Chapter 29
M aybe laughter was its own kind of healing magic because I felt much better after we managed to calm down.
“You want to go out for drinks tonight?” Mist asked, swiping at her face. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.”
“I’d like that,” I said, warmth curling in my chest.
“Hell, why wait? You want to go at noon?”
I grinned. “Yes.”
She laughed. “Alright, I’m gonna go do a little bit of work, and then I’ll see you in a couple hours.”
Mist gave Tuck a little wave as she left. He returned it, looking amused. I took a deep breath and went back to working on my inventory. The sunshine poured in through the window Wolf installed, warming my skin.
As though I’d conjured him with my thoughts, the door opened, and Wolf and the rest of his crew entered. Wolf approached, his lips pressed firmly together, and handed me my breakfast.
“Why didn’t you notice your arm hurting?” he asked in a strange, flat voice.
I blinked, startled enough to be honest. “I’m used to hurting.”
He stared at me for several breaths, his expression closed, but his eyes raging with emotion. Then he turned and stalked back out of the clinic. I stood holding my food, staring at the door, and hating the uncertainty coursing through me.
“He’s trying,” Scar murmured as she passed by to go to the sink.
I turned to see the rest of the crew watching me, and my heart tripped over itself. I dropped my eyes and unwrapped my breakfast.
“How’s your back feeling?” asked Sable.
I kept my eyes on my food but paused to think about it. It still ached, but it was duller now. “Little better.”
“Good.” Sable sounded pleased. “You can keep that salve.”
I inhaled my food so I could get back to work.
Scar and Lee went outside. Sable asked to help, so I gave him the job of making more tinctures to soothe a cough while I started cleaning the inside of the cabinet that housed my tools.
Kai helped Sable with the tinctures, and Tuck sat in a chair and started oiling one of his guns.
After we all worked in silence for a while, my tense shoulders dropped back down, and I stopped twitching whenever one of them made an unexpected noise.
A few patients came in with minor injuries.
I rarely had super busy days now that the hold population was smaller.
Time passed quickly, and soon Mist was striding through the door again.
“You ready?” she asked with a grin.
When we stepped outside, Wolf, Scar, and Lee looked up from their seats on the porch.
“Where are you goin’?” Wolf asked.
“Out.” I inwardly winced as the word came out curt, and Wolf’s eyes narrowed.
“We’re gettin’ some drinks at Hydro,” Mist clarified.
Wolf’s expression didn’t lighten, and I had to remind myself I was not asking for his permission. I was an adult, and I could make my own decisions.
“Be back later,” I said as breezily as I could manage, catching Mist’s elbow and tugging her down the steps.
“Ember—” Wolf started to growl but cut off with a grunt as someone elbowed him in the ribs.
I kept going, my ears straining for any sound behind us, but when I finally glanced back, they were still sitting on the porch. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“Your brother seems like… a lot,” Mist said.
“That’s ’cause he is,” I muttered.
“Makes sense that he’s protective, though,” Mist added, and I glanced at her in confusion. “Since someone’s been attacking you?” She raised an eyebrow.
I blew out an annoyed breath. “Yeah, I guess.”
Mist laughed lightly. “Well, c’mon, we’re gonna go have fun for a couple hours, and we’re not gonna think about brothers, exes, blood, or dungeons.”
“What about shit cookies?” I cut my eyes sideways with a smirk.
She playfully shoved me. “Don’t get me started giggling again.”
Hydro felt different in a nice way. A mix of people sat inside, and the low murmur of conversation filled the room. Some of Nemo’s guards were present, but the clientele wasn’t primarily guards like before. Everything looked clean and bright.
Mist and I sat at the bar, and the drinking began. It was soon clear that Mist was drinking to forget just as much as I was. She made a game of it, and after a couple drinks, I realized I was having fun. My body felt loose and relaxed, laughter flowing and grinning so hard my cheeks hurt.
“This is so much better,” I told Mist.
“Better than what?” She wrinkled her nose in confusion.
“Without Zip.”
Understanding flashed across her face. “You caused quite a stir by pickin’ him.”
I winced and took a large drink.
“Hawk told me Mac asked him and his crew to keep an eye on you if you were there with him,” she continued, and my heart started beating faster. “He asked the foreman, Silver, to keep an eye on you, too. I guess he made it pretty clear he’d fuck Zip up if he hurt you.”
“You sure it wasn’t Trey?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
“No, definitely Mac. I just heard rumors when I was in the dungeon, but I heard Mac beat the shit out of him while you were in solitary.”
I stared at her. “What?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s true, just heard there was a brawl at Mootzie’s cause Mac and Zip got into it.”
