Phoenix turned and looked behind Reese, “Carbon, get Patch.”
Reese sat down on the bed beside Ember. She gently picked up her hand and started murmuring to her.
Patch entered the room moments later. “What happened?”
“I think she fainted. She might have hit her head. Be easy with her, she’s skittish, Patch,” Phoenix blurted. He really needed to get a handle on himself.
Patch focused on Reese, “You her friend?”
“Yeah.”
“You stay. Everybody else, leave,” Patch ordered.
I growled, “No fucking way, brother.” We were in my room and I’d be damned if someone else was going to come in here and tell me to leave. It had absolutely nothing to do with the gorgeous little creature in my bed.
Patch shrugged, “Fine. Just stay out of the way.”
He proceeded to examine Ember. It didn’t seem like he was doing a whole lot of anything except running his hands all over her body. I decidedly did not like that. I was on the precipice of planting my fist in his face when he determined she would be fine and backed off.
“Really? Then, why hasn’t she come to yet?” Reese quirked her head and narrowed her eyes, “Do you know what you’re doing? Have you even had any training?” she asked snarkily.
Patch snickered, “She has come to. She’s just playing possum.” He winked and leaned closer to Reese, “I’m trained in a lot of things, pretty girl. Medicine happens to be one of them.”
Ember’s eyes shot open and made a sweep around the room. She shrunk back toward Reese when her eyes landed on Patch, “Who are you?”
“Name’s Patch. I take care of the medical stuff around here when I can, seeing as how I’m medically trained and all. You had anything to eat today?”
Ember slowly shook her head. Patch looked to me, “Feed the girl. She’ll be fine.” Then he was gone.
“Prospect,” I yelled, inadvertently startling the girls. Jamie appeared in the doorway. “Bring her something to eat. Actually, bring something for both of them.”
Ember looked around the room, “Where am I? Where is everybody?”
“You’re in my room. Brought you up here when you fainted. The others stepped out when Patch came in to take a look at you.”
“Your room?” She started to sit up. “I’m, um, just going to go. I’m sure there’s somewhere else I can…”
“No,” I stated firmly. “Stay put. You need to eat and rest.”
She glared at me. “I don’t want to be in your room, okay?”
Ouch. That kind of hurt. I guess I couldn’t blame her for feeling that way. “Look, I’m sorry about earlier. I was just following orders. You were perceived as a potential threat.” I paused for a moment, trying to find the right words to convince her to stay in my bed, I meant in my room. “Nothing is going to happen to you. You were perceived as a threat and all I did was detain you. None of us hurt you. We would never do anything like that to a woman, even if she was a legitimate threat.”
She rolled her eyes, “I seriously hope you don’t think I believe that load of crap that just came out of your mouth.”
She was frustrating the hell out of me, in more ways than one. “Will you just stay there and rest for a bit? At least until you have something to eat?”
“If I stay, will you leave?” she asked, one perfect eyebrow arched.
I smirked, “It’s my room.”
She blew me away when she grinned at me. I felt that grin deep in my chest. What was this girl doing to me?
Our moment was interrupted by a knock at the door. Phoenix was there, holding plates of food and drinks for her and Reese.
He hesitantly placed it on the bedside table for them and turned to leave.
She pushed herself up, “You don’t have to leave, uh, sir.”
