“Lie still, Gunnar.”Nadine was at his side, her nursing instincts kicking in despite the scene she’d just witnessed.
“Hurts worse.”He sounded pained, and when he sat up I could see why.
“Your shoulder’s dislocated.”I knelt beside him next to Nadine and felt the injury.Nadine gave me a wide-eyed look, and I knew she knew what was coming next.
“Tell me something I don’t know.”Gunnar didn’t fight either Nadine or myself as we examined him.
“OK.How about this.Do you know how I got my road name?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
I still fiddled with his arm and shoulder, probing gently as I adjusted my hold on his arms to get the leverage I needed going in the right direction.“Do you know why they call me Pain?”
Gunnar glanced over her shoulder at me briefly before the pain was too much to hold the position.“No.How-- AHH!”
I gave a sharp tug on his shoulder, popping it back into place but causing a momentary burst of blinding pain.
“Because I don’t believe in giving dumbasses pain medicine when fixing their stupid mistakes.”I grinned down at the other man.If looks could kill, no defibrillator in existence would have been able to bring me back.
“That wasn’t my fault!How was I a dumbass?”
“After all that,” Nadine said, “the most important question you have is ‘How was I a dumbass?’”She shook her head.“No offense, but I think that kind of speaks for itself.”
That got hoots from the other guys around us.Hawk and Riot helped Gunnar to his feet before clapping him on the shoulder.The other shoulder.Tiny just shook his head and took out a couple of big cadaver bags from the cage.Hawk helped Tiny get shovels as well as topsoil and sodding in big plastic totes ready to tear up and replace the ground where Roscoe had bled.
“That was mean,” Nadine said as she wrapped her arms around my waist.She’d picked up the plastic bag she’d dropped when Roscoe had backhanded her and was clutching it tightly between us.
I shrugged.“If he’s pussy enough to bitch about it, I’ll see if I can get him some good stuff to help him sleep.”I might have said that a little louder than strictly necessary.
“Fuck you, Pain.”Yeah, I was gonna have fun with this.
“Pain,” Nadine scolded.“Stop it.”
“What?”I gave her my best innocent look.
“Don’t give me that.You know exactly what.Gunnar was the victim there.”
“Of course, he was.He still screamed like a girl.”
“Because you jerked his shoulder back in place without warning!If you’d told him to take a deep breath, this was gonna hurt, he wouldn’t have screamed like that!”
I looked at her for a long moment.“You can still count it.”That got more laughs all around.
“What’s that?”I asked, fingering the sealed, thick plastic pack she held between us, though I already knew the answer.I just couldn’t believe she’d gone out for this.
“Birthing kit.”
“Of course, you left to get a precip kit,” I muttered.“Because why the fuck not?”I didn’t even try to hold back my irritation.“What the fuck, Nadine?I told you I am not, under any circumstances, delivering Tillie’s baby.She willnothave an emergency where I have to deliver the child here.I will take her to the fuckin’ hospital myself if I have to.No.Hard fuckin’ limit.”
“Pain.We’ve been through this.It’s a precaution we need to take.”
I shook my head.“Nope.Nuh-uh.”
“Pain.”Her voice had a warning to it.Which might have been what I was going for, because it was turning me the fuck on.
“What?”
“Shut up.Take me home.Fuck me.In that order, Pain.”
