The Game Plan (Neighbor from Hell #5)(83)

“No, he-”

“Put me down, you overgrown bastard!”

As one, they all looked towards the double doors for the surgery wing in time to see Lucifer carrying Jodi in. At first he’d thought that she was pissed about being brought here against her will, but then he noted the orderly pushing a stretcher behind her, followed by two nurses and a doctor, who all looked resigned as they followed Lucifer and the woman who wouldn’t stop squirming wildly in his arms.

“Put me down!” she screamed.

“What’s going on, son?” their father asked, standing up slowly as Aidan noted the large ice pack Jodi had pressed against her hand.

“I-I broke her hand,” Lucifer admitted, shifting nervously.

“What?” Aidan asked, shooting his father a look even as they both moved their asses and rushed over to her side.

“Put me down!” Jodi demanded, struggling to get out of Lucifer’s arms.

As soon as they reached her side, his father was reaching for her. In seconds he had her in his arms and was carrying her over to the gurney. “Why wasn’t this break set?” he demanded, looking up just long enough to send the doctor shifting nervously by the gurney a glare before he returned his attention to Jodi’s damaged hand.

“She wouldn’t let us,” the doctor snapped defensively even as he took a healthy step back.

“She’s going to need surgery,” Aidan mumbled absently as he gently picked up her hand and examined it.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Lucifer said, sounding miserable.

“How the hell did you break her hand?” he asked, drawing Jodi’s murderous glare.

“Like this,” she snapped, pulling her injured hand back and showing him exactly how she’d managed to bust her hand.

Chapter 41

“Tinkerbelle,” he managed to get out before his throat burned in protest.

“Don’t try to talk,” Aidan said as a straw was pressed against his lips. “Take a small sip.”

Blinking his eyes open and trying to force them to stay open, he took a small sip as he waited for his vision to clear and when it did, he couldn’t help but ask, “What the hell happened to your face?”

“Ummm,” Aidan said, licking his lips nervously as he shot a quick glance over his shoulder. “Nothing much,” he muttered, which earned a snort of amusement from somewhere to his right.

Groggily, he looked to his right to find his sister and brothers standing by his bedside, looking exhausted, relieved and somewhat amused. Frowning, he looked back at his brother, took in his black eye and then shifted his gaze to find Lucifer standing in front of his bed, looking just as exhausted and not quite meeting his gaze behind another black eye that actually looked a hell of a lot worse than Aidan’s.

Deciding that he really didn’t care, he shifted his attention back to Aidan. “Where’s Tinkerbelle?”

Aidan shifted nervously as he shared a look with Lucifer, a look that he didn’t like. “She’s umm,” Aidan said, pausing as he pursed up his lips thoughtfully. “She’s ummm,” he cleared his throat nervously, “taking a nap.”

“A nap?” he asked flatly as he looked back at his brothers and sister to find them all looking anywhere else but at him. “Where is she taking this nap exactly?” he asked, looking back at Aidan, who couldn’t quite bite back his wince.

“She’s right here,” his father said, drawing his attention to the closed curtain behind Aidan.

“Open the curtain,” he demanded, trying to sit up, but he was too exhausted and weak to do much more than glare at his brother as he registered the feel of metal and bandages wrapped around his torso.

Aidan held up his hands. “Before I do that, please let me explain that it’s not as bad as it looks and that she’s going to be fine.”

He let his brother’s word register before he opened his mouth and shouted, “Move the f*cking curtain!”

The pathetic whimper that followed had him reaching for his brother, ready to throw him through the curtain. Aidan smartly realized this and moved his ass. He grabbed the curtain and yanked it back and-

Who the f*ck were all these people? he couldn’t help but wonder as he took in all the men standing around the other side of the room. The only people he recognized were his parents and Greg. Frowning, he looked away from the men glaring accusingly at him and looked at the-

“What the hell happened?” he demanded when he spotted Jodi, out cold with one arm in a cast and the other one attached to the bed with a soft restraint. A quick glance down at the foot of her bed told him that her legs were being restrained as well.

The middle aged man with hair as blonde as Jodi’s answered him, “It seems my daughter took exception to what happened to you.”

“She beat the shit out of your brothers,” Greg clarified with a huge shit-eating grin.

“Why is she restrained?” he asked, wishing that he could touch her, but he could hardly keep his eyes open never mind move.

“Drugs,” all the men in the room said as one, making him smile, because he could only imagine what hell his little Tinkerbelle had put them all through.

“Is she going to be okay?” he asked as his eyes slowly slid shut.

“She’s going to be fine,” he heard someone say just as he his brother asked, “Can you move your legs?”