was running around instead of sitting his ass in jail where he belongs. Which is a damn good question.”
When that earned Archie’s and Coop’s equally vehement opinions, I tuned it out a little. Talbot had tried to explain it to me. I wanted to understand, but I didn’t. He’d attacked me twice now. Granted, he didn’t lay a finger on me this time, and I could at least remember all of it, but still… Did we have to wait until he did something even more horrible for them to do something about it?
The cats were gonna kill me when we finally got home, whenever that was. At some point, Archie brought in the food and Jake ate his way through a half-dozen of the tacos, but we were still waiting. My eyes had begun to drift shut when the doors opened, allowing Mr. Wittaker, along with Ian and his parents out into the lobby.
Ian looked like hell, but Mr. Wittaker looked pleased. We were all standing, and I made a beeline straight for Ian, hesitating only because of the bruises on his face and the fact that his parents were right there. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Angel,” Ian told me and held out an arm. I didn’t need any more encouragement, I wrapped myself around him carefully. “No charges,” he murmured. “Just a long night.”
I damn near sagged with relief.
“You okay?”
“Just bruises.” It was becoming our motto, and he rubbed his uninjured cheek against my hair. “Tired, too.”
“And we need to get her home,” Archie said. “I think we need to get everyone home.”
Ian glanced at his parents, and I flushed when his mom eased over to give us both a hug. “You want to go with Frankie?” she asked, and I didn’t dare look at his dad.
“Yeah,” Ian said. “Thanks for coming down.”
“Of course,” she murmured, then swept her gaze over me. “If it’s too much, you two come back to the house and I’ll look after both of you, okay?”
I was pretty sure my face was on fire, but Ian saved me by saying, “We got it, Mom. Thank you.”
“Love you,” she said, and he answered her with another hug. Then Ian’s dad clasped his shoulder gently.
“You kids take care,” he said. “Get some rest. We’ll get this all sorted.”
The relief that he looked at us with kindness rather than reproach was profound. Thankfully, everyone started moving and we shuffled out of the building. It was like all the tiredness of the last twenty-four hours crashed in on me. Rachel gave me a quick hug in the parking lot and headed for her car as she waved off my thanks.
Then we were climbing into Jake’s SUV. I sat in the back, sandwiched between Coop and Ian, while Archie took care of the driving. Jake didn’t even complain.
I was half-asleep before we were even out of the parking lot, my head on Ian’s shoulder and my left hand clasped in Coop’s. They were all okay.
Bruised. Battered. Tired.
But okay.
When Ian brushed his lips against my forehead, I smiled. “Don’t forget,” I reminded him sleepily. “Rules. I get to help make them, too.”
“Yes, you do,” he said. “I promise. I didn’t forget.”
There was a beat of quiet in the car, and then Coop said, “Yeah?”
I couldn’t get my eyes open to see what he was talking about, but Ian said. “Yeah.”
“Thank fuck,” Jake muttered from the front seat, and Archie chuckled.
“What?” Ian asked.
“You are now subject to the same boyfriend rules as the rest of us.”
“What are the rules?” Coop asked, the tired in his voice dragging at me.
“Well at the moment, it starts and ends with boyfriends don’t get bean burritos and we don’t get to have fart wars.”
There was a beat of silence.
Then all four of them cracked up.
Asses.
Each and every one.
Chapter Three
The Trick is to keep breathing
Once we got back to my place, we stripped and showered—everyone one at a time except for me. Archie helped me because he was the least battered of all of us. His argument, not mine. His right hand was definitely bruised, and the knuckles had split in two places. He dismissed the concern, however, and the guys all sided with him.
After, he insisted I take another pain pill, not a half this time, but a full. I didn’t even bother to argue against it. I was kind of hurting everywhere. Jake and Ian got the bed with me, and I wanted Coop to at least take the sofa, but he just gave