Page 29 of Plain Jade

Rubbing her temple, she shook her head and then finished putting her groceries away. She’d put the final tub of ice cream in the freezer when someone knocked at her door.

At first, Jade stood frozen. No one ever knocked at her door. The postal guy had a place to drop deliveries into. This made no sense. Even when she had friends who wanted to meet up, they didn’t knock on the door, she would arrange to meet them.

She felt a little fear because this was unusual. Then, she knew it was silly of her to be concerned. People got visitors all the time and didn’t react like this.

Heading to the door, she looked through the peephole and then gasped. Flinging open the door, she didn’t have long before Braxton stumbled into her apartment. He slammed the door closed, and she knew he was badly injured.

“Braxton, what the hell?” she asked.

All that muscle he carried was not light, and she struggled to hold him up.

“Lock the door,” he said.

He pulled his weight off her, and she watched him stumble down the hallway. Jade didn’t need to ask questions, and she immediately bolted her door.

Braxton was hurt, but he was here. She hated how happy that made her. The last thing she wanted to be was a doormat.

“You’re here,” she said.

“I’m here,” he groaned.

She rushed to the curtains and closed them. Jade didn’t even know why that felt important to do, only that it did.

“Are you okay?” she asked, and winced. Of course he wasn’t okay. She didn’t see all the damage but he had collapsed into one of her chairs.

Braxton had never shown any sign of pain or weakness while he’d been with her. He wasn’t even showing it now. Jade noticed it in the frown on his face, and the wincing, and in the way he walked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Dammit, Braxton, you’re not.” She moved toward him, and as she did, she saw the blood on his shirt. “You’re seriously hurt. We’ve got to get you to the hospital.”

“No hospital.”

“Then let me call the cops. Someone needs to pay for what they’ve done.”

“No,” he said.

She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. He didn’t want the cops, and he was being so damn stubborn. There was a small temptation to slap him, but she pushed that down. Hitting him wasn’t going to solve anything.

“Then if you won’t let me take you to the hospital, or let me help you, the least you can do is not bleed on my furniture. I heard a nasty rumor that blood is impossible to get out of fabric, or are you happy to leave a trace of your steps?” She had no idea what she was saying, but it sounded good, so she went with the flow of it, since that was much easier to do than panic. She felt close to panicking.

Braxton got up and moved toward her. “You fix me.”

He stumbled past her, and she pressed her lips together. She wasn’t a doctor. She could handle a small scrape, a cut, the occasional light burn, and possible cold and flu that didn’t need medication.

“Sure, fine,” she said, not sounding very convincing.

She rushed to her cupboard that held the first-aid kit. Again, something her mother had always advised to have on hand in case of emergencies. With the kit in her hand, she followed Braxton to the bathroom. The bath wasn’t running, but the shower was.

He had removed his clothes, and she heard the heavy weight of them as they hit the floor. He must have something inside them, and as she looked at the cuts and wounds on his body, she had a horrible feeling they were weapons.

She didn’t care. It wasn’t going to stop her caring for Braxton.

He stepped into the shower and she couldn’t help but gasp as the water ran red with his blood. She pressed a hand to her mouth, taken aback. She had known he was injured, had also kind of figured out what he did for a living based on the news article she had seen. This was a sudden slap-in-the-face reality.

“Are you okay?” Braxton asked.

Jade nodded her head. “I should really be asking you that question.”

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