Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

VOODOO

H er face had gone positively ashen. That should have been my first warning, but with everything else, I hadn’t focused on her color. Not under the flashlight or dashboard lights. It wasn’t enough illumination. I let the bags fall as I caught her before her head could slam into the side of the car.

Sweeping her up, I balanced her against my chest. Bones melted back out of the darkness, his expression fierce as he gave her a hard look. “What happened?”

“No clue,” I said, and left him to grab the go bags as I carried her inside. I needed to get her under light so I could get a good look at what was going on with her. The darkness kept us shielded and hopefully it was enough.

Inside, the lights were on in the bathroom and near the door. It was a large room with a wood floor, two oversized queen beds, and far more space that two people needed for an overnight. Right now, I just wanted to get a look at the firecracker.

She looked worse under the yellowy light if it were possible. The ashen color turned to something far more ill. The bags hit the floor near the door before it closed. Bones strode across the room and grabbed some towels. Then he was spreading them on the bed.

“She’s bleeding,” he said and I laid her down carefully. The blood was coming from her back. It had soaked through the shirt and onto my arm. “The question is did she get hit or is this just her surgical site opening?”

“Fuck a blind duck,” I muttered, then stripped off my jacket. I didn’t care about the blood on me. “Grab a med kit out of the bags, then go and get rid of the car.”

“That’s usually your job,” Bones reminded me, but he didn’t waste time on retrieving the first aid box out of the bag. We didn’t carry a lot with us, just enough to patch on the go. Medical could wait—most of the time.

The t-shirt she wore was definitely sticking to her and the only way to get it off would be to wrestle it up and over. Not ideal at the moment. I pulled the knife out of the sheath where it rested at the small of my back.

“You’re not as good with her,” I reminded him. He’d been downright cold with her and while I got it, she didn’t, and frankly, she didn’t deserve to suffer while we figured things out. “I’m also better at stitches.”

I slit through the cotton. It offered almost no resistance to the sharp edge. She wore a tiny lace bra under the shirt. It was all white and didn’t hide her nipples or anything else about her to be honest. For now, I pocketed the mental snapshot to admire later.

Moving Grace onto her side, I balanced her as I peeled the t-shirt away from her back. The blood was definitely escaping around the pressure bandage the Network doctor had pressed into place.

“No lifting,” I muttered. She hadn’t lifted so much as struggled. The tumble down the hill probably didn’t help. Then she chose to leave the Jeep. Considering the gunfire it took, I couldn’t really blame her.

“We have what you need?” Bones returned from the bathroom with a wet wash cloth. As I held her in place, he wiped down the more visible blood, gradually revealing her skin. The bandage was soaked a deep red. We were going to have to change it out entirely.

“I think so,” I said, then I rolled her onto her front, using pillows to balance her. I needed to make sure she didn’t suffocate while I treated this. Once she was balanced, I used the remnants of her shirt to wipe down my hands. “Gimme a sec.”

I washed my hands in the bathroom, then gathered up the rest of the towels before returning to where she was out. The breathing was deep and regular. Hopefully, that meant she’d stay out while I did this.

Flipping open the case, I pulled out a set of gloves. Located suture needles, then the thread, and antiseptic. We had a handful of medications including antibiotics. No lidocaine.

We needed to restock.

I set out a stack of fresh gauze, then another pressure seal. I needed to pull the original bandage off and check the rest. We had some skin glue, so I’d use that if I could, but I worried there was significant damage. Until I got a good look, I wouldn’t know.

With everything ready, I pulled on the gloves. “You going?”

“You trying to get rid of me?” The words didn’t seem to house any judgment.

I spared him a look. From his bloodied and raw knuckles to the blood on his shirt, he looked every inch the man who’d just waded through a group and killed two with his bare hands. Bones enjoyed a good fight, all of us did. But when he got angry, people died in brutal fashion.

At the moment, the flat look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know about his mood. Them coming after her with him right there just pissed him the fuck off. I couldn’t say it hadn’t made me angry—twice on my watch they’d gotten too damn close.

“Yes,” I told him, not willing to play a game right now. “We need to debrief, but you’ll handle it better if I doctor her up while you get rid of the car and make sure our tail is clear.”

“How did they find her that fast?” The question had been bugging me since I picked up the people following.

“I think they’ve been on us since the clinic. I think they were biding their time and just fell in and followed. If they kept their distance, they could have hidden their approach.” It was all I had. “We did a whole body scan with the x-rays. There was only the one device.”

