Page 25 of A Love So Hard

“Whoa there, you shouldn’t try to move,” Merc called out as he slid quickly over to my side and pressed a button on a little dangling cord near the head of my bed.

“Merc,” I started to say, but the harshness and the scratch in my throat stayed my words.

He shook his head. “Wait on the nurse, man. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to get you anything to drink or what?”

“What?” I started, but that was as far as I could get with my question before he shook his head and answered me cryptically. “Later, man.” Then the door to the room was opening again and a cute little brunette nurse came flouncing in like she was working the stage at the strip club instead of trying to nurse people back to health.

“Mr. Brothers, I see you’re finally awake,” she cooed to me as she came up on the other side of my bed.

“He’s trying to talk, but it hurts his throat. Can we give him some water?”

“We can give him whatever he wants to have,” she offered with a seductive smile that made me groan.

“Out,” I stated gruffly.

“What was that?” The woman asked as she leaned in her, breasts practically spilling out of her scrub top that had been strategically unbuttoned.

“Get. The fuck. Out.” My voice was a low growl due to my throat being on absolute fucking fire, but the menace wasn’t lacking from my words.

“What my brother is trying to tell you is that you need to send someone in here who can be fucking professional. He needs a nurse not a whore,” Merc spat out at her.

She gulped thickly. “I’m so sorry.” Her words were a whisper as she slunk out of the room.

“I need you to listen to me. If I have to restrain you, I will. You fuckin’ stopped breathing and damn near died three times last night, so you probably won’t be able to put up much of a fight anyway.” I just glared up at my brother as he said this. I almost died? What the fuck had happened.

“You remember showing me the kutte you got for Lucy?”

I nodded my head.

“You remember anything after that?”

I had to think for a moment, because at first all I had was a blank and then I remembered someone coming into my room after Merc took off. I nodded my head as I started to put some things together. It wasn’t a complete picture, but considering the last person I remember being with was Stiff and then I wake up being told I nearly died… “Stiff,” I mentioned.

Merc’s shoulders went rigged. “Yeah, Stiff,” he hissed out. “He give you something to take? Pills? Blow? Something to drink?”

I nodded my head again. “Jack. Was supposed to be a peace offering,” I told him about the Jack Daniels the asshole had offered me, and how much I drank of it.

“Fuckin’ peace offering that was laced with enough GHB and other shit that you stopped fuckin’ breathin’.”

Shit. What the fuck? “GHB?”

“That date rape drug,” he started explaining as my eyes went wide with the implication.

Merc waved it off. “He didn’t fuckin’ rape you himself, but the result wasn’t much better.”

A feeling like ice cold fingers running down the back of my neck washed over me. Before I could ask any more questions the door to my room opened again and an older lady came in the room with a stethoscope draped around her neck. “I apologize for the behavior of our nurse. She’s been sent home for the night and will not be back to bother you again.”

I nodded. The woman grabbed up the pitcher of water sitting off to the side and filled a cup for me. After tucking a straw in the cup she brought it over and held it up to my parched lips. “Small sips so you don’t get sick,” she ordered. As I followed her instructions the nurse was watching my chest rise and fall and glancing at her watch. “You were intubated for a while last night, which is part of why your throat probably feels like it’s burning and scratched all to hell.” I tipped my chin to acknowledge that it was indeed those things. “You’ll probably experience slight discomfort when swallowing and talking for a couple days. You will most likely want to stick to liquids and soft foods if that’s the case. If it persists for more than a week or worsens in the next few days you will want to let your doctor know immediately.” I nodded. “I’m going to let the doctor on call know that you’re awake now, and he’ll probably check you over and let you know when you’ll be discharged sometimes within the hour. He’s on rounds at the moment, and you just missed waking up for them when he started, so he’ll catch you again on the tail end. If you need anything before then just press that button again and one of us will be down here to tend to you.”

Once she was out of the room I glared up at Merc. “Finish,” I growled out.

Merc pulled a chair close to the bed and hung his head for a minute. “Should have fuckin’ known something wasn’t right when I saw Lucy all by herself at the party.” My heart rate ticked up at the mention of Lucy’s name. “Some of the whores were talking and I didn’t get to her in time to hear what was said, but I followed behind when she ran off to your room.” He still wasn’t looking at me, instead hanging his head so his eyes never made it up past the floor. “She got there before I did, and she saw Savanna riding you. The woman even had your hands held up to her hips. She had your face blocked for the most part, except to show just a little of it once she knew we were there so that there wouldn’t be any doubt as to who was underneath of her.”

They might just need to intubate me again, because I couldn’t breathe. Lucy had seen that? I closed my eyes and choked on the roar of frustration and anger that was trapped there. “Please, tell me you guys realized I was out cold?”

He shook his head, still refusing to look at me. “I told her it couldn’t be what it looked like because you had a surprise for her, and she just said it sure was some surprise, and she took off.”

“Did you go get her?”

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