“Watch your knee.”
Josh felt the brush of a hand over his leg then watched as Nick carefully moved his leg aside in order to shift gears. Justin rumbled and Josh, well past fed up with the cavemen on either side of him, drove his elbow into Justin’s ribs. The grunt and hissed exhalation from his brother almost made Josh feel better.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Bailey Bradford
34
The silence in the truck was anything but comfortable on the drive to the hospital and Josh didn’t care to attempt to ease it. Normally he’d have babbled until some of the tension bled away, but screw it. He wasn’t going to waste his time trying to make this easier on Justin or Nick, and he was too miserable to let something like their discomfort affect him. He wouldn’t even let Justin hold him like this, pressing him to his brother’s side, if he wasn’t hurting so damned bad. And as stupid as it was, Josh wished the pain that was twisting him up inside was from his ankle, not from the way his brother had left him lying there hurting on the asphalt.
Stupid, selfish, idiotic fucking jackass!
Nick gripped the wheel until his abraded knuckles ached, then squeezed even harder. He glanced at Josh huddled against his brother’s side, using the right turn he was making as an excuse to do so. What kind of man had he become, following the kid,
bullying and intimidating him
,
hurting him?
Nick knew he had. Josh’s pinched expression, his pained gasp when Nick had grabbed the smaller man’s ankle in the truck, would be haunting Nick for a long time.
And I didn’t stop there, did I?
Maybe at first he’d been trying to defend himself, but he hadn’t even tried to talk to…to Justin, had he? No, he’d just gone after the man in a manner that was so unlike himself Nick wondered if he shouldn’t have his head checked out. Then when Justin had made that comment about Annabelle and him…and another man, Justin’s partner, who must have been the guy Josh was with earlier, well, Nick had kind of freaked out.
Which was beyond stupid, considering he hadn’t ever talked to Annabelle or Rory.
He’d known about them, of course he had. His bastard of a father hadn’t ever missed an opportunity to throw his two perfect kids—two perfect
white
kids—in Nick’s face. Ian Calhoun had made it perfectly clear that he thought it was fine to fuck around with Nick’s Hispanic mother, but the idea of having a kid with her or marrying her was contemptuous.
But in the end, the old bastard had been glad enough that Nick’s mama hadn’t got the abortion Ian had tried to force her to get. If she hadn’t considered herself a good Catholic girl despite being seduced by her employer, Nick likely wouldn’t have been born.
“Next left,” Justin grunted out.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Bailey Bradford
35
Nick signalled. He knew where the hospital was, but pointing that out would likely lead to another fight with the hotheaded man. And contrary to his earlier behaviour, Nick wasn’t a violent man. If he was, he’d never have let Josh take him down in the Xxchange.
Nick was more than capable of defending himself, but he hadn’t wanted to hurt the smaller man, and it wasn’t like Nick hadn’t deserved what Josh had done. He risked another quick glance at the small form beside him. Hell, he deserved a lot worse. Nick caught Justin’s angry gaze and tipped his head in acknowledgement. Yep, Nick was an asshole. Justin’s disregard of Josh didn’t make him feel less like an asshole, either. Nick could understand the other man’s fury; he felt strangely protective of Josh and he didn’t even know the guy, not really.
But I know how he tastes, how his lips feel against mine, those little whimpers he makes when
he’s turned on, the way the muscles rippled in his back under my hands, the way his ass fits in my
palms.
And damned if Nick could understand why any of it got to him, why it made the pit of his stomach clench and burn and his dick ache to feel Josh’s touch. He wasn’t gay, hadn’t ever thought of another man that way, so why now? Why Josh? Nick couldn’t figure it out.
Maybe it was just the influence of where they’d been. Nick hadn’t ever stepped foot in a place like the Xxchange before—why would he have?
But when he’d seen Annabelle and Josh slip inside the place, he’d followed, and
gaped like the redneck straight guy he was. He’d snapped his mouth shut, but not before a few kids had snickered and even groped at him. Nick hadn’t been aroused by them—he wasn’t even sure they were legal, and he’d nearly broke himself backing away from their grabby hands—but he’d seen the way Josh had looked at some of the other men there with hungry eyes, and Nick had come up with what he thought was a brilliant plan. Now he wondered if it hadn’t just been an excuse to get close to Josh. Even in the dim light of the club, Josh’s beauty had been obvious, and maybe that was part of the reason Nick found himself drawn to the smaller man. His big eyes and lush lips
were
beautiful; Nick would have been drawn to any woman with features such as Josh’s.
