Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

  “Is he going to be alright?” I probed Alaric after he and Kara had finished cleaning and bandaging up Jonas as best they could. Alaric washed the blood off his hands in the kitchen sink before turning to me to answer my question.

  “I don’t know Britney, he’s in pretty rough shape,” he admitted, face drawn and concerned. “We think he was right about the couple cracked ribs, but nothing appears to be broken, thankfully. However, we can’t be sure that there’s no internal bleeding. We’ll have to keep a close eye on him.”

  “I called Ana and told her what happened, at least, as far as we knew at the time. She said she was going to talk to Mac, but that she was going to get here as soon as possible,” I let him know.

  He nodded approval of the idea. “Good. It would help if she could look at him. She may not have all the equipment she’d need for a thorough examination, but it’d be good if she could at least take a look at him. Kara and I can treat wounds, but we’re not doctors.”

  I looked out into the living room to where Jonas was sleeping semi-peacefully, despite the extreme pain he had to be feeling. Alaric and Kara had given him some strong painkillers, but we knew he’d still suffer under a substantial amount of pain regardless.

  “We should move him to one of the rooms,” I realized, knowing he belonged in a bed, not just on a sofa. “I can clear out of my room so he can use it,” I suggested, already moving to the stairs to do so. Alaric shook his head though before I’d even gone up one step.

  “Jonas would never allow us to kick you out of your room to put him in it, even if it was your idea. We can move him into my room and I’ll sleep on the sofa,” he decided, “I’m going to work on taking his stuff upstairs. Could you please change the sheets on the bed for him? He needs clean, fresh sheets.” I agreed, and hurried off to strip and remake the bed for Jonas to use. By the time I was finished Alaric was as well. I turned down the covers, and Alaric brought Jonas upstairs and put him in the bed.

  “I could’ve walked up on my own,” muttered Jonas as his brother placed him in the bed and Jonas collapsed on it.

  “You’re welcome, Jonas,” Alaric responded dryly, straightening up. “I can tell how very appreciative you are of everything we’ve done for you so far.”

  “I don’t need to be babied,” Jonas complained tiredly.  

 “I have a fantastic idea, Jonas, why don’t you shut up and just let us help you?” Alaric suggested. “Now, I’m going to see if I can find anything you can eat since your mouth seems to be working well enough. If you try to move or cause any trouble Britt’ll tell me, and I’ll tie you to that bed,” he warned as he left the room.

  Despite the fact that he looked like he was barely hanging onto consciousness, Jonas managed to glare after his brother as he grumbled quietly, “I couldn’t get up or do anything if I wanted to.”

  I went around the bed to sit on the edge next to him and cringed involuntarily as I studied him. Kara and Alaric had done an amazing job getting Jonas cleaned up, but he still looked horrible, and I was sure there were very few parts of his body that didn’t hurt.

  “Ana’s coming as soon as she can,” I promised him as I gently pushed some of his unruly hair off his face, noting that Kara and Alaric must have washed him up a bit since he was considerably cleaner now and smelled like his cologne.

  “She doesn’t need to come, Britt. I’m going to be fine in a couple days. I don’t need a doctor,” he insisted, his voice weak despite his bravado.

  “Have you looked in the mirror recently?” I quizzed him sarcastically yet quietly. “If we even let you get out of bed in two days you’ll be lucky.”

  Just then, a small black ball of fur leaped gracefully onto the bed, purring loudly. Cinder rubbed against Jonas for a minute before settling in next to one of his arms. Jonas looked down at her in surprise.

  “I didn’t know you’d even managed to keep her alive,” he joked. “I’ rarely even see her when I’ve come around.”

  I reached out and stroked the kitten that was now curled up, sleeping contentedly. “She hides a lot, but she’s around. She’s been keeping me company this past month.”

  “Well, I guess I’m glad of that,” replied Jonas. We were silent for a while after that, just staring at Cinder as she slowly breathed in and out. Finally, I broke the silence.

