The Harder He Falls: 2 (So Inked) (22 page)

“I can’t get her to calm down,” the nurse said, her thick Texas accent making it difficult for him to understand.

“Move.” He put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her out of the way.

She gaped at him, but he paid her no mind as he squeezed past her. A dirty overhead light provided the only illumination. Rows of shelves with boxes, some with jars, others with baskets, filled the garage. The sound of grunting and bumping into the metal structures came from the far side. He followed the sound to the darkest corner.

Kellie’s back was to him. She bent over someone whose limbs he saw in a quick flash of flailing.

Another female voice cried out, but this one didn’t speak in English. Kellie replied in soothing tones he couldn’t understand, but the meaning wasn’t important.

“Natalie, can you give her a sedative? She’s not calming down.”

“Coming.” The nurse ducked back into the house.

“What can I do?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

Kellie grunted and stumbled back and he got his first glimpse of who it was she was up against. A frail, old woman wearing an oriental jacket and pants waved the broken end of a rake while jabbering at Kellie. The normally traditional lawn tool took on a menacing air as she waved the teeth at Kellie. He didn’t know what was going on, but either Kellie or the old woman was going to get hurt.

He grabbed Kellie around the waist and hauled her back as the woman swung for her head. He pushed her aside as the woman charged him. He wrapped his hand around her wrist, his fingers overlapping, and jerked his head back as she struck out. She raked his arm with her nails.

Kellie said something he didn’t understand, and wrapped her arms around the woman, capturing her other arm and lifting her off the ground.

“Take the rake away from her, Quin,” she growled.

The old woman wailed and kicked her legs as if she were a toddler. Her dilated eyes didn’t seem to recognize anything. He pried her fingers off the rake, tugged it from her grasp and tossed it away.

“I’m here, Kellie.” The nurse reappeared with a syringe in hand. “Hold her still.”

He captured the woman’s other wrist.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Quin, hold her arm,” Kellie snapped.

“Giving her a sedative to calm her down,” Natalie murmured as she pressed on the woman’s arm to get a vein and inserted the needle.

He held the old woman’s arms as immobile as he could, but he couldn’t look at her. She seemed like some feral animal, not the kindly old grandmother he’d expected.

Natalie blew out a breath. “There, that should hit her in a minute.”

“Let’s get her inside. Did she make a mess?” Kellie smoothed a hand over the woman’s hair and placed her lips against the woman’s temple.

The little old spitfire swung her head and cracked Kellie in the face. She yelped and the grandmother wiggled out of her hold. Blood poured from Kellie’s nose, and Quin didn’t know who to go after first. He scooped the grandmother up in his arms, ignoring her flailing limbs and loud protests he couldn’t understand.

“Sorry, Grandma. Which way is she going?” he asked.

“This way.” Natalie pushed the laundry room door open and waved him back through the kitchen.

The fight leeched out of the frail body as he carried her through a living room outfitted in shabby furniture and into the master bedroom. A hospital type of bed was set up in one corner. The floor was covered over in plastic squares, the kind used in an office under a desk. It was a mix of sterility and age.

“Put her down here. She should be out pretty soon.” The nurse pulled back the rumpled sheets and turned on a fan while he settled the woman in the bed.

He stepped out of her way and watched as she checked Kellie’s grandmother over.

“What’s wrong with her? Why did she attack Kellie?”

Natalie glanced over her shoulder. “She has Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t know any better.”

Kellie pinched her nose and tilted her head back. Warm drops dripped down her chin and onto her chest. At least she was wearing a black shirt this time.

“Natalie?” Her voice was muffled by the rag she was using to sop up the blood.

“I’ve got it,” she called from the bedroom.

From experience Kellie knew Grandma would be out for two hours, if not a longer. This was the second time this week that Natalie had used something to knock her out.

“Here, let me see.”

She started at the weight on her shoulder.

Quin.

How could she have forgotten?

