Page 91 of Bae

He’d also threatened to cut ties with his mother, but between you and me, he wouldn’t have. He may have put her on ice for a while, but he’d never remove her from his life. And honestly, I’d never allow him to.

I don’t know if anyone else inside this SUV noticed his almost deadly calm that was entirely deceiving, but if they did, no one said a word.

We were in the back of Ivy’s white Range Rover. Trent was in the passenger seat, Drew driving, and Romeo, Braeden, and me were in the back. Ivy and Nova were home, but since this car would fit us all more comfortably (versus Trent’s and Drew’s Mustangs), he brought this one to the hospital to get us.

Romeo wasn’t the only madman in the car.

Trent was, too. He didn’t say so, but oh, I felt it.

He was angry I didn’t ask him to come to my appointment. Angry I didn’t call him when I was admitted to the hospital.

I loved my family, but three overbearing brothers was a lot to handle at times.

I didn’t want to make any of them mad, but sometimes a girl had to be her own woman. Having an escort (aka babysitter) everywhere I went was just stupid.

Of course, if Trent had been driving earlier, we probably wouldn’t have plowed into a pole.

Oh my.I was turning into a girl who needed a babysitter.

God help me.

As if my night wasn’t shitty enough, I had to go and get sucker-punched with that little gem of realization.

Boo.

Romeo turned and glanced out the back window for about the hundredth time.

“We aren’t being tailed,” Drew said, not even glancing from the road. “If we were, I’d lose them. Trust me.”

Romeo sank back into the seat.

“Compound is locked down?” Braeden asked.

“Yes,” Trent said immediately. “I made sure.”

“One of you could have stayed behind with Ivy,” I commented.

They all snorted. Like all of them. At the same time.

How rude.

“How long you here for?” Drew asked, still not taking his eyes off the road. Every now and then, I’d see his glance flick up to the rearview before returning to the windshield.

I was tired, drained really. I was also mildly embarrassed. I had a panic attack. A full-blown body meltdown, when I first arrived at the hospital. It hit me so fast and so unexpectedly.

I didn’t know they could be like that. It was as if one minute I was fine, and the next my body and mind had completely turned against me.

A cold sweat broke out over my body; my mouth ran so dry my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I was shaking, not trembling as I’d been since I crashed. Full-on rattling that made it impossible to sit still. Everything around me went blurry; it was like I was living in a haze. I felt dizzy, nauseous, and my stomach cramped painfully.

The doctors saw it, even as I panicked worse, thinking something was seriously wrong. I was strapped with an oxygen mask, and a needle came at me with rapid force.

I’d twisted and evaded the stick, though. I was still enough in my right mind to deny the medicine. “No drugs,” I insisted loud enough they heard me through the mask.

“It’s just to help calm you down,” they’d said.

“No.” I refused.

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