Yeah, right. That body you slid your hands over, the firm muscled flesh you touched and
squeezed, Josh’s hard cock pressed up against my thigh—none of those things felt the least bit
feminine, and they all set my balls to boiling and my dick to leaking. And the way Josh’s sweet mouth
tasted, the strength in his small body, his fierce grip, there wasn’t anything feminine about those
things, either, and I want him more than I ever wanted anyone else. Fuck! How did this happen? And
what am I gonna do?
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Bailey Bradford
36
Some of Josh’s anger had bled away by the time Nick pulled up to the ER. Josh just didn’t have the energy to hang on to his mad. He let Justin help him out of the truck but, as much as he hurt, it wasn’t enough to let Justin carry him into the hospital like his brother was trying to insist on doing.
Nick’s arm slipping around Josh’s back, the bigger man nudging his shoulder into Josh’s armpit, stopped Justin mid-argument. “Get his other side and try to remember Josh is a man, not a kid. He’s got his pride just like you do.”
Josh knew he was staring, knew his mouth was wide open in shock, but he couldn’t help it. Somehow he’d totally missed the alien invasion that had placed a mature and reasonable brain in Nick’s skull. Nick’s shy grin—and Josh
knew
he had to be hallucinating, there wasn’t a shy bone in that man’s body—as he glanced away sent all sorts of tingly feelings through Josh.
“Might want to shut your mouth, Josh,” Justin whispered as he worked his arm under Josh’s. “You’re liable to catch a click beetle or blister bug out here under these lights.”
Josh snapped his mouth shut. True enough. All kinds of creepy crawlies swarmed the fluorescent lights, and it’d be his luck one would decide to spelunk in his mouth. Then Josh would have to add the humiliation of vomiting until his stomach flopped out to the list of tonight’s indignities. He hissed as his ankle was jostled when he tried to hop.
“Maybe I should get a wheelchair,” Nick offered, still not looking at him. “I’ll be right back.”
Nick went through the double doors and Josh found himself the recipient of his
brother’s scrutiny.
“Who is he?”
Josh bristled at Justin’s tone. He’d heard that tone every time he’d been in trouble as a kid. He wasn’t a kid now, and Justin was in more trouble with
him
so his brother could take that reproving look and his parental attitude and cram it up his—
The doors whooshed open and Misty, a bubbly young nurse Josh always got a kick
out of, came jogging out pushing a wheelchair. Nick was nowhere to be seen.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Bailey Bradford
37
Misty’s eyes bugged as she looked at him and Justin. “Crap, Josh, what happened to you? And you,” Misty narrowed her eyes at Justin. “If you or that other big idiot did this to him, you’re both going to have most of the staff of St. Mark’s after you.”
Josh snorted at that. The image of some of the nurses he worked with smacking Justin and Nick with bedpans and clipboards made him feel a little better. He let Justin and Misty get him settled in the chair then he patted Misty’s hand.
“Neither one of them hurt me, Misty. I fell.”
“Riiight,” Misty muttered, glaring at Josh first then Justin. “Because we never hear that excuse more than, oh, a dozen times a week. Let me guess, you fell down the stairs or walked into a door.”
Josh winced. They
did
hear excuses like that all the time, usually from women who had obviously been abused. How bad did he look, that Misty assumed he was a victim? Josh touched her hand as Justin sputtered denials, something else they heard too often.
“Misty, I really did fall. I tripped over my shoes when I was trying to find my keys so I could get to my brother’s house—that would be this idiot here”—Josh waved a hand at his glowering brother—“to try to keep him from doing something stupid. And I twisted my ankle—”
Misty huffed and rolled the chair through the doors and into the waiting room. Josh quit trying to explain, because yeah, he wasn’t going to convince her that he’d done this to himself.
