Page 112 of Rough Fantasy
It wasn’t what she wanted, not really, but maybe it was what she needed.
“You can’t think that you need to be there, away from us,” Zeke said. His voice was low, and his accent deepened.
Looking at him hurt. It hurt more than the three cracked ribs that bastard gave her. She wanted to think that they wanted her on some other level, but when push came to shove, they didn’t. She couldn’t stay with men who couldn’t at least believe in her a little.
“I think it would be best for me. For…all of us.”
Zeke glanced at Rory and she could feel his need to argue rise. Zeke would argue just because he felt guilty. Thankfully, someone knocked at the door. It swung open and her brother strode in. His face was stern and there were bags under his eyes.
He didn’t stop until he was by her side. She could tell he couldn’t decide what to do.
“Maura,” he whispered. She wasn’t sure he even knew he said her name. She took his hand in hers.
“It looks much worse than it is.”
He swallowed and she knew that he was barely holding it together. Conner had a world-class temper when he let it loose and she was waiting for him to explode. He had probably been holding onto it the entire ride over. She didn’t have a long wait.
He looked at Zeke and Rory. “How the fuck could you let this happen?”
Zeke winced but Rory crossed his arms over his chest.
After a long moment of silence, Zeke answered. “We were looking at the wrong person.”
“You two are trained in the field of security and you let this happen? What the hell else can I think but you are incompetent.”
She knew her brother was upset, even scared. But she would not lay the blame of the entire episode at their feet. “You are the one who would not listen to me when I said it had nothing to do with Petersen. The cartel wasn’t going to care about Petersen and if they were going to go after someone it would be the federal prosecutor.”
By the time she stopped talking, she was exhausted. Apparently, once again, the cooler head in the room was Jillian.
“Guys, why don’t you take it outside?”
Conner opened his mouth but apparently after seeing Jillian’s expression, he thought better.
“Okay. Come on,” he ordered without waiting to see if they would follow. Typical Conner. She would have smiled but her split lip was still throbbing.
Rory gave her a glance, and said nothing else before walking out. Zeke hesitated, leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Get some rest, love.”
Then he walked out.
Jillian waited until the door shut to approach her bed.
“So, you really know how to throw a party,” she said.
Maura laughed then groaned. “Don’t make me smile. It hurts.”
“Oh, baby.” Jillian sat in the chair next to the bed. She slipped her hand into Maura’s. “How bad does it hurt?”
Maura squeezed her hand. “Pretty bad. Although, they keep me drugged up.”
“Let me guess, you don’t want to be drugged so you are making sure you only take in so much. You will take some drugs for the trip back. It will be too hard on you, honey.”
She nodded knowing that was true.
“Plus, they didn’t want me sleeping last night because of the concussion.”
Jillian sighed. “Now, you want to tell me how much the rest of it hurts?”
She glanced at Jillian and wondered not for the first time how strange fate was. The two of them had been thrown together in college. She was pretty sure that no one in their right mind would have paired the two of them up. The tattooed bohemian and the nerd. But, they had become good friends and now they were sisters.