Yeah. I’d pass.
He didn’t even look at me as he went back out into the hall. The door was wide open, the cold, white and sterile environment didn’t offer any kind of encouragement. The ox didn’t go far. He used keys to open a cabinet in the hallway and came back with a pair of pale gray pajamas. Dropping them on the bed, he folded his arms.
“Get changed.”
The sweat trickling down my spine increased. “Tell you what, big guy,” I said with a hell of a lot more confidence than I was feeling without my knife. I could hurt him. I knew how. But I’d prefer my blade, cause he had to have a good fifty pounds on me. “Get the fuck out and give me some privacy and I’ll think about it.”
Unimpressed would be a great word for his expression. He met me stare for stare. So, I mirrored his posture and folded my arms. No way in hell was I getting naked in front of some fucking stranger. They could knock my ass out if they wanted that. But Liam’s name carried a lot of weight, so did his family wealth.
I was the cocky rich bastard’s prick younger brother.
“Or we can just call Doctor Sneeze.”
The ox blinked at me. “Doctor—oh Schuitevoerder.”
“Gesundheit.”
“Look, punk, I don’t care what you call him or what he calls you. Doctor said you needed to change and get settled. So strip, put on the clothes and stop wasting my time.”
“Or what?”
The man glared. A riot of fury in his eyes as he raked his gaze over me. “Or you’re about to have a really bad first day.”
Don’t.
I swore Jasper’s voice was like it was right there, as if he stood just over my shoulder.
Don’t get dead.
Fighting this guy was a way to get dead. Sure. But I wasn’t going to roll over and submit myself to his scrutiny either. Fuck. That.
The sweat had begun to soak through my shirt.
“Broderick,” the nurse from earlier was back. “We need you to help move Mr. Delaney.” She glanced past him to me. “I can stay with Mr. Cleary.”
The woman had to be in her mid to late thirties, maybe. I wouldn’t put her much into her forties. She seemed nice enough. Not Ms. Stephanie nice, but way better than Broderick nice.
“Fine, I’ll deal with Delaney, but if the little shit hasn’t changed his clothes by the time I’m back, I’ll do it for him.” Yeah, that last was definitely a threat.
Broderick’s name was on the list.
As soon as he left, the nurse frowned at me. “He’s a bit of a bully, but don’t push him. He has no respect whatsoever for your name or your family. To him you’re just another patient. Now, I’m going to close this door and count to one hundred then open it again. Please be changed so we don’t have to endure what he would do next.”
The moment she closed the door, I stripped out of the clothes and put on the new ones. I didn’t care about keeping the pajamas we’d bought on the way here, nor did I give a damn if I ever saw them again. Resisting the temptation to hide weapons or anything else on me had taken some effort. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t search me or my shit.
Or that they would do exactly what they just had, taken my clothes and left me with nothing. Raking a hand through my hair, I retreated to sit on the bed and waited. The nurse opened the door right on the count of one hundred and she smiled at me.
“Thank you,” she said. “Mr. Cleary.” The name seemed to be an afterthought.
“You’re welcome, Ms. Assmen.”
The corners of her mouth twitched. “Hassmen,” she corrected.
“Looks more like a really nice ass to me, and I don’t need to know if you has men or not.”
Surprise rippled across her expression, followed by her cheeks turning pink as she retrieved my clothes. Oh? Wait for it. Yeah, she opened her mouth twice then closed it without saying anything. Finally, she retreated to the door.
After clearing her throat, she said, “This door remains unlocked during the day—for now. Behavior can dictate a change in your condition. This room opens onto the main hall and if you follow me, I can show you where the community room is. You’re allowed to go there or stay in here.”
Well, wasn’t that just fucking special. I summoned a smile. “Lead the way, Ms. Assmen. I can’t wait to follow you.”
Her blush deepened and she pivoted away to hurry ahead of me. Yeah, I was being a bit of a douche, but I didn’t want her paying attention to me. If anything, I wanted her to be uncomfortable and away from me.
The community room was just that, a big ass room with some chairs, tables, a television, and a couple of lounge like chairs. There were games, puzzles, and other shit to do. I didn’t recognize the show on the television, but I parked myself in one of the chairs and waited.
Everyone came to the community room.
Right?
Three days of wash, rinse, repeat and pissing off Doctor Sneeze to the point that on the fourth day he passed me to one of the staff therapists. Fine by me. I didn’t like him in the first place. Ox boy Broderick stayed away, but the blushing Assmen came to see me all the time. She even snuck me chocolate when I skipped eating the slop they served for dinner.
I bet if I worked for it, I’d get a blowjob out of her next. But that wasn’t why I was here and it wasn’t what I wanted.
At all.
What I wanted was…
The door opened and a nurse I didn’t know walked in pushing a wheelchair, and all the oxygen in the room sucked out into the vacuum of nothingness. Boo-Boo sat in that chair, dressed in the same pale gray as me, only hers was more a gown, rather than pajamas. Her eyes were vacant, glazed over and gone.
I forgot I even needed to breathe as the nurse parked her by the window. When the nurse walked away, Boo-Boo just sat there. Nothing. No reaction. Did she even know she was in the room? My head ached and my chest squeezed. Right. I sucked in a breath of air and stood up.
“Hey,” I said as I reached where they’d parked her. Fortunately, there was a table right there with some—magazine on it—so I pulled up a chair. She barely even noticed me, or if she did, there was no reaction. Her pupils were the size of saucers. I’d been there before. Fucking flying on something. “Fuck, how much juice are you on?”
“No juice,” she replied in a sandpaper dry voice that made my throat hurt. “Water. I peed, so not a lot.”
“Okay.” Yeah, she was higher than a fucking kite. I wanted to kill every fucking person here. She’d been so clean and crisp at the clubhouse, even when she’d been hurting. The day she got stoned with the guys notwithstanding, and this was so not that. It fucking killed me. “C’mon, Boo-Boo, I know you’re in there.”
For the first time since she got here, she turned those sightless eyes on me and I shuddered. They were so fucking empty. What had they done to her? Just like that, I was trying to mentally inventory everything about her. Her movement shifted the sleeves on her gown. There were— “What happened to your arms?” Scars marked them—ugly, red scars.
They were all going to die the most painful fucking deaths possible.
“Mr. Cleary,” the fucking Ox Broderick was back. Dead man walking number two. “You have group.”
“That was this morning,” I told him.