Caged: Cellar Door Series (13 page)

              “Just look at me JD.” Her dark eyes commanded mine, held my gaze. We still needed to talk. I grunted with pain when Sam’s daughter moved the knife handle around slightly.

              “Sorry. I’m trying to determine how much damage is going to happen when I remove this.” Her bedside manner sucked ass.

              “I’m good. Do what you got to.” I let myself get lost in Kylee’s eyes, letting them mesmerize me in their depths; sucking in a strangled breath as the Doc probed around the wound again.

              I raised my arm as Doc instructed, my t-shirt being scissored from the arm down the length of my torso. I broke my hold on Kylee’s hands to shrug out of it and found my hands wrapped back in Kylee’s after getting the blood soaked fabric off. Even with the pain throbbing at my side, all I could think about was that if leaned a little bit further forward, I could press my lips to hers.

Leaning forward slightly, my side and the Doc both bitching full on at me, I rested my forehead to Kylee’s thinking that the idea of kissing her had been stellar so I swept my lips over hers before mumbling. “We still need to talk baby girl.” Just that small amount of contact and my body was on board to remove the knife myself, throw a band aid in place and finally make Kylee mine.

Kylee moved to look around me at the Doc and nodded her head before meeting my eyes again.

“Your damn right we do but right now I need you to take a deep breath and hold it.” I complied; feeling a prick in my arm as I was pushed to lay flat on my back; my mind going fuzzy before going blank and my head filling with nothing but darkness.

I came too and immediately tried to move only to find Matt’s hands at my shoulders holding me down. “Hold up bro. Little longer yeah?” I wanted to say fuck that but a shooting pain ripped up my side stealing the wind from my lungs.

“Shit…he’s awake? What the hell? I gave him enough to put an elephant down. I thought you said he weighed 175lbs?” I recognized Doc Christine’s voice but was more concerned that I couldn’t immediately locate Kylee.

“Where is she?” Even to my ears it sounded like a croak, my tongue thick with whatever the fuck Sam’s daughter had seen fit to give me.

“I’m here JD. Right here. Im not leaving you.” Kylee’s voice washed over me like a balm. I blindly reached out towards the sound and was pinned back onto the table.

Kylee’s face filled my vision, centering me. Her big browns were worriedly watching me. “Slow down JD. Easy baby.”

              “Need to talk…” I knew we had to get that shit in before some other catastrophe got in the way.

              “Shhh. You’re fine. We’re fine. Just let Doc Christine finish okay?” I moved my head towards the right and spotted Matt standing behind Kylee, his head bobbing in agreement.

              “Aight. But no more of that shit she gave me.” I didn’t know what Sam’s daughter  had put in me but I didn’t like it. It had taken me out and I hated that sensation with a passion. When I drank, I knew where the path was headed but being straight put out wasn’t something I wanted to experience again.

              Kylee glanced away from me towards the Doc and then nodded. “Okay. You’re through the worst.” She grabbed onto the hand that wasn’t hooked up to a lead or iv and squeezed. “You’re almost good.” A few tugs accompanied by a clicking sound on my side and Doc Christine was done stapling the wound closed.

“I’m going to give you some antibiotics. Take them. I don’t care how good you feel, pop them anyway. You don’t want to risk an infection. Okay?” Looking over at the Doc Christine I could finally make out the similarities she had to Sam. Same light hair, same piercing eyes; she had a lot of her old man in her in a good way. She didn’t judge but she studied you. I could deal with that.

“Trust me, I’ll take them.” Before I could say more or sit up Kylee piped in.

“He will take them. If he doesn’t he’ll be here for a whole different reason.” She’d gotten some of her color back but she wore her worry in her eyes along with a fair amount of animosity, at who I wasn’t positive of.

Doc Christine shook her head with a smile. “Of that I have no doubt.”

“So how bad is it Doc?” I needed to know what kind of recovery time I was looking at. The timing was crap ass. Granted I had at least two weeks before my next set at Cellar Door but I still was anxious as to what this could mean in the long run. I couldn’t afford to miss my next set.

“It could have been much worse. Most of the damage is to your skin and muscle because of the serrated blade of the knife, however you were very lucky it didn’t hit any vital organs. In one to two weeks you should be in good shape. The staples will need to be removed in a few days. I can write a script for pain.”

“Uh huh.” I sat up and shook my head slowly. I didn’t do pain killers. The exorcist didn’t have shit on me with the puking when it came to pain killers. I would just handle it.

The doc narrowed her eyes on me. “Look, it’s a proven fact that a body that is not trying to manage pain while healing, responds better.” Doc started writing on the small pad in her hand.