I dropped my head into my hands, letting my hair shield my face, and tried to remember if Mac had looked beat up when he brought me water and food in that cell. I hadn’t noticed anything visible, but the light was so dim and I was so panicked.
“Heard another rumor that Zip was found with a bullet in his head in the woods,” she continued, her voice casual. “Guessin’ that was you or Trey.”
“That one was Trey,” I got out.
“Good riddance, I say,” she muttered, taking a drink.
I stared down into my drink, miserably replaying the events of that night.
I hadn’t even tried to fight back when Zip cornered us in the woods.
I’d immediately started trying to manipulate the situation, to find a way to cooperate, to put my head down and survive .
I’d done the same thing with Madame when she had a gun to Trey’s head.
“Wow, I know how to bring the mood down,” Mist groaned.
I forced a smile that felt stiff. “No, it’s okay.”
“Fuck, and I said we weren’t gonna think about exes.”
I tried hard to shove all those dark thoughts back down. “I don’t know if we’ve drunk too much or not enough.”
She laughed and waved her hand at the bartender. “I vote not enough.”
Several drinks later, I couldn’t remember why I’d been sad earlier. Mist and another woman were drunkenly singing a ridiculously lewd song, and I was laughing as I watched when a familiar voice spoke near my ear and scared the shit out of me.
“Havin’ fun?”
I yelped, twisting on my stool and forcing Lee to catch me before I fell.
“Stop fuckin doin’ that!"
“What? Keepin’ you from fallin’ on your ass?”
“No, sneakin’ up on me!” I glared at him. “You need a damn bell.”
“A bell?” His eyebrows rose.
“To jingle,” I tried to pantomime a bell ringing, “when you walk.”
He grinned. “I’m offended you think I’d make a bell ring by walking.”
I still sat on the stool, but he stood between my legs, holding onto my waist, and I kind of liked it.
“We need you back at the clinic,” he said, his eyes still sparkling merrily, “but I’m thinkin’ you might be too inebriated to heal?—"
“I can heal just fine.”
I slid off the stool, and the room tilted. Lee caught my arm as I listed to the side, trying to steady myself.
“Yeah, I’m doubtin’ that.”
“Oh fuck you,” I said, jabbing a finger into his chest.
“Whassgoinon?” Mist asked, slurring the sentence into one indistinguishable word.
“We need Freckles at the clinic,” Lee answered.
Mist squinted at him. “Freckles?”
“Your drinkin’ buddy,” Lee grinned.
Mist glanced at me, realization dawning across her face. “Freckles!"
“Don’t you start.” I glared at her, but she just giggled drunkenly.
“You need a hand gettin’ home?” Lee asked, and it took me a second to realize he was talking to Mist.
“I’m not goin’ home yet,” she threw her arm around the older woman she’d been singing with.
Lee laughed, “Alright. Have fun.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist and steered me toward the door. It felt like we were moving far too fast, the world around us blurring.
“If you can’t heal, that’s okay. Sable can stitch the kid up.”
“What kid?” I demanded.
“Uh… one of the older ones? Colt?”
“What happened?”
“He said he was practicing knife throwing.”
“The fuck?” I stumbled over something, and Lee’s arm tightened around my waist.
“Don’t worry, I already volunteered to teach him.”
I came to an abrupt halt, glaring at him. “Don’t give my kids knives.”
He grinned at me. “They already have knives. I’m just gonna teach ’em how to use ’em right.”
I scowled and shoved him away, wobbling, but stayed on my feet. “I can walk just fine by myself.”
“Can you?” he chuckled.
I started moving, concentrating hard to go in a semi-straight line. Lee walked next to me, looking increasingly amused.
“Quit smil?—"
My foot went into a small hole, and I went down on my ass. He didn’t even try to catch me, watching with a shit-eating grin.
“Fine, huh?”
I swore at him, and he laughed again.
“You’re walkin’ like a baby fawn.”
I tried to keep glaring at him, but for some reason, that struck me as hilarious, and I erupted into giggles again. His eyebrows raised again, and he grinned crookedly.
“Baby fawn,” I repeated, tears of laughter filling my eyes.
“C’mon, Freckles,” he pulled me up and wrapped his arm around my waist again.
“You don’t need to say 'baby,'” I tried to explain, still giggling. “Fawn means baby. You’re sayin’ 'baby baby.'”
“Drunk you is a lot more fun than drunk Wolf.”
“I’m a lot more fun than Wolf all the time,” I corrected him, tilting my head to grin at him as we walked.
“That might be true,” he agreed.