Chapter Nineteen
Jinx
“You look happy,” I say to Pyro as he enters my room and kicks off his boots.
“Why aren’t you downstairs, it’s the middle of the day?”
“My ankle, it’s bothering me more than usual.”
Pyro frowns, walks over to me, lifts the blanket and hisses. “Jinx, your leg!”
“What?” I lean down to see what he’s talking about and see my leg is discolored and a little swollen.
He runs to my door and roars for Ripley, slips back into his boots, and runs over to my bed, scooping me up. “Hospital, babe.”
“What’s going on,” Ripley questions as he moves me out of the room, and down the stairs. “Her leg, it’s not gettin’ any blood flow, I don’t think.” He hisses.
“Pyro, stop, let me see it,” Ripley orders.
When Ripley gets a look at my leg, she looks to me then to Pyro. “Hospital, like right now.”
“I fuckin’ know.”
Pyro’s running through the parking lot to the SUV with a small limp, while my heart is pounding in my chest because I can’t believe I didn’t realize my leg was swelling up, and I hope I don’t lose it.
“What’s wrong,” Braxxon yells, jogging over to us as Pyro puts me into the vehicle.
“Hospital, no blood flow.” His response is clipped as he lays me in the backseat.
“I’ll drive,” Braxxon orders, “climb into the back with her, Ripley hop into the front.”
Pyro wastes no time hoping up and moving my legs to lay over his lap.
“You’re gonna be okay, Shortcake,” he murmurs as Braxxon throws the SUV into reverse and we hightail it out of the compound.
“I’m so stupid, I didn’t even realize,” I cry out. “I’m going to lose my leg!”
“J, don’t think like that,” Braxxon says from the front seat as he speeds through town. “You’re fuckin’ strong, lady.”
I look at Pyro, his jaw working as he rubs my good leg. “Pyro?”
His green eyes turn on me. “It’ll be okay, baby.”
“How long was her leg like that,” Ripley asks Pyro from the front seat.
“I don’t fuckin’ know!”
Ripley doesn’t flinch with Pyro’s tone, she takes it in stride, reaches for my hand, and squeezes. “You got this.”
I’m about to ask her what she means when Brax throws the vehicle in park in front of the emergency room doors.
Pyro flings open the door, carefully puts my legs down and slides out, only to turn around and scoot me out of the backseat and into his arms.
“I’ll get people here for watch, brother,” Braxxon informs Pyro, who says nothing as he runs with a limp into the ER.
The doors slide open, the cold air chilling me.
“I need help,” he roars. “She shattered her ankle, and it isn’t gettin’ any blood flow.”
Nurses come running out from behind the check-in desk, take one look at my leg and run to get a gurney.
“She’s burnin’ up too,” Pyro says to them as they wheel it over to me and he puts me down.
I am?
A doctor walks up, calm, looks at my leg, pushes on it a few times; all in the waiting room of the hospital before he pushes me through double doors and down a corridor. In the meantime, Pyro never releases my right hand, his thumb running circles over my skin.
“I’ve paged the surgeon, he should be down in a few moments,” says one of the nurses and the ER doctor nods. “Who was responsible for this woman’s care?”
Pyro growls. “She was bein’ taken care of.”
“Not well enough, I’m afraid.”
“Hey, this isn’t his fault, don’t look at him like that,” I hiss at the doctor after I’ve given the nurse all my information.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“Her file says she was released for at home care because they have a nurse on the premises.”
Unbelievable, I’m right here, and I don’t feel all that great.
“I’m her at home nurse,” Ripley informs them when she comes into the room, right before I lose consciousness.
∞∞∞
If she loses her leg, I’ll never forgive myself.
Instead of taking care of her, I was off contemplating fucking my ex, I’m a piece of shit.
They say Jinx passed out from the fever and the stress her leg was putting on her body, they wheeled her away fast after that.
It’s been five fucking hours, and I haven’t heard a single word from the doctor on how her surgery is going or if they had to amputate her leg.
The wait is fucking excoriating.
“The doctor was able to save her leg,” Braxxon says as he hands me a cup of coffee. “They’re moving her to recovery.”
“How the fuck do you know?”
Braxxon frowns. “We have pull everywhere Pyro, you just never use it.”
I’m fucking beyond relieved she isn’t losing her leg, it’s all she was worried about; me, I was terrified for her fucking life, not her leg. I can still love her without a limb.
“I wonder why it swelled up all of a sudden?” I ask under my breath.
Braxxon shakes his head. “They say she wasn’t elevating it high enough.”
“We were elevating the shit out of her ankle and leg.”
“It doesn’t matter, the blood wasn’t circulating, she won’t be able to leave the hospital for a while.”
“How long is a while,” I ask.
“Four to six weeks is what I got. Jinx has a lot of risks now, blood clotting or infection. They have to watch for both, she’ll do her therapy here before she’s released.”
He got all of that why I sat here, worrying my ass off?
“She’s gonna be so pissed,” I groan as I set my coffee down on the floor.
“Pyro, brother, your legs are shakin’.”
I try to press my feet to the floor to stop the twitching, but I’m antsy as fuck. “What are we gonna do, Brax? We have too much shit goin’ on, and you know I’m barely gonna leave the hospital.”
“We’re gonna call my wife.”
“How the hell can Winter help us right now?”
He pulls his phone out and dials her. “Money.”
“Hey, Angel, how are ya? Good, good, and our baby? Yeah, that’s fuckin’ fantastic, Angel, I’ll watch the video when I get home, look, baby, somethin’s came up. Jinx went in for emergency surgery, no, no they’ve taken her to recovery, blood flow issues, she’s gonna be fine, Angel. We need your bank though, baby, she’s gonna be here for over a month.” Braxxon smiles. “That’ll do, Angel.” Braxxon smirks. “I know you’re still angry, you’ll get over it,” he chuckles into the phone. “Jamaica Memorial, alright, baby, thank you, I love you, too, darlin.”
I lean back in my chair when he hangs up the phone.
“Lana’s crawling,” he says with a grin. “And she’s gonna get Jinx a private room, one where you’ll be able to stay with her during the night.”
I rub my face with my hand. “Where’s Ripley?”
“I had ZZ come to get her, she went to pack some stuff for Jinx.”
“She’ll want her books,” I mumble as I shoot a text to Ripley. “She loves her paperbacks.”
“I’m assumin’ you didn’t do what she wanted you to do?”
I shove my phone back into my pocket and stretch out my bad leg. “No, I couldn’t. I’m glad I didn’t, the longer Jinx went without noticin’ her leg… it could’ve been worse, brother.”
“She has no clue you love her.”
“None.”
If I would have told her before she passed out, she wouldn’t have believed me. Jinx would have thought my emotions were all over the place from worry and I was saying it to make her feel better. Jinx doesn’t like being pacified under false pretenses, I’ve learned that about her. She’s a straight shooter, no bullshit.
I won’t tell her I’m in love with her until the timing’s right.