Page 56 of Tangled in Knots

The ties fall away and he steps back to allow me to push myself up in the bed. I’m not an idiot. The longer I’m awake, the more I realize. Time has passed since I was shot. A lot of it. I just don’t know how much.

“Weird question,” I say slowly, my legs pulling away from the sheets. “Ah, what day is it?”

His eyes widen as he swallows hard. “It’s Tuesday, January fourteenth. It’s just after midnight.”

I was shot on Christmas Day.I’ve been unconscious or out of it for almost three weeks.

“Wow,” I whisper. “Talk about Sleeping Beauty and losing time.”

“How much time?” Callum asks, anger beginning to bank in his green eyes. Huh. They kind of remind me of the grass. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it because of the snow and stuff.

“Since Christmas,” I rasp. “The day Pack Dresmond shot me.”

“You were shot?!” he yells.

My shoulder doesn’t even twinge when I shrug. “That’s not even the worst thing that’s happened to me in the last three weeks,” I tell him, forcing myself to stand.

My legs wobble, and Callum holds his hands up as if unsure whether or not to help me. I don’t fucking care if I need to sit on the floor of the shower to clean up, I don’t want help. A place this nice better have spotless bathrooms too.

I’m crabby, sore, and just exhausted from the hits life is throwing me.

“Is she okay?” Duncan asks, walking into the room.

Gritting my teeth, I lock my legs and force them to hold my weight. I haven’t been eating well because of the medication and gunshot wound, which means my curves are suffering. I’m feeling weak overall.

“Surviving,” I answer him, forcing myself to take a step forward.

“I see, Short Stuff,” he says with a small smile. “Do you want any pain medication or anything?”

As my eyebrows lower in confusion, he shakes his head. “Headache medicine,” he corrects himself. “Nothing stronger than acetaminophen. It won’t affect anything else.”

“Oh,” I say absently, my legs wobbling when I lose concentration. “I don’t know if I should take anything.”

“Adira is going to take a shower before coming down to eat, “ Callum says.

Blinking, Duncan begins to curse under his breath. “I’m a fucking idiot,” he says, turning and walking out the door.

“Why are you two so wired up?” I ask as I walk next to Callum at a slower pace. After the third time my legs wobbled, he put his arm out for me to hold onto, maneuvering his body in front of me to be able to get out the door first.

“We’re bachelors who have all of these protective instincts and no idea how to help you,” he grumbles. “I should have thought about the fact that you’d want a shower as soon as you woke up.”

There’s not much I can say to that because I’m still confused about why they bought me. There were so many men in that room, and I shudder at the memory of it.

“I’ll turn up the heat,” Callum says with a worried glance at me.

I’m not cold because of the house, but explaining takes too many words that I’m not ready to use yet. My heart is sad, angry, and filled with pain. I don’t know if living or dying would be better right now. I don’t know how to do either.

“There’s towels in the bathroom, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, everything,” Duncan says, stepping out of the room. “What else can you think of that you may need?”

Wincing, I run my tongue over my teeth, gagging. I can still taste the men from earlier, and shudder as I put my hand up to my mouth.

“Toothbrush?” I ask, shuddering as my body freaks the fuck out.

“Yeah,” Duncan says, paling. “There’s a new one, I just opened the package, so you wouldn’t struggle with it. I didn’t pull it out, though, so you can see that it wasn’t tampered with.”

“Thanks,” I whisper, watching as he moves, so I can walk as quickly inside as I can manage.

My hands are shaking, my skin is breaking out into a cold sweat, and I can feel my gord rising. Coughing, I slam the doorclosed and lock it, my body finally winning the fight to dump me on the floor.

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