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NINE
‘I MAY BE EVIL’ LANDON TEWERS
Luce
With Lexi’s help, I get Gio in his bed before pulling a t-shirt from his drawers and help Lexi pull it over her head. Her face grimaces when she has to lift her arms to slide through the sleeves, and it makes the edges of my vision tint in red. How long was she tied to that fucking bed with her arms pulled painfully above her head?
I may be a sick and twisted man in my own right, but the things that were done to Lexi and my sister…fuck!
As soon as she’s covered, I turn from her before she can see my eyes. The last thing I want is for her to see my anger and think it’s directed at her. I do my best to push all thoughts of what her and my sister had to endure to the back of my mind and begin cleaning up Gio as best as I can. The task is made more difficult by this damnable cast of my arm.
I grab a pair of scissors and cut through the hoodie and t-shirt he’s wearing while Lexi gets his bloodied boots and jeans off. His skin is pale, but I know the lack of sleep and food is mostly what’s keeping him in his deep slumber. This fucking guy could have gotten himself killed today. The thought alone sends another stab of pain through me.
“Grab a bowl of warm water and a clean rag.” I tell Lexi with a strained voice, thankful when she rushes off to do as I asked. I’m not sure if I’m hiding my emotions well or if she’s unsure about how to speak to me, but I’m grateful for the space, nonetheless.
Still, there are no words for the warmth Lexi’s presence provides my cold and aching soul.
She comes back with everything, including a first-aid kit, just as I pull apart Gio’s shredded clothing.
“I’m going to lift him up, try and put something clean under ‘cause this shit could get messy.”
“Okay.” She says softly in that sweet voice of hers before rushing to the linen closet and snagging a sheet. “Ready when you are.”
Gio grumbles under his breath as I pull him forward into a sitting position, struggling with his weight; this fucker isn’t a little man. Once I lay him back against the pillows, I open the kit and hand a pair of latex gloves to Lexi.
“Have you ever stitched anyone up?” I ask her, searching my pockets for a joint but coming up empty. Honestly, if there was ever a time for a little weed, it’s now.
She gives me a sad look before nodding her head, brushing Gio’s hair back and running a finger on the faint scar that peeks out from under his hairline.
“Alan hit him in the face with a textbook when he was fifteen,” her eyes gloss over as she looks up at me almost helplessly, “we told the school he fell outside playing with his friends, not that they’d do anything even if they knew the truth.”
That piece of human trash will never cease to fucking stun me. The motherfucker should have been aborted the moment his mother found herself fouled by him. Lexi must see my anger and assume it’s because she didn’t speak up when Alan was hurting little Gio, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Her words prove me right, “You must think I’m a coward.”
I tip her chin up to look at me, “A coward is a man who hits, rapes, and abuses women, Lexi. You are many things to me, but a coward is not one of them. Please, don’t ever say that shit about yourself again, and if someone ever makes you feel like you are, shoot them in the face. You got me?”
I know I’m an unhinged sort of man, giving her comfort the way an asylum patient would, but it’s all I’ve got. I don’t have flowery words like Gio does, I don’t have glitter to pour on a woman’s heart, but something tells me that’s not what Lexi would want. Not from me, anyway.
Her sinuous lips kick up into a watery smirk, “Yeah, Luce, I got you.”
“Good girl.” I tell her, my own smirk making a short appearance when her cheeks pink at my words before turning back to Gio. “Okay, I’ll walk you through pulling the bullet out, but he will probably wake up from the pain, so we need to be quick.”
Lexi grabs the rag from the water, ringing it out before cleaning the wound, being careful not to cause more damage. Thankfully the wound isn’t bleeding much anymore, the blood congealing into clots just inside the three-and-a-half-centimeter wound. I click on the bedside lamp before pulling off the shade, illuminating the room even more as Lexi puts the rag back into the water and pouring disinfectant on the wound, both of us readying ourselves for Gio to snap awake from the sting, but he only grumbles and tries to roll away.
I place my arm across his chest to keep him still before Lexi slides a piece of leather into Gio’s mouth, making sure his tongue isn’t between the material and his teeth before breathing deeply.
“Okay, I’m going to feel for the bullet.” She warns me.
I put more pressure on Gio as she slowly slides her gloved finger into the wound, ignoring his muffled scream as he tries to jolt upward, his eyes still squeezed closed.
“Relax, G, it’s just us.” I tell him, pressing him into the mattress where he passes out once more.
“Found it.” Lexi mumbles before pulling her finger free and taking the vise grips in hand, reentering the wound with the metal and clipping the grips once she touches the bullet. She slowly pulls the smashed .22-millimeter cap free, tossing it down onto the discarded sheet before cleaning the wound once more and stuffing it with some gauze.
“Guess I didn’t have to walk you through it. Do you moonlight as a doctor, sweetness?” I tease her.
She gives me a small grin, “I just watch a lot ofGrey’s Anatomy.”
