Page 23 of Merciless Monster

“Okay. I’ll get the gauze and the needle.”

“Bring the antiseptic so I can clean the wound.”

“Your friend is a lucky man. The bullet went straight through and missed the brachial artery by a ball hair,” George says once I return with the emergency supplies.

“Oh, thank God.”

“He’s going to need stitches, though. It’s a bloody mess,” he moans.

“Thanks, George. I mean it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Consider yourself in my debt for at least a year,” he says drolly.

“Happily.”

“So, you say it’s Gina’s family?”

“Yes, I met him at her wedding.”

“Any idea as to why he’d stumble in here with a gunshot wound?”

“Not the foggiest.”

My heart is racing. It’s Dante! What are the odds? He is just as handsome as I remember. It’s been five years, but it feels as if no time has passed and I’m staring at him again for the first time.

“Okay,” George says after having sewn up Dante’s arm. “It’s the best I can do under the circumstances. He’s going to have to take a course of antibiotics, or he’ll end up with an infection. I’ll prescribe him a course.”

“You’re my hero, George.”

“Hey, if this guy dies, I’ll deny ever seeing him. Got that?”

“Got it.”

“You’d better get him out of here.”

“Will you be okay?”

“Yeah, it’s a slow night. Go.”

I kiss George on the cheek. His gray beard scratches my face.

“Thank you, George.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get out of here. I’ll help you get him to your car. You’d better call Gina.”

“I will.”

I’ll call her for sure. But not until I have an opportunity to talk to the father of my child, first. Alone.

* * *

“Where am I?”

“Don’t get up. You’re hurt. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Dante sits up and touches his arm where George and I treated his wound. I still can't believe he’s in my living room. Dante De Luca! Of all the pharmacies in LA… I have so many questions.

“What happened, Dante?”

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