Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Her supplies in hand, Trixie rushed into her bedroom. She couldn’t think about Cayden right now, or her worry that he’d never forgive her for this. Her mind and concern were only for her bleeding brother lying in her bed.
Thankfully Cayden had laid Lee down on the right side, so she didn’t have to reach to get to his wound.
She wasn’t strong enough to lift him on her own.
Cayden’s shirt was soaked through. She dropped the bloody shirt to the newly carpeted bedroom floor.
Priorities after all. Taking the kitchen scissors, she cut Lee’s shirt from navel to neck and then his left sleeve.
The bullet wound was just below his collarbone.
She paused as she moved his cut shirt out the way.
Trixie didn’t know a lot about his time as a soldier or where he’d been afterward.
His body was just as well toned as she remembered it, but she couldn’t recall him having so many scars.
Some were small and circular while others were long and jagged.
A nasty burn mark covered his upper left arm.
Hadn’t he had a Marine’s tattoo there? What the hell had he been doing to earn him so many scars?
A distinctive slash mark on his right wrist caught her eye.
A gasp flew from her mouth. Was its location a coincidence, or had Lee tried to end his own life?
Fuck, she really needed to get him to a hospital, but she’d promised no cops. Hospital would mean doctors, but it would also mean cops. Why the hell had she promised no cops? What the hell had she been thinking?
Forcing her hand under him, she couldn’t feel an exit wound. She’d watched enough Gray’s Anatomy to know that was both good and bad. The bullet needed to be removed before she could stitch up the wound, but the bullet was also keeping the blood flow down.
She leaned over Lee. He was passed out cold. “What the fuck have you been up to, hermano?”
Trixie ran into the bathroom. She wasn’t regretting going crazy with supplying the house now.
Cayden had laughed at her when he’d seen how stocked her medicine cabinet, pantry, and linen closets were.
She had some clients who were doctors. Should she call them?
Could she trust any of them to keep a secret?
Why couldn’t Lee go to a fucking hospital? The man was such a drama queen.
She grabbed the hydrogen peroxide, some washcloths, and her first aid kit.
She had no idea how she was going to get the bullet out of him.
Fuck. Should she Google it? Surely dealing with the cops couldn’t be worse than dying.
She’d do what she could to help him but if he took a turn for the worse she was going to call regardless of her promise.
She was not going to lose another brother.
Using the water and a cloth, Trixie started wiping the blood away from the wound.
She really hoped he was clean. She didn’t have gloves other than her utility ones in her Firebird, and those weren’t exactly sanitary.
Apparently, she hadn’t gone crazy enough with stocking the house. Who didn’t have gloves?
Mentally scolding herself, Trixie looked into the wound. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she could see the end of the bullet. She reached into her nightstand to pull out a small penlight. Clicking it on, she looked closer. Yes, that was definitely the bullet.
It was lodged just below his collarbone. Trixie didn’t think it was in far enough to hit anything vital, but she was a mechanic, not a surgeon. She knew basic first aid because they did work with some dangerous equipment and chemicals at the shop. Bullets were not one of them.
Trixie grabbed the peroxide. She uncapped it, hesitated, and then poured the liquid directly into the wound. Lee shot up on the bed, yelling out. She could see the panic in his eyes, which settled when he saw her. She was grateful for that. He looked ready to spring at her.
Not offering him any sympathy, Trixie said, “There’s more of that if you don’t behave, hermano. Lay back down.”
A string of Spanish curses flew from his mouth. He groaned in pain as he heeded her instruction. “Aren’t you just a little ray of sunshine,” he grunted out.
She frowned at him. “You’re the one who showed up on my doorstep and interrupted my date.”
“With the criminal?” Trixie paused; how did he know about Cayden’s record? “Really, abeja, what were you thinking?”
There were many things Trixie wanted to say to him just then, and none of them were in regard to Cayden or the childhood nickname he’d just used to address her.
She held up the bottle of peroxide in obvious threat.
“You have a bullet in your shoulder and you want to talk about my sex life? I’m more than happy to let you bleed out, or better yet, call the cops as I should have done when you first showed up on my door. ”
Her eyes narrowed when she saw his skin pale under the dirt and blood. “You didn’t, did you?”
She shook her head. “No, and I’m still kicking myself about it.”