  “Jonas, what are we going to do?” I wondered.

  “I don’t know,” he confessed drowsily. “I need to talk to Alaric...later...not now. I think those pain killers they gave me are knocking me out. I’ll have to wait until I’m thinking clearly enough to talk about it with him.” With a great effort, he captured and squeezed my hand tightly. “But don’t worry, we’ll figure this all out, soon. You’ll be fine…everyone…will be…fine.”

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  “Well, you were right, you definitely have a couple cracked ribs,” Ana confirmed after probing Jonas’ chest carefully while he winced from the pain. “Everything else looks pretty good though.” Jonas gave her a skeptical look. “Well, I mean, I don’t think you sustained any internal injuries besides the cracked ribs. Mostly, you just have a ton of bruises, swelling, and blood. I could be wrong, but I think they purposely attacked you where you wouldn’t be too badly injured but it’d cause you quite a bit of pain. It seems highly unlikely that they beat you that badly yet didn’t cause and extremely serious injuries simply by accident.”

  “Right, I’ll remember to say thank-you for not beating me into an even bloodier pulp,” Jonas remarked with a sarcastic laugh that was cut short by some pain in his rib area.

  “Hey, I’m not saying that you should send a thank-you card, just be gratefully that it wasn’t any worse,” Ana shot back as she repacked all her equipment.

  “They probably wanted to make sure he’d live so that he could tell them where Britney is,” Alaric voiced from where he stood just inside the doorway, with Kara right next to him.

  “At least this tells us one thing,” Jonas noted grimly, “DeRuise’s protection still stands.” Ana and I both nodded agreement.

  “Protection?” queried Alaric, face quizzical.

  “Our father requested protection for me from DeRuise. DeRuise pledged to protect me, and he is apparently still honoring that,” Jonas enlightened him.

  “Well, I say we go in and handle them now, before they try anything else,” announced Kara. I turned from observing Jonas and Ana, and studied Kara and Alaric. Alaric’s expression told me he was in agreement with Kara, even if he didn’t say it aloud.

  “Kara, Alaric, please, this is my father we’re talking about,” I reminded them. “There has to be another way.”

  “Look at him Britt,” Alaric commanded, motioning towards Jonas. “Do you want this to happen again? Do you want this or what happened to Brian to happen to someone else next? We have to stop him, you have to see that.”

  I bit my lip and returned my attention to Jonas’ battered body. Of course I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt, but still...

  “We’re safe for now,” Jonas spoke up in a strained voice, his face pale and drawn from the pain Ana had caused by her examination of him to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong with him. “Let’s not worry about it right now. They can’t find us here.” Alaric gave a grim nod, and left, with Kara right behind him.

  “I hope they don’t try to do anything,” commented Ana after they were gone.

  “I hope so too,” I established.

  “So, Mac didn’t come with you?” Jonas inquired, changing the subject.

  Ana shook her head. “No, he couldn’t get off. He’s becoming quite the important and indispensable guy in Seattle,” she told us with a proud smile.

  “When are you headed back?” asked Jonas, closing his eyes, a sure sign that he was fighting off exhaustion yet again.

  “As soon as I’m satisfied that you’re going to be alright,” replied Ana firmly. “The hospital gave me leave for a family emergency.”

  “I’m going to be alright,” Jonas informed her determinedly.

  “I said when I’m satisfied,” Ana pointed out to her brother. “So, what’s the plan from here? I assume you’re going to stay here from now on, for safety’s sake, right?”

  I looked at Jonas; we hadn’t really discussed what he’d do once he was better. However, I assumed the same thing that Ana did, so I was more than a little surprised when Jonas shook his head.

  “Maybe safer for me, but not for Britt,” he explained. “They’ll be looking for me. I have to get away from here as soon as possible.”

