Page 103 of Cruel Devil

“Woah, little harsh, don’t you think? Aren’t you legally obligated to help? Isn’t that part of the hypocritic oath or something?”

Her scowl flattens into a stoic mask. “Hippocratic Oath,” she corrects. “And I’m sure a shot of penicillin will take care of all your symptoms.”

She kicks at my shoe so she can close the door, but I keep my loafer wedged in tight.

“I think I need stitches. It’s pretty bad.”

She blows a strand of pale red hair from her face with an exasperated huff, her eyes flickering to my hand again. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Rope burn.”

Her face scrunches up in disbelief. “Stitches? For rope burn?”

I shrug. “I’m not a doctor.”

“Neither am I, so…” She gives my suede loafer another kick.

“Who’s there, baby?” Viv calls from inside Andy’s room.

I open my mouth, but Andy shushes me with her finger, glaring as she shakes her head. “No one, Mom!”

I lean in close. “Please?” I wave my bandaged hand around in case she forgot how badly injured I was.

She squints at me, her mouth pursed, and then huffs out an annoyed, “Fine. Five minutes.”

“Five minutes is all I need,” I say, giving her a charming smile.

Her eyebrow cocks up. “I wouldn’t be so proud of that.” Leaning back, she calls out, “Just gonna get us some more snacks, Mom. Want something?”

“Ooh, another bottle of this wine, baby!” Viv yells from inside the room. “And more crackers!”

Andy winces as she turns back to me. She shoos me away from the opening and then sidles out, keeping the door as tightly closed as possible.

“Are you ashamed of me?” I ask as I follow her down the hall.

“Bingeing Love Boat with my mom is bad enough. If she sees you, she’ll make you stay and watch with us.”

“You and your mom have some issues to work through, don’t you?”

“She has the subtitles turned on,” Andy says dryly. “But she’s not wearing her glasses, so she keeps asking me to read them to her.”

I laugh, cutting off when she gives me a withering glare. She leads me into the kitchen and pulls out a smaller version of the red bag the nurses kept in Bryan’s room.

When she sees my frown, she says, “Spotted it yesterday when I came looking for a snack.”

“What the hell kind of snack were you looking for that wasn’t in the pantry?”

She rolls her eyes as she starts rummaging through the kit and taking out individually wrapped packages of medical stuff.

“Okay, fine. I was snooping. Can you blame me? I’m in a villa owned by the Domingo cartel.”

“What were you hoping to find? Money? Drugs?” I lean in to whisper, “More money?”

I swear there’s a hint of a smile on her face, but it vanishes when she turns to face me with a pair of scissors. “Hand.”

“You’re cute when you’re bossy.”

The freckles on her cheeks fade into her blush. “Just be quiet and let me work, okay?”

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