Page 54 of Smooth Moves
Cash was done standing around talking. He had a splitting headache and wanted to go…not home, because Reid would be there and somehow turn this into Cash needing help again. The reason he’d told Gavin to call Jordan in the first place.
The side of his head throbbed, just above his ear, and the ice pack started to warm. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he let it out and opened his eyes, he saw Jordan watching him with a frown.
“Can we go now?”
She nodded. “Come with me.” She told the others goodbye. Cash left with a grunt in their direction after grabbing his duffel bag.
In her tiny car, he extended the seat back as far as it would go and leaned the uninjured side of his head against the headrest, tossing the duffel in the back.
After a few minutes, Jordan spoke, sounding amused. “Should I be flattered you called me?”
“I’m not sensing any sympathy, Jordan.”
“Fighting again? How often do you get banged up?”
“Come on. I took one to the head trying to save a guy. I could have internal bleeding. This could be my last night alive.” He saw her concern and went in for the kill. “Show me some skin, sugar lips. Let me see those beautiful breasts once more before I die.”
“Yep. Taking you to the hospital.” She started to turn the car around.
He grabbed her arm to steady her. “I was kidding.”
“I’m not. Cash, you could be really hurt.”
He hated hospitals. Considering the last time he’d been in one had been four weeks ago, watching his mother take her last breath, he had no desire to go back. “I’m sore but fine. I know what a concussion feels like.”
“Do you?” The stubborn woman made him recite his phone number, address, and the alphabet. Then she had him recite the alphabet backward.
“…E, D, C, B, A. I’m done. And if you try making me walk a straight line or straighten out my arm then bring it in to touch my nose, I’ll hurt you,” he growled, though they both knew he didn’t mean it.
“Well, your faculties, such as they are, seem to be intact.” Then she asked him the question he’d been hoping she’d put off as she pulled into her apartment parking lot. “Now why can’t you go home to Reid?”
He groaned. “Can we talk about this later? My head hurts.”
“Nice try. Get out.”
There was no getting around this woman. He followed her inside and saw Rafi lying on the couch watching TV. At the sight of Cash, he froze, then hurried to sit up straight.
“Relax, Rafael,” Cash drawled. “I’m not here to shake you down. I’ll wait until the commandant is done interrogating me before screwing with you.”
The kid sneered. “Very funny.” Rafi looked him over and whistled. “What happened to you? Try to roll a kid for her lunch money and fail?”
“He issoyour brother,” Cash said and sat next to Rafi.
Instead of scurrying from the couch to get as far away from him as possible, the boy looked him over with the same scrutiny Jordan had. “Is that blood?”
Cash frowned. “Shh.” Jordan had gone to get him a towel. “I thought it had dried.”
“You should go to the hospital.”
“What are you, her parrot?”
“I’m just sayin’.”
“Saying what?” Jordan asked as she returned with a towel and ice in a baggie.
“He should go to the hospital.”
“I’m fine.” Cash’s head hurt, but other than that he felt okay. And yeah, he knew it was stupid. But if he was going to bleed out and die from internal injuries, he’d rather do it here than in some antiseptic death trap.
