“Yeah, okay. I’m sorry,” I mutter in Spanish. He knows what I mean by the tone of my voice, and I run my hand nervously through my hair as I watch him fix her.
“Her third rib is definitely broken. It doesn’t feel like it’s floating though, so she’s lucky as fuck that it didn’t puncture anything.” As he talks, I drop to my knees, elbows on the edge of the bed and I hold my hands under my chin while I watch her. His hands move to the other side, and the tortuous process of watching him touch her so methodically starts again. “Oh shit,” he says softly and I immediately sit up straighter.
“What?”
“Two ribs on this side are cracked, one in two places that I can feel. The fucker must have stomped on her after kicking her.” My fingers grip the blanket tightly as the anger fills me. “I need you to go get a chest binder of some kind. A big-ass ace bandage we can wrap around her chest, something like that.”
“I’ll stay here, you go.” I throw the words out there, never looking away from her. “But what about her head?”
Asher moves from her sides to focus on her head, slipping his fingers all around her neck, back of her head and up around the top.
“What are you doing?” I ask after a few minutes of watching him gently caress my girl.
“I’m checking to see if there’s any swelling, broken spots, anything like that,” he says, and lightly moves her hair out of her face. My jaw clenches but I don’t say anything. “There’s some swelling on the side of her head, we need to watch her carefully for the next twenty-four hours.”
“Obviously,” I say automatically because after this, she’ll be lucky to take a piss alone.
“No, I mean, we will need to wake her up every two hours or so and make sure she can answer basic questions, no screens, no TV, dim lighting, quiet sounds. She was recovering from aconcussion and then got hurt like this? It could be fatal if we don’t treat her gently.”
As he talks my heart clenches, fear overtakes my mind as I’m suddenly thrown into agony at how she might not wake up from this.
“She was talking completely fine earlier, maybe a little slurred, but nothing horrible.” I don’t know who I’m trying to convince that everything’s going to be okay. Him or me. Maybe us both.
“I’m going to go get the binder. You think she’ll be okay to take our pain meds or should I buy another bottle?”
“I think she’ll be okay, but buy a new one just in case. I know cash is tight, but…”
“No, I get it. This is important.” My chest tightens with gratitude and I know I’m so fucking lucky to have a best friend like him. Asher stands up fully, holding his hand out, “But I’ll have to borrow the bike.”
“Here,” I toss the keys to him. “Don’t wreck.”
“I’ll be back as quick as I can. If she wakes up before I get back; water, don’t move her, pain meds, ice,” he lists things off and I nod.
“Got it.”
Asher nods, turning to leave, but as soon as he gets to the door he stops, turning back to look at me and snarls, “He’ll pay for this.”
I don’t look at him, instead turn my attention fully to Roxie, holding her hand in mine gently.
“Yeah he will,” I say softly. “With his blood.”
CHAPTER 20
She doesn’t wakeup when Asher leaves.
Not when the door closes loudly. Not when the silence fills the room. Not when I start to fall apart.
What have I done?I just had to be her knight and go get her stuff. I don’t regret it, but I didn’t think Mickey would retaliate. I really didn’t. But I should’ve realized he’d send his lackey to get his hands dirty while he sits back. Fucking scum of the goddamn earth.
What am I going to do?I’m so angry right now, so scared, so…overwhelmed, that I don’t know what to do. I want to be here with her so she knows when she wakes up that she was never alone. I want to go hunt Mickey down and make him pay. I want to move us all out of this apartment and make it so no one can find us again.
My phone dings in my pocket breaking me out of a spiral. I sigh, pulling the phone out so I can see who could possibly need me at this moment.
Unknown: I told you not to fuck with me. You’re lucky, I heard Cory took it easy on her.
A second later another message arrives and my fingers curl around the small device tight enough that the plastic creaks under my hand.
Unknown: This is your final warning. Tell her to come home and pay her debt or next time it’ll be you.
