Twisted Complications by Nikita Parmenter

Chapter Thirty-Two

I’m abruptly awoken with pain wracking through my body, surprisingly, it looks like I slept right through the rest of the day and through the next night as the early morning rays shine through the curtains. I vaguely remember the guys coming in to check on me but not with any clarity, Rafe is in bed beside me now and I’m guessing that he and Trick switched at some point.

I must’ve had some painkillers still in my system from the hospital to let me sleep that long without waking from pain. Not only am I now in pain but I desperately need to pee.

I shift slightly, trying to work out how I’m going to get to the bathroom and take painkillers, preferably at the same time because I’m unsure which one I want more right now.

As soon as I’ve started to move, Rafe wakes up. I barely moved or made a sound and a thought completely unbidden crosses his mind.

He’d make an amazing dad, waking up that easily he’d hear the baby before I did. I’ve looked after a couple of babies, to try and make extra cash and help their run off their feet moms out. I think the painkillers from the hospital might still be messing with my brain.

“Are you okay? What do you need?” He asks sleepily sitting up slowly and blinking adorably at me.

I resign myself to the fact that while I’m in this amount of pain there’s no way I’m going to be able to get up.

“I’m in a lot of pain and I really need to pee.”

“Okay, Dragonfly. Which one do you need first painkillers or the bathroom?”

“Bathroom.” I say decisively.

He nods and smiles softly as he gets up. My eyes trace over his delicious body, he’s not as defined as some of the others, but he’s deliciously toned, and his back is lickable.

His face is serious as I comes to my side of the bed, completely oblivious to the fact that I was checking him out.

“Go slow and let me do most of if not all of the work.” He orders, giving me a look.

He knows I’ll try to do some of it, or at least I normally would but I really am in too much pain right now, give me a couple of days and I’m sure I’ll be pulling my hair out in frustration. I let him help me stand and his eyes cloud with worry when I don’t try to push to do more myself.

He helps me all the way into the bathroom before leaving me to it and leaving the door slightly ajar in case I need him.

Getting down onto the toilet and back up, is painful but I manage it. That simple task has worn me out again though, add in the pain and my head starts to spin, I grip the counter.

“Rafe, little help?” I ask my vision clearing as I start to shuffle towards the door.

It opens and Cash looks in, before rushing over. “You’re really pale, do you want to lean on me, or do you want me to carry you?”

“You give the best compliments.” I tease, a grin tugging at my lips. “I want to lean on you please.”

He smirks and holds his arm out to me; I lean on him heavily as he leads me back to the room. He’s set the pillows up on the bed so that I can lean back against them comfortably, once I’m settled, he hands me a glass of water.

“I’ve got normal painkillers or the ones from the hospital which are stronger. Which ones do you want?”

“Hospital ones.” I reply and he nods like he expected me to want those ones.

“Here you go, il mio Cuore. Rafe is making breakfast and he’s going to bring it up.” He smiles softly dipping his head and kissing me as he hands me the pills.

I take them gratefully and hope that they don’t take too long to start to work.

“What does il mio Cuore mean?” I ask, I’ve been meaning to ask him, ever since he first called me it, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.

He studies my features, judging whether to tell me or not. “It means my heart.”

I melt into a puddle; he’s called me that since the first week that I got back.

“I love you.” I reply, nerves swarming me as soon as the words are out, and I wish I could take them back but at the same time I mean them and the only reason I want to take them back is because it terrifies me and I’m scared of rejection.

His eyes blaze as his smile breaks across his features both of his dimples popping out. He kisses me still smiling before slowly pulling back.

“I love you too, il mio Cuore, so fucking much.”

My heart feels like it’s going to burst, he loves me.

He peppers my face with kisses and makes me giggle before I gasp in pain.

“Sorry,” he mutters. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good, I’m happy.” I smile.

“Breakfast.” Rafe announces as he enters the room. The other guys all following him with their own plates and making themselves comfortable around the room. “They wanted to eat up here with you.”

“Aww guys.” I grin. “Thank you, Rafe.” I say as he hands me a lap tray with an array of breakfast foods on it.

“You’re welcome.”

“Wait, aren’t you guys supposed to be at school?”

They all look at each other slightly sheepishly.

“We all feel a bit raw after yesterday and none of us wanted to leave you yet.” Rage replies, his eyes locked with mine showing me more of his feelings than I think he meant to.

“Peter is bringing everyone’s work over later and he’s messaging me every ten minutes to make sure you’re okay.” Trick grins rolling his eyes.

I love Peter, he’s fucking awesome.

We stick some comedy sitcom on and enjoy our breakfast. I love having them all around me. Slowly the pain starts to recede as the painkillers kick in and I find myself fully relaxing back into the pillows. I was worried that they’d make my head feel foggy, but I’m relieved to find that’s not the case. It’s not long until my coffee and the glass of water I drank with my pills makes me need to pee again, as soon as I start to move the guys attention is on me.

