by Rowena Dawn
“Don’t worry,” Bryan quieted her by placing a hand on her shoulder. “Jay is strong, and he’ll recover soon, you’ll see. I will take care of his nose,” he added in a soothing tone of voice.
Ellen drew back, and her eyes widened when she heard his words. “What do you mean?” she asked, and anxiety made her voice shake. The woman didn’t think that she would like Bryan’s method of taking care of Jay’s nose.
“I’ll just put it back,” the giant shrug and went closer to the sofa.
Still, Ellen stepped in front of him and stopped him. “I don’t think so. I won’t let you hurt him more than he is,” she snapped at him.
The corners of Bryan’s mouth turned up. He bit his upper lip and asked dryly, “And how would you stop me to snap his nose back?”
“With my gun, if I need to,” she retorted with determination.
“Don’t fret so much, Ellen,” Jay’s voice came from behind her, and she turned to him. “Bryan knows what he’s talking about. I imagine it would hurt like hell, but what the heck,” he shrugged. “It hurts now.”
“Are you sure?” Ellen asked him with hesitation. “I won’t let him touch you if you don’t want it,” she reassured him.
“I’d like to see that,” Jay mumbled. “Unfortunately, I can’t see too much right now,” he said ruefully.
Nora closed the distance between her and Ellen and touched the woman’s arm. ”Don’t worry, Bryan won’t hurt him. The nose must be set back, or Jay will remain with a crooked nose, and it will still hurt. Allow me to take a look at him,” she cajoled the woman to move aside so that she could get to Jay.
“What the heck?” Matt interceded in a hard tone of voice. “I’ll remove her if it is necessary.”
Ellen glanced at him sideways. She braced her hands on her hips and straightened her shoulders.
“Try that, big guy. Let’s see how well you fare against me.”
“She’s got grits,” Jay noticed, and Bryan burst into laughter.
Becka nudged her husband in his ribs. “Shut up, Bryan.”
“But I didn’t say anything,” he protested.
Jay removed the towels off his face with a groan and said, “All right. You’ve had enough fun, all of you. This waiting to be examined is killing me. Let’s get to work people,” he ended his tirade in a near whisper.
Ellen rushed to him and brushed the tips of her fingers over his forehead. “Does it hurt worse now?” she asked him in a gentle tone of voice.
“Somewhat,” Jay admitted and put his hand over hers to keep it where it was. The woman’s hand was cold and smooth, and it felt good.
The other four watched the interaction between the two young people with curiosity, and Matt’s eyebrows shot up with amazement.
“When did you two meet?” he asked because he couldn’t hold his curiosity at bay.
Ellen jumped up guiltily, and Jay groaned. “You had to open your big mouth,” he reproached to his brother. “You have never known when to keep it shut,” he observed with another groan.
“All right, let’s take a look at you,” Bryan said.
“You’re not the EMT,” Ellen remarked dryly.
“But he knows how a battered body looks like,” Jay replied.
“I don’t doubt that,” Ellen showed her agreement with his assessment.
Becka frowned and intervened in an angry voice, which Ellen wouldn’t have expected of her. “Bryan is a fighter and a trainer. Whatever else you might think of him it is plain wrong.”
Ellen put her hands up and replied, “I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“You did,” Bryan said quietly. “But that’s not important now,” he observed, leaning over Jay to take a closer look at his wounds, and Nora followed him.
Suddenly, the place around Jay became crowded. Still, Ellen didn’t abandon her position and kept a sharp look on Bryan’s ministration. The man touched the blackened spots around Jay’s eyes. Jay groaned again, and Ellen’s hands curled into fists. Her mouth pursed, and apprehension sparkled in her eyes.
“Yep, you won’t see much for a few days,” Bryan concluded. “Some steaks would be good. They would diminish the swelling,” he explained.
“I’m going out and buy some,” Matt said. “There’s a Metro close to here, and it is open twenty-four hours.”