  “But they’d never think to look for either of us here,” I argued. “You can’t go back to your apartment, not now that they seem to have no problem beating you to within an inch of your life. You have to stay here.”

  “Britt’s right Jonas, you should stay. They may not be so kind to you next time,” commented Ana. “DeRuise could revoke his protection at any time, and they wouldn’t think twice about killing you if they weren’t getting what they wanted from you anyway.”

  “I’ll consider it,” Jonas finally conceded, tired, his eyes still closed. Ana and I glanced at each other briefly, then got up and left the room together, closing the door to his room behind us.

  “So, how are you doing Britney?” Ana asked me as we walked to my room, which Ana and I had decided to share while she was visiting.

  I shrugged, unsure of what to say. When it was obvious that Ana expected more than just a simple shrug of the shoulders, I sighed.

  “I think I have it the easiest of everyone,” I finally admitted to her. “I mean, they won’t hurt me, so I have no real reason to fear getting hurt.”

  “Sometimes it’s harder to watch your friends get hurt,” Ana pointed out, “and your family,” she added softly. “I’ve always been pretty safe for the most part, but it didn’t make it any easier knowing what my father, Jonas, and Mac were doing, what could happen to them.”

  I nodded, relieved that she understood how I’d been feeling at least to some degree. Of course, the difference was, it wasn’t Ana’s fault her family had been in danger. “It just doesn’t seem fair though. I’m the one they want, but it’s my friends who are paying the price for my running off. Brian paid the ultimate price already, and now Jonas could have been killed too.” My soft, copper-blue eyes filled involuntarily at the memory of the morning Brian had died and the thought that Jonas could have joined him.

  Ana suddenly wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “It’s going to be ok Britt, I promise you. And, I think Jonas will be ok too. I have a feeling that though DeRuise may have allowed them to hurt him, he hasn’t completely abandoned Jonas, I think he’s still protecting him despite everything. Otherwise, I don’t think they would have taken such care to not cause any lasting damage to him.” I slowly pulled out of Ana’s embrace, not wholly convinced by her reasoning.

  “Maybe for now, but what if this continues?” I asked.

  Ana sighed. “I won’t pretend that we don’t need to figure this all out,” she admitted. “We have to decide what we’re going to do. We can’t keep waiting for trouble to come to us. I just don’t know what we’re going to do quite yet.”

  I nodded and watched as Ana left me in the doorway of my room as she went in search of Alaric and Kara downstairs. The truth was I had an idea of how I could end all of this before any of my other friends got hurt. The only real obstacle was that there was no way anyone would let me do it. If they even suspected what I was considering doing, they’d lock me up and never let me out of their sight, ever.

  I shook my head, pushing aside my stupid plan. It would never work, even if no one expected me trying it beforehand. Besides, Jonas would just hunt me down and get me back again anyway, putting himself in even more danger. For now, I had to stay here, not try to fix things on my own. I couldn’t risk Jonas trying to come after me if I turned myself in to my dad, not in his current condition. He wouldn’t last ten seconds in a fight against anyone in the shape he was in.

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  “Well, what a way to spend your birthday,” Ana commented as she walked into Jonas’ room the next morning while I sat on the edge of the bed talking quietly with him as I stroked Cinder, Jonas’ now constant companion.

  “Your birthday?” I asked Jonas with wide eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?” I demanded.

  “Lost track of the days, I didn’t know it was already November 5^th,” he replied with a small shrug. “Do you realize that that means I was jumped four days ago, and I’m still a wreck?” he questioned with obvious disgust.

  “You’re doing great,” Ana informed him as she began changing his bandages. “You should be thankful you’re healing so quickly Jonas Matthews, not moaning about not being better already,” she scolded him.

  “So you’re twenty-two now, right?” I asked him.

  “Yeah,” he confirmed. “No big deal.”

  “Does Alaric know?” I asked neither of them in particular. “We should celebrate while we’re all here, before Ana goes back home in a couple days.”

