Page 12 of Desperate Desires

The men in that family were all big and handsome, with a stupid amount of muscles and tattooed skin.

And so were their friends.

It was grossly unprofessional to think about him like that, considering he was my patient. However unorthodox this whole thing was, I’d operated on him, so that was what he was.

My patient.

I’d no choice but to take off his clothes so I could assess his wound, making sure the one to his shoulder was the only life-threatening one.

At the time, he’d lost so much blood, I was really worried.

Luckily, all three bullets were easy enough to fix. Two were through-and-throughs and the third bullet had been whole when I extracted it. All were clean shots that hit nothing vital.

Tough Guy was lucky.

Now that the worst was over, I just had to wait for him to wake on his own. The first few hours, he’d developed a fever, but that was to be expected.

Now that his fever was gone, I was sure he was healing. He should have no complications, and that meant it was the right time for a mini breakdown.

I mean, I had every right to freak out. A man had broken into my home with gunshot wounds, for fuck’s sake.

Dammit. What do I do now?

I thought about calling Micky, but I didn’t want to upset or worry her. I could call one of the other girls, or maybe even their dads.

But something stopped me.

Ono hadn’t threatened me or anything. But he said no cops. My heart was beating steadily, the rhythm grounding me as I mulled this over.

Ono said trust me. And for some fucked up reason, I did.

He was in trouble. That much was obvious, and judging from the scars on his body, he was no stranger to it.

Okay, if I was risking my life to trust a stranger, I should probably at least let someone know he was there with me. I grabbed my cell phone and sent a text to Micky.

Me

Hey Mick, Sorry to wake you and no need to reply.

Just wanted to let you know I have someone staying with me who needed my help. I’m fine.

But if I don’t answer the phone, maybe send someone.

The second after I clicked send, my phone started ringing.

Shit.

I should have known better. I answered it, rushing to the other side of the apartment so we didn’t disturb Ono.

“What the heck is going on?” Micky shouted.

She had a tendency to get loud when she was upset, or excited, or just when she was talking.

“I said no need to reply, can’t you read?” I hissed.

“You text me there is someone with you then said to send someone if you don’t answer the phone. Are you out of your mind, Shelly? I’m calling Uncle Josef to send someone from Sigma?—”

“No! Don’t you dare, Micky. I am fine.”

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