As we pulled through the gated entrance of the Carlotti estate, I tensed with anticipation and rubbed my sweaty palms across my legging-clad thighs. This wasn't how I'd imagined coming back, and I'd dreamed up many scenarios revolving around just that. And half as many about not coming back at all, but as the car came to a halt in front of the guys' house, I realized there was no way I'd have been able to stay away permanently. Being there felt too right.
I was out of the car, my purse over my shoulder, before either attorney had their seatbelt off. Impatience and worry eclipsed nearly anything else, but I managed to quickly thank them, telling them to call if needed, then shutting the door and power walking to the house.
Barely two steps inside, I almost ran over Doc; he was already on his way out with his equipment case in hand. He started to reach into his jacket for a gun, only relaxing when recognition hit.
"Miss Eden, I was just wondering when you'd be arriving." His greeting held warmth, but his expression was all worry as he looked me up and down before muttering, "At least you don't seem to be in need of my services this time."
At the reminder, I took stock of the area I could see, but we were alone. I figured one of the guys would have been around, and that just made my impatience to find them rear up again.
"Hey, Doc. And no, I'm good," I offered with a small smile. "The guys upstairs?" I asked with a head tilt in the general direction of the stairs. When he paused and frowned, my concern spiked. "They are here, right?"
"Yes, but maybe I should call Tony first. Eden, there's been an incident, and…" He shrugged as if unable, or unwilling, to explain further.
Mind made up to hunt them all down, I reassured the doctor and moved into the house, intent on making a head count. "No worries, Doc. I'll figure it out. See ya around, yeah?"
Without waiting for a reply, I went straight for the hall with the stairs, a sense of coming home filling me as I neared my bedroom...that had the muffled tones of a woman's voice coming out of it. My intense need to find the guys veered with my discovery, turning to insta-rage. I couldn't believe they'd given my room away, let alone to another woman. I'll fucking kill her while they watch. Mind made up on my course of action, I straightened my shoulders and stalked in with my head held high. She'd never think I was about to drown her in the toilet the second I was close enough to grab her skanky ass. And she'd better have her fucking clothes on.
"Mr. DeLuca, please wait for my assistance!" The exasperated voice belonged to the woman who was trying to get Santos unhooked from a monitor, something he was decidedly not planning to do since he was already attempting to climb out of the bed.
Good one, Eden. You were gonna kill a nurse.My skin heated as I realized I'd massively jumped to the wrong conclusion. And that Santos was in my bed.
"I leave for five minutes, and you manage to steal my room, huh?" Two sets of eyes landed on me, but there was only one person in the room I cared about, given I'd decided not to murder the help.
"Why are you here? You were supposed to stay away," he greeted me, accusation sitting heavy in gaze. But then his glare relaxed, along with the ruined bits of skin, and something like relief coated his next words. "And I'd say it was a lot longer than five minutes, angel."
The instinct to rebuff the endearment that fell so easily from his lips reared up, but I squashed that fucker down, refusing to fall into old patterns. Begin as you plan to proceed. It was the plan, and I wasn't deviating from it. I wanted the boy who'd loved me, that I loved in return, back. It was too late for the kids we'd been, but it wasn't too late now. Not if I had anything to say about it. So I shrugged and moved into the room, closing the door behind me and setting my purse on the dresser while I contemplated if I should offer to help or not.
"You all weren't supposed to go down for me taking off either, so I'd say neither of us held up our end." My attention was on the nurse who was studiously ignoring our interaction. It was sort of amusing to watch her play statue while holding the lead for the machine he was attached to. "Besides," I added, cutting my eyes to Santos, "I was invited back."
His own briefly closed as he muttered, "Of course you were." And a bit louder, he added, "I'll be discussing this with Vinnie, but I doubt you'll leave willingly now?"
The grin couldn't be denied even with him sitting there like a pissed off invalid. He knew I wasn't about to tuck tail and hide again. "My vacation was fun, but it's over now, so let's just skip the argument. You seem to be trying to get up, and I'm worried your helper is going to get a cramp if she doesn't move soon."
As if that was all it took to put her back into motion, she resumed her attempt to get him to wait. "I'll have you unhooked in just a moment, and then I can grab the chair—"
"I'm not using the fucking chair. Unhook me, or I'm doing it myself," he demanded, daring the nurse to contradict him.
She didn't say another word. Instead, she pursed her lips and finished by draping the cords around his neck and rolling his IV pole closer to him. But when she went to assist him to stand, he shooed her away with a glare.
Actually feeling sorry for the chick, I stepped up to intervene. "Come on, you stubborn ass, obviously you have something serious going on if Doc left you like this. Why aren't you in a hospital, anyway?"
I thought the nurse was going to object for a moment, but she quickly decided to let me bear the brunt of Santos' ire.
"I can use the bathroom just fine if you'd both quit hovering," he snapped, even as he let out a grunt when he tried to bear his own weight. "Why don't you go find Tony? Let him know that you're here and need a room. Let me piss in peace."
As he leaned forward, the back of his t-shirt rode up, revealing the stark white edges of his dressing sitting above the low-slung sweats he had on. "What the fuck happened, Santos?" It was my turn for demands, and I decided he could just deal with it while I figured out if I needed to get one of the guys to come help him. He didn't try to stop me as I pulled the bottom of his shirt up to find a rectangle covering part of his back and most of his side. My imagination went wild with images of what the wounds looked like underneath the pristine gauze.
I felt more than saw Santos glance up at me, and whatever my expression held had him immediately reassuring me. "It's not as bad as you're thinking. I got lucky; the idiot had shitty aim."
I moved my stare from his injury to the cobalt eyes filled with guilt and anger. It reminded me a lot of how he had looked after he found out what his father and my mother had done. My fear mounted, worrying that injuries might not be the only issue here. Wetting my dry lips, I asked the question I should have brought up sooner.
"Are the others okay?" If anything, his guilt intensified, and my hands tingled with the surge of anxiety wrecking my nervous system as I awaited his response.
"They're more mobile than I am at the moment, but I'm not sure any of us are 'okay.'" That seemed to be all I was going to get since the nurse fumbled something on the supply cart, reminding us both that we had an audience. "But really, I need to piss, and you need to go. Doc set me up as a precaution, said I could come off all this tomorrow as long as I continue to improve." The abrupt change of topic was blatant, but I couldn't fault him for it. Weak wasn't something Santos could stand to be. While I'd let him be and not force my help upon him, I wouldn't chance him making his injuries worse.
"I'll go, if you let your nurse at least help you walk." My ultimatum was met with a sharp glare, but backing down wasn't on my agenda.
"Fine," he gritted out, annoyance radiating from his tensed jaw down to his sexy, bare feet. Seriously, I wasn't sure if I'd ever noticed as a teen, and feet weren't my fetish, but Santos had remarkably nice ones for a dude. "Eden, I said fine. Stop staring at my feet; you're making this weird."