“Rusty?” Maddox threw out what we were all thinking.
“Yeah, if I had to guess.”
“Take your shirt off,” I instructed, flipping on the overhead lamp for additional light. The side table lamps weren’t enough.
Maddox helped him, lifting the soaking wet material over his head and pulling his arms through. Kreed gritted his jaw, hissing sharply through his teeth when Mason pressed a towel firmly against his side to staunch the bleeding.
“Hold still,” Mason muttered, his hands steady despite the situation, applying pressure as if he’d done this before and probably had. “You’re lucky as hell it’s not deeper. Looks like it mostly caught muscle, maybe grazed a rib.”
I could barely draw breath. There was so much blood. “Oh mygod,” I whispered, dropping to my knees beside the bed so I could be at his eye level.
His gaze collided with mine, gray eyes grim as rain continued to drip from his hair, running down his face. “I’m okay, little raven. I’ve had worse.”
If that was supposed to make me feel better, it didn’t.
“You’re going to need at least five or six stitches,” Mason advised. “Maybe more depending on how deep it actually goes.”
“Then do it quick,” Kreed muttered.
“Here, drink this.” Maddox thrust our half-empty bottle of gin at him, the one we’d been casually passing around just minutes ago in a completely different reality. “Take the edge off. I’m going to contact security and tell them to lock this entire place down. No one’s getting inside.”
Kreed didn’t waste breath arguing, just nodded once. His free hand wrapped around the bottle neck, and he tipped it back, throat working as he swallowed several burning mouthfuls without flinching.
“Hold this towel. Keep steady pressure directly on the wound.” Mason’s hands guided mine to replace his, warm fingers wrapping around my cold ones for just a moment before he pulled away. The towel beneath my palms was wet, completely saturated.
“Where are you going?” Panic inked into my voice. Everything was happening too fast, my mind scrambling to keep up while my body reacted on pure instinct.
“To get the medical kit from the office,” he said, already halfway to the door. “Dad keeps the good supplies in the cabinet. Back in thirty seconds.”
The blood kept coming despite my pressure, dark and slick, hot against my fingers, seeping through the towel’s weave no matter how hard I pressed down. Outside, the storm continued its assault on the windows, rain lashing the glass while thunder boomed in furious rhythm.
“Maybe you should lie down,” I suggested softly, afraid he might pass out. Hell, I might. Maybe I should be the one lying down.
Kreed’s lips twitched into not quite a smile. “I’m good.”
He absolutely wasn’t good. His skin had gone pale…too pale. He leaned heavily against the carved bedpost.
All I could think while watching him bleed into white towels while thunder shook the house was that no matter how hard I tried to keep him safe, no matter how many precautions we took, danger always seemed to find him with unerring accuracy.
I imagined that was how he felt about me.
Yet somehow, inevitably, I was always to blame. This had to end. I needed it to be over. Not just for my sanity but for those around me. If these guys who attacked Kreed had done worse, if they had…I didn’t even want to think of the worst case; I would have died alongside him.
My chest constricted until drawing breath became painful labor. “What if this is part of Rusty’s plan?” I whispered, the words barely audible over the storm. “To systematically take you all out one by one? Isolate me?”
“It’s going to take considerably more than a few amateur thugs roughing me up and a flesh wound to take me out, little raven.”
“Now’s really not the time for arrogance,” I said, pressing harder against the wound and trying not to notice how much blood was staining my hands. “You’re not invincible, Corvo. You bleed just like everyone else. Obviously.”
Mason reappeared carrying a small black bag. “Here.” He passed me a brown bottle of disinfectant and a stack of pristine white gauze. “Clean around the wound while I get the needle and thread ready. Don’t pour it directly in yet; wait for my signal.”
Kreed’s glare fixed on his brother. “I told you to watch her, not get in bed with her. Don’t think I didn’t notice.”
Mason’s smirk was absolutely shameless as he threaded the surgical needle. “At least your wits are still functioning. I couldn’tpass up the opportunity when it presented itself. You wouldn’t have either in my position.”
“That’s because she’smygirlfriend,” Kreed growled.
Silence fell so completely that even the thunder outside seemed to hold its breath in shock. Rain continued hammering the windows, but the sound felt distant, muffled.
