Page 53 of Give Me Perfect Love

He places it between his lips and stands with his playboy smile. “Well, I think we’ve had a good visit, don’t you?” he asks, grabbing his coat from the back of the chair. “Let’s go have a fucking drink. Mom, you get some rest now.” He pats her leg and I shake my head.

“Jesus Christ, boy.”

“She did this shit to herself, Bryce.” He adjusts the beanie on his head. “Come on.”

I stand and pop my neck, trying to relieve some stress. “How is she?” I ask the nurse as my brother opens the door.

“I think she’s doing well. But I didn’t go to school for a lifetime, so you’ll have to check with the doctor.” She says it like it’s the most ridiculous thing ever, like she doesn’t know as much, if not more, than the doctor.

“I like a woman who tells it like it is,” Jace says. I dart my eyes over at him and see that look I’ve seen a hundred times when my brother wants his dick wet.

“No,” I warn him before turning back to her. “Thanks for the update. Have the doctor call me.”

She gives me a nod and darts her eyes over to my brother, but unlike most women he takes an interest in, she doesn’t look at him with lust. She looks disgusted, and I think it’s funny as shit.

The charmer walks out laughing, and when I get to the door, I turn back to her. “Sorry about him. He didn’t have much of a mother growing up,” I say, looking over at Mary on the bed. “Doesn’t seem to have too much of one now either.”

Her eyes narrow slightly, and she shrugs. “Well, we’ve all got our shit, right?” she says, after checking the machines and bags hooked up to the woman who gave me life.

I nod. “Yeah…yeah, we do.”

__________

After we leave the hospital, I shoot K a text checking to see how her day’s going. She responds with a middle finger emoji.

I chuckle. Well, she’s clearly still pissed. She finally wrote me back this morning after I freaked out that she left her purse and coat in my car.

“Ben,” I greet as Jace and I walk into my club, spotting my bodyguard sitting at the bar with Bobby the head bartender at Red. The lights are all on and the floor is getting cleaned.

“Grant, good to see you back,” the big, bearded man says, standing from his stool. He looks at my face. “What the fuck happened?”

I wave him off. “Get my brother and me a beer, would you?” I ask Bobby, getting sick of everyone asking about my face. I mean, shit, I got into a few fights. I’ve had a rough couple of days. Leave me the hell alone.

He nods. “Yes, sir.”

“Bryce got into it with some cunt at the gym,” Jace says, grinning. “And from the looks of it, I’d say the guy won.”

“Fuck you,” I say as Bobby places my beer down.

“Need me to take care of it?” Ben asks, lifting his brow.

I look over at him. “Nah. Nothing like that.” I run my thumb over the condensation on the bottle, thinking back on the guy I got into it with. He looked oddly familiar, but I can’t place him. Has he been here before? Has he been in the basement?

“What’s on your mind?” Ben asks.

“I just can’t get that guy out of my head. I swear, I’ve seen him before. He had a thick, dark beard and shaved head.”

“I don’t recall anyone like that,” Ben says.

“Yeah,” I say in thought before having another taste. Cool liquid swims down my throat and relieves a little stress from my day. I pop my neck as my eyes roam, taking in Red.

This place was nothing but a big ass room when I first bought it. I’ve always looked up to Lee, my adopted father, Pops, the man who taught me how to be a man.

I had to grow up quickly, and I had an attitude that I kept inside, because at the house I lived in until thirteen, there was no room for it.

I had to be tough and deal with the shit my parents didn’t want to deal with. But with Lee, I got to be a kid, and that attitude came with it.

He never backed down, though. He made me feel like I was wanted while showing me he wasn’t going to put up with it either.

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