Lisa returned with a stack of clean towels. Luca took them from her and set them on the counter beside me before leaving again.
"This is going to hurt like a bitch," he warned me as he soaked a towel in antiseptic.
I nodded, steeling myself for the pain. Luca pressed the towel against the wound and I hissed through my teeth, my fingers digging into the countertop. He cleaned the area thoroughly, ignoring my grunts of pain.
"Hold this," he instructed, guiding my hand to press the towel against the wound. He moved around to my back, repeating the process with the exit wound.
Luca finished cleaning and dressing the wounds, and then we waited for the doctor to arrive.
"What the hell were you thinking?" he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.
I met his gaze unflinchingly. "She deserved to know the truth."
"And you thought the best way to tell her was to just blurt it out like that?"
I shrugged, instantly regretting the movement as pain lanced through my shoulder. "There's no good way to tell someone you killed their mother."
Luca dragged a hand over his face, letting out a heavy sigh. "Jesus Christ, Tristan."
I shrugged. "She needed to know."
"Perhaps she didn't," he argued.
"She did," I countered. No matter what this did to our relationship, it was better that it came from me. If she'd found out the truth months or years from now, there's no way we would ever recover from that. At least this way, I'd been honest with her.
"Where is she now?" Enzo asked quietly.
"In the cell."
"Is she all right?"
I shook my head. "I don't think so. But I didn't hurt her, if that's what you're asking. She's just…sad. And angry."
"Where is the key?" Luca asked quietly.
My eyes shot to his. "I'm not telling you."
"Luca, let him handle her," Enzo said.
"She fucking shot him."
"You touch her, and I'll sink my knife into your throat," I hissed.
He was unmoved by my threat. "She needs to know that this kind of behavior isn't acceptable."
"And you need to let me handle her. Or should I start interfering in your relationship with Veda?"
His blue eyes narrowed, but he said nothing more about it.
The doctor arrived shortly after, his brow furrowed with concern as he examined the wounds, nodding approvingly at Luca's handiwork. "You did a good job cleaning these," he said to Luca. "But you should've called me immediately," he told me. "A little longer and you'd be dead."
I waited for that news to spark something in me, but all I thought about was never seeing Luna again.
"I'll stitch this up and give you some antibiotics to prevent infection," he continued. "And you could use some blood. You've lost too much."
I nodded.
"I'll try not to touch you," he told me. "But?—"
