The Luxury of Being Stubborn (The Stubborn Series Book 4)

by Jeanne Arnold

  “I’ll tell him you started amputating,” Deliah said. She spun around after setting the scissors on the sheet.

  Caleb grabbed the handle and held my hip for stability. He loosened the fabric of my shirt and then sliced the collar and made a cut down the sleeve so he could peel it away. I cringed as he tugged at the fabric that was stuck in my bloody skin. Then he snipped my bra strap before I could object.

  “Hot damn—I always wanted to do that,” he said. “Cross that off the bucket list.”

  “Damn you,” I muttered. “Gabe will kill you too if he finds you in here like this. He warned me to stay away from you.”

  “He’s not here. If he were here, you wouldn’t be missing a shoulder and half your dang arm. I’m not the one who was trying to kill you.”

  When Deliah returned, Caleb tried to kick the door shut on her head. “Lane wants to get up, but he’s too heavy to lift,” she said.

  “Tell the squid to stay the hell put. I can only save one life at a time.”

  He returned his attention to me. “I need you to sit up and lean on the bedpost so I can see better.”

  “Maybe you should get your eyes checked,” I told him as he helped me get off the mattress and walk to the foot of the bed where Gabe left his guitar. His glasses were dangling from a tuning key.

  Caleb took the glasses and twirled them in the air. He was sort of behaving himself by being gentle with my shoulder. I let it go.

  “Where did all of this come from?” I noticed the bed was covered with bottles, boxes, and bandages.

  “I carry it in the truck. I’ve been working part-time,” he said as he pulled down my shirt until it hung over half of me. I saw where his gaze went. I repressed my urge to kick him. I tried not to blush.

  “As a paramedic? Since when?”

  “I’m not the loser you take me for.”

  “I never said you were a loser.”

  “Should I be concerned you have amnesia?”

  “What is that?” He pulled my hair out of the way and rubbed something on the back of my neck. It was cold. The cold spread to my shoulder and arm, and I shivered in spite of the humidity building inside the cabin.

  “It’s plain water.”

  “I don’t have amnesia. I have clear memories of you trying to kiss me…multiple times,” I countered. I was doing my best to look everywhere but at his bare chest. “I figured out how to handle your games early on.”

  “Heck—you couldn’t handle me even if you had instructions.”

  He stopped what he was doing, held up a gloved hand, and snapped the rubber on his wrist, then made a show of pointing at his nose where Gabe messed it up with his fist in the snow.

  “You know you deserved that punch. Was it worth it?”

  My stomach tightened. I didn’t want to discuss how he always managed to push his brother over the edge. I needed Caleb to fix me up so no one would figure out what happened.

  “Can we agree not to tell anyone about this—especially Gabe?” Lane needed to live out his life in full.

  “What do I get out of it besides this exquisite view?” He spun his finger around my snipped bra.

  I pushed his hand out of my personal space. “You get to keep Lane as a brother.”

  The mattress lowered when he sat down beside me to work on the skin above my elbow. His tender touch gave me hope that he would take me up on the offer so Gabe wouldn’t have to hurt Lane.

  “Sorry about your shirt,” I said just as he dabbed something on my rash and made me curl over. He shuffled around some of the items on the bed. “Take one of Gabe’s. There’s a box right there.”

  “Surry bout yers too,” he mumbled with a roll of tape hanging from his teeth. He tore off a piece and set it on my hand to use later. Then he tore into a pack of sterilized gauze.

  “Thanks for being serious for once. Ouch, Caleb! That kills.”

  “Stop moving. It’s not deep. But hell, you skinned the entire surface. I didn’t even get at picking the grit out of your shoulder.”

  Deliah knocked. “Is Frankenstein finished?”

  “No,” Caleb told her.

  She let herself in anyway. “The helicopter’s back.”

  “What was the verdict on the dead guy?” I asked as Caleb started working on my shoulder. I wanted to bite my knuckles it hurt so much.