He took the rag from her hand and cradled her chin with his fingers. She tipped her head back farther at his urging, closed her eyes and gripped the edge of the counter behind her.

How was she going to deal with this? Grandma didn’t recognize her, the house or anything. They were strangers, and what was worse, this wasn’t the first time Kellie had been attacked. Grandma was too frail to be threatening, but accidents could happen. What if she hurt Grandma Gang, who was elderly and walked with a cane? Grandma could injure her.

“Tell me if this hurts,” Quin mumbled.

He applied pressure to the bridge of her nose. Next he tapped the end of her nose.

“Ow.” She hauled back and smacked his arm away. “It’s not broken.”

“Sorry, just checking.” He took a step back and stared at her.

She ignored the questions he must have after that scene and leaned back against the cabinet. Her night off shouldn’t have begun like this. All she’d wanted was a quiet evening to do some laundry, maybe pop out for some groceries, and that was it.

Quin edged closer. “Can I do something?”

“No.” She was tired. Tired of the responsibility. Tired of the uncertainty. And tired of the guilt.

He swiped at her upper lip with the rag. “Come on, let me do something.”

There wasn’t any fight in her. “Want to go grab some dinner and bring it back here?”

“Yeah, any preferences?”

“There’s a noodle place down the street.” She turned out of his grasp and grabbed a pen and paper from on top of the fridge. Miraculously the sticky notes had escaped Grandma’s tea fires. Another element she didn’t know how to control or manage. She jotted down her favorite and what she knew Grandma enjoyed. Or had before all foods were new to her every meal. A crimson drop plopped down on the tile next to the sticky notes, staining one side of the bright yellow square. “Here.”

He took the paper and stepped closer. Usually when Quin was near she felt something. Now she was just bone weary. He brushed her lips with his, a sweet gesture when he didn’t have to be.

“Back in a few minutes.”

She watched him walk to the foyer, glance over his shoulder, smile and close the door they’d left open. She stared at the spot where he had been for several moments, her thoughts not gaining any traction.

“Damn, that’s a fine man. Where did you get him?” Natalie rubbed her belly, a gesture Kellie didn’t think she was aware of.

Kellie shook her head, only to clutch her temples as her skull started to throb. It hurt everywhere, especially her nose. “Ow. That’s Quin. He bought the gym. Got anything for a raging headache?”

“He bought the gym?” Natalie gasped and rummaged in one of her pockets and produced a paper packet of pills and a tissue. “Your nose is bleeding. The piercing is still there though.”

Kellie took the medicine from her and downed them dry. “Yeah he’s that one,” she said with a grimace contorting her mouth. She daubed her nose with the tissue before feeling the piercing. It was going to be fucking sore for days, but it didn’t seem to have ripped anything.

Natalie pulled a cabinet open, grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with water. “And?”

“And we’re friends, or something.” Except she didn’t care about a simple friend like she cared for Quin. She liked him, but she couldn’t afford more than that.

“Whatever. He’s sexy. How’s the nose feeling?”

“Sore. I’ll live.”

Natalie’s gaze flicked over her. Kellie didn’t doubt there was blood drying on her skin and clothes. Natalie’s voice was softer, more compassionate when she next spoke. “We need to talk about her condition.”

Kellie pivoted and strode to the far side of the kitchen. They’d hashed this out before, and she had no desire to do it again. It would suck having to acclimate another nurse to their schedule, but they’d make it work when Natalie’s time was up.

“Kellie, I know you don’t want to hear it, but she needs more care. It’s not safe for you or her to be here.”

“No. No, no, no! She is my grandmother. She will stay with me. I will not put her in a home where no one can understand her. She’s already confused and lost. I won’t have her unable to speak on top of it all.” Even as she uttered the words, a part of her ran laps in her mind, knowing she was in a losing race. How did she beat a condition that ate away at who a person was? She couldn’t win.

