew a lot more than he did at the moment.
“She hired me to do a job and as long as I’m doing it, she’s not going to interfere,” Sloane explained.
“You’re not doing your fucking job,” Chase bit out, sending his sister another text, telling her that she had better move her fucking ass and come get him now.
When another minute went by and she didn’t respond, he realized how fucking screwed he was. She’d truly fucked him over.
There was a heavy sigh from behind him and then a, “Believe it or not, I am doing my job.”
“By making me sit here until I fucking beg?” Chase snapped in disbelief as he sent his sister another text message, this one threatening to call the cops if she didn’t move her fucking ass and come get him.
“No,” Sloane said softly, “I’m waiting for you to ask for my help.”
He laughed harshly at that because he didn’t need her fucking help. Shaking his head, he looked down at his phone just in time to see his sister finally get off her ass and respond back. Grinding his teeth, Chase read her message and then re-read it because there was no fucking way that she could be serious.
Make it work, Chase. This is your last chance.
“Fucking bitch,” he snapped, opening his car door and chucking the useless device across the parking lot, not giving a flying fuck where it landed.
Once he heard the satisfying sound of plastic breaking, he slammed his door shut, closed his eyes and dropped his head back against the seat, telling himself that this wasn’t fucking happening. His life was not about to get fucking worse. It wasn’t humanly possible.
Man, was he fucking wrong.
“Drive the fucking car,” Chase demanded, grinding his jaw, determined to win this little battle of theirs.
“No,” she said, sighing softly, “you need to keep this appointment.”
“Drive the fucking car!” he shouted, opening his eyes to glare at her through the rearview mirror only to find her lying on the bench seat as though she didn’t have a single fucking care in the world while he sat there pretending that he wasn’t seconds away from pissing his pants or that his back and legs weren’t on fire.
“Not happening, Chase,” she said softly as he closed his eyes and tried to breathe through the pain, but holy fuck did it hurt.
God, he was so fucking close to breaking down and begging her to take him home so that he could take his medicine, curl up into a ball and wonder what the fuck he’d done to deserve all of this. God, he couldn’t fucking take this, Chase realized as he broke out in a sweat and his body began to tremble.
He was going to do it, Chase realized, feeling sick to his fucking stomach. He was going to fucking beg her to take him home and probably beg for his pain medication, praying that she gave it to him before he started screaming when the pain became too much for him to handle and he got to the point where he would beg her to put a fucking bullet in his head and put him out of hisī