The Rules of Survival (Mercer #1)

RoS Chapter Eighteen

Giving up on keeping my head at an angle where I could see what was going on, I let it fall back onto Justice's arm. Pulling the blankets tighter around myself; there were three of them piled on top of me, I tried in vain to stifle a yawn that caught Sal's attention.

"Morning," he said, voice soft.

I blinked at him in response. Truth be told I was pretty mortified – so much so that actual words failed me. Last night's events resurfaced with vivid clarity. I'd really lost it, crying so hard and loud it had left me with a raw throat and swollen eyes. I'd been so consumed with releasing some of my pent up emotion, I didn't actually remember making my way to bed.

"Uh, how did I get here?" I asked.

Sal's lips turned up at the edges. "How do you think?" His gaze flicked towards Justice, and I groaned internally.

My face flamed red. "So I didn't walk in here, then."

"Nope. I offered to drag you in here myself, seeing as Montoya's not quite a hundred percent, and nearly got smacked for my efforts. Not that it mattered. You wouldn't let go of him for a second. And when he finally got you onto the bed, you blubbered every time he looked like he was going to take a step away from you."

Oh, God, no. I groaned and flung my right arm over my eyes. Great. Just great. Apart from being forced to console me, Justice had carried me from the bathroom to the bedroom. If I were him, I would have left me in a heap on the bathroom floor and called it a night, shut the door on the way out and told everyone else not to disturb me.

"Where are the kids?" I asked, though I wasn't worried about them. Justice wouldn't have been napping if he wasn't certain my brothers and sisters were perfectly safe. I moved my arm enough so that I could see Sal out of the corner of my eye.

"School," he said, and glanced at his watch. "It's noon. Gin took them this morning, and she'll pick them up later."

"And Mycha?" My stomach fluttered with unease. Mycha had refused to talk to me last night. Not that I could blame him after how I'd embarrassed him in front of everyone.

"He's sleeping in your mother's room. I told him he couldn't go to school without Ray there."

I raised my eyebrows at him, an unspoken question.

Sal's lips quirked even further. "I heard about your run in with those Tancredo whores, and how you've got that pendejo Rafe all eager to re-decorate your face. Didn't want to send little Mycha off to school and give them the opportunity they need to get back at you. You know, in case they suddenly develop the intelligence needed to make that leap. According to Ray, they've practically forgotten you and him are related." Sal paused and leaned forward a couple inches. "I gotta know, though. Did you really break some girl's leg, and dislocate someone else's shoulder?"

"It was an accident," I blurted, lifting my head from Justice's shoulder to glare at him. "Well, kind of."

"Don't forget that puta whose nose you broke."

This came from Ray, who'd been roused from his slumber. Pushing himself up, he sat with his back against the bed. His hair was standing on end, and his left cheek had faint indentations from where his face had been pressed into the mattress. He grinned at me, still half asleep, and I detected worry in his eyes. I didn't need to ask what he was doing spending the night at my house. Justice or Sal would have filled him in, and he would have dropped everything and come straight over.

I wondered if he'd arrived in time to witness my waterworks. Something in the way he scrutinized me told me he'd at least caught the end of it. Or, maybe he was regarding me like I'd lost my marbles due to the fact that overnight I'd gone from spitting fire in Justice's general direction to hijacking his arm for comfort. Yeah, that might explain it.