Strangely Normal - By Tess Oliver Page 0,89

them to pull out their book of citations for an autograph. It was fascinating to see everyone’s reaction. Maybe my dad wasn’t that far out of the norm.

One of the officers gained his composure quicker than the other. He assessed the scene and pointed to the three jerks standing in the shadows of the building. “You three sit down right where you are with hands behind your heads.” They followed his command immediately. Nicky walked over to talk to policemen.

Jude rested against me. “You were right,” he mumbled through his swollen mouth.

“There were too many. What happened to locking the door?”

“I did lock it.”

“I meant for you to lock it once you were behind it.”

I lifted his hand and traced my fingertip over his swollen knuckles. “I did, but then Megan screamed, and after that things went to hell.” I kissed his knuckles. “This time I deserve the blame,” I said. “I ran out to help Megan, but I should have just called the police instead. Where did you come from anyway?”

He lifted a weak arm and pointed toward the trailer across the street. “I decided to stay in the construction trailer and keep an eye on you.”

“You stayed because of me?”

“Yeah, Valley, I did. Does that take me off the shit list?”

“Maybe.” I leaned over and kissed the edge of his jaw, the only spot without swelling or blood.

“I think I’m going to need a lot more first aid than that to fix everything that hurts, Doc.” He gave me his hand. “Help me up, and we’ll talk about my personalized medical treatment later.” He groaned in pain as he pressed his arm against his rib cage. It took some effort for him to stand.

“You’ve been beaten senseless and yet you’re completely focused on sex,” I said, with a certain degree of amazement.

He turned to face me. One of his eyes was swollen and there was an ugly gash above it. “Uh, yeah.” He reached up with the back of his hand and wiped away the blood from his mouth. “I’m not too proud to accept pity sex either.”

Nicky walked over with the two policemen. “Jude, do you need an ambulance. I was just telling these officers how you were jumped by these drunken bar patrons.”

“No ambulance. And yeah, that’s basically what happened. They were going after Eden, and I stepped in to help her. But how the heck did you end up here, Dad?”

Nicky looked down at me for the first time and smiled. “Finley sent me to pick someone up.”

His words took a moment to register. “She did?” I couldn’t keep the elation out of my tone.

“I did.” A small but distinctive voice came from the open door of the limo, and a head of white blonde hair popped up from behind the tinted window. She looked tiny next to the ridiculously long car but as usual her impact was huge.

“Finley!” I pulled away from Jude, and he staggered sideways a second but his dad caught him.

“Don’t worry about me, Valley. Just a few broken ribs and brain swelling.” Jude called to me as I raced to the limo.

I nearly knocked Finley over as I threw my arms around her. We completely ignored the scene behind us as tears and cries of joy kept us in a tight hug for several minutes.

We finally came up for air. Finley looked up at me. She was paler and thinner than when I’d last seen her, but the overwhelming sadness, the grim aura of depression had vanished. “Please come home with us, Eden. I really need you.” She glanced toward her brother and then hopped up on her toes. “And so does the ass,” she whispered. She crinkled her tiny nose. “Wow, he really took a beating.”

I looked back at Jude as he spoke to the officers. His shoulders were slightly hunched in pain and his face showed the same. “I told him there were too many of them.”

Finley wrapped her hand around my arm, and it felt as if none of the bad stuff had happened, it felt as if we were still strongly connected by friendship. “That boy never listens. I guess you’ve probably already discovered that.”

Jude looked our way and he seemed to know that we were talking about him. The poor guy looked miserable beneath the bruises and swelling. I blew him a kiss and the hurt in his face lessened some. I had to give the police my statement and then they pulled Megan from