by Mae Martini
“Gia, keep him calm. Let’s just get you checked out, then I’ll take you home.”
“Shhhh, baby. You hit your head hard.” She gently applied pressure to his shoulders. He was just too weak to fight it and plopped down. “It would be better to get some medical help.” She didn’t want to show him or tell him that the shirt that guy gave her to use was stained red from the bleeding she was trying to stem.
“Gia, I’m sorry.” He tried to pick his hand up to caress her stained bruised cheek, but it fell back and he closed his eyes.
“Jake! Jake! Get up, Jake!” She slapped his cheek and he stirred. “Stay awake, baby. We’re almost there.” She had no idea if they were almost there or not, she just needed him to stay awake.
Red and blue lights flashed from behind just as Logan said. “Jimmy.” She turned around to see a cop car pull up to Logan’s side and Logan rolled down the window.
“Jake. He’s hurt.” Logan looked from the road to the policeman. “Taking him to the hospital.”
The policeman nodded his head and sped up and got in front of them and put his siren on.
Logan was going fast to begin with, but now he was flying. They made it to the hospital in record time.
Chapter 19
It was after 2:00 am when Logan stopped the truck in front of the Shady Elm. He jumped out and reached the rear passenger door at the same time as Richie, so Richie went to the bed and started unloading the bike.
“Thanks, buddy, I owe you, man,” Jake said after he got out and helped Gia out. On the way home from the hospital, he sat in the back with Gia because he knew she was a wreck. He remembered her asking who attacked them, but he was too sore, too weak and too sleepy to have a conversation. The pain killer the doctor had given him had begun to work and all he wanted to do was be close to her and feel her hands on him and breathe in her intoxicating unique scent. The combination soothed him to no end.
She had asked Logan, but he didn’t elaborate. She did catch the guy’s name when he was trying to explain to Jake what went down.
He extended his hand.
Logan shook it. “Nah, don’t worry about it. You’d have done the same. Need help getting up the stairs?”
“No, I’m good. Leave the truck right here, I’ll move it later.” He shook Richie’s hand as he took the keys from Logan with his other hand.
Gia exchanged goodnights with Jake’s friends and gently lifted Jake’s arm and draped it around her shoulder to help him. He didn’t catch her wince. They watched as his friends walked their bikes away from the house so as not to start them up so close at that time of the night.
“How many stitches did I get, again?” Jake asked as he put a hand to the back of his head and felt around.
“Eight.” Gia noted it was the third time he asked her that question. He had asked twice on the drive home. The doctor said he could have a concussion and to watch for signs.
“Oh yeah… Let’s go to bed,” he said wearily as he turned them around.
After climbing the front steps and stepping on the porch, they both saw Gia’s father rise from the closest rocking chair. Before anyone could say anything, Jake saw a fist come at his face. He moved his face in the direction the fist was going to send it, so the blow wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it did hurt and he knew he would have a black eye, too.
“Daddy, no!”
Jake and Luke locked eyes and Luke assumed a fighting stance. Jake didn’t even try to fight Gia’s father and he was in no mood to explain. He had a massive headache and he needed to take a shower, but what he really wanted to do was sleep. He turned to Gia. “I gotta get upstairs. I’ll meet you up there?” He walked away even before she could answer. He knew he should have explained to Gia’s father why he brought her home in that state, but he just couldn’t. He was ready to collapse, and he was a bit pissed off with the punch.
“This is how he brings you home? Look at you,” Luke said, making note of her disheveled look, the bruise on her cheek and the dark stains on her blouse.
“It’s not what you think. I’m fine, daddy. We’ll talk later.” With that, she quickly caught up to Jake and put his arm around her shoulder again and the two of them went up to his room, before her father could say anything more.
Luke trusted his daughter and believed her, but he still wanted answers. He’d press her later. For now, he waited a few minutes, then headed up to his room. Maybe now he could get his mind off of Joan and her soft kissable lips, and get some sleep, but he knew his thoughts would just turn to Gia and what went on.
