by Grey, Helen
Stephanie made another face. “I can do it.”
I shook my head. “No, you can’t. There’s a certain process involved and you have no training—”
“How hard is it to slap on a piece of gauze and some tape?” she exclaimed, throwing up her hands. Again she laughed and glanced down at her ex. “Honestly, Jackson, isn’t this just a little too ridiculous?”
Before Jax had a chance to reply, I took another step into the room, growing angry now. “I don’t mean to be rude, Stephanie, but Jax—” She lifted an eyebrow. “Mister Andrews had a very serious injury, followed by spinal surgery. The reason I’m here is to make sure that he heals properly and doesn’t do anything that might endanger his full recovery and delay his return to active duty.”
Stephanie stared at me for several moments. I got the impression that she was a woman who was not used to people arguing with her. Well, tough shit. I didn’t like her before, and I certainly didn’t like her now. “If you’ll excuse us for a few minutes, I’ll take care of the bandage, and then I’ll start fixing dinner—”
“And I said that I could put on a new bandage. You go on about your chores and I’ll worry about Jackson, okay?”
Both of us turned to stare at Jax. He sighed.
“Move over, Stephanie,” he said. He slowly sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the couch.
He glanced at me and then at Stephanie.
“Both of you can just forget about it.”
He scowled at me, and I felt a huge sense of betrayal. Why was he getting angry with me? I wasn’t the one who ripped off his bandage just to look at it out of curiosity. I stood my ground. “I can’t allow that, Jax,” I said, ignoring Stephanie’s gasp. “You know that. If you don’t allow me to re-bandage the incision, I’m going to have to put it in my report.”
“Then put it in your report,” he said, annoyed.
“Jackson, honey—”
He ignored Stephanie and stared at me. I didn’t blink.
“Fine,” he sighed, finally acquiescing. Stephanie opened her mouth to protest, but he lifted a hand, silencing her.
If looks could kill, I would’ve dropped dead right there in the middle of the living room floor. What a bitch! I turned to her. “It’ll just take me a couple of minutes, Stephanie, and then you guys—”
Swearing under her breath, she abruptly rose from the couch and left the room, stomping her way upstairs. My gaze followed her for a few moments and then I turned back to Jax. “What the hell? You know better than that. That incision isn’t completely healed. It would take very little to get it infected.”
“She just wanted to see it,” he muttered. “I didn’t see the big deal.”
“You would see the big deal if it got infected and you ended up permanently disabled, wouldn’t you?”
Like Stephanie, he grumbled under his breath and then lay back down on the couch. He said nothing more, and I quickly retrieved the supplies from the bag I had just brought into the room, cleaned the wound, disinfected it, and had a new bandage over the incision in less than five minutes.
By the time I was finished, I had grown so angry my hands shook. “Don’t you dare let her do that again,” I warned. “I’m not saying this to be bitchy, but because I’ve seen wounds become infected. It’s not pretty. And you’re the one who wants to get back to duty so quickly.”
“Okay, okay,” he said. “Anyway, no need to fix anything for dinner. Stephanie and I are going out.”
I said nothing, but merely nodded. Then, taking the bag of supplies with me, I left the living room and headed upstairs. I had just turned to enter my room, where I planned to put the supplies under my bathroom sink when Stephanie emerged from Jax’s office.
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that again!”
I turned and looked at her. “Like what?” I asked, all innocence.
“You’re nothing more than his nurse, do you understand that? You’re nothing to him. And I know every object in this house. If anything is missing when you leave—”
I cut her off. “If you’re suggesting that I’m a thief, you can just forget it,” I said. I tried to keep my voice calm although my pulse was pounding. If steam could come out of my ears, I was sure it would. “I’m here to do my job, Stephanie, and that’s to make sure that Jax is as compliant as possible during his recovery process. If he’s not, there is a chance that he may not be able to return to active duty. At the worst, he could be permanently disabled.”
She sniffed. “Why don’t you let me worry about my husband? You just do your job.”
