Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 22

8==== D

— Text from Garrett to Gable

GABLE

“ What the fuck was that?” Quincy looked at me with anger rising in his voice.

“ What was what?” I asked.

“ You just asked for Callena ?” he asked. “ What the fuck for?”

I rubbed at my head, the lights from the bulbs above me making the splitting headache I had throb.

“ I need to talk to her about something,” I grumbled.

“ Well , in the meantime, you just broke that girl’s heart.” Quincy jerked his chin toward the hallway where I’d seen Athena disappear.

“ I didn’t,” I defended myself. “ I will talk to her in a minute. I really need to talk to Callena , though.”

“ If she’s here when you finally deign to talk to her,” Quincy grumbled, gathering his shit off the side table.

“ She’ll be here,” I continued to defend.

“ Sure ,” he said. “ And the sky is green.”

I didn’t reply because Callena pushed through the room.

Callena and I had been working in tandem to take down the assholes in the motorcycle gang.

Callena knew the score.

Sure , she wanted me.

But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t work together professionally. I wasn’t a slave to my baser instincts.

After she got into the room, I explained to her and Tyrone exactly what happened in the altercation with Darryl Horton .

While we spoke and discussed the options, my family listened from outside the door, growing more and more worried by the minute.

I was worried as hell, too.

Darryl Horton had just told me that my brother had a hit on his head due to an uprising in an old gang he used to be undercover with.

Garrett’s face was blank as he listened to us talk, and by the time I was finished having my side sewn up—eighteen stitches— I was really worried about him.

“ Maven had her baby!” Mom cried.

The nurse handed me my discharge papers, and I said, “ I’ll catch a ride with y’all to the station.”

“ You’re not going to come meet Lola ?” Dad asked.

I was already shaking my head. “ Not right now. I’ll be back to see her when I’m done at the station. I want to get some stuff figured out with the hit before I go up there.”

“ What about Athena ?” she asked. “ You’re not going to show her that you’re all right?”

I would.

Later .

When I wasn’t so fucking mad at her and thought I could control myself.

“ Not right now,” I admitted.

Dad snorted. “ Take Garrett with you. The two of you figure it out and get back here.”

We did that, and I tried really hard not to turn left down the hallway to see Athena instead of taking a right and heading to the parking lot.

My side smarted as I tensed my abs.

Garrett noticed the wince and said, “ Are you sure we should be going down there right now?”

“ Yes ,” I said as I glanced at him. “ This is a bounty on your head, Garrett .”

He looked away. “ It’s my shit to deal with.”

I ignored him.

“ You’re using me as an excuse to not talk to her,” he said as we walked.

“ Her who?” Callena asked.

“ The woman my dumbass brother loves,” Garrett said.

“ What ?” Callena asked.

“ Is it that cute little Asian I saw you walking around with at the station?” Tyrone asked.

I shot him a glare. “ Athena .”

He held up his hands. “ Sorry , but she was cute. I can’t help it.”

She was cute.

“ Go back inside, Gable ,” Garrett said. “ I’ll take it from here.”

I looked at him, feeling a pull going both directions.

“ She needs you after today,” he said. “ You’ve stalled long enough. Just go tell her she scared the hell out of you.”

“ I think he should go with us,” Callena admitted.

She would.

“ He’s going back to his girl,” Garrett disagreed. “ Go .”

I went, but only after I made eye contact with Tyrone to watch out for my brother.

He gave me a nod of understanding, and I headed back into the hospital just as a black sedan pulled in that said ‘ Uber ’ on it.

I skirted myself around it and headed toward the employee entrance, using my code to get in the door and head up to the maternity ward.

I’d been there a lot thanks to all my siblings giving me niblings—nieces and nephews—so it didn’t take me long.

I was surprised to find the entire room, and hallway, overfilled with people.

I shouldered my way past everyone and took a look around the room for Athena but spotted her nowhere.

I moved toward Maven and Auden . Maven was glaring.

And , surprisingly, so was Auden .

My stomach dropped. “ Where is she?”

“ She’s not here, Gable .” Maven crossed her arms over her chest. “ She left when you made it clear you didn’t want her here.”

I was already shaking my head. “ That’s most certainly not what I meant. I wanted to talk to Callena .”

