I just focused on keeping Jia away from them.
Security came like a swat team tending to a bomb threat. Three tough, bulky guys who looked like me and the other knights swooped in and removed the men from the floor.
I looked to Jia who was trying to get away from me, but my eyes landed to a cut on her arm.
“Jia, you okay?” I asked.
“Fine. Thanks for coming.” She shuffled to stand and frowned when she saw the cut.
I noticed how she avoided eye contact and rushed away.
As every other time when this woman got away from me, I chased.
I chased after her falling in step with her down the carpeted path.
“There’s a cut on your arm. Let me take a look at it,” I offered.
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll just put a Band Aid on it.” Again she didn’t look at me.
“It’s bleeding.” I reached for her arm and she pulled away.
“I’m fine Xander. Please, stop making a fuss.”
It wasn’t that I was making a fuss. I just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
She proceeded to her little office on the first floor and much to her dismay I followed her right inside.
When she got in she continued to ignore me and reached for her first aid box.
Fuck, she really was good at pretending I didn’t exist.
She winced when she placed a cotton pad to her arm.
I walked over and took over. I just took the pad from her because that wasn’t what you were supposed to do first.
She looked up at me making direct eye contact for the first time and gave in, allowing me to tend to her wound.
I set the cotton pad down and got a cleansing wipe to clean away the blood. It wasn’t a cut that would be deemed that big of a deal, but it was a big deal for me.
If tonight was a success, and I got the prints, this might be it. This might be the last time I saw her properly and the last time I touched her like this.
This would be goodbye.
“First aid. They teach you that as part of your work? My father doesn’t offer that here. I couldn’t even tend to myself.” She stated, voice heavy with angst.
“It’s just something I picked up,” I answered.
“Where?”
“Afghanistan.”
Her beautiful blue eyes clung to mine. “I didn’t know you served in Afghanistan. But then I didn’t ask. It fits.”
“What fits?”
“All of it. Makes sense. Marine and whatever it is you are now, it follows a pattern. Not bad. Not a bad person. You working here didn’t make sense. Ex-marine, man of honor who served his country joins the crew of a notorious mobster?” She gave me that laugh again with no humor behind it.
“Jia…”
