Page 48 of Bully

“No, you won’t.” With a shake of my head, I acknowledged the grim reality; his stubborn refusal to seek help would lead to a slow, silent death if I left. “Tell me what to do. Tell me how to help you.”

His eyelids drooped, his face pale, and I was terrified he would lose consciousness once more before he let out a shaky sigh and confessed, “You have to remove the bullet so you can stitch the wound.”

“Me—” I stammered as my stomach rolled at even the thought of looking at the wound again. “I can’t.”

“Then I’ll bleed to death.” His eyes opened again, “I’m honestly surprised I made it this long.”

“I hate you!” From the floor, I screamed, wiping my hands down the front of my black dress as I stood. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!”

“I know.” He coughed, “Now be a doll and go in my bathroom, and get the black leather bag from the closet. Hurry now, I haven’t got all day.”

I ran to his bathroom, because even though I did hate his fucking guts, especially right now, I was terrified of something bad happening to him. I was terrified of him slipping away while I wasn’t there to drag him back from Hell’s flames.

If anyone was going to torture Tamen Bryce with pain and suffering for years to come, it was going to me, dammit. Hell didn’t get him, not yet anyway.

Sliding across the marble floor into his bathroom, I found the big leather bag that resembled a doctor’s bag and ran back to him.

“I got it.” I cried, laying it on the floor as he fell back onto the couch, laying on his stomach so I could access the wound. “What do I do?”

“Out of the bag, grab the rolled-up gauze, alcohol, and the long scissor looking tweezers that pinch together at the tip.”

My stomach rolled with nausea as my fingers pulled the long tweezers out from the bag and imagined sticking them inside of Tamen’s body. But what choice did I have? Gathering the supplies he instructed me to; I laid them out on the floor at my side and then faced him. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“I slept with your friend last night.” His face squished back into the couch, and he slurred. “Came so hard I nearly went cross-eyed.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I screeched angrily. “Who? When?”

“The brunette.” He coughed, “The bossy one.”

Raven. Fucking bitch!

“I hate you.” I hissed, “I should let you die.”

“Or you can channel that rage, using the cold, hard metal tool to dig into my bullet wound to get it out, and take it out on me that way.”

I grit my teeth, knowing he was fully trying to send me into a manic rage, so I’d play a demented game ofOperation.“I should puke into your wound, so you get sepsis. Then you’ll really suffer.”

He chuckled as I pushed the blanket away and stared at the wound. “Is that like gonorrhea? I had that once. That bloody sucked.”

“I hate—”

“Yes!” He interrupted, “You hate me, we know. You should diversify your insults, that one is getting boring.”

Without even thinking twice, I shoved the tweezers into his back and ignored the disgusting noise they made as they pushed through coagulated blood and flesh. Tamen bit the couch as I dug around to stay quiet. Silently, I worked, trying like hell to find the bullet, without having a clue what it would feel like once I did.

I was nearly hysterical, sweating and fighting the urge to puke, while simultaneously praying to a God that I wasn’t sure existed, and planning out how I was going to get itching powder into Raven’s G-string on opening night.

Maybe that was how people went insane. Working through high stress moments like the one I was in until they lost their grip on reality and dove straight off the deep end. I could see it.

The end of my tweezers hit something hard, and I paused, trying to tell if it was Tamen’s shoulder I was scratching against, or maybe the illusive bullet. “I think I found it.”

He released his teeth from the couch and took a deep breath, “Can you carefully try to pull it out?”

“What if it’s your brain?” I murmured, “If I pull it out, you’ll be even more useless.”

He sighed, resting his forehead against the cushion, “Guess there’s only one way to find out.”

“Hmm.” I hummed, and then carefully, trying to not let it slip out of the tweezers, pulled it out of his mangled flesh. “Got it.” Holding the flattened bullet up in front of my face, I stared in awe. “All that drama for this little thing?”

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