  “The lieutenant says Gabe’s not gonna be able to toss a stone until it’s deemed unholy ground. He’s got a forensic investigator on it now. They’ll let the authorities know. Then they have to rule out any open cases where somebody went missing.”

  I dropped my chin to my chest. The small room grew smaller and hotter.

  “I hope you have a tranquilizer in your bag of tricks for when he comes home,” Deliah said as she pointed out the obvious. “She can’t hide this from him. Wait till he sees her all mutilated. Wait till he finds out his land is haunted.”

  “It’s not haunted, and he’s not going to find out about anything. None of us are telling him,” I replied sternly.

  “Just in case, you’re going to have to wear a sweater when he gets back,” she said.

  I turned to Caleb. “What’s in Oklahoma?”

  “Can I have a word with Avery?” We all looked up to find Lane supporting himself in the doorway.

  “I told you to chain him to the dang couch,” Caleb barked at Deliah. He jumped up fast and shoved Lane’s shoulder into the wall. Then he stuck his chin in his brother’s bloody face. “Do you see what you’ve done?”

  Lane didn’t react. He didn’t appear to have the strength to fight off his brother. He pointed his thumb into the hall. “I need to talk to Avery alone. Scram, you two.”

  I turned to Deliah. “Can you see if Travis is okay?”

  “If I must,” she said and then slipped her headband out of her hair casually and tried not to look like she was fixing herself up.

  “Are you done?” I asked Caleb.

  “No. But I’ll give you two minutes. Don’t lean back.”

  He grabbed one of Gabe’s T-shirts from a box, swung it around his neck, and walked out the door. “I owe you,” I told him.

  “Damn straight you owe me. I’ll be collecting,” he said over his shoulder.

  “I would never doubt that.”

  Lane didn’t move. He looked as if he’d been dragged through an obstacle course by his ankle. He had a gaping hole in this jeans and grass stains on the back of his shirt. There was a laceration on his temple and blood dripping down his cheek to his chin. I waved for him to sit on the bed. He hobbled to the edge and fell back.

  “You don’t look so good,” I said.

  “I thought I killed you.”

  “Maybe next time.”

  He covered his face with his dirty hands. “I’m sorry.”

  “I got on the bike all by myself. I’m not going to tell Gabe. He’ll be more pissed at me than you.”

  “That was the stupidest thing I ever did. I should never have taken you out,” he moaned into his hands.

  I leaned back on my fist and tried to stretch my stiff legs. “Where did you get that bike anyway?”

  “Off a guy.”

  “Is this because of Molly? Are you trying to prove something?”

  He shook his head to dismiss my accusation. “I didn’t see the tractor until the last second. If that incline hadn’t been there, we would’ve been under it.”

  “I’m fine. Well…I’ll be fine. It was pretty amazing while it lasted,” I told him.

  He reached over and grabbed the wrist I was resting on. I didn’t move aside from shifting my gaze from his face to his hand. His fingers spread out, and he lowered his hand to cover mine. The exchange brought on an uncomfortable sensation. He was touching me like he had during our conversation outside his office.

  “I wanna know what your lips taste like,” he said in a deep whisper.

  The door flew open, and he drew his hand back to his side and stared at the ceiling.

  “So I’m not calling the
folks?” Caleb drawled. He swung his knee up and around me and positioned himself at my side. “Your mama probably wouldn’t take too kindly to this.”

  I shook my head as my pocket vibrated. I hadn’t taken a breath in more than a minute. Lane’s unexpected confession clouded my thoughts. I was too busy thinking about how grateful I was that he got interrupted. I didn’t know where his sudden interest came from or why he had to ruin everything. He wasn’t like Caleb or other guys. That was why I thought I could count on him—for treating me like a sister and not a toy.

  “My phone,” I muttered. It was Gabe. I stood up with wobbly knees and turned to study the brothers on the bed. The sight would have made Gabe hit the roof.

  “We’ll just wait here in the love nest while you chat with the mudblood,” Caleb said as he fell back and mimicked Lane’s pose. At least he was wearing a shirt.

