Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
“You want to fight with Darlene again?”
The realization someone had attempted to kill me or my horse sank in around the same time the surgeon paid me a visit to inform me I would require either an operation or angelic intervention to restore full mobility to my shoulder, which had taken the brunt of the bullet.
Having the bullet removed promptly had spared me from permanent impairment.
While I spluttered, Yuless asked questions, and when he didn’t understand the answers, he called Lucifer and demanded a translation, resulting in a feud over the phone. The surgeon regarded my partner with a raised brow. “He’s lively.”
I forced myself to recover enough to reply, “He’s an idiot dragon, and he just wants me to punt him in the direction of his castle a few times. Don’t mind him. He probably doesn’t understand the risk factor of the operation. He was born yesterday.”
“Ah, I see. The risk factor is quite low. We need to install a few pins and put you in a brace until you fully recover unless you opt for angelic intervention.”
I got up from where I sat on the examination table, and mindful of my injury, I took the phone with my left hand, put it to my ear, and said, “Please come fix this disaster. I don’t want pins in my shoulder, Lucy.”
The Devil laughed. “He’s just trying to prove he will be a good husband for you.”
“That is the default, so try to convince him I understand this. Had I not felt this way, I would have attempted to punt him in his human form. As I did not, he’s fine.
But I really don’t want to be cut open and have new bits installed right now.
If you can’t do it, send one of your brothers.
I bet the surgeon would be willing to do the follow up imagery right now and spare us additional drama later. ”
“Give me twenty minutes. The wife will want to come and babysit you, I’m sure.”
“Bring pizza?”
“I will not bring pizza, but I will take you to where pizza can be acquired so you can work out your nerves,” he promised before hanging up on me.
I returned the phone to Yuless. “You can take me out on a weird date to buy a proper phone. Mine could use an upgrade. Lucifer will be here in about twenty minutes, and we’re going out for pizza after the imagery portion of the day is concluded.”
Yuless heaved a pained sigh. “You want to fight with Darlene again?”
“I really do. I’m hoping I can get one of her primaries. I want a new quill to celebrate today’s victory. Also, you can’t eat whoever shot me.”
My lover scowled. “Why not?”
“I want satisfaction, and there is nothing satisfying about a quick and relatively painless devouring.”
He considered my request, and he nodded. “Very well. When you are finished exacting your satisfaction, I will devour the culprit, wait for them to end up in the dungeon, and get my satisfaction there.”
“We should make that a date.”
“I would enjoy that date very much.”
“Then we’re agreed.” I returned to my place on the examination table, swinging my legs back and forth. “I’m either getting the Devil or some archangels to be my angelic intervention, so can you tell me what to expect from the recovery period?”
The surgeon took his time thinking about it.
“The bone will be sore for a week or two but fully usable. Often, angels resolve the core issues and leave remnant injuries, like bone bruising, to heal on their own. Ideally, you will have someone else do the lifting for you for the next two to three days. I would opt against riding any horses for that period of time.”
I sighed. “Are you game to see if Alligator Bait will attempt murder again, Yuless? I can’t afford to skip her training days.”
“I can probably cope with functioning as a sack of grain for a few days while you heal. My weight will be a problem, however. I’m far over the weight allowances for jockeying.”
“It’s a strength building exercise. She just won’t run as fast with your big muscles holding her back.”
Yuless snickered. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll ride her without my shirt while you watch.”
Was anything better than watching a sexy man ride a gorgeous horse? “Actually, yes. That will make me feel a lot better.”
Yuless considered the surgeon with interest. “I don’t suppose you can give me a list of things she shouldn’t do? She will push the limits because that is her nature, so I’m going to need to be on my toes containing her.”
“Sacrifice your body,” I suggested. “If you’re busy sacrificing your body for my happiness, I can’t do chores.”
The surgeon burst into laughter. “Just be careful with her shoulder should you decide to try to keep her busy that way. It will be sore, and I don’t mean the mild levels of soreness most experience.