“Do that,” Bryan turned his head to him. “Considering what Ellen told us, maybe you should buy some food as well. Jay won’t be able to go out for a couple of days or even more. You should buy something that he could eat without too much trouble. If I remember well, Jay’s as good at cooking as you are,” he added with a smile, and Nora and Becka laughed. “Of course, I can make something for him now that I’m here and come back with more homemade food tomorrow,” he proposed, but Ellen shook her head.
“It isn’t necessary. I know my way in the kitchen, and I can take care of his food.”
The other four people looked at her nonplussed, and Jay grinned. He liked the way she was thinking.
Matt nodded with a frown and then turned to his wife. “I’ll be back soon, love.” He kissed her lips, and then, he lifted her hand and brushed his mouth over her fingers as well.
Ellen tried not to look, but the man’s actions fascinated her. She turned back to Bryan when she felt his eyes on her, and she blushed. Bryan grinned and went back to examining Jay, while Matt left the apartment.
“Yep, your nose is broken, Jay,” he concluded. “Hold your breath,” he advised his friend, and with a sudden move, he straightened the man’s nose.
Ellen winced when the sickening noise filled the room, and her hand grabbed Jay’s as if she had wanted to give him support. Jay just groaned deeply, and tears appeared in the corners of his eyes.
“See, it’s done,” Bryan lifted his eyes to Ellen, and noticed the paleness of her face. “I’m sorry, but he’s better now,” he said softly.
Ellen just nodded, biting her lips, and her fingers flexed over Jay’s. “What about his ribs?” she inquired in a small voice.
“They’re just bruised, in my opinion,” Bryan said and turned to Nora.
Nora brushed her hands over Jay’s chest and sides, and then, she nodded in agreement. “Of course, an x-ray might be more accurate than our assessment,” she said lifting her eyes to Jay, who shook his head.
“No hospital,” the man groused. “X-rays mean hospital.”
“But if your ribs are broken...,” Ellen started to say, but Jay shook his head and groaned. His head still hurt, and the humming inside his brain intensified whenever he moved it.
“All right,” Bryan decided, “we’ll bind the ribs tightly, and he should be better in a couple of days, even if his ribs have fissures. They’d do the same at the hospital,” he shrugged.
“Do that,” Jay agreed.
Still, Ellen hesitated a few seconds. She wasn’t so sure that Jay should skip the hospital if his ribs were hurt. Nora touched her hand and said, “He’ll be fine. Bryan is right.”
Ellen shifted her eyes to Bryan, who was still waiting for her answer. She nodded, and the shadow of a smile appeared on Bryan’s lips.
“Do you have some bed sheets you won’t miss too much?” he turned to Jay afterward.
“I have a white set. My mother bought the others, and she would have my head if you ruin them,” he warned Bryan.
“I’m going to look into your linen closet,” Becka announced and left the living room.
Ellen watched after her with curiosity. She didn’t understand why Becka knew Jay’s apartment so well.
“She’s Jay’s cousin,” Bryan informed her quietly, and Nora blushed, uncomfortable to see that the man could scan her mind without effort.
“When you don’t guard your features, your face is very expressive, and your thoughts are easy to read,” Bryan explained to her with a grin.
“Good to know,” Ellen replied in a strained tone of voice, upset with herself that she had lost her focus, thus allowing the giant to see what was going on
in her mind.
Becka returned with a white sheet and handed it to Bryan. “Do you need scissors?” she asked him, and her husband grinned. He shook his head, and taking the sheet off her hand, he made short work of tearing it.
“This will also hurt, big boy,” he warned Jay, pulling him in a sitting position. Bryan turned a deaf ear to Jay’s groans. “Quit being a sissy,” he grumbled at the man.
Ellen sat next to Jay on the sofa and took his hand. At the same time, she frowned at Bryan, considering his bedside manner inappropriate, given Jay’s condition.
“You shouldn’t berate him. He’s hurt,” Ellen snapped at Bryan.
“Huh!” Jay exclaimed. “As if you hadn’t treated me the same way,” he observed maliciously.
“We had to hurry then,” the woman replied. “If you remember those five goons could have come back to finish the job.”