“Hey! What—”
Josh looked up at Justin’s startled exclamation. The police officer who was on security duty had one hand clamped on Justin’s shoulder. Officer Stanton was a hard ass cop, not mean, he just didn’t take anything off anyone. His cold grey eyes narrowed as he looked Josh over from heel to head.
“Sir, you and the other gentleman will be coming with me.” Stanton tilted his head to the left and Josh peered around him to find Nick standing with his arms crossed and his head down, leaning against the wall.
“But, we didn’t—Josh fell! I wouldn’t—” Justin sputtered as Stanton pushed him back.
“I didn’t say you did,” Stanton growled, “but three men just showed up here, and two of them have obviously been beating the hell out of each other, and one of our favourite nurses is hurt, and
someone
is going to start explaining this shit to me.
Now.
”
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Bailey Bradford
38
“Uh,” Josh managed, his mind blanking as Stanton grabbed Justin’s arm and half—
dragged him to where Nick stood.
“Let Officer Stanton handle it,” Misty advised, “and just tell the truth. Remember, there’s no reason for you to be ashamed. You didn’t ask to be a victim.”
Josh groaned and caught his head in his hands. “I’m not! I swear I’m not! I tripped, I hit my chin, bit my tongue, hauled ass to my brother’s, tripped up the steps at his place, and hauled him back to my apartment! Then Nick was there and—”
“Shh, now calm down, we’ll take care of you.” Misty rubbed his shoulder blades then pushed him into a small curtained off area. “Dr Meyers will be right with you. The other ER
patients aren’t here for anything major, and we’re going to get you fixed up right away.
Don’t worry about Stanton throwing those two thugs in jail.”
Josh’s temple throbbed so hard he thought a vein might burst. “One of those idiots is my brother!”
Misty clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Well, there’s no helping who our
family is.”
“Oh God,” Josh groaned. He just had to ask if the night could get any worse, didn’t he? Annabelle was going to shit kittens—Josh reached for his cell phone only to discover it wasn’t in any of his pockets. It must have fallen out God only knew where. Resigned to his fate, sort of, he looked up at Misty as she prepared to help him move to the bed. “I need to make a call, like right now.”
“Fine.” Misty plucked the receiver up from the phone beside the hospital bed.
“Number?”
Sealing his fate with each digit, Josh quietly reeled off Annabelle’s phone number. If Justin and Nick thought they were in trouble now, just wait until Annabelle got hold of them.
Maybe he could get Dr Meyers to knock him out before it was his turn to get reamed by his best friend, but Josh knew he wouldn’t be so lucky.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Bailey Bradford
39
Annabelle was so pissed her teeth were chattering. She glared through the bars of the cell at the two men who were too busy glaring at each other to notice her. Both were battered, bloodied and bruised, but if it was up to her, they’d have a few more knots upside their damned heads.
“Take a deep breath, Belle,” Evan whispered, the words strained with the weight of his own anger. “We don’t know
what
happened.”
“
We
know that Joshie is hurt and these two morons were going after each other in the parking lot outside his apartment,” Annabelle snapped, her strident voice startling the men in the cell so that two sets of blackening eyes turned to her. “
We
know that the goddamned hospital won’t tell
us
jack shit because
we
aren’t Joshie’s ‘family’.” Annabelle spat the last word out contemptuously. She’d nearly flown over the admitting desk when the smug woman behind it had told her and Evan that. If it hadn’t been for Evan’s calm head she’d probably be sitting in the cell with her other lover and…Annabelle stared down the older man with the pitch black eyes. Wouldn’t those peepers go well with the bruising Justin had beaten onto him? Despite her anger she smirked at the man. Josh had been coherent enough to tell her Hoover-hickey dude was the man Justin had been fighting with.
“You,” Annabelle pointed at the man, her finger as steady as her voice. “You better hope I don’t see you again. I promised Josh I’d castrate you with the very dull pair of nail clippers I’ve been carrying around just for that purpose.”
The man’s dark complexion paled, his gaze dropping away. “Yes ma’am.”
Annabelle frowned at him. That had been too easy. Justin’s snicker forced her
concentration to shift to him. His eyes widened as he snapped his mouth shut. Annabelle pointed and Justin flinched. “As for you, the
only
reason I’m bailing your ass out is so we can see Joshie.”