If I had a knife in my hand, I could’ve cut the tension in the air. I had to bite my lip to prevent myself from saying ex-husband. “I am doing my job,” I said. “And I take my job seriously. Under my watch, he’s my responsibility, medically. If I see him doing anything that could endanger his recovery, you can believe I’m going to say something. If I’ve offended you, I’m sorry, but my patient’s needs and well-being come first.”
She said nothing, but simply turned on her heel and returned to the office, closing the door loudly behind her. I proceeded to my room and closed the door softly behind me. For a second, I had to resist the urge to throw the bag of supplies across the room. If I were so inclined, I would’ve punched that bitch right in the nose. My anger and emotion surprise me. I had dealt with difficult family members before. This was nothing new, but for some reason, Stephanie’s attitude, her sense of superiority, and the fact that she looked down her nose at me burned me to no end.
Then, to my horror, I realized why I was so upset. I was jealous. I sank down onto my bed, deflated, defeated, and wondering what the hell I had allowed myself to get into. I should call Nancy right now and remove myself from this case, this house, this affair, or whatever the hell it was. I had a feeling that is certainly wasn’t going to end well.
Chapter 4
I didn’t see Stephanie for the remainder of the evening. She and Jax had gone out, but not before he knocked lightly on my door. Wearing loungewear, I opened my door.
“We’re going out for dinner,” he said.
“Okay. Have fun.”
“Look,” he said, glancing down at the floor for a moment. “I apologize for what happened earlier. You’re right, and I shouldn’t have let her take off the bandage.” He offered a grin. “She always had a way of getting what she wanted,” he tried to explain. “My fault for allowing it, but…”
“Your relationship with your ex-wife is none of my business,” I said, trying to maintain a cool demeanor and attempting to reestablish some boundaries. “However, it is my business when it comes to your medical well-being. I can’t urge you more strongly to not allow something like that to happen again, Jax. I want to see you fully recovered and back on duty. I know that’s what you want too.”
He nodded. “That I do, and I acknowledge your concern. I’ll try to remember that.” He turned to leave and then paused. “The alarm will be set. Don’t go outside.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “This is my personal cell phone number. If you see anything outside, you call me immediately, okay?”
For a second I froze. I had forgotten about the terrorists and the attempt to run us off the road. I reached for the piece of paper silently, nodding. I felt a little nervous being in the house alone, but then again with the alarm set and all the windows and doors shut and bolted, it was probably locked up tighter than Fort Knox.
“I mean it, Angie,” he said. “If you see anything, you call me immediately, okay?”
“Come on, Jackson, we’re going to be late!”
He turned to the sound of Stephanie’s voice calling from the bottom of the staircase, then turned to look back at me. “Don’t forget.”
“I won’t,” I said. I watched him turn down the hallway and slowly make his way down the stairs. Moments later, I heard the front door open and close. I quickly hurried to the end of the hallway, from where I could look down at the front driveway. I
watched Jax and Stephanie walked to her shiny rented black Beamer, his hand on her lower back. She turned and laughed at something he said, slapping him playfully on the shoulder. He opened the passenger side door for her. I scowled and knocked on the window, trying to get his attention.
“Shit!” I muttered. He shouldn’t be driving! For a second, I thought about rushing downstairs to stop him, and then decided it wasn’t worth another confrontation with the bitch, my new nickname for her. Besides that, I didn’t want to embarrass Jax in front of her, treat him like a child, even though in my opinion, he was acting like one.
I spent the rest of the evening quietly. After they left, I rummaged in the kitchen and decided to make myself a salad. Then I headed into the den to turn on the television. Nothing really captured my interest. My glance kept going to the cabinet at the lower right of the entertainment center, knowing that’s where Jax stashed his porn movies. No. That’s the last thing I needed to watch. After flipping through the channels for about a half an hour, I gave up, placed a remote back on the entertainment center, and wandered upstairs.