“So you battled five guys,” Bryan surmised.
“More or less,” Ellen answered to him. “More likely those guys pummeled him. He was down for the count in no time at all,” she informed Bryan, and Jay grimaced.
“You have a big mouth too,” he concluded, and Ellen just shrugged.
“I told you that you should come to the dojo,” Bryan shook his head. “You need to know to protect yourself, man.”
“Especially with your line of work,” Ellen interceded again.
“Will you shut up?” Jay snapped at her, furious now.
“What line of work?” Becka inquired.
“Nothing,” Jay waved his hand negligently. “Just something that got into her hard head.”
“Don’t tell me you started gambling again,” Becka frowned at him. “You’ve taken a beating before because of that. Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?”
“Quit lecturing me, mother,” Jay mumbled. Too tired and in too much pain, he didn’t feel like listening to anyone’s wise words.
Bryan shook his head to Becka, letting her understand that she wasted her breath. Then, with Ellen’s help, he started binding Jay’s ribs tightly, paying no heed to the man’s grunts. When he finished, Jay was utterly spent and lay back down on the sofa.
“Wouldn’t you prefer the bedroom?” Becka asked him.
The man just fluttered his fingers in denial and sighed with relief that the tormenting session had ended.
“You will have to hold the slices of meat on your face,” Bryan advised him. “I know the smell is awful, but the raw meat will help in the long run.”
Jay waved his hand again without making any commitment at all. Bryan’s face hardened, but Ellen said, “I will take care of that, no worries.”
“Are you going to remain here over the night?” Nora inquired with bewilderment.
“Yes, I will,” Ellen replied, and her tone of voice challenged any one of them to refute her claim of staying there with Jay.
“All right then,” Bryan approved of her decision. “You’ll need to check on him at least a couple of times during the night. Do you know how to check and see if there’s a problem as a result of a concussion?”
Ellen nodded quietly, and she brushed her fingers through Jay’s hair again. The other three people looked one at the other meaningfully.
“What should we say to Aunt Marjorie, Jay?” Becka asked afterward, and the man winced.
“Nothing. Don’t even mention my name. Don’t remind her of my existence for a few days, all right?” his words stumbled one after the other.
“Who’s Aunt Marjorie that you’re so agitated hearing her name?” Ellen inquired, perceiving his distress.
“His mother,” Nora informed her with a smile in her tone of voice. “She would be all over him if she found out what had happened to him,” she explained.
“That’s why I wanted Maggie,” Jay muttered again. “She knows to keep her mouth shut.”
“And we don’t?” Bryan’s left eyebrow lifted.
“You do, but the others don’t,” Jay retorted angrily.
“Nice of you,” Becka slapped him over the shoulder, and Ellen’s eyes rounded. “Don’t worry,” Becka told her. “He hasn’t felt a thing. Anyway, Maggie isn’t in Toronto, Jay. She called you earlier to tell you that she was going toward the north.”
“What the heck is she doing there?” Jay cracked his eye, surprised by Becka’s news.
“That she didn’t say,” Becka shook her head. “You know, Maggie. She likes to play everything close to the vest. She said that she wouldn’t have cell phone coverage there. Otherwise, she would have called you already. It is impossible that she hadn’t felt that you were in trouble.”
“How could she?” Ellen wondered, and her eyes widened.
“They’re twins,” Bryan informed her in a dry tone of voice.
“Ah, I see,” she replied. The woman had heard that twins usually shared a close connection, and she didn’t question the validity of Bryan’s statement.
“Where the heck did Matt go?” Jay asked. He didn’t like that the others offered Ellen too much information.
“Don’t fret like an old woman,” Becka retorted. “He’ll be back soon.”
“Can’t we wait for him without making conversation?” Jay asked them, staring them down through the narrow slit of his eye.
“Oh, now, I see what the problem is,” Becka laughed. “You’d better not upset me, Jay. I’ll tell Ellen everything I can otherwise.”
