Scrubbing a hand over his face, Kellan asked, “What happens if they do to him what we’re worried about them doing to Emersyn?”
“I’ll deal with it.” Not much they could do that would hurt me. “Look, if you have a better plan, spit it out. If you don’t, can we finish this paperwork? We still have to get to this joint and that’s a long fucking trip. Not to mention—Doc, don't you gotta have a medical license in New York to do this?”
Liam set another folder on the table. “That’s covered.”
“Where the hell are you getting all of this?” Vaughn gaped.
“Does it matter?” Lainey asked. “I can get papers if we need them. I have friends who can do excellent work. But the longer we debate this, the longer she’s there.”
Instead of snapping at her, Kellan just scowled. “Fine. Let’s do this. How close are we sticking to this?”
“You can’t,” Liam said and that just started another round of objections. Rome silenced them all with a whistle. It cut right through the noise.
“No more arguments. Freddie can do this. Liam or I will be there. Everyone else needs to be here.” Rome offered no more explanations. Vaughn just slammed his fist to the side table and stood up, before he stalked out to follow Jasper to wherever.
Good times. I raked a hand through my hair. Now would be a great time to get high, except—I needed to be sober. Or did I? Would it be better if I was high going in?
Doc stared down at the papers, then he started signing them.
No, getting high could cause other problems and I didn’t want to fuck this up. Boo-Boo needed me. She needed me to be sober. I could be sober. Besides, they were gonna probably hook me up to some shit to flush my system anyway. Easier to not be puking everywhere if I wasn’t fucked up when I got there.
“I can help,” Lainey offered into the disquiet of the room.
“No,” Milo said before anyone else could say anything. “You need to go home.”
Yeah. That was gonna end well.
“I’ll go where I damn well please and I’m not going anywhere until I know she’s all right.”
They glared at each other. “You’ll go or I’ll dump you in a trunk and drive you back myself.”
“Yeah, that’s the way to do it, Milo,” I said as I stood up and stretched. I should probably go pack a bag. They’d let me bring a bag to Garnet Bay for the whole two weeks I’d been stuck there. This was thirty days. What the hell should I take? “I mean, take her home and she can take off and do whatever she wants.”
Oh, books would be good.
Lainey and Milo both glared at me. I blew the ball-cracker a kiss. I kind of liked her. She needed to stay safe. Especially since she and Boo-Boo were friends.
“She can stay in Emersyn’s room—” Kellan began but Milo cut him off.
“I’ll take care of her.”
And on that note, count me out. “I’m getting my shit. Tell me when you’re ready to leave.” I said that more to Liam than anyone else, but he was staring at Lainey and Milo with a troubled frown.
Yeah, nope.
In my room, I stared around at the mess. I should probably clean up more. But that wasn’t my problem today. In fact, today all I really needed was some clean underwear, a couple of t-shirts, some jeans and her books. She’d been reading to me, but she hated reading the sex scenes. It was kind of funny.
Though she never complained when I read them. Course—they were hilarious cause dude, I needed the stamina these guys had. The sheer number of girls I could bang with that kind of stamina.
Not that I wanted to bang any.
Liar.
The little whisper of a voice in the back of my head sounded a lot like Jasper, so I just flipped it off and got my shit together. I probably couldn’t take my knife. That would suck. But I didn’t want to take anything I might not be able to get back out with, so if I had to leave it. I left it.
Everything had to be nondescript too.
Once I had everything in the bag, a job that took all of five minutes, I sat down and waited. I wanted Boo-Boo back. Just back. She didn’t have to talk or hang out or read. I just wanted her back where she was safe.
The nightmare Ball-Cracker described though, was the kind of thing I never wanted to think about. Without a knife, I’d only have my hands. I needed to keep it together long enough to not kill them before I got her out.
After? All bets were off.
My mood soured the longer I waited. If those assholes were out there still arguing—
At the first knock on my door, I bounced to my feet with my bag in hand. Yes, let’s get the fuck out of here.
Only it wasn’t Liam at the door. It was Jasper. His expression was fierce, but not angry. “If I told you don’t go, would you listen?”
The question knocked me on my ass. “You don’t want me to go get Boo-Boo? Who the fuck are you and what did you do with Jas?”
The other man rolled his eyes and gave me a gentle shove back into the room before he closed the door. The fact it was a disaster area in here probably drove him nuts, but he didn’t say a word. “I want her back here safe and sound, but I don’t want to throw you into the pool without a life jacket either.”
“Gotta learn to swim sooner or later.” I shrugged. “I don’t care about me. I care about getting Boo-Boo back.”
“That’s my problem,” Jasper growled the words and paced across my room. When he encountered a stack of clothes, he just gave them a shove with his foot. “This is not just casing a joint or lifting some beers.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” Jasper pivoted to stare at me. “You couldn’t stand Garnet Bay. You tried to break out fifteen minutes after we dropped you off.”
I shrugged.
“Two days in, you were picking fights and threatened to stab one of the nurses if they didn’t let you out.” Jasper wasn’t quite glaring, but he wasn’t calm either.
“What do you want me to say? I wanted a hit. I was strung out. I hated that place. I hated that you had to dump my ass there because I couldn’t stay clean on my own.” That had been bad enough. “This isn’t that.”
“No, it’s going to be worse. At least then, I was right there.”
Yeah, he’d slept in his car for a week. Some days, I didn’t know why he put up with me.
“Then, I needed to get clean. I’m clean now. I’m not going to this place for actual treatment. I’m going to get Boo-Boo.”
“But you’re gonna have to play along.” He raked a hand through his hair as he scowled. “You’re gonna have to see what’s happening to her.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I know. But once I’m in, I can also work on getting her out.”
“You’re also going to be on your own.” His expression tightened. “I don’t like you being out there without a lifeline.”
“Aww,” I said slowly, grinning. “You’re worried about me.”
“No shit, genius. Of course, I’m worried about you.” Yeah, only his glare didn’t scare me.
“You’re a big ol’ teddy bear, you know that, right?” The teasing helped and Jasper’s dark look just turned positively foreboding. “I betcha Boo-Boo thinks the same thing, even after all the growling and snarling you did.”