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Zelda woke around dawn.
Gia was in the room with her, curled awkwardly in an armchair she’d swiped from the office of David Draper, one of the other doctors Tasha had hired for the clinic. She’d meant to keep taking notes for her chapter idea on her phone, her first burst of inspiration since she’d left Evanston, but eventually her eyes had refused to focus, and she rested her head on her hand and let herself slip into a halfway doze.
That doze ended when Zelda began stirring and moaning softly. She’d been silent and still the whole time Gia had been keeping watch.
Gia stood and went to the gurney. She stopped at an end corner, wanting to be close enough to assure Zelda she wasn’t alone and help if she needed it, but trying to give her space if she needed that. Gia and Zelda barely knew each other.
“Zaxx?” Zelda whimpered. She lifted her head and tried to look around. Though they’d been following an icing regimen all night, laying fresh packs on her eyes for twenty minutes, then leaving them off for thirty, her eyes were still quite swollen and opened only partially.
Even after Tasha’s expert, gentle care, to look at Zelda was to have no doubt what had happened to her. She was a bruised, swollen, sutured mess.
Zaxx had told his sister he’d stay close, that he’d be right here when she needed him, but he’d been gone hours now. What should Gia tell her?
“Zaxx?” Zelda called again, this time with a little more strength and wakefulness.
“Hi, Zelda,” Gia kept her voice as gentle as she could.
In the middle of easing her body over to lie on her back, Zelda froze. She tried to focus where Gia’s voice had come from. “Who?”
“Gia. Gia Lunden.” She took a step toward the head of the gurney. “I’m helping at the clinic tonight. Do you need anything? Tasha’s getting a nap in, but I can wake her.”
Lying back warily, Zelda repeated, “Zaxx. I need my brother.”
Zelda had not asked for her mom or dad. As far as Gia knew, she hadn’t asked for her parents even once all night. Her brother was her whole focus.
Gia decided to tell her the truth, conveyed as gently as she could. “He’s not here, Zelda. He went to find the guys who did this.”
Zelda raised her head and regarded her through puffy eyes for a few seconds. Gia gazed back, her mind speeding, trying to anticipate Zelda’s reaction and come up with options for how to reply next. Would she be frightened to be without her brother? Would she be angry that he hadn’t kept his promise to stay close? Would she feel abandoned and further traumatized?
What she finally said was, “Good.” Then she lay back on the gurney. “I hope he kills those shitheads, and I hope he makes them cry and piss themselves before he does.”
Oh. Huh.
Actually, Gia thought she might react in a similar way. Luckily, she’d never yet been in a position to know for sure. She would want a chance to say so before the cavalry charged off to defend her honor, but she would want bloody vengeance, too.
“Do I have to stay here?” Zelda asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll go get Tasha.”
“Thanks.”
Zelda pulled the blankets up to her chin and was quiet.
Gia left the room and went to rouse Tasha from her scant rest.
~oOo~
The sun was fully up and Signal Bend had begun making its drowsy way to a busy Saturday when Tasha and Gia helped Zelda climb carefully into the back seat of Tasha’s Cadillac and settle in. Her clothes had been badly mangled in the attack, and Tasha had finished them off getting Zelda free of them so she could treat her, so she wore a pair of yoga pants and an ancient concert tee—Slipknot was the band—that Tasha had in her office. The bloody afghan was wadded up in its plastic sack. Another plastic sack held various medications. Zelda had swaddled herself in two of the flimsy white blankets, and Gia had brought a couple pillows in case she wanted to lie on the seat, but she sat up in the middle, so she could see both Tasha and Gia.
The transportation situation around this whole night had been a mess: Gia and Tasha had been out together delivering Hermione the mare to her new home, so Gia had been involved all night mainly because she hadn’t had a ride away. Then Zaxx had dropped Zelda off and run off again, so Zelda didn’t have a ride away, either. Figuring out how to undo that snarl had taken the three of them several minutes after Tasha had completed a fresh check and pronounced Zelda sufficiently strong to leave the clinic and not (at this time) need a hospital, so long as she promised to follow Tasha’s instructions and call if she felt the slightest bit worse or off in any way.
Zelda hadn’t wanted to go home, where she lived with her parents. She wanted to go to Zaxx’s. Neither Tasha nor Gia had pushed the point, and Zelda hadn’t offered a reason, but Gia figured she wanted her brother to take care of her—he was, after all, where she’d turned in the first place.
But they didn’t know where Zaxx was or when he’d be back. Tasha had asked Gia to text him twice this morning: first to let him know Zelda was awake, and then to let him know they were taking her to his place. Both messages had been read; neither had been answered. The dude was absolute shit about returning messages.
Eventually they decided that Gia would stay with Zelda until Zaxx returned.
So Gia and Zelda rode with Tasha, the empty trailer bouncing behind them, all the way out to Len and Tasha’s ranch, where Gia helped Zelda into the passenger seat of her Camaro and then followed her distracted directions to Zaxx’s place.
