“Thank you,” I whisper, comforted when the man beside me shifts closer to me.
“We were told you’d been taken, but had no idea anyone had found you. Tell me where you are, I’ll come get you.” Thunder quickly changes to the topic he’s interested in.
“I’d like your brother to get another couple of days of rest before he has to be in the truck again,” I answer, worried about Jessup’s concussion and him potentially diving back into the fray. “I can watch over him at my clinic.”
“Who exactly are you?” Thunder’s voice sounds like his road name, making me decide that suits him better than Lincoln.
“She’s a doctor.”
“I’m a vet,” I answer at the same time as my patient.
“Come again?” Thunder’s tone is decidedly softer this time.
“She went to medical school,” Jessup responds, shooting me a side eye like I just betrayed him.
“She went to medical schoolfor animals,” Thunder chokes out before his laughter overtakes him. “Oh, that’s fucking rich.”
“Hey! It’s not like it’s easier, you know?” I try to sound stern, but I can’t help the smile pulling at my lips.
“I’m never going to hear the end of this,” Jessup moans to me as his brother tells someone in the background what’s happened.
“Look, I understand it’s wildly funny,” I interject after another moment of listening to two men I’ve never met mocking Rage, as they call him. “But your brother was pretty severely beaten and besides a concussion, a few broken ribs, and a fracture along his scapula, there are some pretty bad burns from his calves down.”
This gets the two men to stop laughing.
“What’s a scapula?” The man who joined Thunder asks; his voice is fairly muffled like he doesn’t want us to hear him.
“Shoulder blade,” Jessup and Thunder answer at the same time.
“You didn’t tell me where you are?” Thunder asks again.
“Somewhere in Wyoming,” Jessup replies. “I don’t actually know, but she says it’s about four hours away.”
“How did you get away from these guys? Their leader, from what information we’re getting, is a serious player.”
“Everly rescued me,” Jessup tells his brother. “I’m not really sure how, or why, because I was in a bad way yesterday.”
“Is she hot? She sounds like she is,” Thunder’s next question is less relevant that his previous one and there’s no stopping the gasp that I let out, nor the blush that rides up my cheeks. I turn and raise my eyebrow at Jessup, silently daring him to answer.
“She’s my type, not yours,” he says, leaning forward to rest his forehead against mine.
No one’s ever done that to me before and the connection feels so incredibly intimate. Moreso than any kiss I’ve ever had, and myheart starts beating so loudly that I almost worry Thunder will hear it over the line.
“Everly?” Thunder draws my attention back to the call. “You patch my baby brother up the best you can and let him rest today.”
“That was the plan,” I answer, feeling like I’m wrapped in a cocoon with Jessup; at least until Thunder pierces it with his next words.
“Then get him back here tomorrow, cause he’s going to want to be here for the fight. Love you, kid.”
“See ya soon,” Jessup replies, his breath feathering across my skin.
The click of the line tells me that Thunder hung up, and I didn’t even have a chance to pass on a message for my dad—let alone argue the case for Jessup to sit out the fight.
Chapter 6
Rage
Everly presses her lips together as she draws back from me, keeping her eyes on her phone she sends off a text message, asking her dad to call her.
