“To the damn medic hut!”
Amir and Carson followed a few feet behind us as we entered the hut and Inés confidently pulled the gurney out.
“I don’t need that,” I told her.
She turned to me with the most fire I had ever seen in her eyes. “I’ve had enough of you,cabrón. We’ve been walking for days to get back home and this is how you act? You want us to get kicked out before we can even see a bath or hot meal? What the hell is wrong with you, Vik? What the hell was that out there?”
“Why the fuck are you mad at me? That asshole out there is up to something and I’m not going to turn a blind eye. Not when I know what I know.”
With her dainty little hands, she shoved me onto the gurney and almost threw me off the other side of it. She pinned me down and snarled in my face.
“Just shut up, Vik. Let me do my best to see to your wounds since apparently you think you don’t need a doctor and think you can doctor yourself.”
I was pissed that my dick twitched at her attitude, but I let her slowly remove my clothes.
One of the guys cleared their throat and I glared at him. Amir quickly looked to the side and Carson’s lip twitched as he tried his best to keep his face firm with his arms crossed, blocking the entrance to the hut preventing anyone else from peering in.
“You better listen to the little lady, Vik. She’ll probably gut you if you don’t,” Carson snickered.
“Maybe he likes it. His dick is about to slap her in the fa—” Amir’s sentence was cut off by Carson slapping him with the back of his hand.
“Shut up,” I spat out and the guys snickered again. That was, until she removed my shoes.
Carson’s eyes widened and Amir quickly turned his back to us. The humiliation that ran through me cut like a fresh wound. I barely felt my toes as Inés hissed when she saw them.
Ignoring them all, I blanked out my mind and turned away from them, catching some of the mask beneath my face.
“Vik…”
“Just get it over with. I’ll guide you.”
My mind turned calculated and removed. I dissociated from myself. I had to. This was a form of torture in itself as I calmly told Inés exactly how to irrigate my wounds, adding the herbal salve we have and then bandaging them up. The superficial wounds that were only a few skin layers deep would heal and probably leave me with scars, not that it mattered.
Her gentle hand on my skin made my eyes burn with emotion I refuse to acknowledge. Taking deep breaths in and out, I cleared my vision and turned onto my stomach, keeping my face turned away from the guys.
Inés held back a sob and I gritted my teeth.
“Get the pliers, tweezer and the smaller bolt cutters,” I instructed.
“I-I don’t think I can—”
“Inés,” I choked. “Inny, It has to be you.”
She whimpered as she placed her hand on my upper back. I closed my eyes and soaked in her warmth, thinking of anything but what was about to happen. My mind floated elsewhere in a land bathed in blood as my mouth continued to instruct her step by step on what she needed to do. The pinches and sharp pricks of pain on my ass pulled me from my daydream now and again but I was able to fill my mind with thoughts of hate and retribution long enough for Inés to finish pulling out the last stitch.
She sniffed. “The wound is rubbed raw.”
“I’ll get cleaned up when we head down into Black Hollow,” I told her emotionlessly.
She looked at me with tear filled eyes and I ignored it. I was glad I had the goggles to hide behind. She didn’t need to see the pain. I didn’t need the pity. Sitting up slowly, I grimaced as I hopped off the gurney and re-donned my pants and boots without tying them. Letting out a stuttering breath behind the mask once the worst of the pain subsided, I grabbed Inny’s hand and pulled her toward the exit.
“Vik, before you leave, I need to tell you something,” Carson started.
“What?” I snapped. I was tired of all these delays. We could have been underground by now.
“Excuse me men, it seems you’re blocking the entrance to my workspace. Move out of the way for me, would you?”
Carson’s eyes sharpened but did as my brother asked. I didn’t like the power he was displaying.