“Want a hand, Angel?” Jensen asks.

I nod gratefully and hold my hand up to him, he slowly pulls me up and kisses me before holding his arm out to me, gallantly with a bow. I thread my arm through his, grinning at his antics. He slowly walks me to the door. Thanks to the pain killers I feel like I could probably do it myself but it’s fun and I know he’d insist on helping me anyway.

When I get to the door, he starts to walk in the bathroom with me.

“While I appreciate the help, I can pee by myself.” I smile up at him, amused.

“Are you sure, I don’t want you pushing yourself too hard and falling or something? I can turn my back.” He replies worriedly.

“I promise I will be okay. You guys can all hear me if I call.” I reassure him.

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

I pull him down, so I kiss his cheek and make my way into the bathroom shutting the door behind me. I take care of business grateful that I can do it myself and silently chuckling that Jensen wanted to come in with me.

Too cute.

Once I’m settled back down, something occurs to me. “I slept through yesterday?”

“Yeah Firecracker, why?” Luc responds.

“Do you guys have any idea who’s behind my crash yet?”

“No, we can’t even find the cars, although neither you nor Rage had an idea about what makes they were only colours. Rage said he heard them crash, which means we can assume that one or both of them hit your bike and most likely sustained damage.” Riot starts to explain.

“Oh, my poor baby, is she fixable?” I interrupt.

“It’ll take a bit of work, but I can get it fixed.” Atty smiles.

“I’ll help.” Rage offers.

“Oh, thank fuck. I can help fix her up as well, I did all the original work on her.”

“Seriously?” Riot asks.

“Oh yeah, it wouldn’t run properly when I first got her so I had to figure out what was wrong, I definitely couldn’t have taken her to a shop.”

“That’s impressive.” Luc grins.

“Thank you.” I reply grinning proudly. “Sorry I interrupted, what were you saying Riot?”

“Yeah, because they hit your bike, we figured that there would be damage on the cars, Atlas had some of his guys scouring the campus and there’s no sign of any cars that are damaged.” Riot finishes explaining.

“I’m going to go down to the gate when I get the chance and see if the guards can tell me anything.” Rage adds in.

“Is there a chance it could be something to do with Phoenix?” I ask.

“Possibly, I mean if they did go after Clint then it’s reasonable to assume that they watched the security tapes or something from there and know who we are.” Trick answers me thoughtfully.

“I feel like I say this a lot, but we just need to make sure that we view everyone as suspicious until proven otherwise, we can’t take any chances, especially since we don’t know what the hell is going on with Liam.” Rage sums the fucked-up situation pretty perfectly.

“Just another day at the office.” I grin.

“You’re weird.” He replies affectionately and I stick my tongue out at him in retribution.

“Alaric messaged me late last night. He wanted me to let you know that Rylie has been discharged from the hospital and that she’s made it home safely. They’ve put extra precautions around her and the guys parents. He knows that Liam’s said he has no intention of harming you but clearly he’s happy to use people you love against you, in order to get you to do whatever the fuck it is he wants you to do.” Atlas sighs his eyes troubled. “He said that you guys should be able to call all of your parents on parents’ day, when we get back.”

“Is Alaric coming?” I ask, “I know he’s your uncle, but you guys seem close.”

“No, he’s not, he can’t really. We’ve kept our connection secret while I’ve been here. There’s people here that would try and exploit the connection and that’s a complication that we don’t need to take care of right now, or ever.”

“Is Liam coming?” Jensen asks, his eyes darting towards me.

“No.” Atty replies shortly.

“Well, okay then.” I grin. “I can’t wait to talk to Kat and Jenny. I wonder how Kat’s getting on with Rich and Marc?” I grin.

“What?” Atlas asks confused his eyes wide.

Boy loves gossip, they all do. It makes me giggle.

“Turns out Rich and Marc were in a similar relationship with Kat when they were younger that we’re in now. Obviously, stuff got in the way and they split but Ever played match maker and got them all together again.” Cash explains.

“That makes sense actually, I remember whenever there was a big family thing they would share looks and Rich would find little excuses to touch her. Thought I’d guessed wrong because Marc saw a couple of times and didn’t bat an eyelid.” Atlas says surprising us all.

“Dude!” Jensen exclaims, “You could’ve fucking told us.”

“What would be the point I might have been wrong.” He shrugs and I grin.

“You know Jenny’s going to chew your ear off.” Riot points out to Trick.

“Oh, hell yeah, I’m expecting it.” He chuckles.

“Is anyone coming for you, Rage?” I ask.

I meant what I said before, I’ll fucking take the bitches out.

“No, Mom had a last-minute trip and took my aunts with her.” He says his eyes filled with relief.

