Page 74 of The Loves We Lost
“Thank you.”
And as I walk to get the trash can, I realize I’m glad that when he was hurt, I was the person he came to.
25
BATES
“Please tell me at least one of them fuckers looks worse than you do?” Switch says when he and Niro arrive an hour later.
“Give me drugs and I’ll tell you anything you want?”
Switch chuckles, but turns serious as he gets things out of the huge medical bag he brought with him. With minimal fuss, he sticks a needle in my arm and sets up a drip of saline, to which he adds a buffet of chemicals.
“What’s in there?” I ask.
“Painkillers, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and a robust vitamin shot.”
“Sounds tasty.”
“What the fuck happened?” Niro asks once Switch starts patching me up with stitches and dressings.
I take a deep breath. I have an unbelievably low tolerance to painkillers. Part of the reason I never wanted to do drugs as a teen. They make me woozy as fuck. I can feel the cocktail starting to swirl and do its thing.
“I was riding here to see my girls. Guess I was followed, or someone picked up my trail about five miles out. Pretty certain itwas Brotherhood. Four guys in a truck rode my bike off the road, then beat the shit out of me before I could defend myself. I think they thought I was dead.”
Switch looks at me carefully. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. The state of your face? There could be something going on beneath that thick skull of yours. Once you’re comfortable, we’ll transport you back home and get you a medical scan.”
Thoughts of the way Vi took care of me earlier wash through me. “I’m not going back with you.”
“You’re not?” Switch asks. “Why the fuck not?”
Niro leans over me; he’s still blurry given the damage to my face. “It’s ’cause you’re in Vi’s bed, right?”
“Fuck off,” I mutter.
“So that’s a yes then,” Switch says. “How’s she gonna feel if she wakes up next to a corpse?”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Fuck’s sake.” Switch starts packing his supplies up. “You ever think those assholes already know where Vi lives? That they could guess you were coming here.”
Bile bites in my stomach again but I need to be honest. “They said something about pickingthemoff, one by one. I assume he means Outlaws.”
“We’ll stay the night then,” Niro says. “Be here if you need us. We’ll keep watch.”
Maybe it’s the rough fucking day I’ve had. Maybe it’s because I got a taste of how the people I care about care about me. But there’s a hole in my chest the size of a crater.
So I nod and let the drugs take me away.
When I wake up, it’s dark outside, and there’s a lamp casting a warm glow over Avery and Vi, who are setting up a small, colorful camping bed next to the one I’m in.
They’re industrious, and every now and then, Avery giggles and Vi shushes her. They work together until the little bed has a cover on it with a large unicorn and rainbow.
When Vi stands, she notices I’m awake. “Hey,” she says softly. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I spent too long on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the fun fair.”
She places the back of her fingers on my forehead and smiles softly. “You don’t have a fever,” she says.
