CILLIAN
“What time arewe supposed to meet Ransom and the men he dug up?” I asked, while sitting on my arse at the kitchen table in the safe house. I sipped a glass of ice-cold orange juice, the sweet tanginess bright on my tongue, and stared at the steady hands of Doc Suwak. He tilted his head and the sunlight streaming in the windows glinted on his black hair. The kitchen was painted a cheerful pink and I wanted to take a torch to the walls. Doc Suwak stitched up Aspen’s shoulder, and he’d put some spray and such on the area to make it numb while he worked, but the sight made me twitchy. I gritted my teeth each time he delicately sank the silver needle into Aspen’s umber skin.
It looked like the doc’s work should hurt and I wanted to slap the shite out of him. I hated this.
“Eight on the dot. We have a while.” Aspen also watched Doc Suwak, not fazed in the least.
I couldn’t help it. I reached over and snagged Aspen’s hand where it rested on his knee. He glanced at me and gave my fingers a squeeze.
“Does it hurt?” I asked quietly. My face flooded with heat as Doc Suwak cut a small glance in my direction.
Aspen gave me a tiny smile. “Nah. The painkillers are doing their job. Even if they weren’t, I would be fine. I’m a Company man.” He winked at me like an arsehole.
I snorted. “Ye don’t have to placate me. I’m not Vail.”
“No, Vail would’ve been in my lap right now, wiggling on my dick to give me something better to think about.”
I smirked. “Aye, he would.”
Doc Suwak grinned at us. He had interesting cedar-brown eyes, thick black eyebrows, golden skin and—“I’ll leave ye some good shite to knock out that pain. Ye’re staring a lot there, Cillian. How’s yer head?”—an Irish accent that made me feel right at home.
“Fine. Ye from Kerry, Doc?”
A bright smile quirked his curvy lips. “Aye. Me ma’s from Kerry and she raised me there with her family. We lived with me grandad and grandmum and me two aunts. Me da’s from California. He wasn’t much for children and hoofed it, but he sent Ma money until I was out of medical training, so I suppose that’s something. I never met him in person.” He shrugged a shoulder.
“That’s rough,” Aspen said.
“Eh, that’s life.” Doc Suwak tied off the knot on his final stitch, sitting back. “I found a job here with Mr. Killough that pays well and lets me spend most of my free time on the beach, so how bad could it all be?” He shook his head and sighed, lightly touching the skin around Aspen’s stitches. “This’ll sting like the devil’s poking it with his pitchfork later, I’m afraid. Keep up with the meds or deal with it, yer choice. Antibiotics are a must. Don’t argue. Just take ’em.”
Aspen grunted. “I have shit to do and have to be ready. No pain meds.”
Doc Suwak closed his eyes for a moment, then glared. “Knew it was too much expectin’ ye to rest, but that’s me advice, whether or not ye take it, same as the tablets. I can’t make ye be healthful.”
“I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to ye.” I rubbed my chin against Aspen’s hand, and he shoved my face away as I snagged him with my stubble. “Take the shite for pain.”
Aspen smiled at me, and my heart flipped. “It’s not that bad. It’s barely a flesh wound.”
I scowled. “It shouldn’t’ve happened to ye at all.” My head hurt and I fought not to get lost in the constant dull throbbing. Doc Suwak put ointment and a waterproof bandage over Aspen’s stitches. When I found Joaquin I was going to give him a few slices before I shot him. I smiled. Yes, I would make sure to hurt him exactly how he’d hurt Aspen.
Doc Suwak took off the gloves he’d been wearing and tossed them in a garbage can he’d dragged to the table earlier. “Now, let me see ye,” he said, turning toward me. Doc Suwak assessed me mostly by staring into my eyes, which I hated. Aspen chuckled while I pursed my lips. “Ye took a blow to the head. Did ye pass out?”
“Aye, but only for a minute.” I shrugged. “Hardly worth mentioning.”
Aspen sighed.
“Are ye nauseated?” Doc Suwak gestured for me to lean forward so he could look at the back of my head, and I suffered through him poking around.
“No.”
“Headache?”
“Aye. With yer fiddlin’.”
Doc Suwak sat back and crossed his arms, glaring at the top of my head instead of looking me in the eye as I straightened, and after about a minute of that treatment I began to feel indignant.
“M’fine!”
“No, ye’re not, but if ye start to feel worse instead of better, call me. I’m not inclined to get ye in for testing ye don’t need, but I mean anything at all, and ye call. Fever. Pain gets worse. Anything.” His nostrils flared, and I began to worry he wouldn’t go away unless I agreed, which I did not need.