Natalie’s brow creased, her eyes round and lips compressed. Kellie didn’t like the look of pity.

“Let me know if she gets antagonistic tonight,” Natalie said after a tense moment. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Thanks. Lock the door, will you? I’m going to go clean up in the garage and get rid of this.” She waved at her chest and the blood splatter. If only the rest of her life were so easy to tidy up.

Baku—This creature is often inked to chase away negative dreams. In mythology, the Baku ate nightmares. Its limbs are modeled after a tiger, it has the body and tail of an ox, covered in yellow fur and an elephant-like nose, complete with tusks and small eyes.

Fifteen minutes later, Kellie was drying off from a quick shower when someone pounded on the front door. She hastily pulled on her clothes, grabbed the baby monitor, jogged to the foyer and slid the locks open.

Quin stood on the other side, a brown paper bag in hand and a carrier of drinks. He was her fuck buddy, so why was she so glad to see him?

“Hey.” She leaned her head against the door and stared at him.

“Hey. I got dinner.”

“I see that.” She chewed her lip. “Let’s eat out on the back patio. Come on.” She gestured him into the house and closed the door behind him, making sure to slide the locks home.

She took him through the back door, out onto the patio area that her father had created. It was one of the few things in her life that still bore his fingerprint. She touched the hip-high flowerbed that had once held beautiful blooms every year. Now it stood empty and forgotten.

“I’m going to go check on Grandma. Need anything?”

He stepped through the door and stopped so close her breasts brushed his chest. He kissed her forehead. “Just you.”

She blinked, her thoughts scrambling and scattering as if they were a hive of angry bees. “Back in a minute.”

It took less than sixty seconds to poke her head into the master bedroom and see Grandma out cold, snoring like a man three times her size and looking as innocent as if she’d never attacked her own flesh and blood. Listening to the baby monitor would have told her that much, but she needed a moment. She dallied in the living room, straightening a stack of magazines that had fallen off the coffee table and taking a cup to the kitchen.

Quin was complicated. Despite their pledge to keep it simple, she wasn’t wired to not care. She needed to cut him loose. The hours they spent together, whether having crazy monkey sex or just talking over food, gave her a respite, but it wasn’t enough. They couldn’t be simple. She couldn’t do it. Right now she wanted to cling to his strength, let him tell her the lie that it would be okay and make love to her. It was exactly opposite of what they were.

Her mind made up, she strode out to the patio. Quin had already sat at the metal and glass table set. The food was lined up in front of him, the setting sun painting the sky brilliant roses and amethysts. Her heart stuttered and her resolve wavered.

“Come sit down.” He patted the spot adjacent to him, at the head of the table.

Each step felt as if she were lifting an additional ten pounds. Sinking into the chair was a relief. Their knees bumped under the table, but he made no move to give her space. Instead his shin rested against her calf, his foot tapped hers.

“I had no idea what to get, so I just doubled your order. What is it?” He pried the lid off the bowl and sniffed the steam rising off the broth and noodles.

“It’s just pho noodles and beef.” She set the monitor down between them, fished a hot sauce packet out of the brown paper bag and tore it open.

He mimicked her and used one on his soup. “Is your, ah, grandmother joining us?”

Kellie pointed at the monitor emitting a soft soundtrack of snores. “No, she’s still asleep. Sorry about that.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. That’s pretty ingenious. I should probably apologize for dropping in. I didn’t know how things were. How long has she been like this?”

She shifted in her seat. It was a known fact through their community and her friends, but Grandma’s Alzheimer’s was not something she talked about. “A long time.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry.”

She blew across the soup. “Nothing you can do about it.”

“No.”

“Why are you here?” Why was he showing up when she was at her weakest? She couldn’t take much more today.

Quin blinked at her, his bright blue eyes standing out in the growing darkness. “I wanted to see you. I didn’t exactly think this through.”

“No, you didn’t.” She ran fingers through her bangs.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t bring people home. It’s rough on Grandma, and it’s already hard to manage.”

