Her Journey (Her Series Book 2) (24 page)

Silently, I left my room, shutting my door behind me so he’d be left alone for as long as possible. I knew he had to be tired as he was rarely left alone for any period of time. Someone always wanted something from him.

I was still in my clothes from the night before, but I didn’t care. My incredible thirst drove me to the kitchen first. Grabbing a bottle of water, I leaned against the counter and drank it all. Using the water from the fridge, I filled it up and sipped from it as I meandered around the house. I didn’t know where to go or what I was doing. I really wanted to go back to my own place where I could be alone with my thoughts. Then again it was the last place I wanted to be if someone had keys to it or was going to break in again.

I should have trusted that when I felt like I was being watched, someone was really there. I hadn’t, but that also meant that whoever it was had followed me from just outside of Wrench’s place. With that thought, I found a guy in the game room and asked where Ellis was. No one seemed to know so I asked for Monk or Brew since I knew they could be trusted. I was directed to a room in the house I’d never been in before.

Slowly opening the door, I peered in. There was a massive table with a couple of laptops, a pair of landline phone and a TV on the far wall. On the walls were maps of Arizona, it appeared; various sections were outlined in different colors and there were pins on the maps as well. I didn’t know what it all meant, but it looked complicated. Brew, Monk and one of the men that always seemed to be with Wrench when he left the house were sitting at the other end of the table. Monk was the first to notice me. He jumped from his chair and swiftly walked to me. His hand wrapped around my arm and he pulled me from the room, shutting the door behind us.

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” Monk whispered in a shocked voice, his hand still on my arm. “You can’t be in that room. That room is for members only and Wrench would have a damn heart attack if he knew you went in there.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I was just looking for you,” I said, pulling my arm from his grasp. “I remembered something that might be useful to you guys.”

“Let’s go to my room where we’ll have some privacy.” Monk looked over his shoulder before placing his hand at the small of my back, leading me down a hallway I’d never ventured. I didn’t like the feel of his hand on my back. It felt wrong, even though I knew he was just doing it to be friendly.

Once in his room, I crossed it and watched as he closed the door. I didn’t care for him shutting the door, but I also trusted him so I let it slide. If he thought we needed privacy, then so be it.

“Here sit on the bed. I won’t try anything funny, I promise. No one touches Wrench’s woman.” Monk tucked his hands in his pocket.

“Wrench’s woman? Is that what he’s telling everyone?” I sighed, rubbing my forehead. Monk scoffed then laughed softly.

“Nah. He doesn’t have to say anything. It’s clear as fucking day.” Monk moved and sat next to me on the bed. “Look, I don’t know exactly what’s going on with you two. I do know that Wrench doesn’t treat any woman the way he treats you. He doesn’t leave a party behind to go rescue just any woman. He doesn’t have people looking twenty-four seven for information if he didn’t think you were someone he needed to protect. Trust me. He might not have the best skills to say it or show it, but he cares more than you could possibly know.”

I dropped my head into my hands and broke out into tears. Monk rubbed my back softly as I cried.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry. Do you not feel anything for him?” Monk asked. I was surprised he didn’t try to pull me into a hug or closer to him, simply kept rubbing my back.

I shook my head in a fierce negative. That wasn’t the issue. It was my hormones, for sure, that made everything so much more tear inducing. It was just reassuring to hear a confirmation from someone else about Wrench’s feelings.

“Let me go get you some tissue.” Monk stood, leaving me alone.

While he was gone, I had a sharp pain shoot through my side, around my stomach, making me gasp and hold my belly. I’d never felt anything like it. Monk came back in and dropped the tissue, running around my side.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Shit. I don’t know where that came from, but I think I’m okay now.” I continued to rub my stomach reassuringly. Monk went and picked up the forgotten tissue to bring it to me. I wiped away my drying tears with it as another shooting pain sparked through my side.

“Here. Lie down. See if that helps. I know absolutely nothing about pregnancy and this shit. Do I need to go get someone?” Monk panicked looking between me and the door. It made me laugh.

“It’s not that bad, I don’t think. I’ll try lying down for a few minutes.” I was slightly worried it was labor, but I wasn’t going to tell him until I was more sure. If it
was
labor, I would need someone much less freaked out than him to help me.

Carefully, I moved so I was lying on my side, my back to the door. His bed wasn’t nearly as comfortable as mine, especially not the way I’d woken up earlier with an unexpected guest. I’d only been lying there for a moment before Monk sat on the bed next to me to rub my back again.

“Does this help?” he asked tentatively. It was rather sweet that he was trying, so I didn’t want to tell him that it wasn’t really doing anything.

I lay on my side for another ten minutes before thinking it was time to get out of Monk’s room before someone got the wrong idea. Just as I was sitting up to tell him I was going, the door to his room burst open. A very angry, shirtless Wrench filled the door for a moment before he moved lightning fast toward Monk.

Screaming at Wrench, I rose from the bed. What a fool I had been to lie on another man’s bed. I hadn’t thought how bad it would look if someone had walked in.

Watching Wrench’s fist repeatedly connect with Monk while he did nothing to defend himself made me scream louder. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t going to get between them, that would be stupid even if I wasn’t pregnant. Blood flew from Wrench’s flying fists, spattering against the walls and on me.

I fell to my knees in tears when finally someone was able to pull Wrench off Monk’s bloodied form. I didn’t know who to feel sorry for, the man who had gotten injured because of me or the man who was so upset to find me in another man’s bed that he broke. I knew for certain who I was mad at. Myself. I was the one to blame.

