raced the nail of his finger up the arch of my foot. “Yup. Still there. Now stop.” I tried to arch away as he did it to the other foot. I hissed out a breath as the pain flared in my thighs. “Crapcakes, that hurts.”
Dom put a finger under my chin and pulled my face to look at him. “Too much?”
I did a quick self-assessment. I didn’t lie to these boys, this family. They were all I had. And even if it hurt me, I wasn’t going to damage these relationships with stupid lies. “It spikes. Forces me out of the smooth and into the rough when I move. I can handle it, but I’ll probably need something once I start moving.”
Dom’s eyes widened slightly. “Then we’ll have something on hand for you. I think Mama’s got some morphine left.”
I jerked back as if he’d slapped me in the face. I turned away. Tried to pull my hand from his.
“Shit,” he whispered. He held on, squeezed my fingers. “Look at me, Will.”
I continued to study the fallen table. The cast iron base weighed at least fifty pounds. That didn’t include the quartz stone top that looked as if it weighed half that. I was lucky I didn’t have any broken bones. If I got away with just some deep muscle bruising, I would finally take Talia up and join her Krav Maga classes.
“Willow, look at me,” Dom ordered. His voice was hard and gruff.
I turned to look at him, my gaze hard.
“You could take a half. Even a quarter. That much isn’t going to take you back down that path. We would monitor it for you. No one else.”
“Damn right I would be monitoring it,” Rafe said. “We won’t lose you. And certainly not like that, Will. Talia would snatch us all bald-headed.” He ran a hand over his dark hair. His was long enough to brush his shoulders. To curl over the collar of his shirt. “I like my hair too much.” He gave a dramatic shiver. “Here’s the good news. I think you’ve got just the deep bruising. Walking is going to be difficult for a while. Do you have any jobs in the next few weeks?”
I nodded.
Turo laughed. “Didn’t you read the newspaper this morning, Rafe? Our Will is big time nowadays. Schedule booked out until 2025.”
I laughed. “Not quite, but yeah, I’ve got gigs that I need to be able to move for.”
Rafe smiled. “Good for you, little sister. I’m so proud.” He tapped a finger to his lips in thought, his other hand smoothed my dress down my thighs... “Any kind of movement is going to be painful for a while. If you overdo it, you could end up in the hospital or on bedrest with passive therapy.” He watched me.
I grimaced. “Then I’ll behave.”
All three men snorted. “We’ll believe that when we see it, Will,” Dom said for all of them.
“Let’s get you on your feet and see what kind of ROM we’re looking at.”
“English, bro,” Turo whined as he got his hands under my shoulders.
“Range of motion. If you’d pay attention while I’m going over basics, you wouldn’t sound like an idiot asking for English.” Rafe pushed the table farther away and stayed crouched near my knees. “On three, boys.”
Rafe wrapped his warm hands around the back of my knees as Turo pulled up on my shoulders. Dom stayed near my pelvis and helped stabilize that as I was lifted upright.
My brain dipped and swayed with the sudden change in elevation. I felt my belly swirl as my dizzy head tried to orient itself to being upright. I was glad all three men were still there and holding onto me. I would have dropped like a bowling ball if they hadn’t been.
My legs quivered as searing pain turned my stomach and set my thighs on fire. “I’m going to pass out,” I said softly.
“Turo, drape her over Nico’s back. Now. Hurry,” Rafe ordered.
Dom stiffened his spine under my chest as I sank against him. My legs were the least of my worries as my stomach tried to escape my body through my throat. Dry heaves shook my chest as they forced more blood to pound through my head.
“Fuck,” Rafe whispered as he sifted his fingers through my hair. “She’s bleeding from her head. And there’s a lump the size of a baseball back here. We’ve got to take her to the hospital for a CT scan. Now.”
It was the last thing I heard