****
“I’m so sorry, Jake. I don’t know what got into him,” Gia said as Jake ushered her into his room. “He’s usually not a violent man.” She brought her hand up to his eye and gently caressed it. That little gesture caused her to wince again.
“Gia.” He gently grabbed onto her arms, for he was too weak to hug her. “It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt,” he said, misinterpreting her wince. “If a boy brought my daughter home with a bruise on her face and blood stains on her shirt, I’d have done the same.”
She slowly nodded her head.
“Now, I’m gonna take a shower.” He dropped his arms and turned toward the bathroom.
“Let me help you, Jake.”
He tossed his head back and caught her stepping out of her jeans. “If you come into the shower with me, I’m gonna want to do ya, and I’m not sure I’d be able to perform to my potential.” He chuckled.
She smiled as she nodded her head. “It’s good to see you have limitations.”
“Very few when it comes to you, darlin’.” He turned his head back around and began to walk again, but paused and turned around again. “Maybe you can come and just watch. I’m feeling a little dizzy.”
She quickly walked up to him.
Gia stayed alert while Jake showered, ready to move in if need be. She watched as the suds from the shampoo slid down his broad, muscled back, watched how every movement he made caused them to ripple in a sensual manner. She sighed as those suds traveled down to his butt and slipped through the crack.
When he turned around to rinse the shampoo, Gia’s eyes went straight to his cock. Hey, she couldn’t help it. Even in a state of non-arousal it was an impressive sight. She looked up to his chest, loving how his muscular physique shone with the suds as it glistened in the light over-head. For a moment, but just a moment, she forgot about the pain in her abdomen.
When she looked up to his face, she saw the pain etched there. The water and the soap had to be stinging his wound.
She helped him dry off. He was just too weak to not let her help there. He even let her lead him to bed and help him climb in.
“Now you can rest for a while, but if you fall asleep, know that I will wake you. In fact, the doctor said I should wake you every few hours. I’m also going to get some ice and hold it on your eye. It may be uncomfortable.”
He nodded his head, then grimaced at the pain. “Okay,” he mumbled as he closed his eyes.
Gia slowly walked to the mini fridge in his office and slowly pulled out some ice, gasping for air as she bent down.
After she tended to Jake, she took a shower. She had to wash the dried blood off of her and cleanse her bruised cheek. She also had to see what was going on with her belly. It hurt every time she moved. She didn’t really notice it earlier. She gasped as she looked down. There was a big black and blue covering just above her stomach area.
She carefully washed and dried herself, then padded over to the bed to check on Jake. Satisfied with his steady breathing, she bent down and kissed his cheek and then warily climbed in next to him, the pain growing at her stomach.
A few hours’ sleep should help heal it, she thought.
She found she could not sleep, afraid she would oversleep and forget to wake and check Jake, so she stood very still, for the pain had gotten worse and tears slid down her cheeks. She thought about what went down earlier that night. She had no clue, and only Jake would b
e able to tell her. She’d have to wait a little longer, but it nagged her.
Though it pained her, she woke Jake up and checked on him twice before she succumbed to sleep.
Jake dreamt about a puppy he had when he was growing up. It was a black Labrador he named shadow. His sister stepped on its paw and he whimpered. Shadow wouldn’t stop whimpering. Jake didn’t know how to console him, he felt so sorry for the pain and at the time he hated his sister for causing it.
He opened his eyes and squinted noticing the sunlight shining through the window. He realized he had been dreaming, except he could still hear the whimpers. He turned his head and winced at the pain he still felt in the back of it, to see Gia’s back and noted she was naked, and he was satisfied that she was in his bed and naked, just the way he wanted her to always be. But something wasn’t right. The whimpers had been coming from her.
“Gia?”
She took in a breath and bravely said. “Yeah?”
He placed a hand on her arm and turned her to him. “Are you cryin-”
She let out a yelp then continued to cry.