I lay in bed reading a magazine I had picked up at the pharmacy earlier that day. As the evening wore on, I grew sleepier. I finally put the magazine away and decided I should get into my well-worn t-shirt and gym shorts that served as my pajamas. Before that however, I wanted to take a look outside, make sure that nothing was going on. I wandered through the rooms on the upper floor, peeking out the blinds. I didn’t see anything. After hesitating at the doorway of Jax’s office, I decided to look to see if the security cameras were on his computer screen. They weren’t, but a screensaver was.
The computer desktop was filled with folders, dozens of them, but I didn’t find one or see an icon that designated the security system, and I certainly wasn’t going to go playing around with his computer. He would know I had been in here anyway, but I had a good excuse this time. If he asked, I would simply tell him the truth. I had wanted to look at the security camera images of the outside yard.
After a quick trip downstairs to make sure that the alarm was set and all the doors were shut and latched, I returned to my bedroom and got ready for bed. It had been a long and emotionally trying day. I had some serious thinking to do, but was so emotionally exhausted I didn’t feel like contemplating any decisions tonight.
***
I woke the following morning to bright sunshine streaming in through my bedroom window. The house was quiet, so quiet I wondered if Jax and Stephanie had spent the night at a hotel or something. I had no idea whether they were still involved or not, regardless of the fact that they were divorced.
It was still early, but I decided to get up and make breakfast for Jax, and I would even make enough for the bitch if she wanted some. Other than that, I was resolved to ignore her for however long she stayed. I refused to allow myself to feel any jealousy because I knew I had no right to be jealous. I was nothing to Jax, and therefore resolved that he was nothing to me, other than my patient, of course.
I quickly changed into a pair of loose linen pants and a t-shirt. No scrubs today as I didn’t need to make an appearance at the agency. The moment I stepped out of my room however, my resolve disappeared. To my surprise, I found a scattering of clothing on the hallway floor, from the top of the stairway to the half open door to Jax’s bedroom. I frowned.
I heard a noise coming from his room. It almost sounded like a groan. Oh God, were they having sex? I shook my head, not sure what I should do. I had to pass his doorway to get downstairs. Should I just stay in my room? No, I wasn’t going to stay locked up in my room for God knew how long while they got it on in his bedroom.
Straightening my shoulders, I left my room and began to make my way down the hallway, trying not to pay any attention to the matching Victoria’s Secret bra and thong laying on the carpeting, not far from the clothes she had worn when I answered the door yesterday.
I did my best, really I did, not to glance into Jax’s bedroom as I passed. His own fault for leaving the door open, but then again, Stephanie had probably done so on purpose, just to annoy me. I decided that whatever I saw wasn’t going to shock me, embarrass me, or hurt me. I froze in place outside of the doorway, in the middle of the hall, my mouth dropped open in amazement.
No, what I felt was royally pissed off.
Like the other day when I had spied, yes spied, on the sight of Jax and the Swede on his bed, Jax was making love to a woman. The fact that it wasn’t me sent a surge of resentment rushing through me, but that’s not what made me so angry. No. Unlike the other day, where Jax had taken the bottom position, this time, Jax was on top. Stephanie lay on the bed, legs spread wide, her oh-so-perfect and obviously fake boobs not even daring to droop down to her sides, had thrown her head back, making stupid noises while prompting Jax to pump harder, faster.
Jax thrust his penis in and out of Stephanie’s pussy, his face turned away from me. Still, I saw that he was covered with sweat, the muscles in his forearms holding his weight above her. The muscles above his knees bulged with every move he made. As before, I couldn’t help but admire his body, and my eyes were riveted to the steady thrusting of his hips as Stephanie urged him on. Her hands were all over him; first his head, then stroking down his shoulders and biceps, and then grasping his hips. One of her hands disappeared in his crotch, and for a moment I could only wonder if her hands were cupping and caressing his balls as I had done in the kitchen. I couldn’t help but wonder if she gave him more pleasure than I had. Or was the Swede better than both of us?
