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“Omar!”
Lyse was pointing. Somehow, Jesus had gotten into his boat and was currently taking it out into the deep water.Mierda. “Go after him,” Helena panted as she clutched her arm. “I’m fine.”
“You’renotfine,” Lyse said. Her voice bordered on shrill. At this rate, both women were going to go into shock.
“She’s right,” I said. “We need to take care of you. I’ll take care of him later. He’s not likely to get far in the condition he’s in…he may even die before he gets back to whatever boat he launched the dinghy from.” It was a vow to them both.
“Do you think there’s more of them?” Lyse sounded horrified.
“I took care of two others already by the dry dock.” I didn’t want to imagine what would happen if the Rojas knew we had all those guns here. I picked Helena up in a bridal carry, and we started for the house. “If there’s any more, they won’t come here until they’ve regrouped and replanned.” I glanced at Lyse. “Your father’s men are vastly underprepared. Who trains them?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Matteo has a private tutor who takes him to the range, but I’m not sure if the others are given the same opportunity.”
“I’m going to say no.”Typical shitty leader, I thought. Padre, at the very least, insisted that the men be trained. When I hit a certain number of kills — though I wasn’t sure what that magic number was — Padre had made it my responsibility to make sure the men were in fighting shape.
If Matteo was still being trained himself, it meant he wasn’t in a position to teach anyone else yet. So, what, Luis was just hoping that his men trained enough on their own without any support?
“The first aid kit is back in the pantry,” I told Lyse. “Grab it for us.”
She looked almost relieved to have something to do, and she ran to fetch the kit. Helena was pale, but her eyes were bright and clear. She smiled at me. “This is the first time that we’ll be doing this in reverse,” she said.
I hummed. “It better be the last time.”
She raised her eyebrow at me. “I think I’ve said something like that to you before,mijo. It never quite seems to work that way.”
“Yes,” I said, “but it’s my job. It’s yours to stay in the house when bad things are happening. Safe, away from the danger.”
“I saw that man point his gun at Lyse. I couldn’t let him hurt her.”
“And what, pray tell, could you do about a man with a gun?”
She brought a knife from her pocket. It still had the guard on it. “I was going to sneak up behind him if I could.”
I wanted to hug the woman, but I didn’t dare for fear of hurting her shoulder. “You’re very brave.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Just bandage me and get me one of your good pills. I want to sleep for the next decade.”
Lyse returned, and I had her help me gently lift the sleeve of Helena’s blouse out of the way so that we could get a look at the wound. Like I’d suspected outside, it was a through and through, but the flesh was red and torn. “If I stitch this, it’s going to be ugly.” I sighed. “I should have Efrain take you to a hospital.”
Helena shook her head. “Just close it,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“It could get infected,” Lyse argued.
For once, Helena gave her a look that wasn’t entirely friendly. “I don’t want to argue with either of you. Get it closed and let me go to bed.”
“Okay,” I gave in.
Lyse opened the kit. “Let me,” she said. “I’m good with traditional stitches.” She looked at the wound with distaste. “This is too much for liquid stitches or Steri-Strips.”
I was hoping to avoid that, but she was right. I distracted Helena while Lyse worked the medical-grade thread through her skin with the hooked needle. For her part, Helena took the pain like a champ: she gritted her teeth through most of it.
“Done,” Lyse said, and her voice sounded faraway, like she was barely holding on to reality.
I took the gauze from her. “I’ll do the rest,” I said and wrapped Helena’s shoulder as quickly as I could without jostling her. Lyse was going to have a breakdown here soon, and I couldn’t handle the both of them at once.
When Helena was bandaged, I dug an unlabeled, orange prescription bottle out of the cupboard near the sink and produced two white pills. “What is this?”
“You asked for the good stuff,” I said. “These are the best I have.”