“Do you want me to go?” He put his hands on the table, ready to push the chair away.

She considered it. After working all day, mostly bent over, her back hurt, her fingers were still numb and now her nose hurt and the piercing ached. A hot shower and a warm towel on her face would be the highlight of her evening. Mary and Pandora were working and Autumn was still with her mom. Kellie’s life had shrunk to the shop and caring for her grandmother, so even her circle of friends was depleted. Quin was sadly the closest thing outside the girls.

“Don’t be silly.” She gestured at his soup. “Don’t let it get cold.”

They ate in silence, punctuated by the hum of suburban activity and slurping of soup. It was companionable, normal even. Two people hanging out and having dinner.

“This was really good.” Quin leaned over his bowl, staring down at it as if he couldn’t believe it was empty.

“They do a mean soup.”

“I didn’t expect that to be so filling.” He relaxed back into his chair, hands resting against his stomach.

He watched her without comment as she examined him. The fading light softened his features and disguised some of the harsh lines, but he was no less sexy.

“Do you have any plans tomorrow night?” he asked.

“I’m supposed to close, but Sundays have been really slow, which is weird.” She sealed the lid over her empty bowl and pushed it away.

“Close the shop early and come to the fight.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know. Have to talk to Mary about it.”

“Bring her.”

“Mary can’t come. She has a kid.”

“How old is he?”

“Sixteen.”

“Bring him too. Heck, bring the whole shop. We could use the support.”

She chuckled. “I’ll see what they say, but no promises.”

“How’s the nose?”

“Sore.” She gingerly touched the hoop piercing her nostril and grimaced.

When Quin spoke again, it was with a soft, compassionate voice she’d never heard from him. “So can I ask how you came to care for your grandmother? Where are your parents?”

She lifted a shoulder. The moment of truth. “My dad’s dead. Mom and I moved back in with Grandma and Grandpa, but Grandpa died a few years later. Then Grandma took over raising me because Mom couldn’t handle it. She never was very good at doing anything except pouring tea and looking pretty. Grandma came down with Alzheimer’s when I was in Chicago, Mom got remarried to a Korean national and told me she was leaving. So here we are.”

There was a beat of silence before Quin spoke. “She just left you?”

“Yes, she left.” It still tasted bitter to say it out loud.

“That’s—that’s fucked up.”

“It is. Mom was the second born, and a girl. In Asian cultures they want boys. Mom had a brother who worked for the army as a translator. He died in Vietnam. I try to rationalize that Mom must have felt slighted by how much attention he got. She was eight years younger than him and they never stopped grieving for him. There used to be a corner in the living room dedicated to him. The treehouse,” she gestured at a tall oak in the middle of the backyard, “was off limits when I was a kid because it was his. I don’t know. I wonder if I did something wrong or if she didn’t want to take care of Grandma.” She’d come up with a hundred reasons why her mother would turn her back on her family, but none of them rang of truth.

“Maybe your mom fell in love with the guy?”

“No, it was an arranged marriage. Mom married a widower with four kids. I met him once, when he came to pick her up to take her to the airport. He refused to call me Kellie and ignored Grandma.”

“He refused to call you by your name?”

She shook her head. “Kellie’s not really my name. Mom named me Cho Hee after Grandma, but it was too confusing when I was little so I decided I wanted to be Kellie.”

“Damn. Why Kellie?”

Kellie shrugged. “I liked it.” She pushed up and the plastic chair scraped across the concrete slab. “I’m going to run the soup inside and check on Grandma. Need anything?”

“Nope.” He put the empty bowls in the bag and handed it over. “I’ll be right here.”

Quin stood at the base of the tree and stared up at an old wooden platform built in the joint of two branches. He’d never had a treehouse as a kid, and the allure wasn’t lost on him. He eyed the boards nailed into the trunk and wondered if they would hold his weight.

