Page 84 of Overcast

"She has an infection,"Lucien states, dropping his black bag on my coffee table and pulling at his stethoscope that's wrapped around his neck. Tossing it in his duffle, he hits me with a "what the fuck did you do" stare.

He's not going to get that story from me.

"What now?" I ask, tugging on my beer and letting it mix with my restlessness.

I've been trying to watch a recap on ESPN of today's sports scores but keep glancing upward towards the stairs.

I don't know specifically what I'm waiting to appear. It's not like Stormi is going to skip down, or some magical fairy is going to descend with a wand to make any of this shit go away.

I can't help it.

If she wasn't defeated already, Stormi made it crystal clear that she wants to be left alone. To let God or whatever higher power there is decide on what plan they want to ensue.

As much as I can't blame her for all of the above, I had a hard time leaving her alone.

Lucien attempted to kick me out of the room before I was even able to step in—didn't happen. I wasn't going to have her wake up to see some random fuck hovering over and frighten her. So I took the brunt of her glower, watched those clear-cut blues fasten on me, unamused and utterly exhausted.

"She's dehydrated," Lucien continues. "The girl could put on a good ten pounds too."

Agreed.

"What do I need to do?" I pry my attention from him and watch a replay of the Houston Astros game. Don't know what team they played or if they won, I just can't stand him judging me for what happened up there. How badly I fucked up, and now she has to pay and heal because of it.

"Let her rest, feed her soup, and plenty of water. I have antibiotics in the car. She needs to take them every four hours."

"What else?"

"I'm not going to bother asking where she got the wounds from."

"Using that doctor's degree for good use, Lucien." I take another hearty sip of my beer, needing something to do with my hands, brain, and guilt.

If I can chip some of it away or make them do something, maybe I won't feel as bad.

He flicks his dark brown eyes to me. I can feel them casting down in scrutiny.

This isn't the first time he and I have been in a room alone together. Mind you, it wasn't from someone I was hired to kill, but Emmy Lou.

I let her big mouth sway me to go alone on a pass. It was something we did to learn the in's and out's of someone's day so that we could determine when the best time to strike was. The dude's name was Hayden O'Mulligan, Irish Mob had a hit on a California senator, and I don't remember the reason why, just the blood.

The blood smeared all over the cement in the parking garage.

The phone call she made to me when she was getting her assed kicked by steel-toed boots and clubs.

O'Mulligans's crew caught on to her, and she was no match for three thugs the size of linebackers. Emmy pushed a hundred and twenty pounds, maybe, and was five foot nothing. A good wind would pick her up like Mary Poppins with an umbrella.

It was my fault for letting her go. My transgression for allowing the little pint-sized princess to go play with the ogres. She was supposed to be background noise, a pretty little thing that was supposed to be nothing but a bystander.

But she was too pretty. Too noticeable and not at all a passerby.

They picked her up like a bad scent. Noticed that she didn't belong and made a scheme all of their own with one message, to tell whoever sent her, that they'd kill them and everyone else associated.

Not one of us in B723 was afraid of the Irish mob. It was like playing with a basket of kittens compared to the shit we've personally or professionally have done or gone through in our careers.

It was the terror of losing one of our own that we weren't ready to deal with.

I've never forgiven myself or her for that day. Emmy Lou was a lot of things, but physically tough wasn't one of them. She should've known better, and I blame my poor judgment of giving in.

"Her cuts and lesions need to be cleaned every day," Lucien directs. "And the lack of stitches...speaking of doctors, you're not one."

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