  “Well I didn’t tell him, and somehow, I doubt Jonas tells our brother much of anything,” replied Ana with a sideways glance towards Jonas. As of yet, Jonas still was holding out on fully accepting Alaric, which frustrated everyone to no end.

  “What exactly do you suggest we do to celebrate?” Jonas inquired sarcastically, ignoring the mention of Alaric all together. “None of you will even let me leave this room, much less this bed,” he pointed out. “That’s hardly something that makes me want to celebrate.”

  “Alaric can help you get down to the living room,” I suggested. “I’m sure we can come up with something special to do, and I’m sure we can whip up a cake.”

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass,” Jonas snorted, “I’m not interested in going down and having everyone all sitting around doing nothing because I can’t do anything.”

  I frowned at his words, but the frown was soon replaced by my most alluring smile. “You mean you don’t want to go down to our sofa?” I asked him, knowing from some not so subtle comments Jonas had made over the past couple days that he was frustrated by my unwillingness to touch him in fear that I might hurt him even more than he already was. I felt a sense of triumph at the roguish smile that spread across his face. However, I was shocked when, with lightning like speed that I was hardly expecting from our supposed “invalid”, Jonas had pulled me down on top of his chest and wrapped his arms around the back of my waist when I tried to pull away. I saw him grimace from the exertion and the pressure of my body against his injured ribs, but he held me firmly.

  “No, I don’t need to go down there to have you close to me,” he pronounced, the roguish smirk only growing with pleasure at his successfulness.

  “Jonas Matthews!” exclaimed Ana scolding her younger brother. “Behave yourself!” Grudgingly, Jonas slowly released his hold on me and I was able to sit back up again on the edge of the bed.

  “I can’t believe you!” I grumbled, my cheeks flushed brighter than ever before. Not only had I been pressed closer to him than I had ever been before, accept maybe for when we had first met and he was practically carrying me to his apartment, he’d chosen to do it right in front of his older sister in a bed!

  Jonas sighed. “Alright, if you really want to celebrate then fine, be my guest,” he smirked at his own joke. “I promise to not voice even one more complaint. But I couldn’t help myself,” he laughed, “My little kitten was trying to entice me to get her way. It was captivatingly adorable, and even more persuasive than I think she thought it would be.”

  I glared at him as long as I could, but finally, the smile I was fighting back broke through.

  “You’re impossible!” I finally exclaimed in exasperation.

  “Well, if we’re going to be having a party, we might want to start preparing,” Ana reminded me. I glanced over at her and nodded.

  “Right,” I agreed. I stood up and turned to leave, but Jonas’ hand grabbed mine to stop me. “You’re leaving me alone?” he asked, not apparently having realized that by agreeing to the party he was also consenting to being left alone in order to prepare for it.

  “We’ll be back up later,” Ana promised. “Maybe by then you’ll have remembered your manners,” Ana added pointedly, not having been very amused by Jonas’ antics.

  “Besides, you have Cinder,” I reminded him, looking at the kitten positioned at the end of the bed still, despite all that had happened around her. Jonas looked at the cat briefly and than back at me, rolling his eyes.

  “She doesn’t count, besides, I’d rather have my kitten,” he teased. I pulled my hand out of his and Ana gave him one more disapproving look before we left him. When we got to the stairs, Ana stopped for a moment.

  “I’m sorry Britney, I don’t know why he’s acting like this,” she apologized sincerely. “Maybe I need to check his medication doses,” she added with a slight laugh.

  “He was like this once before,” I admitted to her, remembering when he had acted similarly right before I started college. “I don’t know why he gets like that.”

  “Well, I could make a pretty good guess,” said a voice from at the landing of the stairs. Both Ana and I looked down and were startled to see both Steve and Paige there. Without a second thought, I ran down the stairs and hugged Steve tightly.

  “What’re you doing here?” I asked, still shocked by his sudden and unexpected appearance.

