“Kitten, come here,” Alec commanded in a low voice.
Mia moved to him and he snagged her around the nape of her neck pulling her to him and settling her into his chest.
“How often?” Jake asked. His voice was still soft. But, like West’s soft voice, she knew the angrier he grew, the quieter he became.
“Since I’ve been living here? Or in the last few years since it began?” she asked
Mia made a strangled noise in her throat. She hated she was upsetting her friend.
“Mia, maybe I could get something to eat? Something sweet? Although, it hurts to chew so something soft?”
Mia moved away from Alec. She looked over at Flick, tears in her eyes. “You sure?”
Flick tried to give her a smile. It failed, she grimaced instead.
“Stop trying to smile to make everyone else feel better,” West told her.
r /> “West,” Mia snapped back at him.
“It’s not her job to worry about everyone else. Her job is to rest, get better, and do as she’s told in order for me to keep her safe.”
Okay, she really didn’t like the sound of that.
“You’re not taking responsibility for me,” she told West.
“I am.”
“Are not.”
“Can we get on with this?” he asked Jake. “Felicity needs a nap.”
“I’ll go get you something to eat first,” Mia said quietly, leaving the room. But Flick barely heard her because she was too busy glaring at West.
Oh, no. He did not just say that. He did not just declare she needed a nap like she was a two-year-old having a tantrum.
“I do not need a nap.”
“You need a nap. You’re cranky. Obviously, you haven’t been sleeping well. And the pain probably makes you even crankier.”
“I am not cranky!” she yelled at him. Then she groaned. Yelling when you had sore ribs was not the best idea.
“Hate to tell you, sweetheart,” Alec told her with a smile twitching at the ends of his lips. “You do sound rather cranky.”
“I’m grouchy because West thinks he has to take responsibility for me because he feels guilty. Because he was mean to me the other day and then when I went back home, I got beaten up.”
The silence in the room was deathly. And she knew she taken that too far. Let too much out.
“I sent you home to him.” West’s voice was so quiet she could barely hear him. She didn’t need to be told that was a very, very bad sign.
“You didn’t know. It’s not your fault, West.”
His eyes blazed as he stared back at her. “Yeah, it is.”
“You didn’t hurt me. Didn’t grab my arm and twist it up my back until the shoulder popped out. You didn’t yank my fingers back until one crunched. Didn’t push me over. And you didn’t grab a cane and start hitting me with it. You didn’t do any of that, West. He did.”
More silence. She could hear everyone breathing.
“Your brother twisted your arm up your back, broke your finger, and then laid into you with a cane?” West asked. She didn’t really think he was searching for a reply considering that’s what she’d just told him. So she just nodded slowly.