“Bryant?” she called but got no response. She headed upstairs cautiously. She wasn’t sure if Bryant was even home or what type of mood he would be in.
Again she heard the thump.
Lena walked through the small hallway. Bryant’s bathroom was between the two bedrooms. The door was closed, and that was where the thumping came from.
She knocked on the door.
She waited for a response, but nothing happened.
“Bryant are you in there? Are you okay?” she asked, and she heard what sounded like moaning.
Her gut instantly clenched. Slowly she opened the door and the sight scared her. Bryant was lying on the floor naked and bleeding from his forehead.
“Oh God, Bryant, what happened?” she asked, hurrying to him.
His face was covered in blood but cleanly shaven. Had he taken her comment to heart and shaved for her? Oh God, did he try to kill himself? She grabbed a towel and slowly wiped away the blood to see where the wound was.
“Lena?” he called out her name as if he didn’t know if it were her. She saw the gash on his forehead and immediately applied pressure to the wound.
“It’s me, Bryant. Did you bang your head?” she asked, and he just moaned. She was worried that he had been unconscious and of course had been drunk. This wasn’t a good situation.
He grabbed her neck and hair, pulled her toward his face.
“I’m sorry. I’m such an asshole,” he told her then passed out.
“Oh shit. Wake up, Bryant! Damn it don’t fall asleep.” She slapped his cheeks and shook him.
“Let me sleep,” he moaned.
She leaned up to turn on the cold water. As soon as it was really cold, she soaked the towel and placed it over the wound. It was a nice gash, and he would need stitches. She’d better call Doc or his brothers.
She laid him back down and ran into his bedroom to grab the phone. She called Kenny’s cell phone and told him what happened and then she hurried back to Bryant.
She saw his boxers sitting on the rug and pulled them on him. She figured he would be pissed to be found naked and bleeding in his bathroom, the damn control freak.
She lifted his head and held him on her lap as she kept the pressure on his wound and tried to make him wake up. She was getting really worried.
The minutes seemed so long until she heard Blake yelling from downstairs and then Frank and Will.
“Up here!” she screamed, her voice shaking.
“What the hell happened?” Blake asked as he knelt down on the rug.
“I don’t know. I found him like this, Blake. I think he hit his head and has a concussion.”
“The ambulance is on its way. Thank God you were here, Lena. Thank God,” Frank stated, and Lena felt sick to her stomach.
She almost blew Bryant off because of his nasty, hurtful words to her earlier. What if she hadn’t come back here? He could have died.
The tears hit her eyes, but she took a deep breath to keep them at bay.
Bryant could have died.
* * * *
They woke Bryant every thirty minutes through the night. He was nasty and mean to everyone except for Lena. Lena had saved his life, and she was the reason why he wanted to live.
Bryant had thought about her instantly as he shaved his filthy beard. The nerve of her to say that he could have joined her and his brothers making love to her if he was clean-shaven. He was so pissed off at that comment and then of course her facial expression as he called her names. He was a cruel, ignorant asshole. When he slipped and fell getting out of the shower, he thought he was a goner. He knew she was having lunch up at the big house, and he knew he hurt her feelings with his callous, nasty words. He was jealous that his brothers were spending time with her and loving her. They had always spoken about doing that together with one woman, and he had always been close to Quinn, Kenny, and Blake.