“Yeah, War’s sitting right across from me. We’ll both be there as soon as we can.” After ending the call, his eyes met mine. “Chad got hurt in his game. She said they took him off on a stretcher.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Lace
I drummed my fingers on the plastic seat in the ER waiting room, hoping for the best while trying to wish away what had happened. Hopes and wishes weren’t compatible with someone like me. But surely they were compatible with a good guy like Chad.
I kept replaying in my mind the moment when he’d pivoted toward the basket, but the burst of speed he’d expected from his planted foot had given him nothing. Even from my seat in the stands, I knew something was wrong before he went down. I saw it, the terrible expression on his face when he realized his leg wasn’t working properly.
He’d gone down on his butt hard, just outside the paint. Pounding his fists into the court, he’d then laid back. His body seeming to collapse inward, he’d dug his fisted hands into his eyes.
“Lace?”
“Yes?” I snapped out of the memory and lifted my head.
As tall as his son and just as handsome, only twenty-five years older, Chad’s father stood in the doorway that led to the patient room section of the hospital.
Seeing his bleak expression, the dread in my heart pounded harder.
“Chad wants to talk to you.”
“Okay.” Swallowing nervously, I stood and crossed the room to join him.
“They moved him to the third floor for pre-op evaluation. We can take this elevator.” Pointing, he walked to it and pressed the call button.
“What’s the diagnosis?” I asked.
“Achilles tendon rupture.”
“Oh no!” My eyes widened. “That’s awful. Can they repair it?”
“They plan to once the swelling goes down. Hopefully tomorrow.”
The elevator arrived, and we stepped inside.
“So, he’ll get better?” Worried, I glanced at his father, one of the few older men in my life who I respected. Though I didn’t know Mr. Phillips all that well, in all my encounters with him, he was a gentleman, and he was a wonderful father to Chad. “He’ll be able to play basketball again. Right?”
“Hopefully. He loves the sport as much as I did when I was his age.” He frowned. “But he won’t play any more this season.”
That didn’t sound good. “Chad told me the college teams are scouting him.”
“That’s all over now.” Mr. Phillips shook his head sadly. The elevator dinged, and he stepped out. I hurried to follow him as he headed down the hall. “He’s upset, and groggy from the meds. His mom is with him now.”
I winced. Chad didn’t like his mom, his stepfather, or his stepbrother. He hated that the court order from the divorce required him to stay at his mom’s house one weekend a month. He was counting on a scholarship to be his ticket out of Southside, like I hoped my grades would be for me.
“Well, well, well,” a somewhat familiar voice said, and my eyes widened as Vance Nagel pushed away from the sterile white wall where he’d been leaning. “Warren Jinkins’s Lace is also my poor and newly crippled stepbrother’s Lace too.” His calculating brown gaze narrowed. “What an interesting coincidence.”
Shocked into silence as I made the connection, I started to bow up at his words, but decided against confrontation. It was better to ignore a guy like Vance. Yet, even though I did, he continued to look at me as if he were imagining me naked. He made my flesh crawl.
“Step aside, son,” Chad’s father demanded in an authoritative voice that Vance obeyed. “Go ahead, Lace.” He inclined his head to the ajar door.
Nodding, I went inside. “Hey,” I said cheerily over the beeping of the monitor.
My gaze quickly passed over the frowning brunette standing beside the bed. She was middle-aged and pretty, but her features were pinched. The grooves of displeasure around her mouth seemed permanent.
Focusing on Chad, I said, “I heard you’re having surgery tomorrow.”
“Yeah, if the swelling goes down,” Chad said, and my eyes filled at the glassiness of emotion within his.
“He’s coming to my place when he’s discharged,” his mother said determinedly.
“Enough, Mom.” Chad shook his head at her. “I’m staying with Dad. End of discussion.”
“How are you going to get to your doctor’s appointments and rehab with your restrictions and your foot in a boot?”
“Dad.”
“Your dad’s work schedule isn’t flexible. You’ll stay with me. The medical care on my side of town is better, baby. The schools are too.”
“Don’t care. I’m not switching schools again. I’m graduating from Southside. No way I’m living with you. I can’t deal with your BS or Vance’s arrogance.”
“Chad—”
“No, Mom.” He cut her off, making a slicing motion with the hand that had the IV in it. “Leave, please. I’ve got too much to deal with right now. I’m tired.” His expression tightened. “I want to talk to Lace alone before I take another pain pill.”
“Okay, baby.” Moving to the end of his bed, she touched the leg that was wrapped up. He made a face, but she didn’t notice. She was too busy looking down her nose at me.
“Southside trash,” she muttered beneath her breath as she stepped past me.
“Yikes.” I made a face as I went to Chad’s side, taking the place his mother had vacated.
“I told you how she was.”
“Yeah, you did. But I thought you were exaggerating.” I took his large hand, wrapped it in both of mine, and brought it to my chest. “I’m so sorry this happened.”
“It’s shit. Total complete shit.” His eyes glistening, he swallowed and pressed his lips together.
“How long do they think you have to stay in the hospital?”
“A couple of nights.”
