Skin (Flesh 2)

“Finn?” Lila sighed at the cuffs on Nick’s wrists. “Isn’t this overkill?”

“They stay on,” said the sheriff. “Work around them.”

The medic grumbled but didn’t raise the subject again. Nick leaned over, resting his elbow on the frame to make it easier on the medic. Lila wrapped a band around his upper arm, preparing to take his blood. Next she swabbed Roslyn’s forearm then got busy filling a syringe with something.

“What are you giving her?” he asked.

“Morphine for the pain,” said Lila, a little frown of concentration on her face. Her teeth were sunk into her bottom lip. “Something to make sure she doesn’t wake up while I’m digging the bullet out of her.”

The way the woman said it gave him pause. “You’ve got experience in this sort of thing, right?”

Lila didn’t meet his eyes. “A little.”

“What? What do you mean?” Fear flashed through him and he jolted upright in his seat.

“Easy,” Sean warned.

“What’s going on here?” Nick edged forward and Finn raised his gun, pointing it at his chest.

Lila took a deep breath. “I’m a dental nurse. But I’m the best chance you have for her.”

A wave of dizziness came over him. He almost had to hang his head between his knees. “A dental nurse? Y-you’re a f**king dental nurse?”

“I will do the best I can for her.”

Nick hissed out a breath. “Shit. She doesn’t need her teeth cleaned.”

“Lila’s the only chance you’ve got, Nick.” Sean gave him a look not entirely without compassion. “Just sit back and let her work. This isn’t the first bullet wound she’s seen.”

“Oh f**k.” Seriously, he thought he might hyperventilate. Lila stuck the needle into Ros’s arm and he nearly decorated the floor with his puke. He couldn’t stand it. “Please don’t kill her. Please.”

Lila glanced at him but didn’t answer.

“Who is she?” asked Sean.

“Her name is Roslyn Stewart. She used to be a librarian.” Nick breathed deep, did his best to get his shit together. Ros needed him.

His former captain watched him through narrowed eyes. “I’ve never seen you get intense about a woman before.”

Nick ignored him. What the f**k could he say?

“How did you meet her?” Finn asked, lowering his weapon.

The medic picked up some ages-old–looking instrument of torture. A small pump in the middle, with tubing topped with a needle either side. Nick couldn’t watch. He’d never been scared of needles or blood, but this whole scene terrified the shit out of him. The sight of her blood wrecked him. His hands shook, rattling the cuffs. Best to stare at the pale green walls, the butt-ugly dog picture.

Ros would be alright. She would be. She was tougher than she looked.

He swallowed past the rock in his throat. “Down near Stanthorpe. She was holed up in a private school with some other people.”

“You joined them?” asked Sean. They really had been friends once, sort of. But Nick hadn’t trusted him enough to include him in the plot against Emmet. Of course, if he had, Nick wouldn’t have been thrown out of town and set on his way to meet Roslyn.

Funny how things worked out.

“Join them?” Nick coughed out a laugh. “Not likely. They were pricks. She wasn’t safe with them. I offered them a van full of supplies for her and they took it.”

The two men exchanged looks. Fair enough. It didn’t sound so f**king fantastic now that he came to think about it. But it was the truth. There was no point lying, not now. Maybe if she died they’d put him down, save him the trouble of having to do it himself.

“I figured she needed to see those people for what they were,” he said. “For what they’d do to her, how little she meant to them. One of the bastards was going to hurt her before too long. Now … I don’t know. They messed up not long after, got wiped out. At least she wasn’t there when that happened.”

“What did you do after you picked her up?” asked Finn, fingering the safety on his pistol. He was a good-looking bastard, late twenties, blond and pretty. Roslyn would probably like him. If Roslyn would wake up and be okay, Nick would live with it. He’d give her up. Whatever price he had to pay, so long as she lived.

“I had a cabin set up, took her there. She attacked me.” He grinned at the memory. “Swung a bottle of wine at my head. She can be so fierce. I kept her chained to the bed.”

Something popped in Finn’s jaw. The sheriff looked at him with murder in his eyes. But he’d play by the rules. Finn wouldn’t put a bullet in him here and now. The f**ker believed in law and order and all that shit.

“You raped her?” Finn asked.

“Fuck no,” he spat, then calmed his voice. “No, I talked to her. I looked after her. I tried to … I tried to explain to her what life was like now. She’d never been out of the school. Not since the plague first hit. She didn’t know shit. On her own she wouldn’t have lasted five seconds.”

Lila swabbed the crook of his elbow and stabbed him with a needle. It stung. He didn’t really blame her for putting a bit of extra zest into the job, though. The little pump between the two lengths of tubing made a sickly sucking noise as she worked it.

“Take whatever she needs,” he said.

Lila nodded, not arguing.

A dental nurse. Fuck.

“What happened next?” asked Finn.

“We were doing okay, but our cabin caught fire and we had to move. Then we ran into Pete and Justin just a few hours out from here. They had plans for causing you guys trouble. But also, they wanted her,” he said. Damn, but he wished he could kill them both all over again. Only slower this time. “I said I’d talk her into it. That it would be better if she was on board then trying to keep an eye on her all the time. Told them she was a sexually liberated girl. Better yet, that she was in love with me, would do anything to please me. I promised them I could talk her around.”

“So you were in a sexual relationship with her? But it wasn’t rape?” Finn stared him down, disgust clear in his eyes.

“No. Never.” Nick shook his head. The silence that ensued was accusation aplenty. Fuck them. Ros knew the truth.

“So, how did she get shot?” asked Finn.

Nick gritted his teeth. “I got her out a window, told her to get in the car and drive until she got here. I figured you’d take her in. So long as she wasn’t with me, right?”