“What’s wrong?” He let his eyes travel her body and gasped when he saw her stomach. It was black and blue and swollen.
“Gia?”
“It hurts, Jake. It hurts so much. That guy kicked my ribs so hard.”
“Oh God, Gia, you might have some cracked ribs there. We have to get you to the hospital.”
“Noooo. I just need to rest and not move.”
Jake flung the covers off of him and got up. His head still hurt, his jaw felt sore and his eye was throbbing, but none of that mattered. His only concern was to get Gia to the hospital.
As he slipped on his pants, he told Gia that the guy who jumped him was Doug Treemont, Jennie’s boyfriend. After he was dressed, he gently helped Gia get dressed as he told her the story of when Doug cut the brakes on Cord’s car a while back because a girl that liked Cord was jealous of Annie, who was dating Cord at the time, and was to drive his car to his house. Plans had changed and Cord drove the car and he got into an accident.
It seemed to have worked, Gia showed interest in the story and he was able to carry her to the truck. The story seemed to have gotten her mind off of the pain.
So he continued the story all the way up to when Jennie dumped him for Doug. By the time the story was over, Jake was parking the truck at the hospital.
He carried her into the emergency room.
Chapter 20
When Jake pulled up to the Elm, he saw Rory’s and Cord’s truck along with a police car. You could always count on Jimmy to spread the news, Jake thought, shaking his head. The front porch was buzzing with his friends and he decided to pull around back and carry Gia upstairs through the kitchen.
He had just put a hand out to the screen door, when Cord, from the other side, opened it for him, and stepped aside so he and Gia could pass.
“Is she all right?”
“Yeah, bruised ribs.”
“What the fu-”
“Give me a few and I’ll meet you guys downstairs, but tell everyone to come to the back porch, I don’t want to scare any of the guests.”
“...So when we got into the truck, I was feeling too buzzed to drive and I asked Gia if she was good to drive. I had just opened the door to switch sides with her when Doug grabbed me and slammed me into the truck and began punching me.” Jake filled the gang in on what had transpired.
“How did Gia get hurt?” Calista asked.
Jake took in a deep breath. “Someone else was with Doug and I saw him grab her by the waist to hold her back. She broke free just as I went down and she ran over to me. Doug shoved her in the stomach with his boot. I must have blacked out when I went down. She told me he punched her in the cheek when she righted herself. I’m gonna kill the motherfucker.” He took in another breath and then he punched one of the pillars of the porch. His hand throbbed and he shook it out. He looked up to see Luke standing just to the side of the doorway.
“Jimmy, what did you hear?” Rory asked their friend Jimmy Landry, the cop who had escorted Logan to the hospital.
“Just that there were two men, down, in the parking lot of Roxy’s and when my father sent out a car to investigate, the men were gone. We covered the emergency room, but no one else entered.”
“Jake, I’m going to run some breakfast up to Gia,” Annie interrupted as she came out on the porch with a tray of French toast, coffee and juice.
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
“I’ll come with you,” Calista said, dropping Rory’s hand. She followed Annie into the house.
“Luke, why don’t you go on up and see her, too.” Jake addressed Gia’s father.
“I just came from there.”
Jake stared at Luke, unable to read him.
“It’s all right, son. She told me what went down. And, ah, I want to apologize for punching you this morning.”
Collectively, the boys turned to Jake, waiting for him to elaborate. He didn’t.
“So, how do you want this to go down, Jake?” Cord asked, breaking the awkward silence.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
Everyone turned to Jimmy.
“I can’t hear this, man. I’ll catch up with you later.” He shook Jake’s hand and left the gang.
“Report it to the police, son, and let them handle it,” Luke said.
Jake stared at him. “No, I don’t want to report it, Luke. I want to beat the shit out of Doug. I want to make him never forget he laid a hand on my woman.”
Rory and Cord felt the tension between the two men.
“Your friend Dan already did. Now it’s time to let the police handle it.”