“ Meanwhile ,” Maven rolled her eyes, “ Athena has been here for four hours worried sick about you. And you couldn’t make a stop up here and alleviate her worries before you took off?”

I was already shaking my head. “ I never made it out of the parking lot.”

“ Well , when Athena didn’t find you here, she decided to go home,” she snapped.

I sighed.

“ I’m sorry. But Garrett …” I couldn’t stop the fear leeching into my voice. “ I can’t lose him again.”

Maven’s shoulders softened. “ What did I tell you about putting Athena first?”

That no one had ever done it before.

Fuck .

“ I’ll go find her,” I promised.

Except it proved harder than it looked.

I went to her house first.

Then her brother’s, which was still covered in crime scene tape.

I then went to mine, hoping beyond hope that she would be there, but didn’t find her there, either.

So I turned back around and headed back to her place.

All the while I kept hitting redial on my phone, only for her not to pick up.

After still not finding her at her place, I decided to park my ass in her driveway and wait.

She showed up twenty minutes later in an Uber .

She leaned forward as she got out and reached for some paperwork, and it was then I saw the cast on her arm.

I lurched forward, catching up to her as she marched toward the house.

“ What happened?” I gasped.

She glared at me. “ What do you mean what happened?”

“ What happened to your arm? Did that happen during the fall when Darryl pushed you?”

She ignored me and used her keys to get into her house.

“ What are you doing here?” she asked as she pushed through the door.

The door started to close in my face, but I caught it, ignoring the way my side smarted.

“ I’m here because I wanted to see you,” I told her. “ Why else would I be here?”

She rolled her eyes and didn’t comment.

I followed behind her, making sure the door was securely closed, and missed being able to follow her into her room when her door closed.

The distinct sound of the lock clicking into place was enough to make me stop in the living room and take a look around.

With the house itself being on Eleventh Street , you wouldn’t be able to tell from the inside.

It was cute and quaint, and obviously well taken care of, even before Athena owned it.

I studied the picture frames on the mantle.

One photo was of her parents, sister, and brother with her smashed in the middle of them all. I smiled at how well blended they were.

The second photo was of Maven and Athena on her college graduation day.

I’d actually been present for that one, since it’d only happened a few months ago, but I hadn’t told her I was there.

I was still under the impression that I was too old for her.

The third photo on the mantle was of her and her brother. The most recent one she would have before he’d died.

He was in his DPD issued uniform, and she was wearing a familiar red dress that I’d fallen in love with the first time I’d seen it on her.

The door clicked open, and I grinned at the cut-off jean shorts and white tank top she came out of her room in.

She also had a laptop in her hands, as well as an old glass of water.

I moved toward her, but she brushed right past me as if I was an annoying fly that somehow found its way into her house.

“ Please talk to me,” I begged.

Okay , so maybe I should have handled the situation with her earlier a little better.

But dammit, I was not okay.

Still wasn’t if I was being truthful.

Not only was I scared for my brother, but my heart was still pounding at the thought of anything happening to her.

I’d let my own fear get the best of me.

I went to follow her to the back door of her place, but stopped when she said, “ Leave me alone, Gable .”

I ignored that and kept pushing toward her. “ Just let me talk to you. I promise I can explain.”

“ Just let me be mad at you, please,” she urged. “ I’ve had a long day, and I really don’t want to talk to you right now.”

I ignored her request and followed her down the steps.

I came to a sudden halt when I heard the first buzz.

“ Stop ,” I pleaded. “ Please talk to me.”

She ignored me and kept walking.

I watched her, knowing exactly where she was going.

I saw the box of bees, and remembered when she told me that she had them.

“ Don’t you dare go over there,” I grumbled.

“ Watch me,” she called out, flipping me the bird as she stopped at the fence line.

Then she sat her ass on a bench right beside them, turned her back to me, and started fiddling on her computer.

She was too far away to hear me without voicing my issues to the entire neighborhood. And remembering how fucking nosy they were when I’d come over during the porn fiasco from the night before had me holding my tongue.

With nothing else to do, I took a seat on her back porch and waited for her to come back.

Every once in a while, she would look at me over her shoulder and catch me staring, surprise evident in her eyes.

