Heart-On: Turf Wars #2, Bella Jewel [ebook reader screen txt] 📗

Adan growls. “I can’t do that. I won’t do it. You give me another alternative or I’ll lose my fuckin’ arms.”

“Stop being so damned stubborn,” I snap at him. “What are you going to do with no arms? Huh? Walk around hitting people with your nubs because you’re so damned angry? When all you had to do was bandage the fucking things for a few measly ass weeks?”

Everyone in the room stares at me after my outburst.

Okay, well, it was a bit extreme, I won’t lie.

But I’m frustrated.

Mostly because if he loses his arms then I live with that forever.

I’ll always be the dumb girl who climbed a damned cliff and had to get saved.

“Do what you gotta do,” Adan mutters. “On one condition, she comes back and takes care of me. I’m not having another nurse.”

“No way,” I say, shaking my head. “No way.”

“Is there a reason you’re not open to this?” Daniel asks me.

Lorelei is looking at me with a curious expression, also.

“No,” I say. “No, there is not. I just don’t want to work for him. He was always grumpy and mean. I’m tired of that crap.”

“I’ll be nice,” Adan says, his voice gruff. “Don’t like the other nurses. You come back, or I don’t get the bandages.”

His face tells me he’s very serious.

Well fuck me.

Now what am I supposed to do?

“Ugh, fine. Fine. I’ll come back.”

Daniel nods. “Very well, let’s get these redressed.”

I go outside for some fresh air while Adan’s arms get sorted out. Lorelei comes to find me, and I inwardly cringe when she asks me if I’d mind having a word with her. I know exactly what she’s going to ask. She wants to know if I’m in love with Adan. I’m going to tell her no, mostly because if don’t tell her no, then I’ll look like that desperate idiot who couldn’t move on after being rejected. Adan doesn’t want me, if he did he would have said so by now.

That’s that.

It is.

That’s the end of it.

“What’s up?” I finally say to Lorelei, sitting down on a park bench outside the hospital.

“I hope you don’t mind me being so forward, considering I don’t even know what Adan and I are, but I was wondering ... is there something going on between the two of you?”

Oh, you mean did he kiss me just a few nights ago?

That was nothing.

It was an accidental slip of the lips.

For fifteen minutes.

“No,” I say, because honestly, what else am I going to say?

The truth?

I don’t even know what that is.

“Oh,” she says, looking surprised. “That’s not what it feels like.”

“Look, Adan and I had a little bet going. We had some fun, that was the end of it. As for anything more, no. We don’t have anything more. If you and he are happy, then you should go for it.”

She smiles. That simple. “Really? Are you sure?”

“It’s not my choice to make. He’s with you for a reason. Take it.”

God, it hurts more than she’ll ever know me saying these things.

I wish she could understand.

But it’s not up to her to understand.

It’s my problem.

It’s my hurt to shield.

19

“Just stand still,” I mutter, trying to rebandage Adan’s hands while he’s busy talking to Riggs about my step-brother and what they’re going to do to “deal” with him.

“I am standin’ fuckin’ still,” Adan grunts. “You’re takin’ too long.”

“Shut up and let me do my damned job.”

“Fuck me, you two,” Riggs says, looking between the two of us. “You need to go and fuck it out and be done with it.”

We both glare at him.

“Never met two people in my life that won’t get it on when there is so much fuckin’ attraction there,” he says, walking off.

“You and Eve!” I call out behind him.

“Eve and I fucked,” he calls back, “maybe if the two of you fucked, you’d at least get somewhere.”

I clench my teeth and finish wrapping up Adan’s hand before releasing him.

“I’m meeting Devin and my mother tonight, to try and come to some sort of agreement,” I tell him.

It isn’t something I’ve even told Riggs. I know he wouldn’t agree and that he would throw down and tell me I’m being an idiot. Maybe I am, but it’s worth a shot. I have to, at the very least, try to deal with this so it doesn’t become a problem. Devin isn’t the sort of person to back off easily and I know he won’t go down without a fight. The club will resort to violence if it doesn’t get sorted, I know it will.

“No, you’re fuckin’ not.”

“I am,” I say, nodding my head. “It’s a public place, I’ll be fine. I figure if I can get them to agree to something, maybe a sum of the cash, then all of this will go away. I’m going to buy a house, that’s all I need. I don’t care about the rest.”

“You’re out of your fuckin’ mind if you think they’ll settle for a sum,” Adan shakes his head.

“Well, it’s worth a damned shot. Otherwise things will get ugly, and I don’t want that to happen.”

“Where are you meeting them?”

“None of your business.”

He growls. “You fuckin’ tell me, or I’ll follow you.”

“How are you going to follow me?” I ask, crossing my arms and nodding at his bound up hands.

“Fuck,” he growls.

“Just let it be, Adan. I’m only telling you because I want to keep you all in the loop. Now, if we’re done here, I have shit to do.”

“What the fuck is goin’ on with you?” he asks me. “You’re snappier than me, and that’s sayin’ something.”

“You forced me back into a job I didn’t want to do, Adan. You know I don’t want to be here.”

“Why?”

I narrow my eyes to almost a squint. “What do you mean why? You know damn well why.”

He holds my gaze.

I exhale and shake my head. “I’m so sick of your fucking games, you know that. I wish you’d just, at the very least, be honest with me. Instead,