I relaxed my face so it revealed nothing. “I’m used to being on my own.”
Bram frowned. “You’re not alone.”
“I don’t know you,” I said bluntly. “Not really.”
Bram glanced past me for a split second before returning his attention to me. “Your boyfriend argued the same thing when I told him to go home.”
I had a feeling he was talking about Roe.
“They refused to leave you,” Bram grumbled and nodded toward the other side of the bed. “The only reason they agreed to go home was because Reid said he’d stay here with you.”
I turned my head and saw Reid asleep in a chair identical to Bram’s. His feet were propped up on the foot of the bed, and he was covered with a soft-looking blue blanket from the shoulders down.
“Despite the circumstances, his mother is happy that he’s here. She tried to get him to sleep on the couch in the living room, where it’d be more comfortable, but he refused,” Bram explained.
I glanced around the room. It looked like I was in a guest room with how plain and bare it was. The queen-sized bed I was in had a black metal frame and white bedding. A round, black side table with a lamp on it stood next to the bed. Across the room was a TV hanging on the wall and on either side of it were doors. One seemed to lead to a bathroom and the other I assumed led to the rest of the house. The chairs Bram and Reid were using looked out of place, which made me think that they’d been brought in from somewhere else.
“Do you need anything?” Bram asked.
I went to touch my sore throat, and I saw that my hand and some of my fingers were bandaged. I set my hand back on the bed. “I’m thirsty.”
Bram stood. “I’ll get you some water.”
As he left the room, I had the urge to look at the time, only to realize I didn’t have my phone. I didn’t have anything that was mine. Not even my own clothes. I glanced down to see if I was still in the outfit Mac had lent me to wear to the club’s barbecue and saw that I wasn’t. Lifting the covers, I saw that the crop top and shorts had been replaced with a baggy oversized shirt and sweatpants. I didn’t want to think about how I’d been changed.
The next urge that hit me was the need to pee.
I pushed the covers down as far as I could reach and used my feet to get them the rest of the way. That movement alone made me very aware that my pain medication had fully worn off. Doing my best not to wake Reid, I rolled onto my side and sat up. I paused a second to take in a few shallow breaths before slowly standing. I wrapped an arm around myself under my breasts. It didn’t do anything to lessen the pain, but it was a little bit comforting. After taking a couple of wobbly steps, I put my hand on the back of Bram’s chair to help me. When I was past the chair, I reached out for the foot of the bed. It wasn’t far to the bathroom from there. Just five to six steps of empty space.
I took one wobbly step, then another. With the next, I stumbled. I braced, knowing I was going down.
A hand caught me by my upper arm and a tattooed arm wrapped around my lower stomach before someone pressed against me from behind. They held me as I got my feet flat on the ground.
“Want me to carry you?” a tired voice asked.
Reid.
There was this knee-jerk urge to turn him down. Everything about him right now was confusing. I was angry that he’d known about my connection with Bram the whole time. I still didn’t have a clear answer as to why he didn’t like me. I hated how he had assumed that just because he’d gotten Bram and me in the same place and revealed that Bram was my real father, I would tell Bram every fucking ugly detail about my life. When I hadn’t, he’d stormed off, disappointed and pissed. A few hours later, he’d showed up to my house and helped me. Now he was here, staying with me so I wouldn’t wake up alone in a strange place with a father I had only learned about a few weeks ago. Should I thank him? Call him an asshole?
His hand left my arm and he grasped my chin gently with his fingers. The same fingers that had been inside me not so long ago, making me moan and beg him not to stop. He’d acted like he hated everything about that moment, yet he’d come just as hard on my hand as I had his.
He turned my head slightly so we could see each other. “If it hurts to talk, you can nod.”
My brain must have short-circuited, because I nodded.
Accepting that as an answer, Reid scooped me up in his arms, making me hiss.
“Bobby left you pain meds,” he said as he carried me into the bathroom. He used his elbow to flip on the light.
The brightness stung my eyes. Involuntarily, I tried to shield my face in his neck. If it bothered him, he didn’t say. He didn’t say a word when I felt him stop walking, either. He just held me. I pulled away with squinted eyes and saw that we were by the toilet. I hadn’t said why I was headed to the bathroom, but I guessed the reason was obvious.
With my eyes still adjusting to the brightness, I leaned away until I was able to see Reid’s face.
He stared back at me with a schooled expression. “You ready?”
I nodded and he gently set me on my feet.
“You don’t need help in here, do you?” he teased.