I didn’t know if she thought I wouldn’t wait or what, but every time her face froze in surprise, then went into a sneer when she realized I wasn’t budging, I had to laugh a little bit inside.

When it started to get dark, I ordered some pizza and breadsticks for us.

It arrived in record time, and I had to leave at one point to go grab it from the delivery guy.

When I came back, she was no longer on her computer, but sitting on the bench with her head in her hands, the computer at her side in the grass.

I set the box of food down and decided… fuck it.

I would go get her.

Maybe I wouldn’t die.

But then again, I had really good insurance with the city.

Another ER visit would be okay.

Plus , I was fairly sure I’d met my deductible with the stabbing.

Determination in my step, I walked toward her, ignoring the way my heart pounded when I heard the bees getting louder and louder.

When I was next to her, I bent down and closed the laptop before setting it in her lap.

She gasped and jerked her head up, her instant denial already spewing out of her mouth. “ Gable Buchanan Carter , what the hell are you doing?”

I ignored her and my full name, swooping her up into my arms and heading to the back porch where the pizza was waiting.

My breath was coming out in pants by the time we made it to the back porch.

“ I can’t believe you just did that.” She shook her head, eyes wide. “ Are you freakin’ crazy?”

“ I’m crazy in love with you, and I guess that makes me do dangerous things,” I grumbled.

She narrowed her eyes, then widened them as she lunged toward me. “ Oh , God .”

I watched her swipe something off my shoulder, and then she was in my arms crying her eyes out.

I pulled her close into my chest and buried my face into her neck.

“ You’re so stupid.” She sniffled after her crying went from full on sobs to quiet tears.

I didn’t bother denying it.

That might’ve been a little bit stupid.

Not to mention my stomach was now hurting where I’d gotten stitches earlier.

Hopefully I hadn’t popped any stitches.

That would be awful.

She shifted in my lap, her hands on either side of my face, and said, “ Don’t ever do that again.”

I nodded. “ I’ll try.”

She narrowed her eyes. “ You will obey me in this.”

I snorted. “ If you promise never to shut me out by sitting by the bees again, I’ll promise to never to purposefully put myself in danger like that again.”

She sighed, letting her hands drop from my face.

“ This is stupid,” she grumbled.

My hands moved up the back of her tank, fingers grazing the very bare back that confirmed she wasn’t wearing a bra.

She melted further into my arms, her face now turned to press against my neck.

“ I’m sorry for how I acted.” I sighed. “ I can’t say I handled any of that well. When I turned the corner, on my way to come get you, and saw you there with Madman in front of you… I lost my mind. I wanted to kill that motherfucker. I would have, had I not been so worried about you being hurt.”

Speaking of being hurt…

“ What happened to your hand?”

She looked down at the bright pink cast I’d been dying to find out about and scrunched up her nose. “ Promise me you’ll never tell Maven what happened?”

“ I guess,” I hedged.

She looked back toward me, her beautiful eyes focused solely on me, and said, “ Maven broke it when she was in labor.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it.

“ I thought that was a myth,” I admitted. “ That it was only something people made up because they were trying to fib about how awful childbirth is.”

“ Definitely not a myth,” she held up her casted hand. “ You’ll make sure you won’t tell Maven or Auden that this happened, right?”

I tugged lightly on her ponytail, tilting her lips up to mine. “ Yeah , I’ll lie. But I reserve the right to tell her if they get suspicious. If they let it go easily, and don’t ask many questions, then I’ll stay quiet.”

“ Deal ,” she said, then scrambled off my lap. “ Your side?”

I grimaced.

I might or might not have felt something wet and hot leeching into the waistband of my jeans.

“ I might’ve popped a stitch,” I admitted.

She dropped down onto her knees and yanked up my shirt.

I had to dodge my chin out of the way to avoid her nailing me with her fist.

Her eyes studied my side, “ I don’t think you popped any. But you are bleeding a little bit. Let’s get you inside and…”

I smoothed my hand down her hair, then cupped her face. “ Let’s eat first. Then we can shower.”

“ Do you have a change of clothes?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“ Let’s eat, then go back to your place. That way you can get changed,” she suggested.

“ Deal .”