Page 135 of Coerced

“You stay right there, Rome Aalders.”

She stood over me in her superhero pose, arms akimbo and legs braced three feet apart, and looked ready to take on the world. Her eyes flashed fiercely and I wondered if her cheeks were flushed because she was angry - or something else. My mind, obviously shutting down all filters before it turned itself off, sent words to my lips before I realized I was speaking.

“You’re beautiful.”

Smiling at her shock, I closed my eye.

“He’s delirious,” I heard her mutter and wondered how red her face was now. “Only explanation. I’ll get some ice.”

“I helped him change his bandages yesterday, but it might need done again soon,” John told her. “Want me to do that?”

“Bandages? What’s bandaged?”

Now she’s glaring at the poor kid.

“His chest and upper arm. A behemoth gored him during the ambush, then tossed him with its horn. He’s lucky he didn’t get trampled to death.”

For all the everloving saints, did you have to tell herthat?

“Why didn’t he say something?” She made a strangled noise.

I heard the refrigerator door open, then shut after a few seconds.

“He didn’t say anything to anyone, Mira. I only know because I was there.”

Their voices stopped and I felt myself drift off again.

“Doyouhave any other injuries?” Her voice jerked me partially awake. “If I need medical supplies, I want to get everything all at once.”

“Nope, other than this never-ending headache. We’re running out of gauze patches, though, if you want to get some more. And I think he’s getting sick of duct tape, so maybe first-aid tape would be a good idea.”

“Duct tape.” Her voice was flat.

“It’s what we had. But it’s tearing up his skin. I don’t think he’ll grow hair in some places again.”

I never want to see freaking duct tape again.Never, ever, ever, ever!

Someone was wrestling with my clothing and I cracked one eye open to see Mira lift my t-shirt and tuck a bundle against my injured side. From the cold seeping through the fabric, I guessed she’d wrapped ice cubes in a dishtowel. It felt good now, but I knew from experience it would soon get uncomfortable.

“Leave this on for twenty minutes. You should have been doing this every hour since it happened, Rome!”

I closed my eye.

“Don’t let him get up, John.” Her voice was far, far away. “Sit on his legs if you have to.”

I fell asleep to the sound of a door opening.

#

Mira

Feeling like I’d been kicked in the gut, I left the guys’ room, grateful I still had Rome’s solid black credit card. I’d have paid for the medical supplies with my own money, but he would have raised a fuss, saying it was “an expense incurred during the mission, Mira,” just like he had with the phone. And, I had to admit, I didn’t have a whole lotta cash in my stash.

Digging my keys out of my pocket, I went to the hotel lobby, where the desk clerk gave me directions to a pharmacy only three blocks away.

Good. I won’t need to drive.

And I nearly ran out the door, my mind whirring.

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