“That’s not too bad. I’ll come up and visit you every day. What’s after that?”
“Listen, Lace. About that. I think it would be best if we put some distance between us for a while.”
“What?” My brows rose. “No. Why?”
“You need to be studying, not playing nurse to me.”
“I can do both.”
“No, you can’t, not as long as my recovery’s going to take,” he said firmly and turned his head to the side. “Six weeks, I have to lay around and wear a non-removable cast. Then they take that one off, only to put on another one. I’ll have two to six additional weeks with a removable one, and at least four months after that when my motion will be restricted. And that’s before I can even begin to think about trying to play basketball again.”
“Oh, Chad.”
“Don’t pity me, Lace.” His hazel eyes softened when he saw his harshness hurt me. “Please, don’t feel sorry for me. Okay? I don’t want that.”
“But I feel terrible that this happened to you.”
“I do too. I . . .” He glanced down at his leg, then looked at me. “Well, it made me realize how tenuous our dreams really are.”
That wasn’t a good thought. Icy trepidation that felt like foreboding trickled down my spine.
He placed his free hand over mine. “Promise me you’ll focus all your energy on achieving your dream. Complete the SAT course Bryan paid for, and study hard. Even though you’ll have to do it on your own.”
“I promise.”
“Don’t get sidetracked by anything.”
“I won’t.”
“I thought maybe I’d be around.” His eyes took on a distant cast. “I hoped I’d have the option to go to college here too. Help you out some. But I can’t do that anymore, Lace. I don’t even know what’s going to happen to me. But I do know that I’m not dragging you down into this mess with me. Understand?”
“Oh, Chad.” Abandoning our stacked hands, I did what I’d wanted to since I’d first walked into the room. I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him. “I love you.”
“I lo
ve you too, Lace.” He returned my hug. “Enough to want better for you. You need to get out of here. I want that for you. I want to see one of us achieve their dream.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Lace
Teary-eyed at thoughts of Chad, I stumbled out of his hospital room and ran straight into Vance.
“Hey there, pretty girl.” He clamped his hands around my upper arms, and before I knew it, I found myself backed into the wall he’d been leaning against earlier.
“Where is—”
“They’re gone. Chad’s old man and my old lady went outside for a discussion.” He dipped his gaze to my cleavage.
I’d worn a low-cut Ramones tank with strategic slashes and arm holes so wide, you could almost see my lacy black bra. I also had on black jeans, a black knit cap on my head, and bracelets, leather and silver on my wrists. I was rocker-girl chic all the way, anticipating seeing Bryan later at the beach. But now that and everything else seemed to have been blown to hell.
“I want a turn with you.” Lifting my arms over my head, Vance ground his belt buckle and his erection into me.
“No. Let me go.” Trying to yank my arms free, I trembled with panic. My hot dog from earlier lurched from my stomach to the top of my throat.
“You heard her.”
War’s unexpected but threatening growl made an electrical current snap through me. Turning my head, I sagged in relief as I watched him step closer.
His visage was dark and vengeful beneath his red bandanna. The white T-shirt and indigo jeans he’d accessorized with a plethora of silver and black leather almost made it seem as if he’d planned to be a bookend to me, rocker guy to my rocker girl.
Vance released me and assumed a defensive stance, but he was too late. The incoming punch from War caught him in the center of his breadbasket. Sounding like a car tire leaking air, he doubled over.
“Clean up that piece of shit for me, would you, Bry?” War said, almost offhandedly. “I need to check on Lace.”
“My pleasure,” Bryan said, kicking Vance in the nuts.
Chad’s stepbrother toppled over with an expletive and a thud.
“Lacey.” War came closer, blocking my view of Bryan while searching my gaze. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Thank you.” I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly feeling cold. “But why are you here?”
“To see Chad. You called us, remember?”
“I called Bry.” I glanced at him and saw it, the guardedness in his eyes. In my panic, I’d missed it before.
Bryan was War’s wingman. He would always be War’s wingman.
And I also knew in that moment that War was the wall standing between Bryan and me. Hope couldn’t scale it. Dreams couldn’t tunnel under it. I was destined to walk alone, seeing Bryan on the side he’d chosen, but never having him. I’d never be an option for him, and he would never be a choice for me.
My gaze swung back to War.
“Forgive me, Lacey.” He stretched out his corded arm, offering me his hand. “I don’t want to be at odds with you.” His silver rings reflected the overhead light, but the copper filaments in his brown eyes flared brighter than all of that when I placed my hand in his.
“I forgive you,” I said softly. And I did. It was big, this gesture by him, but I’d never blindly trust him or anyone else but myself going forward.
I was seventeen now. It was time to grow up. Life wasn’t fair.
To War—and even to Bryan, despite his pretty words—I was little more than a side note. I didn’t measure when it came to War’s ambitions. I didn’t rank when the choice was between me and Bryan’s friendship with War.
It was up to me and me alone to make the best life for myself that I could, though the odds were stacked against me.
CHAPTER FORTY
War
After we visited Chad together, Lace was quiet, unusually so. Down the hall, on the elevator, and out into the night, she didn’t speak a single word to break the silence. It made me uneasy.