Jay waved his hand toward her rudely and closed his eye, resigned that he didn’t have any control over the situation. He didn’t worry overmuch though. He knew that Becka couldn’t divulge too much. The rules couldn’t be broken.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jay woke up with a groan and rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers. He intended to rub his eyes, as well, but luckily, he remembered immediately what had happened to him and brushed his fingers through his hair instead.
The man made an effort to open his eyes. However, one of them refused to listen to his commands stubbornly. Jay could see only a little through the other, and he swore a blue stream.
The bathroom door opened and rushed steps across the wood boards reached his ears.
"Are you all right?" a soft female voice asked him, and Jay turned his head toward the sound.
Ellen's face came in sight, and the man registered the worry in the woman's eyes and the hard set of her mouth.
"Do I look all right?" he muttered, and Ellen curved her cool hand over the side of his face. Her touch soothed him instantly.
"I know you are in pain," she said softly, stroking his jaw carefully so that she wouldn't hurt him. "I'm pretty sure it is worse today than last night," she shook her head in sadness. "Matt brought you some Ibuprofen last night, and it might help you," she added.
"Yep, I'll take two or three right now," Jay decided on the spot. His head felt three times bigger, and sharp pains pierced his nose and ribs. He hurt worse than the night before, and his ire escalated.
Ellen laughed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, big boy, but it doesn't work that way. You can't have more than one, and only after you've eaten something."
"Do you think I can eat right now?" Jay groused, and his eyebrows bunched over his eyes in annoyance. "My jaw hurts, and I'm afraid that at least one of my teeth is moving."
"Regardless, you will eat," Ellen repeated stubbornly. “I’ll make you some oatmeal.”
"Who made you the boss?" the man asked, annoyed with her high-handed manner.
“You, when you got beaten in the middle of a dark alley and couldn’t find your way out from there,” she replied dryly.
“Nice,” Jay observed. “You’ll remind me of that for the rest of my days,” he said with bitterness.
“Why not?” Ellen shrugged. “No one pushed you to play cards in a den of thugs. Now, you have to suffer my malicious reproaches.”
“Don’t you have anything else to do? Anywhere else to be?” Jay asked although he knew that he proved not only ungrateful but also a liar. In fact, he liked having the woman
around. She was easy on the eye and terribly tempting. His fingers itched to run through her honey-colored mane or over her silky pale skin. When the woman fixed those hazel eyes on him, even if she had done it to berate him, strange things happened inside his belly.
“Not really,” Ellen shook her head, and her words brought Jay back to the real world. “It’s Saturday, so I’m free to do whatever I want, and I wish to bother you,” she shrugged with nonchalance. "Now, stop grumbling and let's get you to the bathroom. You'll feel better after a shower," Ellen slapped her hands to make him move.
Jay bad-mugged her and tilted his head. "I hope you don't think of giving me a bath," he said with bewilderment.
"Not really," she shook her head, blushing violently. "I do hope you can shower by yourself, and you won't require my help," she observed.
Jay grinned when he noticed the blush spreading all over the woman’s face. 'So this is the secret to make her step back. I have to say something that would embarrass her.'
The man pushed himself off the couch, and his legs shook. His ribs protested loudly when he tensed, trying to keep his balance, and the man hissed.
"Are you sure that you're all right?" Ellen inquired with concern and got ready to catch him if he had fallen down. 'Only Lord knows if I survive if he falls over me,' she reflected.
She had already felt his weight on her and didn’t think that she would be able to support him. However, the woman was determined to try because she couldn’t let him fall and break his nose once more. ‘I doubt he could go through Bryan’s idea of medical care once more,’ she told herself.
Jay just waved her away, and with a hand supporting the right side of his torso, he started shuffling his feet toward the bathroom. He needed to brush his teeth and get rid of the metallic taste he had in his mouth. The man remembered that he had skipped that ritual the previous evening and didn't wonder about the offending tang on his tongue.
He also needed to check his teeth and hoped that the constant ache in his jaw was due to bruised gums and not to an injured tooth. Jay had always hated going to the dentist, and therefore, he took great care of his teeth. One visit every half a year for cleaning was more than enough for him.
