“Jesus, Charley.” Walker guides me to a chair to sit down. He grabs a towel from the chair behind me and places it under my arm. “Ellie do you have any tweezers?”
“There should be some on one of the tables. If you’re about to do something gross, I’m leaving. Do I need to call an ambulance?”
“No,” I protest. “I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”
“There is glass in the cut, Charley.”
“Okay, I’m leaving and I’m putting in a call about this. No one hurts a member of our staff and gets away with it. I don’t give a fuck who their daddy is.”
She disappears while Walker gets the tweezers. I’m not squeamish. I’ve learned to deal with injuries over the years. Still, it hurts when he pulls out the small glass shards. He’s so good at it, he must be used to this kind of thing.
“Walker?” I ask, as he cleans off the blood.
“Yeah?”
“Who is Mr. Cantrell?”
He frowns and looks up at me. “That’s who did this?”
“It was an accident,” I say with a note of sarcasm in my tone.
“His father is connected.”
“To what?” Walker laughs and I realize what he means. “Oh God. Like that.”
“Yeah, like that. They’re not good people but then again, who is? You don’t need stitches but I’m going to put some of these on to keep it together before I bandage it. You’re lucky,” he smiles. “It won’t need amputating.”
“Good to know,” I smile back. “Thank you.”
He sets the butterfly stitches on after cleaning the blood and wraps a bandage around it. Lily has come in by the time he’s finished which I’m glad about because she didn’t have to see Walker fixing me up, but hereyes widen in horror at the mess around us. Walker starts gathering it up.
“Jesus, Charley, what happened?”
“Nothing, I just dropped a tray and cut myself.” Walker lifts his eyes to mine but keeps his head down. “I’m fine.”
“Does it hurt? That’s a stupid question. Here, I have some pain pills that will help.”
“I don’t like taking pills.”
“Relax, its over-the-counter stuff, it’s not strong but it will take the edge off. Do you need a hospital?”
“She’s fine, Lily.” Walker stands and looks over at her. She stops talking. “The pills will help, Charley, that is gonna hurt.”
I guess that means I’m taking the pills, I read the box when she hands it to me. It’s not that I don’t trust her but I don’t like the idea of not being in control of myself. This brand is non-drowsy, so I follow the directions and take two.
Walker offers to take me home, but I have Callum’s car so I tell him I’m fine.
“Can you let Ellie know and… tell her I said thank you.”
Walker nods and heads out. Lily chuckles about my being clumsy again and I let her run with it.
As I drive back to Callum’s house, I’m not sure whether I want him to be there or not. This would be one way to break the tension, but I doubt it would be in a good way. I’ve heard enough times that the Disciples protect the girls. Or maybe he wouldn’t care…
That isn’t true, he’s already proven that in the way he treats me now.
None of it matters, because he isn’t here when I get home.
It’s hard to fall asleep. Despite the pain relief the cut is throbbing, and I’m too scared to take a shower because I’ll never be able to re-wrap it the way Walker did. And for a long time, I listen out for Callum coming home.