“Where’s Bry?” she asked, and tension replaced uneasiness.
“He took care of Vance, then he took off,” I said, lifting my hand with my cell in it as part of my explanation. “He texted while we were in there talking to Chad.”
“Oh. Okay. He didn’t even wish me happy birthday.” Her expression fell, and therein lay the problem. One that had been festering from the beginning.
I wasn’t blind. My best friend was her best friend too, and he’d come between us. Though I had what I wanted right now, her back with me, I wondered what had happened between the two of them while we’d been separated. So I put it out there.
“Did something happen with you and Bry that I should know about?”
“No,” she said without hesitation.
Giving her a long side glance, I didn’t see anything that made me think her reply was a lie. “But you’re calling him Bry now.”
She shrugged. “He was there for me. For a few days, it was like we were kids again and no time was between us. But I realize now he was just being nice. Maybe he felt sorry for me.”
I highly doubted that pity was the emotion motivating my best friend when it came to her.
“I can be nice. If you need nice.”
“Sure,” she said, but she didn’t sound convinced. Tucking her cell into her pocket, she trained her gaze on the sidewalk.
I stepped in front of her and stopped. Lifting her chin, I searched her eyes. They were shadowed, troubled. “Is nice what you really want from me, babe?”
“Maybe sometimes.”
“Sometimes like this past Friday night, for example?”
She nodded. Her creamy skin sliding against my fingertips sent an electrical current surging through me. My cock lengthened just from that. It was insane how much I wanted her.
My gaze hardened. “I did what I had to, what I thought was best. For both of us. I’m not going to apologize for it again. You said you forgave me. Can you not see my side in this?”
“I see it,” she whispered. Her gaze sliding away, she stepped back.
My hand fell to my side. Inside, I panicked, fucking panicked that I might lose her again. I loved her, no doubt, but it made me angry the power that emotion gave her over me.
“But I don’t think you see mine.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
“The college thing?” I asked. “Is that what you mean?”
“It’s not a thing, War.” She lifted her gaze, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. She never cried. Not even the other night when I laid into her, but she was close now. “It’s my only ticket out of Southside. And even that isn’t a guarantee. I could slide right back in again without warning.” She jerked her head back toward the hospital. “Look what happened to Chad. Everything was going his way, and in a single moment, through no fault of his own, he lost it all, his hopes and dreams.”
“Okay, so college is an option for you. You can keep that in play, if you want to, but it’s not your only option.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want you back in the group. It’s all wrong. Everything is wrong without you.”
“Oh, War. Thank you.” She threw herself at me, draping her slender arms around my neck, and I caught her. Tits, pussy, long legs, she was plastered to me.
“You’re welcome,” I said thickly. My pulse raced and my cock went hard. Sliding my hands down her spine, I spread them on the swell of her delectable ass. “But, babe, you can’t countermand me when it comes to the band.”
She stiffened. “Your way or the highway, is that it?”
“Yeah, it is, if there are music reps standing right there offering to write us a ticket out of this shit-hole. Look at me,” I said, and her gaze met mine, her eyes flashing defiant amber fire. “Us, Lacey. I said it a year ago, and I’m saying it now. Again. Are you hearing me?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “And I know you expect me to swoon at your feet like all those other girls do. But I respect myself and my own ambitio
n too much to.”
“I respect you.” My eyes narrowed.
“To a point. That point being whether my ambition interferes with yours.”
“Lacey, c’mon.”
“The band is your vision, your dream, and you don’t believe in me or mine. That’s my point. Are you hearing me?”
“There’s no us in your dream. Are you listening to yourself?”
She blew out a breath. “There’s no us in mine because you’ve never backed it. Never stopped to consider the possibility of combining your dream and mine.”
“Is that a requirement for you, for the two of us to be together?”
“We’re not together.”
“The hell we’re not.” I shot straight to mad. Grabbing her ass, I hauled her closer, and she gasped. I didn’t fucking care. This was bullshit. “You’re my woman, Lace. Mine. I protect and defend what’s mine. Southside is the only reality right now, and it’s our reality. This other shit is hypothetical.”
“War, I know, but it’s important.”
Her hands had moved down to my forearms where they flexed into my skin, whether with nervousness or desire, I wasn’t sure. But her breaths were labored, like they were when she was turned on, and her eyes had darkened to burnished gold.
“We had a misstep,” I said firmly. “A miscommunication. But we’re together, and we’re going forward together with me doing whatever is necessary for both of us. Though from now on, I’ll make allowances for your dream in the overall scheme of things.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Lace
A misstep.
That’s how War saw tossing me aside just because I’d countermanded him. He made me mad a lot of the time. Now was one of them.
Yet, I reminded myself that he was here right now. He hadn’t completely abandoned me, and a lot of what he said I liked. It wasn’t usual for him to make allowances.
Plus, being back in his arms was familiar and exciting. He wanted me. Turned me on. He might not be the way forward, but he was a way. I couldn’t afford to toss him and his demands that irked me aside just because he wasn’t giving me exactly what I wanted, or because he wasn’t who I wanted.
The Complete Tempest World Box Set Page 20