Lee laid his head back on the pillow. “Good, thank you. I’m sorry for coming here, but I didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t think you’d be here.”
“Then why come here?”
He winced when he tried to shrug. “Needed a safe place to lay low.”
“And the bullet in your shoulder didn’t indicate that that safe place should be a hospital?”
Lee shook his head. “Can’t. Let’s just say I shouldn’t have been where I was, even though I had a good reason to be there.”
She did not like that answer at all. “What the hell have you gotten yourself mixed up in, hermano?” She reached forward and wiped the fresh flowing blood away from his wound.
Lee glanced down at his shoulders. “Go get a pair of needle nose pliers. Do you have a sewing kit?”
Trixie’s eyes widened. “You have got to be kidding me. You want me to get that bullet out while you’re awake?”
“No choice. I need it out.” Trixie opened her mouth to argue, but he shook his head. “Just get me the pliers. I’ll do it. It’s not that deep, abeja.”
Bile rose in her throat. Cayden’s angered face popped up in her head. If this was how she made him feel by forcing him out, then she deserved whatever wrath was headed her way as a result. “We do this, and then you tell me everything.”
“I’ll tell you what I can.”
Trixie wanted to argue that that wasn’t good enough, but her eyes landed on the bullet wound and she thought better of it. When it came down to it, he needed that bullet out sooner than later. Wasting time arguing with him could just be making him worse.
Trixie went into the garage and pulled out a pair of needle nose pliers.
She had a small pocket sewing kit in her bathroom.
Most of the time she didn’t care if she ripped her clothing, or got stains on them.
She mainly had the kit to replace missing buttons.
She hoped she had enough thread for whatever it was Lee was about to do.
She grabbed another mixing bowl from the kitchen.
Lee’s eyes were closed when she re-entered the bedroom.
At first, she hoped he’d passed out again, but they opened as soon as he heard her.
His dark eyes were weary, but she recognized their usual stubbornness.
That was good at least. If he had the strength to keep that up, she had a feeling he’d be just fine.
As long as she didn’t hit anything vital when she pulled the bullet out of his shoulder.
Nausea rose again, but she forced it down.
Her bedroom, only an hour before smelled like her coconut body wash from Cayden’s and her shower, now was drenched in an aroma of copper and peroxide.
How had her perfectly planned weekend with Cayden turned so wrong? Would he ever forgive her?
Trixie shook the thought from her mind. Lee was her priority right now. She’d deal with Cayden once she knew her brother wasn’t going to die in her bedroom. She stumbled at the sudden flash of finding Abuelo in this very room. She was not about to let her brother die here too.
Without speaking to him, Trixie poured most of the bottle of peroxide into the new bowl. Then placed the pliers into the clear liquid. She had thought about the lighter she’d grabbed from the kitchen but figured the peroxide was a better sterilizer.
Lee was struggling to sit up. “I need a mirror.”
She shook her head. “No way. I’ll do it.”
His eyes narrowed. “Trix. Get me a mirror.”
They stared off for a moment before Trixie journeyed to the bathroom to get a small mirror. It had been their abuela’s. She hated what she was about to use it for.
Lee reached into the bowl and pulled out the pliers. He positioned her hands with the mirror where he needed it to be. “Hold it steady.”
Trixie tried, but her hands shook so badly she had no idea how he saw anything in it. As soon as he’d inserted the pliers, Trixie had had to look away. She forced her jaw closed, feeling the hot dogs and beans in her stomach rebelling against remaining down.
Lee was mostly quiet as he worked, only letting out the occasional grunt or groan. His silence irritated her. She couldn’t imagine the pain he was inflicting on himself.
Finally, she heard him gasp out and then a clatter of metal against the glass bowl. Trixie turned to see the bloody bullet still gripped between the tips of the pliers and promptly lost the battle with her dinner.
Cayden was not any happier about being back at the halfway house than the Wynns were having him there.
Of course, their concern was about Trixie and what had happened.
Cayden just delivered a short “She’s fine, we had a fight” as he made his way up to his room.
He was still barefoot. His boots were at Trixie’s.
For one precious day, he’d had a house. He’d been dreamily arrogant that he could have a home, a future. With Trixie. The best girl in the world. He’d thought himself so lucky.