Her face scrunches in disgust. “You stole me a dead guy’s wife’s diamond necklace? That’s so wrong.”
Damian’s face falls as he thinks it over. “Shit,” he says, realizing that she’s right. “I didn’t think of it that way.”
Nessa laughs and pushes up onto her tippy toes so she can kiss him. “Why am I not surprised?” she murmurs. “You should see if you can get it changed into something for your mom. You know how she loves her jewelry.”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“CRUZ AND WILDER. GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE. NOW!”
Slade cringes and glances down at the court to see his coach fuming as he stares up here. He meets my eyes. “Duty calls,” he says with a slight shrug, leaning into me and kissing me once again.
“Bring me home a win,” I tell him.
“You know I will.”
He winks and like lightning, he’s down on the court where the referee is calling for them to get the game started.
Chapter 23
It’s been two weeks since Slade found me at that gas station and they’ve been the best two weeks of my life. You know, if you don’t count the whole Lucien thing. That was kind of a buzzkill, but being home and being free is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. Well, I guess that’s not exactly true. There were four incredible years I got before my parents were killed where I had the world at my feet. But I was too young to know any better.
Now, I’m really living.
I have never enjoyed life like the way that I am now. The chip on my shoulder seems to have vanished, but don’t worry, I’ve been holding onto my award-winning attitude and sarcasm with both hands. I don’t think I could ever part with them.
It’s as though I’m seeing the world through new eyes. All the evil and badness has disappeared and I’m left with nothing but happiness. I’ve been able to draw again, and fuck, I’ve been running out of canvases like crazy.
I was caught drawing on Shaylee’s dining table the other day. She wasn’t too impressed until she realized it was a drawing of her with my mom, both happy and loving life. Shay insisted that I finish the drawing and since then has been asking about painting a clear sealer over the table so she can keep the drawing forever.
Shay and I hop out of Slade’s Dodge as Damian pulls up behind us in his Mustang with Nessa.
I glance through the back window at Blake and let out a breath.
This is going to be interesting.
Slade jumps down from the driver’s seat as I open the back door and take in my brother with his leg stretched out across the back seat. Getting him in here was one thing, now getting him out is going to be a whole other drama.
Slade comes in behind me, looking over the top of my head at Blake as Damian appears at the other back door, opening it to get a good view of the show. “How do you want to do this?” Slade murmurs, unclear whether he’s talking to Blake or Damian. Hell, maybe it’s both or maybe he’s just thinking out loud.
Blake shakes his head. “I don’t want to do this. I’m cool here. Just bring me a pillow and a blanket. I’ll be alright.”
“Don’t be such a baby,” I tell him with a smirk, knowing it’s the right kind of motivation he needs to suck it up and help us to get his ass inside.
Blake groans and looks back at Damian with a cringe, weighing up all his options. He turns back to Slade. “I don’t want that fucker touching me. He’ll probably try and shove a finger up my ass while I can’t move.”
Damian leans into Blake, grinning while bouncing his brows, teasing my brother in the best possible way he knows how. “Well, that’s just a risk you’re going to have to take. Shay, Sky, and Nessa are too fucking small to help carry your big ass inside. Maybe if you laid off the jellos in the hospital, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Blake’s elbow flies back into Damian’s chest and the grunt that comes sailing out of his mouth is enough to satisfy all of our ears. “Fuck off,” Blake says, looking to me. “Did you invite him or did he just show up and attach himself to your boyfriend’s dick like a leech?”
“Leech,” I confirm, getting an off-putting image in my head.
Slade groans. “All of you shut the fuck up so we can get this over and done with.”
Blake rolls his eyes, not wanting to do this but he knows just as well as the rest of us that the quicker he gets it over and done with, the quicker he can rest and forget about the pain.
The smirk finally falls off Damian’s face as he steps in closer to my brother and looks up at Slade. “I think it’s just going to be easier if we carry him while Sky stabilizes his foot.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. We’re going to have to scoot him back off the seat and Skylah will have to be there ready to grab his leg so it doesn’t fall to the ground.” Slade presses his lips together, still thinking over the plan. “Maybe we should get Nessa to try and lift his foot off the seat as we slide him out so it’s not dragging along the seat. If the anchor pins get caught on something…”
Blake goes white and groans under his breath as his life flashes before his eyes. “Fuck me.”
Damian nods and turns to Nessa. “Are you cool with that?” She nods and he looks back to me and Slade. “Alright, let’s do this.”
Slade and I hurry around to the other side of the truck as Shaylee races ahead to unlock the front door. Nessa switches spots with us and as we get into position, she climbs up into the truck and curls her hands under Blake’s leg, being careful to avoid the pins.
This is going to be a shit show.
If the boys drop Blake, his leg is fucked.
If I don’t catch his foot, his leg is fucked.
If Nessa gets caught on one of the pins, his leg is fucked.
This whole damn thing is fucked.
We all have to move as one.
Fuck me. Why did we have to insist on going without the wheelchair? The boys were too fucking stubborn and thought we could handle it. After all, the space from the curb to the front door isn’t all that far.
Yeah…they really didn’t think this through. None of us did.
I bet they’re regretting that decision now, though, we would have still had the same situation trying to get him from the truck down into the wheelchair. Either way, it would have been a pain in the ass.
I guess Blake is just lucky that a good part of his leg has started to heal. If we attempted this weeks ago, we would have been up shit creek without a paddle. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as though he’s unable to do anything for himself. He could help out a bit with scooting back and helping to hold up his leg, but it takes a lot out of him and just the smallest thing could push him over the edge.
Blake suggested to his special sponge bath nurse that he wanted to attempt getting out of bed a few days ago…let’s just say the woman lost her job pretty fucking quickly when she was caught trying to help him conquer the world. I nearly had a freaking heart attack. It’s shit like that which is going to cost him his future. He needs to play this smart, we all do.
Eyes start darting around, waiting for someone to tell us to go as Blake sits with his eyes clenched.