“I’m fine,” she managed to get out as leaned over the toilet, struggling not to embarrass herself any further, but of course they once again ignored her.
“Maybe we should take one vehicle,” Jason suddenly suggested, throwing her a nervous glance.
“We’ll be able to get them home faster that way,” Trevor said in agreement, shooting her a pitying look that she really didn’t care for, not at all.
“I think the best bet is to get them out of Las Vegas and to the nearest airport so that we can put an end to this fiasco quickly,” Ethan suggested as he grabbed a handful of paper towels and poured cold water on them before applying it to her head and giving her a small amount of relief so that she could once again ask what was going on, but apparently they were still hell-bent on ignoring her.
It was either that or they hadn’t heard her over her body’s renewed attempts to cleanse itself of every last drop in her stomach. It was probably the later, she decided as the men continued to discuss the best way to get them home before the curse, and she made a mental note to ask about that later, could do any more damage.
Once she was done, which wasn’t for another ten minutes or so, she was helped to her feet, led over to the small sink and manhandled by three large Bradfords that meant well. By the time they whisked her out of the bathroom and into the hallway where Danny sat waiting, looking worried, she was too tired to argue or ask any questions.
So, instead she allowed them to place her on Danny’s welcoming lap. She closed her eyes and laid her head against his shoulder, deciding that it was probably for the best if she left the details up to the men for now. But once she was rested and had something to settle her stomach, they were going to have a very long discussion about all the bullshit they’d put her through over the last couple of days.
Chapter 8
“You dumb bastard,” he groaned, closing his eyes in resignation as he sat there, staring in disbelief at his father, who was actually fucking blushing.
“You dumb fucking bastard,” Jason reiterated, shaking his head while the blood drained from his face as he stared at Ethan, unable to look away from him as Ethan’s fuck up just caught up to them all and bit them in the ass, effectively fucking them all over and ensuring that this nightmare wasn’t going to end anytime soon.
“It wasn’t my fault,” his father stressed as the understandably pissed off police officer gestured for his father to turn around and place his hands behind his back. With a resigned sigh, his father turned, put his arms behind his back and waited to be arrested for the second time that day…in a separate fucking state!
“Then whose fucking fault was it?” he snapped, barely resisting the urge to reach up and strangle the son of a bitch that was making ending this nightmare nearly fucking impossible.
His father pursed his lips up in thought as the first cuff locked in place. “Hostess Cupcake.”
And yup, just like that, he went for his father’s fucking throat. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for his father, the fact that he couldn’t fucking stand on his own two feet yet, and the fact that his cousins were holding him down, kept the son of a bitch breathing. As his cousins held him down, he narrowed his eyes on his father, imagining all the things that he was going to do once he got his hands on him and nearly smiled in satisfaction, but it was the fact that his wife of only two days still wasn’t talking to him, looking at him or acknowledging his existence in any way that instantly destroyed the miniscule amount of joy that he’d been able to find in his fantasies.
There was a heavy sigh as the second officer reached into his back pocket and pulled out another thick white envelope. “That reminds me. You’re in violation of a second restraining order.”
His father sighed heavily as he shook his head that told everyone there, every Bradford at least, that his father wasn’t taking this seriously.
“I have to come within one-hundred yards of their corporate office in order to violate that restraining order,” his father said, sounding bored while he sat there, trying not to panic, but it was a quickly losing battle.
“Besides,” his father continued with a careless shrug, oblivious to the nervous glances that he was sharing with his cousins, “this whole thing will be cleared up in the morning when it goes in front of a judge.”
“Tomorrow?” he snapped, right along with his cousins as they shared a horrified look before glancing back at the small woman sitting across from them with her arms folded over her ample breasts, glaring at them and clearly not willing to accept any more of their bullshit stories any longer.
Not that he really thought for one second that she was buying any of the half-assed bullshit stories that they’d been feeding her since they’d left Vegas. But since she hadn’t called them on their bullshit, mostly because she was too busy ignoring them as she glared at them, he figured that he had plenty of time to figure out how to explain this mess to her later, when they were safely home and this fiasco was officially over.
Thanks to his father’s unhealthy obsession with Hostess products, they were once again fucked. They couldn’t afford to stay overnight and risk anything else happening, especially with Tink pregnant. He would rather die than risk anything happening to his wife or children.
He didn’t give a flying fuck if the curse was nothing more than just bullshit stories passed down from generation to generation to fuck with their heads. The only thing that mattered was his family and he wasn’t going to take any risks, which meant that they needed to continue heading home tonight. They couldn’t afford to add an extra day to this fucked up trip, especially with the rate that things were going.
“We can’t stay,” he stressed, meeting his father’s bored glare with a murderous one of his own, reminding the father what was at steak here.
With a frown, his father shifted his attention back to glaring pregnant woman behind them, cringed, cursed under his breath and then finally in typical Bradford fashion, sighed heavily. “Someone needs to help Danny get Jodi home before it’s too late.”
“Too late for what?” his inquisitive wife asked evenly with a suspicious glare that had his balls pulling up tight in an attempt to hide in terror.
“To find a hotel for the night?” Trevor said, trying to help, but sadly there probably wasn’t anything at this point that would save his ass.
“Really,” she drawled heavily with sarcasm. “At five o’clock at night?” she asked, cocking her head to the side as she considered them and the officers, who were starting to squirm nervously from her glare.
“Very busy weekend,” he suggested, struggling against the urge to swallow nervously and avert his eyes, but then she would have him by the balls and that was not a place that he could afford to be right now.
“It’s Tuesday,” she pointed out dryly.
Swallowing hard, he slowly nodded. “Yes, yes it is.”
“Are any of you gentleman finally going to tell me what’s going on or do you want to keep on pretending that I don’t know anything about this curse of yours?”
As one they blinked, “What curse?”
*-*-*-*
Closing her eyes, she shook her head, because she’d finally had enough. “That’s fine,” she said, grabbing her bag, threw it over her shoulder and decided that enough was enough.
She was getting her ass home, taking a hot bath and ordering as much takeout as her credit card could handle.
“Tinkerbelle, stop!” Danny yelled, shoving his cousins away so that he could push his wheelchair after her, but seriously, after waking up from a baby aspirin hangover, getting arrested, banned, a police escort to the city border and then one to the state border where the Governor awaited to give them a warning not to fuck up his state and cause another state of emergency, being ignored, exhausted and dragged from here to there and every damn where, she was so done.
“Jodi” he yelled, coming after her, but she knew that if she didn’t get away from him right now and get a chance to calm down