“Do you think you can walk?”
“Yeah, but not far,” I admitted. “Room two’s open.”
Bean nodded and draped my arm over his shoulder as he helped me hobble to the vacant room. Once inside, I braced myself against the wall in an attempt to stop the dizziness. “Toss a blanket on the floor,” I rasped, surprised at how weak I sounded. “If I bleed all over that mattress, it’ll cost Charli thousands to replace it.”
“Get him in the bed,” Whisker ordered as he walked into the room.
“I got it, Prez,” I said.
“For fuck’s sake,” Bean said exasperatedly while sliding his arm around my waist. “Take the help, boy.”
I was too tired to argue. Even though my leg was throbbing, I wanted to cover up with one of Charli’s blankets and go to sleep for the foreseeable future. “Fine,” I huffed. “You gonna tuck me in, too?”
“What was that?” Bean asked, but he sounded weird.
“Asked if you were gonna tuck me in, Dad,” I repeated. The words took more effort than they should have, as if my mouth was moving in slow motion.
“You hear this shit?” Bean asked, helping me onto the bed.
“Hear what?” I wondered.
“Slit!” Whisker yelled over his shoulder.
“Right here, Prez.”
“His speech is slurred,” Whisker said.
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” Slit explained. He appeared at my side with his bag of medical shit and spoke loudly. “I’m gonna knock you out while I work on your leg. Might have to bring in help.”
“Do it,” Whisker and Bean said simultaneously.
I wanted to be pissed about them answering over me, but Slit hit me with the good shit, and I was out.
When I woke,I wasn’t surprised to see Bean sitting in the recliner in the corner, but I was surprised to still be in room two. It took me a minute to fully wake up, then I picked up the nearby remote and launched it at Bean.
“You little shit,” he chuckled and got to his feet. “You must be feeling better.”
“My leg hurts like a motherfucker,” I griped.
“Yeah, it’s going to for a while.”
“How long?”
Bean shrugged. “Probably six weeks.”
“Fuck that shit,” I grumbled. “Who was it?”
Bean shook his head. “Don’t know.”
“You’re telling me some motherfucker stabbed meandgot away?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah. Prez is fucking irate,” Bean said. “He’s got nothing and no one’s talking. You got anything?”
“Fuck,” I groaned. I didn’t want to say it, even though I knew they had seen it on the camera footage. “Dude was small.”
Bean laughed. “Oh, this gets better and better. Sure it wasn’t a girl?”
“Fuck off, man.” I pushed myself up in the bed and grunted as pain erupted in my leg. “How bad is it?”
