If anything, the way he was protective of their time together, and insistent on her privacy, made me respect him alittlemore.
When they walk back in, the change in Quinn is obvious. Her hair is pulled back off her face and tied down in a low bun. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say she’s in work mode.
Over her shoulder, she’s got clean towels, and in her hands, she’s got a collection of things resembling a badly put-together first-aid kit.
“Can you get some hot water for me, please?”
Kade’s gone before I can offer to do it.
She kneels on the floor next to her attacker, and without waiting, she grips the torn fabric of his pants and rips them open. Interestingly, she doesn’t jump immediately into action. She sits back, her thoughts ticking loudly as she assesses his injuries before she decides what she’s going to do.
“Take a few steps back. You’re crowding me.” She looks up and speaks to the dogs, then turns to include me.
We all move.
As soon as Kade arrives back with a bucket of hot water, Quinn dives into the task with focused precision. And it’s a sight to see. Not once does she hesitate or alter what she’s doing. It’s like she’s worked through the process in her head, can see whatneeds to be done step by step, and won’t let anything distract her focus.
“You’re not a normal doctor, are you?” I ask, only when she’s finished.
Kade laughs quietly, again looking at me like I’m an idiot. “The sooner you realize there’s nothing normal about Quinn, the less you’re going to embarrass yourself.”
Chapter Seventeen
QUINN
My focus is stopping the blood loss, as opposed to making sure he recovers from his injury. From an ethical point of view, I’m not breaching any of the core principles of the Hippocratic oath. From a personal point of view, I’m only doing what needs to be done to keep someone who set out to intentionally hurt me alive.
In my opinion, he’s lucky I have such strong morals, or he would have been in absolute agony as he bled out.
I look up at Kade, who’s been quietly assisting. “That’s about all I can do. When Sergey or his second-in-command returns, they can decide if they want to call a doctor or take him to a hospital. I’m not calling an ambulance, especially when there are wild dogs outside. I’d be mortified if someone trying to do their job got hurt.”
“That’s fair,” Kade says as he starts gathering everything we’ve used.
Santiago walks back into the room as I’m finishing up, good timing on his part. He hasn’t been sitting around, doing nothing. He excused himself as soon as I started, saying he’d find the fuse box to turn back on the power, deal with the other bodies, and make the house as secure as possible.
I needed him to go, though. The two of them here together, after the day I’ve had, have sent me spiraling. It’s a lot to take in, and I haven’t even started unpacking that the two of them are here yet. So, I do what I know I’m good at, which is saving lives.
Without question, there’s a story about how the two of them got together, then arrived here, but we haven’t had much of a chance to say more than a few words yet. We will, though, because I want to know everything.
Now that my would-be attacker isn’t going to die, I need to eat; it’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last ten minutes. I’m sure some people would be grossed out, thinking of food while staring at the inside of someone’s broken knee, but when you work around blood and guts and see death as often as I have, you become somewhat desensitized.
Standing up, I purposely look at them both. “I'm going to take a quick shower. Can we meet in the small downstairs kitchen? I made roasted chicken.”
I don’t need to explain where the kitchen is. Kade already explained that’s how he entered the house before I told him to shut up and let me work.
The black dog follows me. He’s become my shadow since Santiago and Kade showed up. It’s odd how quickly our interaction has changed. He scared the shit out of me not that long ago, but now I feel like he’s always been around, kind of like a friend.
He follows me inside my bedroom and I firmly shut the door behind us. I leave the door to my bathroom wide open as I undress for my shower. It’s not like my shadow is going to letKade or Santiago come anywhere near me, anyway. He snapped at Kade once, and once was enough of a warning.
Grabbing for my body wash, it takes a second to realize it’s not my usual brand. Popping the lid, almost immediately the bathroom is full of the smell of the owner of my furry companions. It’s not as good as his actual scent, but the mix of the woody, smoky, and leather notes of the body wash have my nipples tightening as his bite on my hand practically glows silver.
“Fuck’s sake, Quinn,” I grumble, flicking the water to cold, hoping to douse the flames. I’d like to get my butt downstairs and eat my weight in food without smelling like I need to get laid. “Pull yourself together.”
It doesn’t work. It does the opposite, and when the throb becomes way too hard to ignore, I flick the shower back to warm, knowing I have to deal with my latest issue. I sit on my butt, grabbing the handheld shower and playing with the setting until the water pressure hits just right.
And in the safety of my bathroom, I don’t even bother feeling bad about needing to come. It might be biology, and perhaps I’m being a slave to my body, but at the same time, knowing I can bring myself relief is a sign of my strength. I’ve learned to lean in to things that make me feel like myself.
As I soap up my breasts, my hands shake in eagerness. My nipples are like hard peaks already, and my pussy throbs. I close my eyes, sinking into memories, and follow the trail of slippery bubbles down my body.
