Page 86 of Just Breathe

Jane

The ride home was unbearable. My brain was going a mile a minute thinking about what the hell just happened and what I got myself into. I looked at the man lying in my lap, understanding his stand offish nature so much more.

They trapped him in a shitty situation, trying to make it work, but looking at him right now, my heart broke for him. I looked at the shirt by his stab wound, seeing the blood loss was slowing down. Aiden was probably right. They didn’t hit nothing major.

The car came to a stop, signaling we had arrived at their home. Nathan and Aiden quickly got out of the car, opening the doors in the back. Nathan was on my side, looking at me like he was worried I might lose my shit at any moment. I don’t know why, but they disappointed me. They still allowed their friend to get the shit get kicked out of him and they did nothing.

It was an irrational thought because Lucio looked like one scary ass dude, but their trio always seem solid. I guess this was one crack in their foundation that I didn’t see but was starting to notice.

Nathan held his hand out to me to help me out. I shook my head, gently lifted Callum’s head off my lap, back to the seat, and I hopped out of the truck.

“You want me to get his upper body?” Aiden came around.

“I think I got it.” Nathan sounded unsure.

Callum groaned as he woke up. “Fuck,” he hissed as he tried to get up. I leaned forward to help him, but Nathan held me back. I looked back at him to let me go, but he shook his head.

“Where is Jane?” Callum growled. Getting up quickly like he just remembered I was with them.

“I’m here.” I tried to sound normal.

“She’s fine, bro,” Aiden and I spoke at the same time.

Callum looked around before he finally settled his eyes on me. Even though his face was swelling, one eye opened and the bruising blooming, he looked really worried. He looked me up and down, only relaxing when he noticed I wasn’t hurt. Once he knew I was ok, I noticed the shift in his demeanor. His expression hardened. He looked at Aiden and then at Nathan like a secret conversation was happening.

“We really need to get that stab wound closed,” I interrupted whatever was going on. “The last thing we need is for him to get an infection.”

They all looked at me with different emotions on their face. Nathan looked sad, Aiden looked mad, and Callum didn’t even look at me. I felt like something bad was about to happen.

“I gotta fucking shower.” Callum got out of the truck, stumbling. Aiden was there to help him steady himself. I backed up, giving them enough space so they could help him. After Aiden righted him, he let him go. Callum took a deep breath, taking a step forward, failing as he stumbled again.

“Just let us fucking help you,” Aiden snapped, bringing an arm around his waist and slinging Callum’s arm over his shoulder. They took a few steps, but they clearly needed more help. Nathan gave me a set of keys, walked up to the other side of Callum, and helped them. I walked around them to open the door, entering into the house and running into Tango. He sniffed me quickly, walking around me to greet the boys.

“Settle Tango.” Aiden's authoritative voice came through to the house, stopping Tango in his tracks as he sat down off to the side. They walked through the door carefully one at a time because these guys were big.

“Where do you have supplies?” I asked, closing the door.

“I’ll get them for you, if you can get some towels from the laundry room by the kitchen?” Aiden said, walking away.

The further they walked away from me, the more uncomfortable I felt. I shook off my feelings, hoping I was just overreacting. I walked into the laundry room and opened the cabinets on the side finding a bunch of towels. Most of them were dark, so I figured those were our best bet if we got any blood on them. I grabbed four of them, making my way back to the hallway of bedrooms.

“Quit being so fucking dramatic,” Aiden’s growl carried down the hall.

Someone responded to him, but I couldn’t make out the words.

“Oh, come on, dude, you can’t be fucking serious.” Nathan sounded mad as well, letting me know what room they were in.

I walked into the room with towels in my arms, like I didn’t just hear two things that made me curious as hell about what was going on. I looked at Callum first to see how he was doing as Aiden rushed past me out of the room. Callum was sitting on the edge of the bed watching Aiden walk out of the room.

“Let’s see how this stab wound is doing.” I walked towards the bed, and I felt the tension in the air.

“I think I’m fine. I just really want a shower and go to sleep,” Callum said, trying to get up from the bed.

“Can you please just let me look at it? I would really like to make sure you don’t get an infection.” I stood before him, trying to appear calm, like I do with most of my patients.

“I’ll be…”

I interrupted him, “No, you won’t. We need to close the wound and make sure we clean it out. We don’t know how dirty that knife could have been. There are a dozen things we need to worry about, but we just need to clean out the wound.” I was trying not to get irritated by his callousness.

---