“It’s pretty cool. We’re waiting on a fourth one to come open so our other brother, Jordan, can join us. He wasn’t living here when these came on the market, so he didn’t get in on the renovation deal. We think the lady on the other said of Rand will be selling soon, though. She doesn’t have any family in the area, and she keeps talking about retiring down in Florida. Hers didn’t get the interior renovation ours did, though, so it’ll be a lot of work if he buys it.”
Ash walked gingerly up the steps and into the house, but his eyes lit up when he saw the kitchen. “Wow, this is an amazing kitchen.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Let me show you where the spare room is, then we can get you comfy down in the basement until you’re ready for bed. The couch down there’s much more comfortable than the one up here.”
“Sounds good.”
“Babe, why don’t you get him some pain medication and something to drink set up down there, and we’ll be right down.” Trey nodded at me, and I led Ash down the hall. I knew Trey was wanting to hear the story of Ash’s attack, but I wanted to give him a chance to get comfortable first. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be a pleasant story.
I pushed open the door to the spare bedroom on the first floor. “Here you go, this one has the most comfortable bed of the spares. It has an en-suite bathroom and it's close to the kitchen. There are two more bedrooms upstairs if you want to stay up where we’ll be, but I figured the less stairs you had to deal with during the night, the better.”
“No, this will be fine, honest. It’ll only be for a couple of days. Then I’ll get out of your hair.”
“You aren’t in our hair. Trey worries about you. It’ll make him feel better to have you here with us. Besides, it’ll be good for him to get away from that house for a few days.”
“You’re taking care of him, right? Watching close, making sure this guy can’t get to him?”
I looked at him closely. There was something in the way he said it that made me think he had reason to be worried. “Yes, Ash, I’m taking care of him. Why do you ask? Do you know something that makes you think he’s in more danger than before?”
He set the bag with the clothes Trey had packed for him on the bed and then turned back to look at me. “If you don’t mind, I really only want to tell this story once. Let me get changed and then we can go down to the basement, and I’ll tell you both what happened.”
I studied his battered face. He looked exhausted and slightly fragile. “Sure, Ash. You get changed, and we'll meet you in the kitchen.”
I left him there and went to find Trey. He sat at one of the bar stools reading Ash’s discharge orders. I stepped up behind him and wrapped my arms around him. “He’s going to be okay,” I whispered in his ear.
He took in a deep, shuddering breath and leaned back against me. “I know, but lord his face. That had to hurt.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty rough.”
“I’m almost afraid to hear what happened,” he said with a sigh. I just wrapped my arms around him tighter and didn’t say a word, because I had a bad feeling what we were about to hear was going to be hard to listen to.
Chapter 22
Trey
When Ash came to find us in the kitchen, he looked even more tired than he did when we picked him up, like just the effort it took to change his clothes wore him out. I hopped up when I saw him and gently pulled him with me down the basement stairs. When we entered the huge open room, he had the same reaction I did. “Now this looks more like your guy. Upstairs is a bit sterile.”
“I said the same thing. Come on, let’s get you situated.” I’d put everything I thought he might need on the table at the end of the huge sectional. “It’s a recliner, so you can either spread out on that whole end, or you can recline it. However you’re comfortable.”
He sat, sinking down into the couch and moaned. “This feels like heaven.”
“Take some Tylenol, and then you can tell us what happened. Then Roman is going