  “Well, Paige called Ana and found out what happened, Paige told me, and we decided to come by and see the invalid who is apparently harassing his nurse,” explained Steve as he returned the hug. “How’s the rascal doing?” he questioned Ana over his head.

  “Well, he has to be doing pretty well to be pulling the stunts he is,” Ana told him, folding her arms across her chest.

  “Awe, don’t be too hard on him, he’s had it rough. What could he possibly do in his condition anyway? I thought he was beaten to a bloody pulp,” he joked. Ana briefly explained what had happened while I blushed at the retelling of it, wishing the floor would swallow me up.

  “Britt actually tried to seduce Jonas?” he asked in disbelief. I pulled away and punched his arm as hard as I could.

  “I did not,” I replied.

  “You’re right, you did seduce him, poor Jonas,” Steve corrected himself.

  “I did not seduce him! All I wanted was to get him to agree to let us celebrate his birthday,” I said, defending myself.

  “His birthday?” asked Paige.

  “Yes, he’s twenty-two today,” I informed them.

  “Well, wish we could stay for the party,” Steve commented, “but we were just dropping in quick to see him while we were in town for work anyway. We can’t stick around, as much as we’d like to.”

  “Well go on up and see him,” Ana instructed. “He’ll be happy to see you. He doesn’t like having to sit up there all the time, especially alone.”

  “I can imagine not,” Steve remarked, “Although, I’m sure he’d prefer Britt to us,” he added with a quick wink at me before he and Paige hurried up the stairs.

  Ana and I worked on whipping up a quick cake and planning something special for dinner for the next half hour. By the time we were done and the cake was baking, Steve and Paige had already left, much to my disappointment, though they promised to come by again as soon as they got a chance to.

  “Now all we’re missing are gifts,” I observed as we walked out into the living room where Kara and Alaric had been conferring quietly with each other.

  “Gifts for what?” Alaric inquired, startled from his conversation with Kara.

  “It’s Jonas’ birthday today,” I explained, surprised that he hadn’t heard while we had been telling Paige and Steve about it. I studied the two of them carefully, wondering what they’d been in such deep discussion about that they’d been completely unaware of what had been said around them.

  “Really?” Kara asked.

  “Yes, I assumed you’d heard when we were talking to Steve and Paige about it,” Ana mentioned, looking just as suspicious about what they were discussing as I was.

  “Well, we can solve the gifts dilemma,” Alaric assured us. “Why don’t Britt and I go shopping?” he suggested.

  Ana’s eyes widened. “What? I don’t think that would be a very good idea Alaric.”

  “Why not?” he asked, Ana’s unsure look caused Alaric to add, “Look, she’ll be fine Ana, I promise. Kara can stay here with you and Jonas while we’re gone, just in case anyone shows up looking for her or Jonas,” he added. “It’ll be just fine. Chances are they won’t be paying too much attention to what’s going on right now because they likely assume Jonas is too weak to go anywhere right now.”

  “Or they could be searching all over LA for him and Britt because they realized he’d turned up missing,” Ana argued, remaining unconvinced.

  “If they even realize he’s gone they probably just assume a neighbor called 911 and he’s at a hospital,” suggested Kara. “I’m sure they’re lying low until they think Jonas is capable of going to meet Britt.”

  “I think they’re right, Ana,” I consented, not truly that convinced, but knowing that if I wanted to help get Jonas a present I’d have to persuade Ana into thinking it would be safe enough.

   Ana looked undecided, but finally gave in to us. “Alright then, fine. But be careful. We can’t risk her being seen. Remember, Jonas is out of commission until further notice, so you’re a two-man team now,” she reminded Alaric and Kara.

  “We’ll be careful,” Alaric vowed, kissing his sister on the cheek hurriedly before ushering me out the door. “Be back soon.”

 

 

Reviews

[Zachary_James]

she seduced him WHAT.