Once the string’s ready, my hand freezes above the gash. It starts shaking uncontrollably. What the fuck am I doing? I can’t stitch someone’s body back together. Tears fill my eyes, blurring my vision, but I still see Caden’s face. His lax features that have always been so tight and taunting. He has no idea what I’m doing, what’s happening to him. If he did, would he refuse? Would he even want me here? Why am I even helping him when all he’s done is bully me and hurt me?
A warmth comes across my hand and I’m pulled back from my spiralling thoughts. Fiz has come beside me, his hand covering mine holding the needle.
“It’s okay, princess, you got this,” his voice is so tender now, a gentle caress of soft lips on my ear.
“I can’t.”
“You can,” he whispers, his body close to mine behind me, his breath fluttering through my hair. “I believe in you, you can save him.”
His other hand comes to rest on the small of my back, and I suck in a large breath.
“Please, save him, Elodie. I need him.”
A tear spills over as I blink and falls down my cheek as I stare at this man, incapacitated and helpless. Possibly dying.
“Princess,” Fiz starts circling the hand on my back. “Be the hero. Just think, if you save Caden’s life now, he’ll owe you forever. A life debt.”
I choke on something caught between a laugh and sob. I sniffle and with a steadier hand, I lower it down to Caden’s skin.
It’s cold and damp. Fiz doesn’t move from his position, only strokes his hand from mine up my forearm, as if anchoring me, letting me know I’m not doing this alone. I’ll take the comfort that comes with it, there’s no time to rebuke it.
I press the tip of the needle into the skin, and I hear both of us hold our breath. It breaks through with a pop that makes my spine stiffen, but Fiz’s massaging softens it again. It actually becomes quite easy after the first few, trying to stay focused on the laceration and not the terrifying tattoos around it. The rise and fall of his chest are still rapid, but at least he’s alive. The gash strikes through his grim reaper tattoo, right through the skull, and from my not-so-tidy sewing, no matter how meticulous I try to be, the tattoo will never be neat again. But maybe the canvas will survive long enough to get it retouched.
Fiz lets me go when Caden groans and his head rolls to the other side. He rushes over to him on the other side. “Cade? Bro? Can you hear me?”
He only responds with a strangled grunt.
Fiz strokes his wet hair back from his face in the same gentle way he rubbed circles on my back. “I’m here, Cade. Stay with us.”
With Caden’s face clear, I can see his furrowed brow. He can feel me prodding and poking him.
I stay silent, worried that if he hears or even senses me, then it could be game over. He might reject me, and right now, I’m his only hope.
Sarge hadn’t moved from my other side either, but once Caden moves his head, Sarge leaps right onto the table and starts licking at his bloodied face.
Caden groans again, but his eyes never open.
Finally, I get the skin sewn back together. He doesn’t move again. I check his pulse, it’s still fast, but it’s there. My body collapses into the chair next to me, feeling too heavy to hold upright.
Fiz does the same on the other side.
The silence that fills the room is swollen with relief and exhaustion.
Fiz pulls his phone out. “Higgins will be here soon.”
My body goes rigid as Sarge hops down from the table and pads up to me. I grip the chair tight. But all the brute does is come up to my seat, nuzzles his nose into my leg and then returns next to Caden.
A ghost of a smile plays on my lips.You’re welcome.
“What even happened tonight?” I say, looking at the blood coating my fingers.
“Job gone wrong,” Fiz says. “We got details that the place would only have three men. Quick in and out. We knew where the gold was, where the men should be stationed. Everything,like usual. But we walk in and there’s ten of them. Ten fucking tanks.”
I blow out a long breath. “If that’s the case, then one stab wound is a fucking miracle.”
Fiz plays with his lower lip with a finger and thumb, staring at Caden. “It was my fault.” It’s quiet, almost to himself.
“Why?”
