Page 7 of Hell on Wheels

“Gentlemen!” Florissa claps her hands, and the tone of her voice tells me she’s close to giving me the boot just to reclaim her quiet home. “If you insist on causing a ruckus, I won’t letanyof you see my patient.”

I bite back a snort. The diminutive witch has never raised her voice in front of me before, and I can only imagine the scowls she’s being met with. Reb alone is probably giving her a look thatwould scare the pants off anyone who didn’t know him. A chorus of muttered apologies follows and I wish I could see what’s going on, but I’m stuck in this bed with my arm re-growing bone, so I can’t move.

Life really isn’t fair.

The door opens and my jaw drops when a veritable parade of dudes shuffle in. Archie is carrying bags of food that smell like heaven and Javi is right behind him with a tray of drinks. Next in the clown car of hot guys are the Gemini twins—Angelo and Damon. Reb files in behind them all, glowering as he parks his ass on the bed next to me.

Where in the hell did all of them come from?

Running my good hand self-consciously through the rat’s nest that is my hair, I look around in confusion. “Um…”

To my shock, Archie trots over to the other side of the bed and plops down next to the weird contraption Florissa has my arm in. He’s more careful than I would have expected, and when he combs his fingers through my hair gently, you could knock me over with a feather. I give him a bewildered look, and he shrugs, his handsome face full of an emotion I can’t peg.

“You looked like you needed help,” he mumbles.

Rebel reaches over to smack his arm and it jostles my injury, making me moan in pain. I swallow hard as the ache reverberates through me. As the throb recedes, I open my eyes to chastise them, but they’re staring at me heatedly.

What is wrong with these fuckers today?

“Look, guys. I don’t know why Reb brought you all here but?—”

“I didnotbringanyof them here. Arch won’t fuck off and the rest of them slithered in when we picked up the food and your clothes.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose as a new argument starts about who brought whom, and when I can’t take it anymore, I shout, “Enough!”That shuts them up. “I don’tcarehow you all ended up crowding me in this tiny little room. What I want to know iswhy.”

Javi has the grace to look sheepish, and the twins just cross their arms over their chest stubbornly. When no one answers, I elbow Archie in the ribs and he coughs, pausing the gentle combing of my hair.

“Wheels, we stopped to get your grub and Sir Mix-a-lot over there sent out a group text alert about the fight. The meatballs were waiting at your place by the time we got there.” That earns him a glare from Angelo and Damon, but he shrugs and gives me a five-star grin. “After some… negotiation… we decided everyone was coming with us.”

Arching a brow, I squint at the crew of guys, realizing they look a bit more scuffed up than usual. “You had a fight about visiting my sick bed?!”

Reb grunts, shifting next to me. “I wouldn’t call it afight.”

“Damon is getting a black eye as we speak, Rebel!” Smacking his thigh with my good hand, I glare at each of them before turning to my stepbrother. “What the hell has gotten into you lately?”

The guys roll their eyes and mutter when he shrugs petulantly. “Nothing. My friends suck.”

“Suuuure.That’sthe problem,” Archie grumbles. “Not your head being up your ass or anything.”

Is there anything more infuriating than men? If so, count me out.

“Guys, I appreciate you coming, but honestly, I’m doing better now. Florissa said I can go home once we eat, and she does another check-up.” Javi hands me my to-go cup and my salad, winking at me before he distributes food to Rebel and Archie. One sip of my drink makes me sigh happily, and the tension in this tiny space lessens almost immediately.

“Rogue, I know you’re eating and it’s really soon, but…” Damon looks uncomfortable, but the other guys nod. “... we need to know the details of what happened. Right now, we’re working on assumptions, and that won’t protect you if they try this again.”

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath, ignoring the pain in my ribs. I hoped they’d wait a little longer to ask, but I guess that was naïve. “Okay,” I murmur.

“Sorry, Dragonfly,” Javi says. His expression is worried, but it’s probably because he knows Reb is going to get himself arrested or exiled when he gets his hands on the idiots who did this.

“No, I need to do this.” Taking another breath and letting it out slowly, I sit my fork down. “I was dancing with Archie in the middle of the crowd. Reb came up and picked a fight with him, so they got distracted. Someone yanked my hair, dragging me further into the crowd, and they descended on me like locusts. When they got me outside, there were more girls waiting. I couldn’t see all of them because they were backlit by a car—I think that’s how they got away so fast.”

Three of the guys swing their eyes to Reb, giving him filthy stares. Finally, he throws his hands up and growls, “Like I could haveknown!”

“I sure as fuck didn’t expect it,” I agree.

Damon glances up from his phone for a moment before he asks, “Whodidyou see? We need to figure out who the mystery bitches were, so we’ll work outward from the ones we can identify.”

“Mina—and she was sucking face with some girl I couldn’t identify.” They all look shocked and I lift a hand to stop them from jumping in. “I know… she pretends to be an ally, but she’s a fetishizer. Unfortunately, I’m sure it was a girl, but I couldn’t see any details. BJ was there and so was Apollonia—I might have killed her with the dust. They had a Seelie, too, because my powers got severely dampened.”

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