Chapter 5 - “Pack it.”
Chantelle forced gauze into the wound and leaned her weight down to create pressure.
Devlin arched from the floor.
His right hand closed around her wrist.
Hard.
He did not remove her hand.
He used the grip to anchor himself.
They remained there for 10 minutes.
His breathing shallow and ragged.
Her pulse hammering.
Slowly, the bleeding began to reduce.
Devlin released her wrist.
His head struck the floor again.
“It’s over.”
Chantelle kept pressure against his side.
“What’s over? The bleeding?”
“Lucian.”
His voice was almost empty.
“He’s gone.”
Chantelle looked down.
“The docks are secure.”
A pause.
“The transition is done.”
Devlin turned toward her.
She knelt in his blood, hands stained, terrified, but still holding him together.
“You can let go now.”
His voice was quiet.
“It isn’t fatal. Just messy.”
Chantelle carefully lifted her hands.
The gauze was saturated.
The blood on the floor had stopped spreading.
She sat back on her heels.
The man in front of her was a crime boss.
A killer.
The scarred stranger from an empty seat on a midnight train.
He lay broken on a bunker floor.
Chantelle should have felt relief at the thought of leaving.
Instead, something painful tightened in her chest.
Devlin eventually stabilized.
Chantelle stapled the wound closed under his instructions, an ugly, nauseating 10 minutes she never wanted to repeat, and gave him the heavy antibiotics stored inside the trauma kit.
Devlin healed with the stubborn resilience of a stray dog.
By the 3rd morning, he was sitting upright at the kitchen island with black coffee.
He moved carefully, protecting his left side.
The gray pallor had faded.
Chantelle stood at the sink washing her mug.
She had changed into her own clothes again.
Her jeans still had a missing section at the knee.
Her coat had been washed in the sink and remained faintly damp.
But she felt more like herself.
At least partly.
A thick, unmarked manila folder rested on the island.
Devlin tapped it.
“It’s all in here.”
Chantelle shut off the water.
“What is?”
“Your life.”
His voice was businesslike again.
Cold.
May you like
Efficient.
Returned to distance.
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