“Oliver?”she pushed.
The kid sighed dramatically, having figured out she wasn’t letting this go.“Nickle used to tell his old lady to suck his dick.”He shook his head and scrunched up his face like he couldn’t figure out what it meant or why someone would do that.
Sadie’s eyes bugged out of her head, and her mouth flat-lined as she turned her mom-look on Jed.Wait.What?Why was he in trouble?
“Hey!I’m the one who got tased, and Trick brought up the piercing.”He was willing to throw the other man under the bus if it meant her mean-mom focus was on someone else.
“Good grief.”She didn’t appear to know who to throw most of her aggravation at, him, her nephew or Trick.She was thoroughly disgusted with all three of them at the moment.She shook her head and started to step over him, tugging her nephew behind her.
Feeling she needed to be reminded that he was the victim of her tasing, he called out, “You shot electricity into my dick.”He scrunched up his face and groaned a little to win back her sympathy, even though the pain was slowly easing.“I’m lucky it didn’t fall off.”
Race grunted.“Enough talk about Jed’s dick, piercing, or it falling off.Can we move this to the living room now?”He stepped over Jed and disappeared out the door.His brothers started filing out of the room next, while Trick moved Oliver along with a hand behind his back.
With the room emptying, Jed rolled to his hands and knees, almost afraid to try and stand up.
“Here.Let me help you.”He raised his head, surprised to see Sadie had stayed behind.She took one of his arms, and with the help of the bed, he leveraged himself to his feet.He managed to straighten up without doubling over, but it was close.
Sadie’s head dropped when she heard Oliver say in his rather loud, raspy voice, “Is his dick really gonna fall off?”
“Oh, my God.What am I going to do with him?Or you?”
Jed stepped into Sadie, wrapping his arms around her.“With him?Not sure.With me?You could kiss it and make it better.”
“Seriously?Even now, you’re going to joke about sex?”She dropped her head to his chest.
“Well, I do need to know if it still works.”
6
Jed
Jed and Sadie joined the others in the living room, where everyone was waiting to talk to her.Race sat on the edge of the couch as she took a seat in the recliner facing him.
“Trick?Can you?”Race tipped his head toward her nephew.
“Hey, Oliver.You want to show me your cars in your room?”Trick waited for the little boy to grab a few cars from the floor, then, only after Sadie gave her nephew a reassuring nod and smiled his way, did he go.
“Look at this car, Trick.It looks just like Jed’s.”
Race waited until he heard the bedroom door close before turning to Sadie.He leaned forward with his arms on his legs and asked, “First off, how are you and Oliver doing?”He did a quick head-to-toe scan, checking for obvious injuries.“Are either of you hurt?”
“No.We’re good.Just a little shook up.The car alarm must have scared him off.”Now that she’d had a moment to sit down and allow the reality of what might have happened to sink in, her initial adrenaline rush was wearing off and hitting her hard.She was trying to hide how it was affecting her by crossing her arms and clenching her teeth to keep them from chattering.Jed pulled the throw from the back of the recliner and draped it over her shoulders.
“Thanks.”She pulled it tight around her.“I don’t know why I’m reacting this way.”
“It’s probably the adrenaline.It hits everybody a little differently,” he tried to tell her.
“It’s crazy.I never reacted this way when Crockett was pulling his crap.”She pushed her hair behind her ear.
“Did you have Oliver with you during the other times?”Jackson asked.
“No.He never pulled any of his shit around him.Thank God.”
“You’ll start to calm down in a little bit.”Race squeezed her knee in comfort.“You feel up to answering some questions?”
“Yes.”She nodded her head.
“What was it that alerted you that someone was breaking into the apartment?You were asleep, right?”