Wrench stormed off down the hall, away from the room. Others tended to Monk. Stepping around everyone, I ran down the hall to my room. Grabbing my bag, which I still hadn’t unpacked since the night before, I carried it and my camera bag down the stairs. I opened the front door to a cloud of dust left by Wrench’s bike. I’d heard his bike roar out of the drive when I was coming down the stairs.

I couldn’t stay in this house anymore. All I seemed to do was get into trouble. The first time I was there, I got involved with a man I shouldn’t have. The short visit had resulted in another man getting gravely injured. It was best if I just stayed somewhere else. I wasn’t going back to my apartment, no way could I go there yet. I could, however, get a hotel room and stay there for a few days.

Walking down the street, I called a cab company with my phone. I kept walking towards the corner where I told them I’d be. I wanted to get as far away from the house as I could before Wrench came back. Thankfully, the cab was just pulling up when I got there. I told them to take me to the closest hotel. I didn’t know where any were and didn’t have a ton of money so I hoped it was decently priced.

The cab dropped me off in front of a dinky-looking hotel. It surely couldn’t be too expensive, I hoped. All I had was the small amount of emergency cash that I had stashed in my camera bag. Once I checked in, I was grateful that I had enough to cover three nights. After that I’d have to figure something else out.

Sitting down on the flat mattress, I looked over the grungy room. Certainly not the nicest place I’d stayed, but it would do. My phone beeped alerting me that there was a new text message. I looked at my camera bag, where I’d stored my phone, for a few moments, debating about whether I wanted to check it. I knew it was probably one of two people, Ryan or Ellis. Either way, they were going to want to know where I was. I should probably tell them, but I didn’t want them coming to ‘rescue’ me. I didn’t want to have to fight with them and I knew they’d push for me to move back.

Finally giving in, I pulled my phone out and saw it was Ryan. She was asking where I was. As I slid my finger across the screen to see the full message, my phone rang and I ended up answering the call unintentionally. Shrugging, I lifted it to my ear and said, “Hello.”

It was a female’s voice I didn’t recognize and I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. She was looking to book a wedding photographer for the next day. Apparently, her photographer had gotten sick at the last minute and she was desperately seeking a replacement one. Grudgingly, I agreed to do it. I’d have to take a cab there, which would cut into my funds for the hotel room, but they would pay after the wedding so technically it would extend my stay.

Hanging up the call after jotting down the location on a pad of paper, I texted Ryan to let her know I was okay. I told her I just needed some breathing room and would contact her the next day after the wedding.

I spent the rest of the day calling and canceling everything in my wallet and getting new ones sent to Wrench’s house. I’d have to go there to get them or have Ryan meet me, but it’s not exactly like I was going to be able to disappear out of their lives. I did have two little ones that belonged to them and I would never try to keep them from Ryan and Ellis.

By the time the sun fell below the horizon, I was exhausted. It was lonely in the hotel room without much to do, but that’s what I wanted. I’d gone from always busy to extremely alone. Nothing to distract me from my thoughts now.

All I could think about when I wasn’t on the phone was Wrench. I tried to watch TV, but after only a few minutes, my mind was wandering back to him. Where was he? Was he okay? Did he hate me? Was Monk okay?

Switching off the TV, I lay on my side and tried to fall asleep. It took hours of attempting to get comfortable in the crappy bed, but finally I fell into a fitful sleep filled with sensual and scary dreams of Wrench.

~Patrick~

After spending time with Dirty, calming down, I went to check on Monk. He was stretched out on his bed with an ice pack over his face.

“So, uh, how much damage did I do?” I asked, leaning a shoulder against the wall. I wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to react to seeing me after I overreacted earlier, so I kept my distance just in case.

“You’re a real fucker, you know that? I should kick your ass. Maybe I will, when I get back on my feet.” Monk groaned as he took the ice pack off his face and sat up to look at me. His face was a variety of reds and purples mixed together. Didn’t look like anything was broken, so at least that was a good thing.

“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I over reacted.” I sighed, shoving my hands in my pockets. I didn’t have any thing better to say. I didn’t do apologies often.

“I was just trying to comfort your girl when she started having pains in her back. Maybe it was her belly. She didn’t really say and I kind of freaked out because I didn’t know what to do. You should know me better than to think I was trying anything stupid.” Monk groaned as he laid back down. “In case I needed the reminder, I think pissing blood for a week is going to make sure I never forget. And you messed up my pretty face so I can’t even get the ladies to feel sorry for me.”

“I’m sure that’s all the more reason they’ll take care of you, because now they won’t have to see your ugly face,” I instinctively shot back. A smile tilted my lips when his only response was a middle finger in the air. I started to leave, but turned back with a hand on the door frame. “Hey, I’ll be back in a bit to make sure you’re still good. Just let me know if you need anything, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Monk waved a hand through the air, the ice pack muffling his voice.

Walking back down the hall, I couldn’t help but feel humbled. I really did have a great group of guys who understood sometimes shit happens, especially when that shit involved a woman. Once at the top of the stairs, I realized I was very likely going to be in deeper shit with Melia. I didn’t know how she was going to react to seeing me not only punch someone, but pummel one of the men she considered a friend. Just another reason I sucked at the whole relationship thing. I never thought about someone else until it was too late.