Page 67 of Loving Smoke

Hanging over Smoke’s shoulder fireman-style gave me an upside-down view of the chaos unfolding around us. A hysterical urge to laugh bubbled up in my throat at how apropos the scene played out, but I couldn’t think of that now. I couldn’t think at all with the acrid smell of gun powder filling my nose and the deafening sound of gunshots exploding around me.

My stomach bounced against Smoke’s shoulder as he raced us out of the foyer, then down the stone steps and onto the driveway. Something sliced my side followed by a burning sensation, then a weird numbness. Smoke spun around and I caught sight of Ricky and Bolt guns drawn firing their own shots at my father’s guards. Screaming, cursing, and then Smoke’s voice.

“Take my bike,” he ordered one of them, then threw them the keys.

From my odd angle I saw Blood shoving Manny into the front seat of the van. Then Smoke jogged us to the other side of the vehicle away from the bullets. He unlatched the back door and threw me inside. I hit the metal flooring with a whoosh, knocking the breath out of my lungs.

Smoke hopped in after me and banged his knuckles against the side of the van. Ricky floored it, and a staccato of bullets struck the side of the van. Ricky made a wide turn around the circular driveway and the cargo doors flew open. Smoke grabbed for the latch, and when the van pitched in the other direction the door slammed shut on the back of his hand.

“Fuck!” Smoke bellowed, then reached for the door again slamming it shut.

Smoke’s eyes roamed over me, then he fell to his knees beside me.

“Shit,” he mumbled, as he unlatched a plastic box and pulled out packages of gauze.

“Don’t worry, babe, you’re gonna be fine.” He pressed the strips of cotton to my side.

I didn’t know if it was the motion of the van or because I was lying flat, but my mind spun at a dizzying speed. Why was everything moving so fast? Why couldn’t I focus?

My eyelids were suddenly too heavy.

“Marisol, stay with me,” Smoke yelled.

Why did Smoke’s face look so distorted?

“Marisol!” he yelled again.

Why wouldn’t he just let me sleep?

Manny contacted a local doctor who practiced discretion along with medicine, so when we rolled into the lot of The Tropics he was waiting for us inside the club.

I carried Marisol up to my room and laid her on my bed. Her pale skin and shallow breathing scared the shit out of me along with the blood seeping from her side. Would fate let me save her from her father only to have her ripped away from me later? Of course it would, my own fucked up life laid proof.

The doctor herded us all out of the room and I paced in front of the closed door. After fifteen minutes I barged back into my bedroom.

“How is she?” I demanded, because this whole night was one clusterfuck after another.

“She’s going to be fine,” the doctor assured in a voice reserved for crazy people.

Fine? I hate that fuckin’ word.

I pointed to her side. “She was bleeding like a stuck pig and unconscious for at least twenty minutes.”

The ride back to The Tropics was a new version of hell. Pressing wads of gauze to Marisol’s unconscious body as her blood covered my hands.

“A bullet grazed her but there was no permanent damage. She needed a few stitches, but her vitals are good. I gave her something for the pain and to relax her. She was frantic asking about you and her brother. She should sleep for the next few hours.”

I nodded and moved past the doctor, but he stepped in my path.

“Now, let’s get you fixed up.”

I furrowed my brow and the doctor nodded to the shoulder of my t-shirt wet with blood and my swollen hand turning a sickly shade of yellow and blue.

“First let me see her.” I easily moved past the doctor and entered my bedroom.

I stood at the foot of the bed happy to see Marisol peacefully sleeping. Her small body lost under the sheets of my king-sized bed. Her breathing had eased, and even her color looked better. I’d seen my brothers get busted up plenty of times, but this was way different. A debilitating weakness I couldn’t control along with the dread of possibly losing her forever.

I leaned over her and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, then straightened the sheets around her.

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