  I sucked in a cleansing breath and blew it out slowly. My chest constricted as if my ribs were folding together and squeezing my lungs. I answered Gabe before his call went to voice mail.

  “Hi,” I whispered as I walked down the hall and held onto the wall. I was surprised by my shaky legs.

  “Why are you whispering?”

  “I’m not,” I quickly answered in my normal voice.

  “I lost reception before. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” I told him. “What are you and Jud doing in Oklahoma? You’ve been there a whole day.”

  “No clue. He had to meet somebody.”

  I held my elbow and tried not to wince as the skin on the back of my shoulder stung with every move. “How can you not ask?”

  “He wouldn’t tell me diddlysquat except he’d make it worth my while, so I let it be. I don’t gotta know everything like you always do. I’ve been watching movies in a hotel and going for walks.”

  “You could’ve texted me.”

  “I forgot my glasses. That’s why I’ve been watching movies. I can’t read anything. So where are you?”

  “Home. Lane didn’t need me to go into work. He’s got…um…something else going on. What kind of movies?”

  “He’s supposed to patch up the generator,” he said. “You could’ve come with me. Damn, I miss you.”

  “Don’t you think I can fix things?”

  He waited a moment to answer. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  My sore arm rubbed against the back of a kitchen chair and I winced.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Legs,” Caleb said from the hallway and approached me. I covered the phone the instant I heard his voice. He leaned in, and I stepped back into the table. My shirt slipped, and I caught it.

  Gabe’s tone sharpened significantly. “Tell me that’s not my brother.”

  “It’s Deliah,” I lied as I kicked Caleb in the shin and pointed at the bedroom door. “She’s watching puppy videos on YouTube.”

  Caleb backed off and rolled the sleeves on Gabe’s T-shirt to his shoulders to accentuate his toned arms. He made suggestions with his eyes warning that he was about to blow my cover.

  I glanced at my soiled and snipped clothes and gaping flesh. Gabe wouldn’t be able to handle what happened on Lane’s motorcycle.

  “Hey—” he began. Something rattled the cabin walls, and I looked up. My head began to pound. The noise was thunderous.

  “I’ll call you back. I love you.” I butted my forehead into the wall and cut him off before he could question my lie. I wanted his arms around me. I needed to have a good cry and bury my face in this chest until he made me feel better. I almost died.

  Caleb brushed past me in a flash and shot out the front door.

  “I don’t watch puppy videos on YouTube. For your information, I only watch videos of kittens being adorable,” Deliah announced. I hadn’t noticed her hanging over the back of the couch. She flipped herself upright and ran after Caleb to check out what sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof.

  “What was I supposed to tell him?”

  Deliah shouted, “The truth—that you’re a moron who got on the back of a bike that goes three hundred miles an hour.”

  * * *

  I shut my bedroom door and dropped onto the bed in slow motion. If I couldn’t rewind the awful day and do it over, I would sleep it away. Caleb took Deliah out to eat after he bandaged me up. He said I could remove the covering and let the wounds breathe in a day. When he insisted he’d be back to stand watch over the cabin, I told him not to. The local reporters were harmless and bored. They followed Mr. Halden’s family around when nothing else was going on.

  I woke up to a dark room. I couldn’t move my arms out from under me. I felt like I jumped out of a window and landed on a cement slab. My neck cracked when I turned my head to check the time. I struggled to reach across my pillow for my phone.

  “No way,” I told myself. I’d slept all day. There were no missed calls from Gabe, yet there were three from Caleb and a bunch of texts from Lane.

  The phone lit just as the screen faded. What were the odds? Gabe was calling.

  “Howdy, Av’ry,” he said in a hushed voice. “Whatcha doing?”

  I set my head down on the pillow and sighed heavily. I missed his voice. I missed how he held my hands under the covers and whispered to me in bed. “I was sleeping. Where are you?”

  “Driving,” he said. “What are you wearing?”

  “Did you find out what Jud’s been up to? Did you get your car yet?”

  He honked his car horn. “Hang tight,” he drawled. “Don’t hang up.”

