Page 61 of Cold

ChapterTwenty

ROMARE

“Hold still,”I said as Vito grunted and growled at me. “Oh stop it. That’s not helping!”

“It hurts like a bitch,” he snapped. “Between you cutting me and getting shot, I’m not exactly overreacting, am I?” He took a long, deep swig off the mini bottle of whiskey I’d found in the mini-bar. Once he finished it, he tossed it aside. “I’m too old for this shit.”

I glared. “Hush or I’ll make a mistake!”

My fingers trembled as I shoved the needle back through his skin and tugged it out the other side. The black thread stitched his flesh back together bit by bit while my heart now lived in my stomach. I’d already dug out the bullet, but if I didn’t finish stitching him up, he was going to bleed out.

“Deep breaths,” I said, my voice shaky. “In and out. We’re almost done.”

Vito grunted. “Give me another bottle. It’s a damn good thing I keep these kits in the car.”

“Get an actual suture kit,” I sighed. “This is so cheap.”

“It gets the job done,” he shrugged. “That’s how I always got patched up as a kid.”

“Back before we had confounded technology and television?” I asked as I stuck my tongue out trying to concentrate. “When you had to walk ten miles to school in a blizzard with newspaper for shoes?”

“Boy, I swear I will- Shit!”

“Sorry!” I jumped and blew on the wound as if it would help. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you okay?”

He glared up at me. “Keep going.”

I stared at him, worried until I saw the corners of his mouth tug up into a small smile. He was being his grumpy self, but he was in pain so it was to be expected. I closed the final stitch and wiped away the blood with a towel to look at my handiwork.

“How do you know how to do this?” Vito asked.

I shrugged. “With Sergei, this kind of thing happened a lot. Either to me or other boys. I helped get them fixed up. My mother showed me how to do it in an emergency on my father. He was always running around with the Bianchi’s, doing the odd jobs here and there. And sometimes he came home missing a few pints of blood.” I gazed at him. “It sucked, but it prepared me for a lot.”

“I prepared you for a lot, bitch.”

The heavy, gravelly voice made my blood run cold. I turned and looked at Sergei. Robes wound around his body, holding him in place. A pair of cuffs had been added for good measure and there was dried blood on his face and leg. Vito hadn’t allowed me to stitch Sergei up and a feeling of guilt filled me. I turned away.

“You can’t look at me, can you?” he asked. “Everything I’ve done for you and you betray me? Betray the people you knew? The ones you got killed?”

A whimper left my lips and I reached up to cover my ears. No, I couldn’t let Sergei back in. Vito had taken my blade and he still loved me. I thought he was going to kill me, but he didn’t. He saved me. And I was going to owe him for that forever.

“Don’t speak to him,” Vito snapped as he stood up and rolled his shoulders.

I gazed at his muscled chest, all those old wounds standing out against his tanned flesh. Mesmerized, I looked at each and every one of them. He looked amazing all covered in blood and glaring at Sergei. It centered me. I’d never been attracted to the man who possessed me, but I was very attracted to the man I called Daddy.

As Vito walked over to Sergei, I removed my hands. I had to listen and be present for this part. There were others depending on me and I couldn’t screw them over.

“Vito, ask him about the house.”

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Alright,” he grunted. He turned back to Sergei. “The house.”

“Fuck you.”

Vito sighed. “I don’t want to have to go about this the hard way. My body hurts, I’m missing some blood, and I’m ready for a long soak and a warm bed.” He opened the minibar and snagged another bottle. “Tell me where the house is with the other prisoners.”

“You don’t understand English?” Sergei growled. “Fuck. You.”

Vito’s fist slammed against his face. Blood spilled from his split lip and I looked away before I forced myself to look back at him. Sergei had done far worse to me, so why should I feel bad? He cast a spell on me for so long. But I need to get out of it. For good.

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