Page 61 of Fire Peak

“Hm.”

“That’s it, hm?”

“He’s supposed to be…well, he’s supposed to be handling something for me.” How many hours had it been? She wasn’t sure. Her head was swimming.

“Nick wasn’t what I expected.” Ani touched the skin around the wound. Charlie braced for pain, but it didn’t hurt. Her touch was so gentle, probably because she was used to dealing with kids.

“Why not?”

“He didn’t seem like the villain everyone made him out to be.” Ani balled up the bandage and tossed it in the waste basket.

“Jury’s still out on that.”

“Really? I thought you were getting close to him?”

“Yes, so I can keep an eye on him. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.”

“Hmmm.”

Even to her ears, that sounded like a lame excuse. Keeping your enemies close was one thing; allowing them to blow your mind with a killer orgasm was another. “I know, it sounds silly.”

“It’s not that. There’s something in this wound.”

Charlie twisted her head to look over her shoulder, but Ani gently pushed her back into position. “What is it?”

“I don’t know, but whoever cleaned your wound yesterday missed it. I should get it out before it causes an infection. Do you mind?”

“Will it hurt?”

“It might.”

Charlie steeled herself. “Okay, but don’t I get a bottle of whiskey first? Or a leather strap to bite on?”

“It is the Wild West, after all.” Ani handed her a pillow. “Want to bite this?”

“Can we soak it in whiskey first?”

Ani chuckled and dug through her medical bag, then held up a pair of tweezers. “I’m going to disinfect these, then use them in your wound. Okay?”

Charlie buried her face in the pillow. “Go for it,” she said, her voice muffled.

She gnawed at the pillow while Ani seemed to dig all the way through her flesh and into her bone. After what seemed like twenty years, but was probably a few seconds, she said, “I got it. Take a look.”

Gasping with relief, Charlie peered at the item gripped between the pincers of Ani’s tweezers. It was a slim shard, maybe more like a thread, of something metallic. “What is it?”

“I have no idea.” She moved to wipe it on a piece of bandage, but Charlie grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“Put it in a baggie. I want to get it tested. Do you think it’s the reason for that burning feeling?”

“Sure, it’s an irritant, no matter what it is.”

“And my wooziness?”

“Maybe. That could just be a reaction to trauma.”

But already, Charlie was feeling better. She watched Ani drop the tiny metal shard into a plastic zip-up bag that had contained a bandage.

She set the baggie on Charlie’s nightstand. Charlie stared at it while Ani got to work re-bandaging her wound.

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