“You can save it. I won’t fucking take them. No way my body responds better to me praying to the porcelain god constantly while trying to heal….just saying. I’ve never been able to keep them down and generally don’t need them. If I am sore, I’ll take some ibuprofen.”

The doc looked up at me and sighed resignedly. “It’s your choice but if you find the pain intolerable, give me a call or let my dad know. Deal?”

I nodded and after a few care instructions was finally back in Matt’s car, my side bandaged up and heading home, Kylee settled next to me.

“Matt, swing by the club and drop Kylee off at her truck. It’s late as hell and she’s going to need to go home.” We still needed to talk and I could only hope nothing else major would happen overnight so we could catch up in the morning but knowing her mom would worry had me thinking Kylee going home was best. That and my head was beating like a bass drum from the anesthesia the doc had used and I all I wanted to do was lay down and close my eyes.

“No. I’m coming with you. Even if you drop me at my truck, I’m just going to follow you home.” Kylee’s voice was full of determination and I was out of fight for the evening.

I let my head fall back on the seat and closed my eyes letting out a short breath because anything deeper hurt like hell.

“Fine. Get your truck first and follow us.” Fingers found mine, lacing through them.

“Glad you see it my way JD. I’d hate to have to hurt you while you’re already down but I would have.” I cracked a tight smile. Stubborn as a mule. Yup that was pure Kylee when she put her mind to something.

Arriving at our apartment, I eased from the back seat grimacing as I stood. My side was screaming in protest and I needed to get horizontal. Kylee pulled in right beside Matt.

I managed the walk to the apartment and breathed shallowly while waiting for Matt to get the door open. Once he did I didn’t pass go, went straight to my room and settled back on my bed, stretching out, Kylee right behind me. I glanced down towards my feet as I felt her messing with my boots, unlacing each one and removing them, setting them on the floor at the foot of my bed before she sat down gently beside me.

I tucked the arm on my good side under my head. “You okay baby girl?” Kylee was sporting a look that I couldn’t make head or tails of.

She turned her face from mine, glancing down at her hands that were folded in her lap, her voice a whisper. “You scared the hell out of me JD. Please don’t do that again.”

“I’d love to promise you that I’ll never get injured again but you and I both know I can’t Kylee. I won’t stop fighting and there is always a chance I can catch an injury. Granted this was an exception. This isn’t my normal fighting. I save it for the cage. I wouldn’t have even gotten involved if I wasn’t worried it would have brought Cellar Door down. I won’t let that happen to Sam. He’s a good guy.”

Her shoulders slumped and she took a deep breath. “Yeah I figured that…”

“Hey, come here.” I needed her closer like I needed my next breath. Kylee leaned towards me but it wasn’t close enough.

“All the way here.” She leaned closer, pressing one hand into my mattress to steady herself.

“You recall a knife was poking out my side a little bit ago right? You’re going to have to come all the way over here.” I purposely had lowered my voice trying to get Kylee into my personal space. As much as I hated that shit from anyone else, it’s all I wanted from Kylee, to be as close as possible.

She scooted further up the bed, leaning her head close to mine. I turned to whisper in her ear and moved my arm from behind my head, wrapping my hand around the back of her neck, my fingers threading through her hair and pulled her closer until her lips bumped against mine.

She gasped and started to pull back but I tightened my hold and moved my lips more firmly over hers, sweeping back and forth before tracing the seam of her mouth with my tongue and slowly finding entrance. Her taste exploded on my tongue and had my body fully ignited, my dick doing a happy dance.

The resistance she’d had was gone and she was as invested in the kiss as I was, our tongues tangling against one another. I finally slowed the kiss down, my lips pressing to hers several more times before putting space between us, my pulse slamming through my body. Christ she could fire me up.

“You need to know I’ve wanted to do that since I was 13 damn years old, maybe even before then and not as a fucking distraction.” My eyes bore into hers as I laid it on the line, my heart thumping erratically in my chest. Yup, this petite woman scared the shit out of me, not that I’d ever tell her that but everything about her was beyond anything I’d ever known or felt.

Kylee sucked in a deep breath and tried to steady her breathing but didn’t move away. It was killing me not knowing what she was thinking but I wasn’t going to push her. I’d made enough decisions for us both.

Her big browns were shinning and held a thousand questions and a whole lot of disbelief. “But…I don’t understand? Why did you push me away then? Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

I released her hair and moved my hand around to her face, holding her jaw while my thumb brushed over her cheek. “I’m not exactly all together Ky. You know that. You deserved better than that. You still deserve better but I’m a selfish prick. And you came back.”

