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No, I needed her gaze on me.
Don’t fucking leave me.
“Bou?” I hissed again, more demanding this time, or so I imagined.
“You’re going to be all right,” she said, not looking back but gently rubbing a thumb over my beard where she held my face.
Her jawline was gorgeous, and I wanted so badly to reach up and touch the little pair of flowers tattooed behind her ear. My eyelids were heavy. Too heavy. My head felt heavier too.
“Bou, he still awake?” Goatee’s voice sounded slow, slurred, and so far away.
Her strong hands released my face, and her sweet voice moved away. “He’s almost out.”
And then, I was.
5
Bou
CRACK, crunch, click. The sounds the man’s leg bones made as Doc set them back into place sent a quake up my spine. I shivered and closed my eyes.
Doc looked over to where my brother and I stood shoulder to shoulder “Celt, in the back of my van, there’s a toolbox labeled Cast Kit. Grab that for me?”
Funny how my brother jumped into action at the simple command from Doc yet gave me the stink eye with every one of my requests.
Doc’s eyes slid over to me. “Bou, can you come hold his ankle here while I prep the cast?”
“Is the crackling over?” I asked.
“Yeah, just need to keep it steady while I mix up the plaster.”
My eyes jerked back and forth between Doc and the man sleeping in my bed. He was peacefully still as though Doc hadn’t just made his bones sound like he’d just added milk to Rice Crispies. The stranger was drugged into unconsciousness, but I couldn’t believe his eyes hadn’t popped open when Doc had yanked and twisted his leg. The Ridge’s almost-doctor had been a real MD when he lived back in LA, but something about the work had soured him to that life. He’d come here looking for a fresh start when I was a girl. The Ridge had been in an uproar then too. Adults—well men who came to Park Ridge were typically run out of town before they had a chance to meet more than a handful of people. Women were only chased off after they’d been sufficiently used. Doc turned out to be the anomaly. I squinted at him, bounced my leg, then put thoughts of the stranger’s eyes and Doc’s acceptance out of my mind and went to do as he’d asked.
When my brother returned, Doc took the toolbox and went to the kitchen on the other side of the shop.
Celt leaned against the window with his ankles and arms crossed. He nodded toward the man in my bed. “When Doc’s done, we’ll load him up in the van.”
I glared at him, still holding the ankle in place. “Get over yourself. You’re not moving him until he’s better. I’m a big girl and can take care of myself. Plus, if you take him anywhere in this god-forsaken town, the rats will eat him for dinner.”
Celt was the law in Park Ridge, a town made up of so-called farmers, although they didn’t grow anything that could be consumed unless it was through a pipe. Their businesses typically revolved around delivering their crop to any one of the various gangs in LA or Phoenix. They also claimed to be in the importing business. Several of the boys worked at the border control station about a hundred miles south to facilitate the transportation of goods they acquired without scrutiny of the legal kind. They didn’t look favorably on newcomers, and the head of the operation—who went by Rex—would have this stranger taken to ground before he even woke up. I had grown accustomed to the ways of this town, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to let them take out someone who’d already been through the ringer on my turf. The town might belong to them, but their rules didn’t apply in my shop.
“I’ve said this before, Celt. Once you pass that city sign and step into my shop, Ridge rules don’t fucking apply.”
A muscle in Celt’s jaw ticked as he returned my stare. “Bou, you know good and well that every last one of the men here would die protecting you.”
“That so? Then why did your boy, Luke, think he had a right to get in my pants by force?”
“I said the men. Luke’s a prospect.” Celt paused, then narrowed his eyes at me. “He didn’t get far, right? Heard you taught him some manners.”
“Of course he didn’t get far. If he’d made one more move or pig-headed remark, he’d have been snacking on a nice little round-nose served up from the end of my new 43.”
“That’s my girl.” Celt grinned wide and shifted his stance with pure satisfaction. He’d been the one who taught me how to shoot as well as a few other ways to get out of a sticky situation. I couldn’t tell if he was proud of me or proud of himself.
I waved toward the bed. “Then why do you worry so much about me getting this stranger back on his feet?”
“That’s my job as both the law and your brother.”
I rolled my eyes. “Bullshit.”
