AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I came to apologize and bring you back home.” He swallowed and moved around me to look at the damage. “I walked here but I can carry you to the medical center.”
“I don’t need the medical center. If I did, I’d walk myself. I don’t want your help, Joe. I don’t want you here at all.” I tried to limp towards the bathroom but every step let me feel exactly how many little barbs were stuck in me.
Joe picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. “I’ll apologize later.”
64
***Ada***
“You’regoingtowantto sleep on your stomach tonight. You reacted more to the barbs than anyone I’ve ever seen. I’m giving you an antihistamine to help with that and something for the pain.” The doctor sighed. “I knew Maxine’s little garden was going to hurt someone someday. That woman in a menace.”
“You’re telling me.” I was face down on an exam table with my pants gone and my underwear tucked into my ass crack so the doctor could remove the cacti parts from my right cheek. I was painfully aware that Joe was sitting in the room with me.
“Can you stay with her once you get her home? I’m afraid she’s going to be out of it after these shots.” The doctor’s cold hands were on my ass again and I gasped at the sharp pinch I felt. “There we go. Good job, Ada.”
“I’ll stay with her.” Joe’s deep voice sounded angry. “Your hand, doc.”
“Oh! Sorry.” He laughed. “Anyway, that’s all. You’re good to go, Ada. Try to avoid sitting down for a day or two.”
I grunted as Joe picked me up and put me over his shoulder again. “Joe! I can walk! Also, I don’t have pants on!”
“Oh! Here you go. Just tuck that around her. Yep, all good.” Laughing like he was having a good time, the doctor pressed my pants in to my hand.
“Thanks.” Joe carried me out of the medical center and the heat was intense as we left the AC. He was silent as he carried me home, his arm locked around the back of my knees to hold me in place.
I wanted to cry I was so frustrated. I was trying my hardest to get past the intense grief over losing the Carringtons and him showing up was going to set everything back. I’d cried too much over him. “I want you to leave, Joe. I don’t want you here.”
“You have every right to be angry at me, Ada. What I did to you was awful and I’m sorry. I’m more sorry than I know how to put into words. I didn’t plan on having this conversation like this, though.” He palmed the thigh that hadn’t taken a cactus. “I thought the worst of you and I treated you like I didn’t care about you.”
I yawned. “You aren’t sorry. You called the cops on me.”
The already upside down world blurred around me. I yawned again and sighed. The medicine was really kicking in. I wanted to finish telling Joe off but I couldn’t make my tongue move correctly.
Joe was saying something but I couldn’t make sense of it. I thought maybe his tongue wasn’t working all that well, either. My ass wasn’t throbbing anymore and I smiled to myself. I was a big fan of whatever shot in the butt they’d given me.
*
“What the hell happened to her?”
I gasped as I woke with a start. I was on my stomach and when I rolled onto my side to sit up, the back of my thigh reminded me of why I’d been knocked on in the first place. I looked around and frowned when I saw Joe and Collin standing next to the couch.
“She tried to escape and ran into a cactus patch.” Joe pulled me to my feet and brushed my curls out of my face. “Do you need the bathroom?”
I grimaced. “Yes, but I don’t want your help.”
“What about mine?” Collin stepped forward and held out his hands to me.
“No.” I shifted away from both of their hands and hobbled to the bathroom. I was still so tired and out of it but I was alert enough to know I needed to get the Carrington brothers out of my space. I snagged my phone from the counter on the way and once I was in the bathroom I made a call and took my time at the sink, splashing water on my face to wake up fully.
“You okay?” Collin knocked on the bathroom door, voice full of worry. “If you’re still drowsy, you shouldn’t be walking around on your own, Ada.”
I pulled open the door and stared up at him. “I shouldn’t have been walking around the night you and Joe kicked me out.”
“I know. You’re right, Ada.” He heard the knock on the front door but ignored it. “Let me help you back to the couch. Please.”
Joe swore from the living room. “Touche, Ada.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned at Collin. “That’s your cue to leave.”
