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One of Otto’s friends – Chuck? – clasps his hand over her mouth to stop her from making any noise. The muscles of my back tense. My chest tightens so I draw a deep breath.
“Let her go.”
Otto grins and glances over his shoulder. “Maybe I should cut this bitch first. I bet Maggie would be glad.”
He lets go of my hair and starts to walk towards Triss. At the sight of her terrified expression, my jaw clenches. Adrenaline pumps through my veins. Suddenly, I hear a voice inside my head.
Fight, Antonio.
My body moves before I can think. I lunge at Otto and push him down on the ground. The knife falls from his hand. As I try to pin him down, his friends come over to help. One of them picks up the knife.
Triss screams. The man with the knife attacks and I deflect his arm with my elbow. My other arm delivers a hard strike to his throat and he stumbles back. The knife clatters to the ground.
Beneath me, Otto tries to reach for it, but I grab his arm and twist it against his back. He yelps. Chuck pulls his arm back to swing at me, but his fist remains hanging as other people appear.
Chuck bolts.
“Hey!” someone shouts and some people go after him.
The others approach me. Ned taps my shoulder.
“I’ll take it from here.”
I get off Otto and walk over to Triss. As soon as I pull her to her feet, she wraps her arms around me. Tight. She doesn’t say a word, but I can feel her fear and her relief. I pat her back.
“Let’s go home.”
~
As soon as we get home, I go straight to the examination room. No reason to take a chance on letting Lara see my face like this and scaring her. A few minutes later, Triss follows. She sits on the edge of the bed and pats it.
“Lie down so I can help you.”
I hesitate. This is none of her business. I’ve already involved her enough.
“I’m not asking,” she says.
I let out a breath and approach the bed while keeping the ice pack on my face. “You sure are bossy for someone who’s not even a doctor.”
“You sure talk a lot for someone with a face like a grape.”
I frown. “Is it that bad?”
When I looked in the mirror, it didn’t seem all that swollen. I’m glad I managed to evade the blow somewhat.
“Bad enough,” Triss answers.
I start to lie down but stop when I feel a pain in my stomach. I grip it as I groan.
“Let me look at that.”
Triss pushes me back gently. She unbuttons my vest, pulls my shirt out of my pants and starts unbuttoning it from the bottom as well. When she’s nearly halfway, she stops. Her eyes narrow.
“Worse?” I ask her before taking a glance.
I spot the hematoma close to my navel.
“Is it?” Triss throws the question back at me.
“A little,” I answer as I put my head down. “But it’s not serious.”
If I had any internal injuries, I’d be feeling much worse. I’m still lucky.
“It just needs ice, too,” I add.
“Okay.”
Triss grabs another ice pack and places it on my stomach. I flinch and hiss from the cold but get used to it after several seconds.
“You know, you wouldn’t have ended up like this if you had fought back from the beginning, or at least defended yourself,” Triss tells me. “I mean, you clearly know how.”
I do? Well, I guess I did manage to keep myself from getting stabbed. I don’t know how. My body just started moving on its own, spurred on by the intermittent voice in my head. An older man’s voice.
“Who was that?” Triss asks.
I give her a puzzled look because she just said the question I’m thinking out loud. Did she just read my mind?
“You called him Otto, so you must know him, right?”
So that’s who she meant.
“Otto Grundy,” I answer. “Summerset’s resident delinquent. His mother died in an accident when he was still a kid, so he and his dad moved here to live with his grandparents. He was a quiet, sickly kid. Had asthma and a lot of allergies. Mitch went to check on him a lot. Then he got better. And what did he do with his second lease on life? He rebelled, made the wrong friends, got into fights, dropped out of school, tried to earn money the wrong way.”
“It seems like he lost his way.”
“He did. He nearly died of an overdose last year. Hasn’t been in trouble since then, though. I actually thought he’d finally turned over a new leaf. It turns out I was wrong.”
Though I never expected him to come at me. What was his reason again? Because of Maggie?
“What about Maggie?” Triss asks. “Otto mentioned her.”
“Ned’s sister. The one I saved. She used to follow me around everywhere.”
