What is Bruce Lee’s Vegetarian Brother’s Name? #3
“It wasn’t that easy. Guillermo was an untrusting son of a bitch, even with me.
I was rarely alone. If he wasn’t around, my bodyguard was.
About the only time I had any time to myself was if I locked myself away in our suite, and there were guards on the balcony outside our room at all times, as well as in the hallway.
Wouldn’t have put it past him to have had cameras in all the rooms of the hacienda. And I do mean all of them.”
“So he could have known for a while who you were?”
“Possible, but improbable. He was impatient. If he knew something, he was unlikely to sit on it. That bit him in the ass more than once because he reacted first, then often had to work his way out of jams because he didn’t stop to think things through.”
Demon reentered the room with Steel behind him. The latter was wheeling the ski equipment behind him.
“I take it the skis are in the bathtub now?”
“You know me so well, little spy. I’ll be back to take care of the mess in about half an hour, forty-five minutes.”
With that, he was out the door.
“Mess?” she asked weakly.
Demon shrugged. “He was a little stubborn, but we played that Russian shape game and got him to fit.”
Visions of the man folded into a double vertical stack, bent where a body shouldn’t be, caused bile to rise from her stomach. “Sorry I asked.”
Coming around to the side of the bed again, he got rid of the gloves he’d been wearing, turning them inside out and shoving them into his backpack. He put on a clean set and prodded the affected area around the wound. “Feel that?”
“Pressure. I know it hurts, but strangely, I don’t care.”
“Yeah, that’s the oxy. If you’re feeling that way, that means it’s time to get this thing out of you. Just one, yes?”
“Yes.”
“How did no one hear the scuffle?” Triumph asked.
“Small caliber. Barely made any noise, although it did have some sort of modified silencer on it. Looked handmade. The gun is under my pillow in case I had more visitors.”
“Slide it out, Triumph. We’ll dispose of it later.
” Demon took off his watch and clicked a button.
“I need to take a couple pictures of your side. I’m pretty sure I know where the bullet is, but our tech guy back home has a high-tech doohickamajobber that allows him to filter the photo.
Turns the picture into a scan. I’d rather confirm where the bullet is, if we can, before I go digging. ”
“Doohickamajobber?”
“Technical term.” Demon smiled. He took the picture, sent it over the cloud, and waited.
Not even a minute later, his watch beeped five times.
A quick look at the screen, and he nodded.
“Good. Right where I thought it was. This should be fast. You haven’t nicked anything important, so while it’s going to be unpleasant to take out, it’ll be quick. ” He looked at G again. “You ready?”
“No, but I want this thing out of me, so get to it.”
“I’ll work as carefully as I can, but even with the meds, it’s still going to hurt.
I also don’t want to make things worse in there, especially since we need to move quickly once I get you stitched and bandaged.
” He grabbed the forceps he’d laid on the bedside table and poured alcohol over them, catching the liquid into a glass from the bathroom.
“You want me to hold your hand, G?”
She turned her head to see Triumph’s look of concern. Yikes. Concerned Triumph was even hotter than bossy Triumph.
“Might be a good idea.”
“Can you keep quiet?” Demon asked. “Or do you need something to bite down on?”
“I think I can manage,” she said.
“Okay. Here we go.”
As soon as the forceps entered the wound, she gave a muffled shriek. Holy fuck, that hurt!
“Hang on, little spy. Talk to her, Triumph. Distract her.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard your first name before. Glennon. Is it a family name?”
Shaking her head, she gave a soft groan.
Demon was retracting his hand. Hopefully, that meant he had the bullet in the forceps.
“My mother loved the name Lennon, but her sister had a baby girl first and named her that. Rather than try to find another name she liked, she just altered the name to something that didn’t appear on any baby-name list.”
Triumph held her hand between both of his. She had to be crushing the bones of his bottom hand, but he didn’t make any sound of discomfort. Just kept stroking the back of her hand with his top one.
As she panted through Demon probing her side, she stared at the ceiling. She wanted to shoot the dead body again for making her go through this.
“Doesn’t that get confusing around the holidays?”
“No. She doesn’t speak to her sister anymore. Stealing the name she had picked out was the last straw in their lifelong rivalry. Besides, I haven’t seen my family in over twelve years, so I haven’t seen her.”
Even with the drugs, the pain in her side was excruciating.
It felt like her entire torso was on fire.
“I think…” Her vision started to go black around the edges, narrowing to a pinpoint.
Her words sounded funny, like her tongue wasn’t working right, and a fine film of sweat broke out across her skin. “Gonna pass out.”
The pinpoint closed, and her brain shut down.