He sucked in his breath, and his hips rose to meet mine. Damn, I wanted him. But this wasn’t the time. “I’d give you what you’re asking for right here, but we should get this bullet out of me first.”
He stared at me. “You were hit?” Before I could answer, he noticed the blood running down my left arm as I held it against me, supporting myself on my right hand.
“Oh my God. We need to get you to the hospital.”
I shook my head. “No doctors.”
“There’s a bullet in you. You can’t just—”
“Shh.” I placed a finger over his lips. “I can’t risk the police getting involved. I can take care of this. I’m assuming you’ve got a medical kit here.”
“No, this is crazy.”
“You don’t have a medical kit?”
“We do, but you can’t do this by yourself. You won’t be able to reach it.” He held out a shaky hand and brushed it near the wound on my arm. Even as I fought to keep from showing the pain on my face, electricity rushed through me at his touch.
“I’ll make do.” The boy looked much too pale. “You don’t like the sight of bullet wounds?”
He shook his head. “I… I’ve never seen one before.”
“What’s an innocent like you doing running around with Beau?”
“I work here. As a mechanic. And Beau… He’s good to me.”
I raised my brows. “How good?”
Some color returned to the boy’s face as he shook his head. “Nothing like that. I needed a job. I didn’t have any experience, but I know a lot about cars. I always have. It just sort of comes naturally to me, so Beau gave me a chance.”
I sat back on my knees, held out my good hand, and pulled us both to our feet.
The boy’s eyes widened. “Shouldn’t I be helping you up, not the other way ’round?”
“I’m not sure you can stay on your feet right now. Do I need to carry you?”
He stared at me like I was insane. “You’re the one who was shot.”
“And you’re the one who looks like he might pass out any second.”
“I… um… I’m fine.”
“Bullshit.”
He gestured toward the road. “How do we know they won’t come back?”
“They’ll come looking for me again eventually, but for now, they think they’ve put me down for a while.”
“So they don’t think you’re dead?”
“No. If their leader wanted me dead, they would have made sure the job was done.”
The boy swayed in front of me, and I reached for him. He jumped when my skin met his. “Easy, cher. Let’s get inside.”
“I told you I’m fine, and I need to close the gate. It should have already been locked for the night.”
“I’ll do it.”
“No.” He followed me. insisting it was his job. When the gate was secured, he pointed toward the rear building. “If they come back, we’ll be better off out there.”
I kept my hand on his arm as we walked. He was still much too pale, and I wasn’t convinced he’d be able to stay upright.
Once we were inside the garage, he pulled the door down and locked it. “Sit down.” He pointed to a rolling chair that looked like it’d had a few more years of use than it should. The chair sat in front of a desk where paperwork stuffed in plastic page protectors lay scattered over the surface.
“You can just tell me where to find the medical kit now, and—”
“No. Sit down, and I’ll get it.”
I smiled at his firm voice. I could get into him taking charge. Would he be like that in bed? Would he demand what he wanted? I needed to find out.
The fantasy that had begun rolling in my head disappeared when sitting down jarred my arm. I tried to bite back the yelp of pain, but I didn’t succeed. The boy turned and looked at me. “We really ought to take you to the hospital. You’re in pain, and—”
“Of course I’m in pain. I was fucking shot.”
“And you need a doctor.”
“I know how to take care of it.”
The boy grunted in frustration and walked off. While he was gone, I took slow, steady breaths. My arm throbbed, and I could feel blood trickling down it. When I’d been focused on keeping the boy from passing out, I’d been able to ignore it, but now I felt the full brunt of the injury.
He was right. I should go to the hospital, but the ER doc would have to report a gunshot wound, and no way in hell could I let the police get involved in this.
It was just my luck that Beau was gone. How the fuck had those assholes managed to tail me anyway? I was sure I’d lost them.
Beau and I had been incarcerated together, and we’d quickly developed a mutual respect for each other. He was one of the few people I knew who had connections powerful enough to get me out of the scrape I was currently in.