He tossed a glance over his shoulder. Still no Kellie. Cho Hee. He wanted to make the strain disappear. He wanted to make her laugh and smile, but he didn’t know how.

He grasped one of the boards and pulled himself up as if he were doing chin-ups. Nothing moved. He grasped the next highest rung and began the climb in earnest, going slow in case the wood had rotted out or nails were lose. He reached the trap door without incident and hauled himself up.

Braches shielded a three-sided structure from view. He pulled out his cell phone and flicked on his flashlight app to get a better glimpse of his surroundings. A few cushions from deck chairs that looked practically new and cigarette butts littered the floor, along with dead leaves and limbs from the tree.

“Quin?”

He stuck his head out from the trap door and waved his phone at Kellie. “Up here.”

She paused for a moment, finally looking up at him. “What are you doing up there?”

“Join me?”

She chuckled. “Are you serious?”

“Yup.”

“Come on.”

“I don’t even know if this thing is safe anymore.” Still, she tucked the monitor into her waistband, grasped the first rung and began pulling herself up. “Don’t shine that in my eyes.”

“Sorry, how else am I supposed to look down your shirt?” He clicked the app off but lay on his stomach to watch her progress. She scaled the tree faster than he had and in a few moments was sitting on the ledge, gazing down at him.

“Huh, guess I should have expected kids to find it.” She swung her legs up and crossed them neatly beneath her.

“If I was a kid, this would be a sweet place to hang out.” He shifted and laid his head in her lap.

Kellie’s fingers brushed through his hair, massaging his scalp. He wrapped his hand around her wrist and brought her palm to his lips. He planted a kiss in the middle of her palm, and on each fingertip. He could hear her breathing hitch when he grazed her skin with his teeth.

He sat up and turned to face her, but Kellie was already leaning into him. Now he understood her need to burn off energy. He dug a hand into her damp hair before her lips could take his and pulled her head to the side, exposing the column of her neck. The muscles in her shoulders tensed when he nipped the sensitive spot just on the back of her neck. Her arm wrapped under his, her hand grasping his shoulder.

Knowing she liked it when he was rough, he scraped her with his stubble and nipped her ear.

“What do you want?” he asked as he tugged the neckline of her shirt down to expose more of her full breasts.

“Huh?” She turned into him, her lips seeking his.

He cupped her mound through the thin material of her yoga pants. “Do you want me to go down on you? Or do you want to tell me what to do?”

She stilled with her forehead against his temple, her parted lips brushing his cheek. Her hands released the hold on his shirt and slid around his shoulders to hug him. “I don’t want to think. I don’t want to make choices.”

“Come here.” He pulled her into his lap, but at the last moment she swung one leg over him so she straddled him. He pushed her hair back over her shoulders and cradled her face.

She’d carry the weight of the world on her shoulders and never complain. Compared to her he was a selfish bastard. Well, he could give back to her, show her he was learning to care. Cupping her face with both hands, he kissed her sweetly. His thumbs swept arcs across her skin and he suckled her lip between his teeth. Her fingers dug into his scalp and shoulder, her nails cutting little half arcs into his skin.

Quin tugged the monitor from her waistband and carefully set it against a baseboard where it would be safe. He also turned the volume up a little so they were serenaded with soft snoring. Kellie watched him, her expression as unreadable as ever. He wanted to accept this part of her life just like everything else.

She leaned forward and gave him a chaste kiss.

He grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head.

Kellie flicked the clasp on her bra and the fabric fell forward into his lap. Every time he saw her breasts he thought he’d lose it like a kid. They overflowed his hands, the tips hard points against his palms. Her hands covered his, squeezing.

If she wanted a little pain, he could deliver that too. He pinched the peaks simultaneously, pulling her breasts up and out. Kellie gasped and planted her hands on his knees behind her, thrusting her breasts at him. He lifted and pulled on them, giving the tender flesh a little twist as it slid from between his fingers.