Uncaged Love Volume 5 Read Online Free PDF Page A

talking about basketball scores.
    Buster comes up behind me and puts his hands on the back of the wheelchair in a protective stance. My heart is hammering enough that I can feel it banging against the wound in my shoulder.
    “Here it comes again,” The Cure says. “Lovely little segment. They rotate it through about every half hour.” The Cure perches on one side of the sofa, his arms crossed over his suit front.
    A woman reporter comes on, holding a microphone. “And in an unexpected twist, the girlfriend of injured MMA fighter Colt McClure, who is still in the hospital in critical condition after being shot, turns out to have a violent history of her own.”
    I grip the arm of the wheelchair with my good hand.
    “After pictures of the girl hit the national media following the brutal attack in an alley behind the gym where the couple trains, her stepmother and stepbrother came forward with a shocking allegation.”
    The footage cuts away to an image of Retta and Rich standing outside the old house where I once lived. Just seeing the front door makes sweat pop along my brow. Rich is leaning on a walking cane, his face screwed up like he’s in perpetual pain. With one glance, I already don’t buy it.
    He’s older now, but looks mostly the same. Retta has dyed her hair black and fusses with it as the reporter points a microphone in her direction.
    “That ungrateful girl beat my poor boy senseless and stole half the things from our house,” Retta says.
    I leap from the wheelchair. “That’s a lie!”
    “Careful, Jo,” Buster says. “Settle down.” He pushes me back into the chair.
    Rich talks next. “When we saw she was a fighter, I finally understood how she got to me.”
    Right. He has to explain how his little sister took him down.
    Retta grabs at the mike. “Rich has been through three years of physical therapy for his injuries by that crazy girl. He can’t even work.”
    I want to snort. Like he ever worked. He managed to blow every interview Retta set up for him. On purpose, no doubt.
    “I hope they find her and make her pay for what she did to him. She’s dangerous. She needs to be locked up.” One of Retta’s false eyelashes comes loose on the end and flaps like a bird wing.
    “That’s enough,” The Cure says. Eve lifts the remote and shuts off the television.
    And everyone in the room turns to look at me.

Chapter Seven  

    Buster speaks first. “Is that the stepmother you mentioned?”
    I nod. I feel cornered. I don’t want to talk about all the things Rich did. And I know the answers to all the basic questions make me look bad. Yes, I beat him. Yes, I ran. No, I didn’t call for help. Yes, I left him to die on the floor.
    It’s like one of those moments in a movie when the hero is in the center of a circle of soldiers all aiming their swords at his throat.
    But I don’t have any heroic way of getting out of this one.
    “Jo?” Eve asks quietly. “What did that boy do to you?”
    My chin quivers. She gets it. She knows I wouldn’t blow without a reason.
    I glance over at the orderly. He whirls around and heads for the door. The hired guards are outside. In this room now, it’s just me and Buster and Colt’s parents. I am so grateful for Buster I could weep. I don’t know how I would be getting through this without him.
    “I think these are questions that can wait for another day,” Buster says. “Let’s get Jo back into bed. She’s not even a full day out on her surgery.”
    Eve stands up. “Come, Geoffrey. Let’s go check on Colt.” She watches Buster pull back the covers to the bed.
    I don’t really want to get in there, but I do. As much as I want to see Colt again, I don’t think I can do it with his father around.
    “Someone will bring your things from your room,” The Cure says. “I’ll work on finding a lawyer to go deal with the police so they won’t try barging in here.”
    I hug the covers to my chest. “Colt already hired one.”
    Eve raises her perfectly