But I will forgo issuing painkillers initially; if her pain levels become more than she can handle, you can give me a call and I will prescribe something. I recommend against pixie dust.”
Well, there went my fun. “Why no pixie dust?”
“If you are the helper type, you will try to help, and the last thing anyone needs right now is you trying to help,” my lover replied before the doctor had a chance to respond.
“If you need something to do, I have some papers a strong woman might be able to defeat, and they involve your favorite corporation.”
I could live without pixie dust if it meant getting one step closer to securing justice for Belinda and toppling my former employer’s empire.
“Now we’re talking business. When I’m not trying to figure out who wanted to shoot me or my horse, I’m going to work on growing your empire.
If I grow your empire sufficiently, you might leave me alone during race season. ”
“Your ability to race when you want won’t be disrupted,” he promised.
* * *
Rather than brawl with Darlene, we took over my ground floor kitchen and bleached spots onto Lucifer’s feathered wings with paintbrushes so the succubus could enjoy a round of counting.
Had the Devil just agreed to show up as a snow leopard for her enjoyment, we wouldn’t have needed to join forces to subdue him, but no. Lucifer lived to be stubborn, incapable of rubbing his few remaining brain cells together to please his wife.
Understanding Darlene would need thousands of tiny spots to count, I took care with giving her a mix of small and medium splotches as well as numerous of the larger iconic rings her husband adored.
As the succubus had territory issues, I sat cross-legged between his shoulders to work while she perched on his ass, making certain every ring around his tail pleased her.
“Why are we doing this again?” I asked, debating if it was worth the effort to snap my paintbrush and stab the Devil with it.
If he wiggled one more time while I attempted to bleach his primary feathers, I might.
“Yuless wants to investigate who shot you without you growling and snarling over his shoulder. You even dragged him to the lake, tapping your foot all the while, until he transformed so you could punt him into the water,” she reminded me.
Right. I had done that, as we’d spent more than an hour bickering over our preferences on how to handle my shooter.
We’d agreed we would not stoop to immediate death, appeasing my need to receive some satisfaction before the dragon had his turn.
“Could it have been Elegance in Moonlight’s old owner?
I mean, I made off with his horse following a public shaming. ”
Darlene shook her head. “He, upon witnessing the shooting on the television, called the authorities and requested angelic verification he had not been involved. It was verified he had nothing to do with it and that he admired you for riding under horrific circumstances. It seems he has a better understanding of how you have taken his horses so far. Your mission to convince him to never own racing horses again has come to fruition. He understands now that he is an excellent breeder but he should limit his involvement with the race circuits to that. He’ll make plenty of money breeding, however.
He owns many excellent dams and sires, and he will try again to breed future champions—and he will.
Many of his foals will sell for millions, and he will never hurt for money again.
He’ll enjoy the lack of stress, as all he will need to do is track how well his foals perform. ”
“I’m still going to try to win the Triple Crown.
I have Alligator Bait enrolled in several races, and as long as I place top three in them all, I will qualify.
” I grunted over the soreness in my shoulder, which far surpassed any general aches I’d dealt with prior.
“Surely ex bosses aren’t stupid enough to try to shoot me because I wasn’t willing to return to work for them. ”
Silence.
I bowed my head and sighed. That the pair refused to answer warned me my past had come calling in a rather violent fashion. “Seriously?”
“There are many kinds of men in the world, and your former employers are the kind who resent and hate when women tell them no,” Lucifer informed me, and he drummed his fingers on the floor.
“They held zero remorse or hesitation over the death of your friend, and they would rather silence you than have you spill their secrets and methods to somebody else. It took them several months to understand your value—and to realize that you had not signed a long-term NDA. Your death would count as a permanent NDA to them.”
Bastards. “I was already motivated to destroy their ambitions and dismantle their empire, Lucifer. I did not need additional motivation.”