Jake looked from him to Rory and then to Cord. The boys all turned their eyes back to Luke.
“What?” Jake said.
“Gia said your friend Dan grabbed this Doug by the shoulder right after he punched her.”
“Cord, get Lo-”
“Dialing right now, buddy.”
Jake looked to see Cord with his cell phone by his ear.
Cord exchanged a few words with Logan while everyone waited.
“Okay…. Okay…. Oh…. Yeah, no problem, bring him down whenever you get him. Okay, thanks a lot, man.” He hung up the phone.
“He said he told you in the car, when he was bringing you and Gia home, that Dan grabbed Doug and just wailed on him. He beat the shit out of the guy that had originally held Gia and Richie attended to Gia.” Cord relayed his conversation with Logan.
Jake shrugged. He didn’t remember.
“He also said you had a hard time retaining any information he and Gia were giving you.”
Jake nodded his head, remembering Gia saying he kept asking how many stitches he had.
“I gotta get back to the ranch. I have a delivery coming soon. You obviously need time to heal and attend to that concussion you have, and stay close to Gia. We’ll talk later,” Rory said as Calista came back outside.
They said their goodbyes to Luke and descended the steps.
“Yeah, I’d better get back to work too. Miguel is out today and Scotty is picking up that bay you trained,” Cord said to Jake. “Tell Annie I’ll call her later.” He too, nodded to Luke and walked down the steps.
Jake gave a quick glance to Luke, then followed his friends down.
By the truck, Rory helped Calista in the front seat and before he closed the door, Jake asked her not to tell their mother.
“Jake, you know nothing is a secret in this town. She’s going to find out, and she will be very upset that she didn’t hear it from you.”
He nodded his head. “Right. I’ll call her a little later.” He closed the door.
Jake and the boys talked, out of earshot of her and Luke. The least amount of people who knew what they were going to do, the better. Then Jake’s friends took off.
Jake walked back upstairs. Luke’s eyes bored into him. He sighed.
“Luke, I fucked up and it cost your daughter pain. I
should have been more alert.” He paused, looking anywhere but at Luke. He felt awful that he couldn’t protect Gia. Finally, he brought his eyes up to meet Luke’s steely stare. “I promise you, I’m gonna make it right.”
“Jake, sorry to interrupt, the toilet on the third floor is clogged again.”
Jake looked to Barbara, who appeared, silently, on the porch. He nodded his head, gave another quick look to Luke, then went in to remedy the situation.
Jake had been avoiding the inevitable. Always looked for something to do, lest he go in and face Gia. He made sure she was being well cared for, and was getting updates from whoever he sent in his room with food and supplies just to get a report. But, damn, he wanted to see her. He just felt like he let her down and felt worse and worse as the day wore on. He did feel a little weight lift when Luke left to go back home.
He wasn’t sure how he felt that Gia would be here for the next week. She had business in San Antonio from Tuesday till Thursday and he had convinced her to stay with him till Monday then again on Friday and through the rest of the next weekend. At the time he suggested it, he was excited.
His phone vibrated and he looked at the text that came in.
Hey, I’m feeling lonely here. I need to see your sexy smile.
Where are u? I’ll come to u if you’re too busy to come to me.
By: Gia
Sent: Sun. 4:46 pm
Yeah, he was still excited. Just seeing her text made him smile a little.
Stay put, darlin’. I’m on my way.
By: Jake
Sent: Sun 4:47 pm
He walked into his room as she was walking out of the bathroom. The first thing he noticed were her long sexy legs, and she had on one of his T-shirts.
They locked eyes and for a beat, Gia detected sadness in his. Maybe she just imagined it.
“You look much better in it than me, sweetheart.”
“I hope you don’t mind? I helped myself. I was missing you and saw it on the chair.” She brought her right hand up to the left sleeve and brought her nose down as she picked up the sleeve and sniffed it. She winced at that slight movement. “Mmmm, it smells of you. It just gave me some comfort.”
