Gypsy Magic - J.R. Rain Page 0,63
arms. And then his hands were on me—in my hair, on my face, my breasts…
“Now you’re on the trolley!”
My eyes blinked open, and I found myself staring at a white ceiling as something beeped in the near distance. My hand groped along until it met something solid and my fingers closed around a slim metal railing. I cracked my eyes open and squinted blearily at my hand. Sure enough, it was wrapped around a metal rail. A hospital bed railing.
Before I could open my mouth to ask what the hell had happened and where the hell I was, Darla popped into my line of sight.
“You were havin’ a hanky-panky dream, doll,” she said with a huge grin as a blush spread across my cheeks at the realization that not only had I been having a ‘hanky-panky’ dream, but she’d witnessed it!
I tried to shake my head, but was in a world of pain when I did.
“I felt like tellin’ you the bank was closed!”
“The bank?” I grumbled as she nodded. I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.
“Yes, ma’am! That’s what you tell someone to get them to stop smooching.” Then she started giggling as she floated down to my bedside and pretended to take a seat beside me. “And here I thought you were just another bluenose! Turns out you’re the cat’s pajamas!”
“Where am I?” I asked as I glanced around and recognized a hospital room when I saw one. But how…
“Looks like you’ve been committed, dollface,” Darla answered, shaking her head like the whole thing was a big shame. “But let’s get back to that dream you were having! You were moanin’ up a storm!” Then she started kissing the air and making wet-sounding noises which thoroughly grossed me out.
“Darla, what are you doing here?”
She motioned to my necklace. “Well, I buzzed on over as soon as I realized you weren’t home when you were supposed to be. An’ I’m thinkin’ that exorcist, who sometimes drops the kid off, pulled a clean sneak.” She nodded. “I’m sorry, dollface, I know you’re fond o’ the kid.”
“Exorcist?” I repeated, shaking my head. “What are you talking about?”
“Yeah, that handsome cat who’s been hangin’ around a lot lately.”
“Marty?”
She nodded. “I think he took the kid an’ beat it.”
“Marty didn’t kidnap Finn,” I grumbled as the pieces started to fall into place. Marty, Bailey and I had been at Layla Clemmons’ and I’d climbed up the ladder to investigate the dark hole in the ceiling and… I must have fallen off the ladder and passed out, ending up in the hospital. Marty must have picked Finn up from school which was why Darla hadn’t seen them.
“So back to this dream of yours… who you carryin’ the torch for, huh?”
I ignored her. But, that didn’t matter because once started, Darla was near impossible to stop.
“An’ the most important question: did he slip you his dingus?”
“Darla,” I groaned.
“You were makin’ these kissy sounds an’ I was startin’ to get jealous!” She paused for a second. “So… who you stuck on? You can tell me! I can keep a secret, swear.”
“Darla, I order you to return to the house,” I managed, even as my head pounded with the exertion it took to speak.
“An’ just like that, you’re back to being the flat tire.” She pouted, wrapping her arms across her flat chest as she frowned at me.
At least she disappeared. After a few seconds of making sure she really was gone, I fell back to sleep.
***
I woke to the smell of chicken soup.
My hands fisted reflexively in the blanket that covered me, and I moaned. My head felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton, the inside of my mouth tasted like bile, and my stomach roiled.
“Finn?” I called out, alarmed.
“Sorry to disappoint,” a familiar, rumbling bass voice said from nearby. “It’s just me… I brought you some soup.”
I raised a hand to rub the crusties out of my eyes and an IV pulled at the skin of my hand. It stung and forced me to blink rapidly to clear my vision. When the streaky picture finally resolved itself, I found Roy Osbourne sitting at my bedside.
Roy Osbourne?
“The doctors say you should be free to go soon. You have a concussion, but they ruled out anything worse.”
“How long have I been out?”
He cocked his head to the side. “A few hours.”
And then I remembered Darla’s visit and immediately starting looking for her in the room. Luckily, I didn’t see her anywhere.
“Do you remember