“Well, it sure as hell didn’t come out.”
Luce rolls her eyes and pulls up the flashlight app on her phone, shining it into the hole to get a good look around. “I don’t see what Skylah sees in you.”
“Funny. I don’t see what she sees in you either.”
“You know, any smart person would be nice to the girl who’s about to go digging in their back for a bullet.”
“Any smart person wouldn’t get shot in the first place.”
“Good point,” she grumbles before stepping back and grabbing the tub. “Come on. You’re too tall for me. You’re going to have to lie down on the bed, but let me get some old towels first. That linen cost more than that truck out front.”
I trudge out of the bathroom, starting to get dizzy as Luce races ahead of me and peels all the linen off the bed. She quickly replaces it with her version of old towels which look practically brand-new.
I crash down onto the bed with pain shooting through me while also getting a wave of relief. I’d do anything to be able to close my eyes and forget this bullshit right now. I’d be more than happy to go back in time and wake up yesterday morning where everything was right in the world.
Luce drops down on the bed beside me and leans over my back, trying to get into a good position to do this but quickly realizes that there’s only one way this is going to work. “Sorry,” she says with a cringe. “I’m going to have to sit on your back.”
Fuck. There was once a time I would have rejoiced in random hot chicks climbing all over me but right now, there’s zero appeal. “Just…do it carefully.”
She sucks in a breath as though that’s going to make her somehow lighter and climbs up onto my back. I clench my jaw as the movement jostles everything and has me wanting to hurl her across the room, but without her help, I’m fucked.
“Alright,” she says as she pulls the tub of supplies closer. “This is going to hurt. Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to be in a hospital?”
I shake my head.
“That’s right, you’re probably a criminal.”
For fuck’s sake.
Luce lets out a heavy breath and for a moment I wonder if she has the balls to do this when she grabs the vodka and pours it all over the wound, making me jump and clutch onto the mattress as though it’s my only saving grace. Luce has to grab hold of my side just to stay on my back.
“A little fucking warning would be nice,” I scold.
“Warnings are for pussies,” she says, righting herself and throwing back a swig of vodka.
I watch as her hand dives into the tub and comes out with a pair of tweezers and I try to remind myself that I’m the badass, tough motherfucker that Skylah fell in love with.
Fuck. I’m going to scream like a little bitch.
I grab a part of the towel and shove it between my teeth to avoid calling her every name under the sun. I clench my eyes and curl my hands into the mattress. “Just do it.”
Luce leans forward onto her elbows, getting up close and personal with my back. “Ha,” she grunts. “That’s exactly what I said when I lost my virginity.”
Her hands press down around the wound, pulling and stretching at the skin to see inside. The pain is manageable until I feel a sharp sting of the tweezers pressing into the wound, searching around for the bullet.
“Oh, fuck,” I groan low, tightening my fists around the mattress and thanking God that Sky isn’t here to witness me being such a little bitch.
I hear Luce’s heavy breathing, or maybe it’s not heavy, maybe she’s just that damn close that it’s loud as fuck. “Okay,” she finally says as the tweezers pause. “I think I found it but it’s pretty fucking deep in here. Last chance to pull out. I mean, what if I pull this fucker out and you just like…bleed everywhere? I don’t want to be incarcerated for your murder.”
“It’ll be fine. The second you pull it out, just press something down on it until you can stop the bleeding.”
“Okay, but I wanted it stated for the record that if you die, this is on Lucien, not me.”
“Done, now get on with it.”
The tweezers in my back start moving around and I groan as they latch onto the bullet, at least I hope it’s the bullet. If this chick pulls out something that’s meant to be in there, I’m going to be pissed.
Luce gives a hard tug and the tweezers slip off the bullet making me groan. “Shit, sorry,” she says, digging them straight back in and adding a little more vodka to the mix.
She tries again and this time I feel it loosening until finally, it’s wedged out of my back and dropped down on the towel beside me. I can’t help but stare at the little fucker. It’s amazing how something so small can cause so much damage.
Luce goes crazy with the vodka and presses down, making sure I’m not about to bleed all over her pool house and after she’s convinced that my death isn’t about to be on her conscious, she pulls back. “I think I need to stitch you up a bit.”
I groan. “Seriously. It’s not enough to get shot. Now you want to poke at me with a fucking needle.”
“Are you kidding? You just survived a bullet. I think the needle will be fine.”
Luce gets busy and when she finally presses a bandage over the wound, I feel like my world can come back into perspective. “You know, only a fucking lovestruck idiot would go running in there like you did.”
“Thanks but Blake beat you to the punch. He’s already given me the ‘I told you so’ bullshit.”
“Blake?” she questions, her brow raising. “You’re friends with him too? Is he alright?”
“He’s been better. Lucien did a number on his leg. He’ll be in the hospital for a while.”
“But what about basketball and the NBA?”
“Jury is still out on that one.”
“Shit,” she sighs, pulling herself up off the bed and helping me sit. She dashes into the kitchen and grabs a massive trash bag and starts hauling everything into it before finding the disinfectant and scrubbing the shit out of the place.
“So, you said you were talking to Skylah earlier today?” I question, watching her move around the pool house. “Does she have a phone you called her on or an email that I don’t know of?”
“Nah, I went over there,” she says. “Lucien had me ‘helping’ him to find her all this time. If I knew…” she lets out a sigh and gets back on track. “She hasn’t got anything, no phone, no email, no Facebook. She might as well not exist. I’m going to try to get back in there tomorrow and smuggle her a phone but I can’t guarantee that he’ll let me in now that he knows that I know what he did to her.”
“Shit. You’ll let me know, right?” I say, standing. “If you can get her a phone.”
“Yeah,” she says with a small nod. “I’ll text you the number.”
“Thanks.” I nod and start heading for the door.
Luce grunts at my back. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
I looked back at her, my brows furrowed. “Umm…home. Where does it look like I’m going?”
Luce shakes her head. “Don’t be fucking stupid. You’ll stay here tonight. You literally just got shot and Skylah told me you guys are from Aston Creek. I googled that shit and it’s a long fucking drive. I can’t let you drive in your condition, and besides, you drank nearly half a bottle of vodka. If the bullet didn’t kill you, then your driving will.”