Page 115 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

The doc didn’t crack even the slightest hint of a smile.They’d stopped for supplies along the way, and she was all business. Like shehad been the day he’d laid down his bike to avoid being decapitated—he justdidn’t think it would be a good look for him.

Her elegant brows crinkled as she poked and prodded. And herscent—that damned alluring fragrance that waftedaround him like heroin—made him lightheaded. “You probably have a broken rib ortwo.”

“They don’t feel broken. They just feel cracked.”

“Someday, you can explain the difference in how either ofthose feels to me.”

“Will do,” he said, his voice strained as she tried to coaxa burning piece of rock salt out of his side. “Aren’t those eyebrow tweezers?”

“You refused to go to the hospital. You get eyebrowtweezers.”

“As long as you sterilized them.”

“Oh, crap.” She stopped and studied the small instrument. “Iknew I forgot to do something.”

“You’re funny.”

“And you’re a jerk. I can’t believe you did that.”

“What?” he asked, completely offended. “Saved your ass?”

“I was doing fine.”

He snorted and then winced as she went in again. “This isgoing to max out my sodium intake for the entire week.”

A smile, at last. Not that he could see her full lips frombehind her mask, but her eyes crinkled at the corners, and an emotion he hadn’tfelt in a long time swelled inside his chest. Pride, perhaps? Adoration? Thedesire to spike a football and do a victory dance?

“Care to tell me what happened back there?”

She paused in her ministrations but didn’t look at him.

“I promise I can take it. Clearly, you have some kind ofsupernatural ability. You saw the leech, or whatever it was, leave that woman’sbody. Is that it? Are you psychic or something? Is that why you’ve neverquestioned what happens at the compound?”

She went back to work without answering.

“You know you can trust me, right? After all I’ve seen,nothing would surprise me.”

She huffed out a soft laugh, causing the tweezers to slip.

He tensed as a spasm of pain shot through him.

Her gorgeous eyes rounded as she glanced up. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry enough to tell me what’s going on?”

Her thick lashes fell over her irises again, and he felt theloss of that earthy, springtime gaze immediately.

“If I could, I would,” she said softly, her words barelyaudible from behind the powder-blue mask.

He shifted, hunting for a better position. It didn’t help.Nothing helped. He’d had cracked ribs before. They sucked and took weeks toheal. Which sucked even more. “After everything I’ve seen,” he said, giving uphis quest, “you think I can’t handle it? Or do you just not trust me?”

She put the tweezers down with a sigh. “Maybe a little ofboth.”

“Ah. So, getting shot for you didn’t earn me any browniepoints?”

After she studied him for a long moment, she said, “I thinkI got all the salt out, but a couple of those need stitches. Take a deepbreath.”

“Why?”