Page 47 of Cinder
I quickly find them and hand them to Rev. But he doesn’t take them. Instead, he throws me a pair of latex gloves. “Congratulations, you’re my assistant,” he says, snapping on a pair himself. “Now cut open his jeans… ankle to thigh.”
While I cut into denim, Rev removes gauze from its protective packaging.
“Just go easy where you put those scissors, honey,” Stone slurs as the pointy end of the scissors gets closer toward his groin. “Bullets I can handle. Losing my dick, I can’t.”
“I assure you, I’m nowhere near your dick,” I say, focusing on what I’m doing.
“Then let’s remedy that after this is done,” he says, taking another swig. “You, me and my intact dick.”
I cock an eyebrow at him. “Is that how you invite a girl on a date, Stone?”
He grins and whiskey spills down his chin. “I’m a straight-to-the-point kinda guy.”
“And so romantic,” I say, tearing open his jeans. His skin is covered in blood, but I can clearly see the bullet hole in the center of his thigh.
“So what do you say, sweetheart?” Stone asks, trying to distract himself from what’s coming. “You could be my nurse.”
“How about you focus on not bleeding to death, motherfucker,” Lars growls.
Rev pulls a small vial of clear liquid and a syringe from his bag. “This will help with the pain, but it won’t erase it. You might want to keep chugging that whiskey.”
He wipes down Stone’s thigh with the gauze, then jabs the syringe into his skin.
Stone takes another big pull on the whiskey bottle as Rev retrieves a set of surgical tweezers from the bag.
He rips open the sterilized pack and looks over at Bear and Ryder. “You’re going to need to keep him still.”
“Just do it, Rev,” Stone rasps through whiskey-soaked lips. He makes eye contact with me. “I’ve got a date to get ready for.”
Rev positions himself in front of Stone and digs into his thigh with the tweezers.
Stone roars with pain and struggles against Bear and Ryder.
Obscenities rapid fire out of his mouth.
“The bullet is in deep,” Rev says.
“No fucking kidding,” Stone barks.
Another few digs, and Rev removes the bullet. “There’s another one for your collection,” he says, holding it up.
“You mean this has happened before?” I ask.
“Just another day in the clubhouse,” Ryder says.
“Sure, but couldn’t this have happened somewhere other than my nice clean kitchen?” Mrs. V. says.
“The kitchen is the most sterile place we’ve got in this clubhouse,” Lars says.
Rev patches up the bullet hole. Stone is so high on whatever Rev gave him, as well as the whiskey and adrenaline, he doesn’t even feel the sutures going in.
“You’re new,” Rev says. He’s talking to me, but his focus is on suturing Stone’s thigh.
“I only started working here today,” I say.
“Well, new girl,” he says, handing me the suture tweezers. “Thanks for your help.”
“Yeah, new girl. Nice work.” Stone looks up at me with glazed eyes. “Now, how about that date?”
