Fucking hell.
Sean doesn’t waste time. He takes it from her, then presses the worn leather against my lips. “Open and bite down. Trust me, you’ll need it.”
I obey. Not my first time. Not even my worst. But it’s been a long damn while since I felt this close to the edge.
He leans forward, scissors in hand, and cuts straight through my shirt, steel slicing fabric with a crispshhk. Cold air hits my skin as he peels the shredded cotton aside. Bryn moves in to help, her fingers grazing my stomach, slow… like she’s savoring it.
“Bryn,” I whisper.
She leans in, close enough that her breath fans over my cheek. “Yes, Dante?” Her tone is sweet, dripping honey.
“Don’t fucking touch me.”
Her hand freezes.
She jerks back like I burned her, the sugar vanishing from her tone. “Well, fuck you then. Deal with him yourself,” she spits and storms out.
Sean lets out a soft chuckle, not looking up from the mess of blood and torn muscle. “You shouldn’t push her, my boy. That woman’s dangerous.”
Those words echo in my skull. Bryn?Dangerous? The same girl who cried in Aspen’s lap the night when she kissed Ethan? Who begged to stay with us like a lost puppy?
What the fuck happened to her?
“Fuck!!” My body arches off the mattress as the scalpel bites into my shoulder. I clamp my jaw shut around the belt, leather grinding between my teeth. My scream’s silent, swallowed by instinct and pain.
“Try not to move too much,” Sean mutters, steady hands working beneath the skin. “Bullet’s in deep. Close to the bone.”
I grit my teeth harder, my entire body trembling.
He presses gauze around the area, mopping the excess blood, then picks up a pair of forceps. I feel the cold metal slide into the open wound, digging, prying. Every nerve in my shoulder screams. My vision whites out at the edges.
“Almost there…” Sean’s face fades under the roar of blood in my ears.
A sharppinch, and then somethingclicks.
“Got it.”
He pulls the bullet free, blood trailing in thin threads from the forceps. My chest heaves. Sweat drips from my brow. I don’t let go of the belt; I can’t.
Sean sets the slug on the metal tray with a softclang. He doesn’t even pause before cleaning the site, dabbing iodine into the raw, exposed muscle. The sting is instant, like acid chewing through flesh. I twitch, biting down so hard my jaw pops.
“Need to close you up now. Stay with me.”
Sutures. Thread biting through skin, tugging, knotting. Each pull sends a new wave of fire across my shoulder. My breathing turns shallow.
And then, darkness starts to crawl in.
I hear him, faint. “You did good, son.”
But all I see now is Bryn’s face…
Then Aspen’s.
And fuck, my mind starts slipping.
The darkness presses in, thick and suffocating like smoke in my lungs. My chest tightens. Every nerve in my body screams to wake the fuck up, but I’m too far gone.
The blood on my skin clings like ice. My pulse is fading, a ghost against my throat.