“You’re welcome, dude.” Jensen grins.

“What?”

“We take care of our own, if that means making sure someone is never in the same proximity as one of us again, then we use whatever means necessary.” Trick explains for Jensen.

“Fucking hell. Thank you.” Rage says, emotion catching in his throat.

“We’re family.” Rafe shrugs as if it’s not a big deal what they’ve done.

Just by looking at Rage though you can tell it has had a huge effect on him.

“We don’t know everything, but when you’re ready to tell us we can work on a way to get her and your aunts out of your life permanently. We can even try to get them prosecuted for the way that they treated you if you would like.” Cash tells him.

“You don’t have to answer but what about your dad?” Luc asks.

“He was never around, always travelling I think he used to come back when I was really little, but I can’t remember the last time I actually saw him. Birthday and Christmas cards is the most contact I’ve had for years. I think they split but not officially if that makes sense.”

“So, he doesn’t know how she treated you?”

“No, but I’m not sure he’d care, he’s never been around.” Rage shrugs, he clearly made peace with it a long time ago.

“Still it’s something we can look at when you’re ready.” Trick says, and Rage nods.

“Peter’s just text, he’s here. Are you okay with him coming up here?” Cash asks.

“Yeah that’s fine.”

Cash gets up and makes his way downstairs to let Peter in and my brow furrows as I hear their conversation as they come up the stairs.

“Don’t you think you may have gone a little bit over the top?” I hear Cash ask.

“Of course, fucking not, this is all absolutely necessary to the healing process.” Peter replies indignantly.

My confusion evaporates immediately when Peter walks in the room with bear the same size as he is, a grocery bag and a massive bunch of flowers.

“Don’t worry, giant pizza is on the way.” He adds, completely missing my dropped jaw and absolute shock. “Oh my god sugar, look at you! Are you okay? Of course, you’re not stupid question.”

“Honey, breathe.” I chuckle.

“Shit, thanks.” He replies taking a gasping breath. “Have you caught the fuckers yet, did you bury them? Please tell me you didn’t have all the fun without me!”

“We don’t know who did it and fun?” Atty says rising a surprised eyebrow.

“Yeah I want in on the ass kicking.” He drops the stuff to the floor and puts his hand on his hip. “Oh, hell no don’t be looking at me like that, just because I’m a computer geek and dressed immaculately.” He wriggles his eyebrows, “Does not mean I can’t kick ass. Come at me.”

It takes a moment to realise he’s serious and Jensen shrugs. Always up for the challenge and we’ve been curious about his fight skills anyway so it’s a win win. Jensen holds back massively but as he starts throwing punches and Peter constantly dodges and blocks, even trying a couple of hits, he doesn’t land any but he is fighting against Jensen.

“Well, that was fun.” Jensen grins stopping and not even out of breath.

“Dude, seriously please teach me. We’ve been learning the same shit here forever, which is surprising since they put such an emphasis on it.”

“Sure.” Jensen shrugs.

“Awesome. Have you checked the security cameras?”

“The what?” Atlas asks, suddenly serious.

“There’s security camera’s lining all of the streets. They’re hidden and the academy don’t like you to know they’re there, but I assure you they are.” He says, plopping down by the bed.

“Can you access them?” Cash asks, sitting forward.

“Yeah, of course, anyone got a laptop?”

“Mines on the desk.” I reply pointing across the room.

He hops up and grabs the laptop before sitting back down next to me.

“Password?” He asks.

“Why do I get the feeling you could get into it without it?” I ask.

His fingers fly across the keys and within seconds he’s in, a proud grin tugging up his lips.

“So, freaking impressive.” I reply.

“Why thank you, Sugar.” He grins, his eyes on the screen as his fingers move over the keys. “Okay so it was the night before last yeah?”

“Yeah, just down the road from ours, she was nearly home.” Trick says, swallowing thickly.

It’s really affected them, just like it would affect me if it was the other way around. I hold my hand out to him and he moves sitting on the edge of the bed by my legs and threading our fingers together.

“Right, here you go. I’ve put it a few frames back so when Ever starts to come into the road and then you’ve got the angle looking up the road in the other direction. So, facing the car that Rage saw.”

“That’s amazing.” Cash says, impressed.

Peter brings the laptop closer to me and all the guys gather around to watch the videos. He plays it through at real speed and watching it now I can barely believe that all I got were the few injuries that I currently have. I must admit though I look pretty badass coming around that corner with my knee nearly touching the floor.

“Can we just appreciate how cool I looked coming around that corner.” I grin my eyes still on the screen when silence greets me, I look up.

All of the guys are staring at me, faces pale and eyes darkened with fear. Atty clenches his jaw.

“I’m going to fucking gut them.” He growls, his voice dark with the promise of unrestrained violence.