Devil May Care: Boxed Set Read Free Page A

if he was just getting tired and stiff, or if that meant his injuries were worse. She had no idea how internal bleeding worked, or what the signs would be if he were in danger of bleeding to death of unseen wounds.
     
    Please don’t let him die in my apartment , she thought. She pulled back her covers and he slid into her bed. Too bad it wasn’t under better circumstances that she had a sexy naked man in her bed.
     
    She brought him water and he sipped at it, then let his head fall back on the pillow.
     
    “Can I get you anything else?”
     
    “Ice,” he whispered.
     
    “To drink or for your head?”
     
    “Head.”
     
    She went to the kitchen and filled a bag with ice, then wrapped a paper towel around it. Maybe some pain killers would be good, too. She stopped in the bathroom and took her bottle of ibuprofen from the mirror cabinet.
     
    In her room, she carefully set the bag of ice over his worst spots of bruising and put the bottle of pills on the lid of her hamper, which doubled as her bedside table.
     
    “Here are some pain killers, but I don’t know that they’ll help much. Is there anyone I can call for you or anything else you need?”
     
    “No,” he whispered. “Thanks.”
     
    “Okay. I’m going to leave the door open and sleep in the other room, so just call if you need anything.”
     
    He didn’t respond, so she turned out the light and went to the living room to make a call. She dialed the number for Jeanine.
     
    “Hey, hon, everything okay?” Jeanine said when she answered.
     
    “Yeah, sort of. Can you keep Sophia overnight?”
     
    “Sure thing. What’s going on?”
     
    “It’s nothing major.” How much should she tell her? “Just have a sick friend here, and I don’t want Sophia to get it.”
     
    “Oh, sure. No problem. She’s already asleep anyway.”
     
    “Oh, good.” She was relieved that Sophia was sleeping, even if it meant she didn’t get to say goodnight to her. Fiona didn’t think she could handle telling her she’d need to stay there away from her. It was the first night they’d spent apart since they left. But it’d be much worse for Sophia to wake up and find a strange man in her mom’s room, swollen and bloody. How would she ever explain that? “I’ll call in the morning, okay?”
     
    “Have a good night and don’t you go getting sick, either.”
     
    “No, I won’t, thanks.”
     
    She hung up and went to clean up the bathroom. The blanket was still on the floor. It was dark blue in color, but she could see the spots of blood, almost black-looking. Would the stains come out? She ran cool water in the tub and dropped in the blanket, trying to rinse out as much as she could before wringing it and hanging it up on the shower curtain rod.
     
    The floor had a few blood-tinged puddles, which she wiped up with the now pink washcloth. She tried to rinse it out, too, but it had been white and seemed like it would never be again. At least not without some strong bleach. Maybe Sue had some and she could try to soak it next time she went over to do laundry.
     
    She sat down in the living room, exhausted. She didn’t feel like watching TV, but was too keyed up to sleep. Her mind ran back through the night. The man lying there on the ground, how she’d thought he was dead. Getting him into the car, getting him here and cleaned up. He had enemies, he said. Was he just another bad boy like her ex had been?
     
    She thought it was hot in the beginning, the way Sam got into fights and always won. He was so strong and tough. But when those fists had turned toward her, it wasn’t so attractive anymore. She’d realized too late that his anger issues didn’t exclude her and that the way he led his motorcycle club with an iron first was the same way he’d rule her entire life. From the way she did laundry to the way she dressed, who she spent time with, where she went. And if she did something he didn’t like, she paid for it. Usually in bruises.