Page 6 of Arm Candy Warrior

I close my eyes briefly before opening them again, trying to calm my beating heart. I focus on something I can help with. “How’s your arm feeling today?”

“Hurts like a bitch,” he says. For some reason, his response makes me smile. I figured Magnum would be a hard ass. He’d be the type to die before he let anyone know he was hurting.

“I saw some pain reliever in Johnny’s bathroom. Can I get some for you?”

He nods, taking a seat on the sofa. I leave him there to retrieve the medicine and walk back into the main room. When I get there, Magnum is already unrolling the bandages from his arm. He gets to the red-stained gauze and removes it.

He really was lucky. Sure, there’s a gash taken out of his arm where the bullet grazed, but it didn’t pierce him. It didn’t hit anything vital. I sit on the coffee table opposite him and watch as he folds the gauze a different way to a semi-clean side.

“Looks like you’ve had to do this before,” I say, cringing a little, and wondering what he’s had to do for the Crew in the past.

He looks up. “I have.”

“How many times?”

He chuckles. With one hand, he holds the gauze in place while trying to wrap the bandage around him. The gauze keeps slipping, so I lean over, taking the bandages from him. He looks up at me, an appreciative look in his eyes. “Wrap it tight, but not tight enough to lose blood flow.”

I nod. Sure, I’ve never been in a gunfight before, but I know about wounds. Physical and emotional.

While I’m wrapping his injury back up, I glance at him to find him watching me. “You’re not going to answer me, are you?”

He presses his lips together, the stubble on his chin sticking out with the movement. “Five times. And I’m not counting this one because it was just a graze.”

I swallow, my mouth drying up like I’ve been breathing in the desert air for decades. “I think that’s five too many.” I get to the end of the bandage and tuck it into the top of the wrap like he had before. Then I sit back on the coffee table, watching Magnum as much as he’s watching me. It’s like we’re having a stare-off while also trying to simultaneously feel one another out. He, of all people, has tried to help me, and I would’ve put him in the firmly pro Heights Crew category. I mean, he’s their guard for crying out loud. He protects them. They trust him implicitly.

“You need to be careful,” Magnum says, lowering his voice to an octave above silence. “Johnny—”

“Hey.” Johnny emerges from his room, voice groggy. He has pants on now instead of just boxers, but his chest is still as naked as it was last night. My heart almost stops at the sight of him. Sex appeal rolls off him in waves. It’s no surprise women line up to be with him. The secretary at the school. The bitch at the dress shop. He’d be alluring even if he wasn’t tied to the toughest gang around. “Any news?” he asks Magnum as he comes up behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. A shiver rolls down my spine at his touch.

When I look back at Magnum, he’s in complete guard mode. His back is ramrod straight. The bags underneath his eyes have even receded while he answers Johnny. “Drego checked in a couple of hours ago. He’s safe. Uninjured. Perimeter’s been clear all night. Anyone who checks in is safe to head back.”

Johnny squeezes my shoulders. The movement doesn’t even catch Magnum’s eye as he’s completely focused on Johnny Rocket right now. Maybe too focused, as if he’s trying hard not to look at me. “What did I tell you, babe? My dad knows what he’s doing.”

I can’t help the scowl that comes to my lips, but Johnny’s oblivious. His dad knows what he’s doing all right. The fucking coward. He’d rather shoot someone than do something upstanding like actually stick to the game plan they both agreed to.

The complete shock in Roza’s eyes when he whipped the gun out on her... I’ll never forget that. Not for as long as I live.

I shiver, a cold chill running up my back. It’s not as if I haven’t replayed what must have happened to my parents in my head, but now having seen someone get shot—close enough to almost get splattered with blood spray in the aftermath—I can’t stop picturing my mom’s panicked face in place of Roza’s.

Did Roza have children? The cycle could start again. With all this violence, will it ever end? I doubt the Crew understands the never-ending loop they’re perpetuating.

That’s why I’m here. So Big Daddy K doesn’t add more victims to his list. So some other kid doesn’t have to uproot their life in order to take down the bad guy. I’ve already taken on the role, happily.

“Are you okay?” Johnny rubs my back. “Are you cold?”

I freeze, then force myself to relax. Johnny is not Big Daddy K. Right? Right.

I glance up to find Magnum staring. He watches me with his intense hazel-green eyes. Johnny squeezing my shoulder brings me back to reality. I shake my head right away. “Just…I don’t know,” I say honestly. “I guess I am going to need clothes at some point today though. My own clothes. Is there any way I can go back to my apartment?”

“No,” a hoarse voice says. Except, it isn’t Johnny who’s telling me no. It’s Mag. Before I can glare at him, he turns his face toward Johnny. “I don’t think that’s a good idea yet.”

“Obviously,” Johnny says as if the answer was already a given. “She’s not leaving my sight for a while.” He rubs his hand down my arm, then trails it back up absentmindedly. “I’ll send someone to get you some clothes.”

“Let’s hope no one’s gone through her place,” Magnum adds.

My heart stops. My place. My fucking place with the hidden compartment and the only tie back to my real life. I clear my throat to hide my sudden panic and fail. I swallow several times, digging my fingernails into my thigh. “Why would anyone do that?”

“Because you’re one of us now.” Johnny reaches around to tip my chin toward him, so I can see his face when he says, “You’ve proven that.”

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