“With it out and them gone, then she should be in the clear.” He didn’t sound like he believed it anymore than I did at the moment. A muscle ticked in his jaw as I began to peel the tape back from the wound. I was using the damp cloth to keep wetting the edges so I could pull it away with doing more damage.

“That’s a working theory,” I said, then gave the little firecracker all of my attention. From her dark hair and delicate features to the lightness of her bones, she seemed almost insubstantial. After Lunchbox pointed out she was a model, I skimmed some of her advertising spots.

Whether she was dressed to the nines or in nothing but a thong, everything about Grace Black captivated. I thought she was even more beautiful without the cosmetics, gems, or fancy clothes.

The door closed softly and I spared a glance at it. Bones was on his way. Blowing out a breath, I focused on Grace to finish getting that bandage off. The bleeding bothered me, along with the fact she fainted. So far I hadn’t found any other wounds, but I also wasn’t seeing any blood from anywhere else.

It took me about thirty minutes to free the bandage without tearing her more, then to clean the wound. It had pulled wide. He had used steri-strips rather than stitches. As tempted as I was to sew her up, I checked the wound from top to bottom, flushed it out, then used fresh skin glue to close it before using what the doctor had.

He’d said something about reducing scarring. Probably a concern for Grace. I had more than a few of my own. Once I had the wound closed and resealed, I checked her pupils. They weren’t reacting fully, but they were reacting.

“Okay, Firecracker, let’s go over everything shall we?” I stripped off her shoes, then her socks. The jeans went next. It kind of killed me how slender she was. The fact I couldn’t quite see her ribs didn’t give me a lot of assurance about her diet.

There was a bruise around her ankle. One that looked like it had been made by a circle of some kind. A shackle? Possibly. There were bruises on her knees and legs. Most looked like something she could have gotten running into something.

Casual injuries, nothing to worry about. I went over her hips and abdomen. There were bruises on her hips—finger-shaped bruises. I just made a mental catalog of every mark on her. When I’d finally assured myself that she wasn’t hiding any other injuries, I pulled out one of my t-shirts and slid it over her before I tucked her into the other bed so I could clean this one up.

Her pulse was steady, her breathing deeper, and her color looked better now that I got the bleeding stopped. Hopefully, she was just sleeping this off. I sacked up the towels that would have to leave with us. Not leaving a blood trail behind was the way to go.

I made the cheap hotel room coffee and killed a couple of protein bars. My phone screen was cracked and didn’t want to respond to half of what I did. We’d need to replace it the following day.

As it was, I checked in with Lunchbox and Alphabet. They’d been watching at the clinic, so they knew about the tracker. The text took a little finagling to send through.

When Alphabet asked how she was doing, I glanced over at her peaceful expression. Then went with the truth.

Me:

She’s asleep. It’s been a hard day for her.

Alphabet:

Let us know when you’re on the road tomorrow. I’ll keep an eye on your six.

I sent him back a thumbs up. We’d brief them on the ambush later. For now, I settled in at a table and cleaned one of my guns while the other sat on the table next to me. Bones might be a while, but I still wasn’t sleeping until I heard from him or he was back.

When I finished cleaning the first gun and put it back together, I started on the second. I had it reassembled and pulled out the whetstone. With care, I went over my knives. I wanted all three sharp.

It was nearing ten when my phone buzzed.

Bones

Took longer than I planned to acquire new wheels. Going to park on the lookout next to the hotel. Get some sleep. I’ll call you at five.

That was all I needed to hear. I packed everything up, got the gear ready to go. Double-checked the doors, then eyed the beds. If I slept on the other one, it put her between me and the window as well as the external door.

Any attack was more likely going to come at us from that direction. I checked my watch, shut off all the lights except a single one in the bathroom in case she woke up, then I settled on the bed next to her.

I was on top of the covers. Gun on the nightstand and in easy reach. One arm behind my head, I closed my eyes. Sleep was a discipline as much as anything else.

Right now, I needed sleep.

When a hand touched my side, I flicked my eyes open and glanced down at her. She’d moved for the first time since I put her in the bed. She rolled onto her side and pressed up against me.

If I were a good guy, I’d shift her back into her spot. If I were a good guy, I wouldn’t just enjoy the contact. While I wasn’t a bad guy, I wasn’t opposed to her leaning on me.

A little sound escaped her and I shushed her. “Shhh, sleep Firecracker. You’re safe.”

I wasn’t sure if she believed me or she wasn’t ready to wake up yet, but she went back to sleep. When her breathing deepened and relaxed, I closed my eyes again.

Dawn would be here soon enough.