  I closed my eyes and set the phone beside my head. There was noise on the line, but I was tired and fell back to sleep while I waited. The bed sunk, and I popped open my eyes in the pitch black. I assumed the call was still live. I didn’t know if I should scream for Gabe. Caleb was trying to take advantage of me by crawling into my bed. If anything, Gabe would crash his car if he knew what his brother was attempting.

  I covered my phone and hissed, “Get out of here. What do you think you’re doing?”

  The covers slid off me. I couldn’t move fast enough.

  “How dare you,” I said.

  His hand reached across me and pressed the screen on the phone. It lit momentarily and then went dark. I was trapped.

  “No,” I whispered. “You better get out of my bed before I kick you so hard you’ll never—”

  He didn’t answer. I didn’t move when the bandage on my back pulled. I wanted to cry into my pillow.

  His hand swept the hair off my neck, and his lips contacted my shoulder. I lost it. Despite my injuries, I elbowed his upper body and made a fierce, sideward kick into his leg. I tried to roll over and knee him, but he grabbed my leg with one hand and strapped me across my waist with his other hand, while catching my arms.

  “Caleb!” I struggled against his hold and used my freed elbow to continuously bat him in his ribs. My other hand got free, and I smacked his neck and pushed him as hard as I could. He was fighting to pull me close. He knew better not to touch my shoulder.

  “Nope,” he laughed as I kept pounding him in the chest. “But I approve of your combat moves—if I was him.”

  I sucked in my breath and stopped fighting. Painfully, my body melted into the mattress. The tears I’d been holding in began to dribble down my cheeks. Gabe was in my bed.

  “Man, I love that you love to wrestle,” he drawled humorously. “The front door wasn’t latched. You expecting trouble? What the hell’s up, Av’ry?”

  “Why are you back? I could’ve given you a black eye.”

  He sat up and huffed. “Where’s my truck?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Lane took it.”

  I couldn’t see him. I could only hear the budding anger in his voice. “What for?”

  I wiped my tears. I didn’t know how long I could hide that I was hurt. “How did you get back?”

  “I flew. I hitched a ride from the airport. Did this place shrink?”

  “What about your car and stopping t
hrough Texas to see your brother’s grave?” I asked. “Where’s Judson?”

  “What about my truck?”

  “Is that why you came home?”

  He set a hand on my thigh and squeezed. “You tell me. You said there was something going on I should be here for. I know I heard Caleb on the phone. You thought I was him sneaking in your bed.”

  “You just hopped a flight and crossed the country because you don’t trust me?” I tried to cover the fact that I was choking on my words.

  The mattress lifted and Gabe got off the bed without responding. I couldn’t hold myself together. I wept silently in the darkness until he turned on the hall light. I lifted the sheet over my face and hid my convulsing chest. I heard Gabe lock the front door. He returned, and the light went off.

  “I was there. You were here. One of us was in the wrong place.” He crawled over me yet didn’t drop his weight like a human blanket. My shoulders quaked, and I made one last sniffle, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “I missed you, Av’ry. I won’t be doing that again,” he said in his sultry Texas brogue.

  He tugged on the sheet to reveal my face and kissed me slowly, persistently. His lips were warm and his manner gentle. Only our mouths touched at first. I forgot about my blistering skin as he left the tang of lemon drops and lust on my tongue. Until he dropped his chest on mine and kissed me harder. I couldn’t take the pain. My shoulder rubbed on the bed, and I pushed on his neck.

  “I’m not done,” he murmured.

  Before he could crush me into a sniveling wreck, I blurted, “I had an accident.”

  His arm snapped straight, and he held himself above me. The moon peered out from a cloud and shined through the bedroom window. I could see the alarm in his expression.

  “I got hurt with your brother.”

  Gabe’s leg swung off the bed. His boot hit the floor, and the light went on. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you. Dammit, I’m gonna end him.”

  “You don’t even know which brother I mean or what happened.”

  “Don’t wait up,” he said as he grabbed his hat.