I should’ve stayed in the pickup truck.
Now Dad stood in front of me, his face wearing an expression I couldn’t even begin to understand.
“Well?” I demanded. “Where is he? Is he all right?”
“Nice to see you, too, baby girl.”
“Hey, Em,” I heard Hunter say. He stepped out of the shadow of the stairwell, leaning against the door frame as if just standing was almost more than he could handle.
Holy shit.
I brought a hand to my mouth, horrified.
“What the hell happened to you?” I whispered, feeling tears building. I ran over to him, but when I tried to touch him, he flinched away.
“Sorry, babe,” he muttered. “Feeling a little low. Why don’t you grab some ice and maybe help me up to bed?”
“You can use the room on the second floor,” Dad said. “I’ll find some painkillers.”
I looked back and forth between them, trying to figure out if we’d somehow stumbled into an alternate universe where people showed up randomly beaten and nobody seemed to find it noteworthy.
“Do either of you want to tell me what the hell happened here? He wasn’t like this when I left him, Dad. I trusted you!”
My voice rose as I spoke, my hands fluttering. I felt like I should be doing something, but I had no idea what.
“Babe, you know I promised never to lie to you again, right?” Hunter said. I nodded, stunned by the damage to his face. It was all mottled and bruised. Blood dripped sluggishly out of his mouth, trailing down his chin. He held a hand to his ribs, and his breathing didn’t sound quite right to me. “Well, this is one of those times that I’m not gonna lie, which means no matter how much you ask, you won’t hear a story to make you feel better. You want the truth, you need to accept that. Just help me get clean and patched up, and let’s go to sleep.”
I glanced back over toward Dad. He was crouched down, digging in one of the cupboards. Then he pulled out a large first-aid kit.
“I’ll meet you upstairs,” he said. “There’s a bed waiting on the second floor, Hunter. They saved it for you. Bathroom across the hall has a shower. Just try to keep it quiet—don’t want to wake up all the kids. I guess they’re camped out in the game room, which is just down from where you’ll be staying.”
“Thanks,” Hunter said. “Appreciate the hospitality.”
“Am I the only one who’s not crazy here?” I demanded suddenly. “What is wrong with you? What did you do to Hunter?”
They exchanged glances, and Picnic shrugged.
“I’m starting to get what you meant earlier,” Hunter murmured to him. “I’m not used to this.”
“Used to what? Having the only not-insane person in the room demand answers from you?”
“Having someone care this much about me,” he said quietly. “Em, I really, really love you. I think I’ve finally convinced your dad of that. Whatever you’re imagining this is”—he gestured down at himself—“you’re wrong. But believe me when I say I can’t explain it. Just know it all ended right, the good guys won, and I really f**king want to crawl into bed with you and sleep. Pic, you got any Vicodin?”
My dad nodded, then stepped out of the room.
“You’re really not going to tell me?”
“Nope,” he said. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was necessary, and you don’t need to worry about it happening again. And Em?”
“Yes?” I whispered.
“I didn’t lie to you. Remember that. I could’ve told you all kinds of stories to explain this, but I didn’t. Would’ve made my life a lot easier. I hope that means something to you.”
I shivered, trying to process his words. Nothing made sense.
“Baby, can we please go upstairs?” he asked quietly. “I can see you have lots to think about, but I’m not sure I can stay upright much longer.”
I nodded, forcing myself to snap out of my fog.
“This isn’t over,” I told him. “But let’s take care of you first. I think you need the ER. If Dad won’t loan me his car, I’ll borrow Kit’s.”
“There’s an inch of ice covering the road,” he said, and I think he smiled, or at least tried to. Hard to tell under the circumstances. “We already crashed once tonight. I’ll be fine—this isn’t the first beating I’ve taken, and it’s not like they’d do much for me anyway. Tape up my ribs, maybe give me a few stitches. Painkillers. We can do all that here, although I think I’ll take a pass on the stitches. I could use a few more scars, it’ll enhance my reputation with the brothers. They’re always sayin’ I’m too pretty.”
This time I knew he was smiling.
“You’re insane,” I said, shaking my head. “What if you have a head injury or something?”
He sobered.
“It’s not worth the risk to go back out, babe. There was at least one shooter we didn’t find tonight.”
I froze.
“Horse said we didn’t need to worry anymore.”
“Well, that was probably before we had all the details,” Hunter said, sighing. “Thought it was one guy at first. I’m sure they’ll gather everyone tomorrow and fill them in on what they need to know. I’ll even bet the second guy disappears after this—they weren’t after us in particular, just trying to stir up shit between the clubs. But we have proof now that the cartel was behind this attack, which should be enough to convince the Reapers and the Jacks that we have to work together. Tonight backfired on them in a big way.”