I clapped my hand over my mouth, not because I was shocked, but because I had to prevent myself from shouting. He shouldn’t be doing that! She should be on top, doing all the work. Jax was going to hurt himself. This type of exertion on his lower back would do him no good. As a matter of fact, he could injure himself. He paused in his thrusting for a second to lower his head down to kiss Stephanie, and I watched as her tongue played with his. Then she uttered a low, throaty laugh.
“Go, Jackson, go! I’m almost there!”
Jax continued to pump, harder, faster. Stephanie opened her legs even wider, reaching her hands down to cup his buttocks as if trying to shove him deeper inside her. I wanted to shout for them to stop, that she was going to hurt him, but I couldn’t. What they were doing was none of my business. Shaking my head in dismay, I quickly made my way downstairs. Maybe Stephanie had seen me, maybe not, but all of a sudden her screams of passion filled the house. She didn’t care if anyone could hear. In fact, I thought, making a face and rolling my eyes, she was probably screaming for my benefit, just to put me in my place.
I began to prepare breakfast, not caring whether I was making noise with the pots and pans as I began to prepare bacon and scrambled eggs. In less than ten minutes, I heard a noise behind me and, stirring the eggs, turned to look over my shoulder. It was Stephanie. I decided to be polite, which was the way I was raised.
“Good morning,” I said. “I’ve got scrambled eggs and bacon if you’re interested.”
Just then Jax walked in, wearing cargo shorts but no top.
“No thanks,” Stephanie said, walking to the refrigerator. “I stay away from any kind of fattening food.” She opened the refrigerator door, eyed the contents critically, and then grabbed the carton of orange juice. “I’ll have juice and coffee, and some toast.”
I gestured toward the toaster with the wooden spoon, stopping myself from throwing it at her. “The toasters over there. The bread is in the fridge.” She glared at me a moment, but I turned back to the scrambled eggs.
“Smells good,” Jax commented, striding over to the stove to peek down into the pan. “I hope you made plenty, I’m starved.”
“You should be after the workout you just had,” Stephanie said, the words coming out like a purr.
I glanced up at Jax. “It’ll be done in a minute. Go ahead and sit down.” I watched as he turned to make his way to the kitchen table and then swore. “Damn it all to hell!”
B
oth Jax and Stephanie stared at me in surprise.
“What?” Jax asked, eyes wide, mouth open, freezing in a half-sitting position in front of one of the kitchen chairs.
So angry I could practically spit, I turned off the knob to the burner and tossed the wooden spoon into the sink, casting a glare in Stephanie’s direction, and then toward Jax. “You’re bleeding!”
“What?” he asked, sounding shocked.
“You’re back… your incision… it’s bleeding,” I said, speaking slowly and clearly. I cast an accusing glare at Stephanie, who merely smirked at me. “While it’s none of my business what you two—”
“That’s right, it’s none of your business whether my husband—”
“Ex-husband,” Jax corrected, lifting an eyebrow at his ex-wife.
“Whatever,” Stephanie replied.
“Like I said yesterday, it is my business when it comes to medical issues.” I turned to Jax, the eggs and bacon forgotten. “I need to take a look at that.”
“Now?” he asked. “Can’t I eat first?”
“Well, for crying out loud,” Stephanie complained, walking over to Jackson and glancing down at the bandage over the incision. “It’s just a little spot!”
“It’s not just a little spot,” I said. “It’s the size of a half dollar!”
“And?” she questioned, eyebrow raised. “What’s the big deal?”
“What’s the big deal?” I repeated, standing in front of the stove, hands on my hips. “He could’ve pulled a stitch loose.”
“So you were watching us,” she smirked. “I thought I saw you spying on us.”
I scowled. “I wasn’t spying on you,” I said. “I had to walk by the bedroom to come downstairs. But now that you mention it, you shouldn’t have made Jax be on top. That’s too much physical exertion—”
“I’m sitting right here, you know,” Jax commented, casting his glance between the two of us. “Would you mind not speaking about me as if I’m not even in the room?”