A flash of anger lit up her brown eyes, her lips pressing together tightly as she fought to get her feelings under control before she spoke.

“You…god you piss me off so much.” Kylee was working her way up into a full fury but hadn’t pulled away from me yet; my thumb still stroked her cheek.

“You think that you’re this broken, damaged fuck up JD; that you will somehow bring me down. Did you ever stop to wonder why I always asked you to take me to the school functions, the dances? Did you notice I never asked Matt damn it? I love Matt like a brother. You always had my heart but never wanted it. I’d settled it, that we’d only be friends and damn it you took that away from me too and now you lay this on me?” Hurt was bleeding into her words and I felt my heart stop in my chest as I listened to her. My head had apparently been up my own ass for a long damn time to not have taken notice of all that shit.

“Hey…I was going to talk to you before all hell broke loose tonight. I swear I was.” Fuck I’d hurt her much worse than I’d ever known or at least had been willing to own up to.

“Oh yippie. You were going to come talk to me. You had four damn years you could have talked to me but didn’t. Then tonight you weren’t in hurry either. First you only came to talk to me when you saw that jerk grab me. You sure didn’t seem prepared to move before then. Second, people react funny to anesthesia all the time. Tomorrow things may be back to normal, at least as normal as they’ve ever been between us” Kylee pulled back with a deep sigh, sitting up and looked at me sadly.

              Unfuckingbelieveable. She really thought it was the damn anesthesia? I didn’t mean to sound as sharp as I did when I finally could form words again but damn. “Are you fucking serious? You really think I’m some delusional jack ass that doesn’t know exactly what I mean? This has got to be a fucking joke.” Zero to ten seconds flat and my temper was in full force, knife wound be damned. I jerked up right, my side screaming at me in pain and got in her face.

              I wasn’t sure if it was the grimace I pulled because of the pain or the straight up anger in my tone but Kylee paled and leaned back.

              “Let me explain something Kylee Grace Parrish. I don’t say shit I don’t fucking mean. And I damn well meant that I’ve been attracted to you for most my fucking life. That said, you’ve always been one of the bright spots in my shit ass world, something I didn’t want to risk ruining. Yeah I was wrong for pushing you away, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t or don’t fucking care. If you question it that much ask Matt cause he’s known for a long damn time where my feelings stand about you.” My chest was rising and falling rapidly and I could feel the vein in my jaw throbbing as I clenched my teeth together.

              Kylee’s eyes were huge, her big browns wide open and staring at me like she was afraid I was some kind of apparition. “I know you care JD. I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t. You’ve always been there. Well…almost.”

This chick had to have lost her fucking mind. Maybe I missed her falling during all the shit that went down at Cellar Door and she’d knocked her head a good one because I couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was saying. Of course I fucking cared but apparently she wasn’t seeing the full scope of it or maybe, shit…maybe she didn’t want too.

“Glad you know at least that damn much.” Anger and hurt sprung up and took root in my chest. I didn’t like it. I eased back against my pillow again keeping the groan I felt building locked down, one that had less to do with my side and more to do with that stupid fucking organ that thumped in my chest. I was beyond exhausted and fading; my body overruling my mind about finishing this conversation.

A knock sounded at my door, Matt’s head appearing around it after he pushed it open, looking between Kylee and me. “You alright man? Need anything?” I could bet good money he’d heard most of what had just gone down but was trying to stay out of it.

“I’m tight.” The look on my face made Matt duck back out, shutting the door quickly behind him like his ass was on fire and I couldn’t blame him. I would have done the same thing, may not have even knocked on the door to begin with and just kept on towards my room.

Kylee continued to stare at me and I was starting to feel like a damn freak show but I held my tongue; not something I’ve ever been real good at to begin with so it was taking an inordinate amount of control.

Both her slender hands rose to rub over her face before she looked at me again, her eyes still wide causing my chest to ache. “I don’t know what it is you want from me JD. I think…no I know I’m in shock. This whole night has been surreal and I don’t understand where you are coming from. I don’t get it. I’m so confused.”

A dull rusty spoon shoved through my chest would have hurt less. Sucking that shit up; I sounded a helluva lot calmer than I felt. “Yeah; I can understand that. Look, I’m gonna catch some sleep. Apparently I’m just babbling and you’re right, the nights been chaos and I’m feeling the crash.”

Kylee reached out towards me but something she read in my features stopped her, her shoulders drooping down before she got up from the bed to leave. “We’ll talk tomorrow okay?”

If I could have rolled to my side away from her easily, I would have. As it was I draped an arm over my eyes and grunted a non-committal response.