Page 14 of Wicked Deceit
Carter leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I see,” he says in a deep voice, downing the rest of his beer. “So, you’re suggesting that we break into our girlfriend’s apartment, take all her shit out, and….” He raises a brow, placing his empty bottle on the ground.
“We move her in here, where we can monitor her. We can sleep beside her, make sure she gets to class safely, and do anything she needs. And we’ll know where she is at all times,” I say with a sigh, looking around the room.
Seger rests his head against the back of the couch with his eyes closed, almost looking dead. And the only sign he’s alive is the thumb he thrusts in the air, giving me the thumbs up. “Sounds good to me,” he says in a sleepy voice.
“We can get a gigantic bed!” Chase says, his face lighting up with the possibility. “All of us can fit on it. That’d be friggin’ sweet!” He grins, pulls out his phone, and taps on it.
“You won’t be able to get that fucking thing here in time. That shit takes weeks,” Carter grumbles, staring daggers at the phone in Chase’s hands. “Besides, you’re fucking poor, Elf Ears,” he hisses, earning a scowl from Chase, who waves a hand in his direction.
“Watch me,” Chase says through a frown, tapping on his phone again.
“You’ll get used to Benoit charm,” Seger says through a yawn.. “He can get anything he wants with that smile and those puppy dog eyes.”
Chase stands, dragging his phone to his ear, and steps out onto the porch. His shadow paces back and forth as he animatedly talks to whoever is on the other side.
“I need some fucking sleep,” Carter mumbles, standing up. “I’ll see you assholes in the morning.”
“Be here bright and early,” I say, shoving the keys into my pocket. “We’re going to get her shit and set her up there,” I say, pointing to my bedroom. “All before we get her from the hospital.”
Carter nods, waving us off, and heads toward the door. “It’s a good fucking plan, West. If they fucking hit you guys with a car, then who knows what the fuck else they have up their sleeves.”
“You still haven’t heard anything?” I ask, and he shakes his head.
“No, not fucking yet. It’s been too fucking silent,” Carter mumbles, running a hand down his face. “I keep checking back into Crowe’s fucking computer, and there’s nothing there either. He’s gotten a few emails here and there mentioning his investments, but that’s it.” He stares off toward the wall, finally bringing his eyes to mine. “Over Thanksgiving, I’m fucking breaking into Shaw’s and my dad’s office. I’m setting the next disc, no matter what.”
I raise a brow at how forthcoming he is with this information, and he sighs again. “Don’t look so fucking surprised, West. I’m trying to fucking… I’m trying to fucking be open and fucking...”
I hold up a hand and nod. “I get it, Cunningham.”
He blows out a breath. “It wasn’t fucking me, okay?” It’s something he’s repeatedly said, and no matter how often we say we believe him, he’s still skeptical of us, begging us to believe him. “I was in my apartment doing work.” Without another word, he leaves through the front door, disappearing into the shadows of the maze. Going where I can only assume is to bed and not having a secret meeting with the enemy. But by the look in his eyes and how they pleaded with me to believe him, I fucking do. Carter’s never given me any reason not to believe him, and until he does, I’ll continue to trust him.
Chase waltzes back into the front room with a grin on his face. He waggles his brows at me and digs into a sleeping Seger’s jeans.
“What are you doing?” I ask, leaning back and watching his every move. His tongue pokes out from between his lips as his hand digs into the depths of Seger’s back jean pocket, really searching for something.
“Ah-ha! I got it,” he says with a fist pump, holding Seger’s leather wallet. He looks through it, pulls out our black card, and rattles the numbers off into the phone. He paces around the living room again, rattling off our address here, and even gives the instructions to make it through the maze. He snorts when he has to tell them again, reassures them that we live in a maze, and then hangs up.
“What was that?” I ask when he shoves his phone into his pocket.
He shrugs, puts the black card back into Seger’s wallet, and gracefully puts it back into his pocket. I raise a brow, not even remotely concerned he just used our card to pay for the giant bed he proposed.
“I ordered us a bed and all the bedding needed to sleep in it tonight,” he says with a grin. “It’s huge, dude, but it’ll fit. Plus, it’ll be here in two hours.”
My face falls. “Two hours? What the hell did you do? Offer them a blow job? It’s like ten o’clock on a Tuesday night.” My jaw falls open at the prospect of someone delivering anything at this time of night.
He shrugs, plopping onto the couch next to me, leaning his head back. “Nothing a few extra hundreds won’t do. Plus, it’s a local business, and apparently, they love the West’s. I even managed to get them to add in the sheets in Kaycee’s favorite color, too.”
I snort, squeezing the bridge of my nose. “Wonderful,” I murmur through a sigh.
“So, she’ll have a massive bed to come back to. It’s one we can tie her to when she’s being bad, and we’ll always know where to find her,” Chase says with pride.
“Great,” I say. “Now we just need to magically get her stuff here; then we’ll really be ready for her.”
Chase holds out his fist, and I lightly pound it with mine. “Everything will be all right, man. We’ll never let her out of our sight, ever.”
“Upyougo,BabyGirl,” Zepp says, settling his hands on my waist. Carefully, like I’m a breakable trinket, he pulls me to my feet, leaving the wheelchair I rode out on in the dust.
Pain explodes through my body after lying in bed for a few days with minimal movements. But today, I’m finally out of here with light restrictions: no video games, computer, or TV for the next twenty-four hours. And even after the twenty-four-hour period, I need to be careful. Watching a screen for too long could cause more issues down the road. Each restriction the doctor listed is an arrow to my tech-loving heart. After trying to watch TV and getting the worst headache of my life, I understood its necessity. He cut me off from everything I love. Twenty-four hours, that’s it. I can survive without technology, right? I’ll sleep, mostly. Laying down and sleeping sounds like the best medicine. I can’t wait to lie down next to the boys and snuggle my pain away.
