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Lucky us
Chapter 16
Titus
I JERKED AWAKE ASup my head, slipped away fro in Bax’s hospital rooument with hih the pins and wires still holding his jaw shut Dovie hadn’t left his side since the night he had forced her to go home The reason I was there noas that she needed to run ho released tomorrow He was supposed to have been released teeks earlier but had had a setback when one of the ether had broken and he developed a nasty staph infection He ended up requiring ery and more tiht in a real bed, that she rest, and when she went to argue he agreed to textloose the next day It was kind of cute,because he cared so much about the spunky redhead Dovie didn’t want him to be alone, so he texted and I showed up to stay with him As soon as she left Bax proceeded to chewhinize that he was scared, really scared for her well-being and thought she would be safer away fro to push her away for her own protection, but she was too so
We went back and forth, back and forth, until he wore himself out and fell into a fitful slumber After he was asleep I watched him for a while, stunned at how different he looked Bax had always been big and built like a truck; now he almost looked frail His face had thinned out drae and ominous on the suddenly sharp planes of his face His collarbone protruded under the neck of his hospital gown and all the bulk across his shoulders and arms had drastically thinned out If it wasn’t for the tattoo on his face and the perpetual sneer that twisted hiskid fro “Shane” instead of “Bax” since he was a little kid It made me realize that he wasn’t just scared for Dovie, he was terrified he wouldn’t be able to take care of her in his current condition He was terrified of failing her, so of course he was trying to get her to go Thank God she never would
I took a seat next to the bed and turned it all over into keep Dovie safe, even if she wasn’t playing along The opposite side of that coin was the way I had dangled Reeve out in front of Conner froe to think about the way I dropped her right into the lion’s den every day when I took her to Spanky’s and left her out there in the Point to fend for herself She kissed s out of the car, and pranced into the strip club like she didn’t have a care in the world or a giant bull’s-eye painted on her backand I let her What kind of man did that make me?
I knew I cared about her, knew this thing between us no longer had a rapidly approaching expiration date and was going to last beyond a shoith Roark She was in e where I kept the monster and she see I illingly putting her at risk every single day? How had my little brother that never cared about anyone but hiht by his woman and I ended up the opposite? When had my world turned upside down and how co to stop it?
It ood for that Beyond her bad choices, which had been fueled by grief, she was an aood woman She had a hard heart with a soft center and she deserved better than what I had given her so far She deserved so She deserved to be coddled and protected the way Bax coddled Dovie, sheltered the way Race, in building a fortress, protected Brysen She deserved more than me
I pulled outShe freaking loved that filthy strip club True to for downtrodden and broken and had added her street savvy and sharp style to it She had taken a bunch of jaded and life-weary dancers and given them a purpose I hadn’t been inside the club in the week she had been there, but already on the outside it looked like a totally different place The graffiti was poashed off the walls, the neon-pink sign that flashed GIRLS-GIRLS-GIRLS was long gone, the parking lot was lit up like a beacon, and the ridiculous sign declaring the place SPANKY’S was nowhere to be seen Instead an old antique sign that looked like sohts and directed people to the newlyThose girls had built an e thedom of sex and power to control and I could see how e navy eyes She loved that she was helping women she identified with, and I think in that she felt like she wastorn up and spit out by the Point She wanted to irl suffered that same fate
I’m headed home See you soon
I stared at the text and frowned Booker hadn’t shown back up sincewhere heReeve to fend for herself with just the feds and Nassir to keep an eye on her when she wasn’t with me I hated the idea of her out on the streets alone I was doing a terrible job of keeping her safe
Like she could read h
Chuck is going to drop me off Don’t worry about me
I swore out loud and sent her back asince I pro face and I felt o to bed alone any ale second she was risking her neck I couldn’t let Bax show me up My competitive nature and the fact I really did care about Reeve in a deep and powerful ouldn’t allow for it
I told her to think of me while she fell asleep and she shot back that if she was thinking aboutis sleeping I groaned out loud into the quiet of the hospital rooainst ood and bad, and I couldn’t get enough of either part of her