Page 81 of Lock Up the Darkness

Asher: Killian’s on an emotional tear again. Want me to keep him out of your way?

Killian: Coming by either way, so make it easier on yourself and give me a time.

Asher: Need you recovering. If he’s going to interfere with that and cause you stress, I’ll leash him. Let me know.

Jonah: Shit’s getting real on our end, firecracker. Batten down the hatches because one of them is coming at you, just not sure which one it’s gonna be.

Asher: Have it your way.

Killian: Fuck this waiting shit, Aurora.

Asher: Little tip… a bowl of ice-cream works wonders to calm him down. Syrup would give it that extra edge.

Killian: On my way to you.

Asher: A couple of my devices are missing. Expect your home security to be breached.

Killian: I’m here and you’re still not answering. Extreme measures it is.

“Jeez,” I breathed. I checked the timestamps. “All that happened in the space of three hours?”

“We work fast,” he said, then pulled out a first-aid kit and opened it up, gathering supplies.

The next thing I knew he was jerking the blanket down, then sidling up to me with everything at the ready to give me a couple of new stitches.

I kept my hand over my side. “It will be fine. It’ll stop bleeding.”

“There’s blood on your sheets. It’s dripping, darlin’.”

“Because it needs more time.”

He gave me a withering look. “Either you let me do it, or I take you to the ER right now.”

“Did you and Jonah have the same training?”

He scoffed. “I’ve had a hell of a lot more. Who do you think fixes those bastards up when they’re unleashing all that shit of theirs over one another—or others? Years of experience, trust me.”

“What about your on-call, concierge-type doctor you mentioned?”

“Some things, some injuries need to be kept private.”

“Isn’t that already the case if you’re paying him on the downlow?”

“Not from Carson Monroe. It would be on his radar. Asher found out a little ways back that the guy had a line to Carson and the bastard was using it to keep updated on us.”

“Jeez.”

“Yeah, it’s a whole lot of subterfuge. Now, pull your hand away and let me do this.”

I removed my hand slowly.

He handed me a medical wipe and I cleaned the blood off my fingers.

It turned out he was using that as a distraction to numb the wound, then get to work.

I flinched at the first contact of the needle, then went to that place immediately after, blocking it out and numbing my mind.

“Aurora? Aurora?”

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