Page 16 of Lawless
"You're not far off," Jandro answered instead. "He's also our last line of defense. Shadow rides in the rear, watching our backs because nothing gets past him."
"Well, if it makes you any happier, Shadow," I shifted my trays to my opposite hip. "I think we have some whiskey in the back."
That did it. He looked at me again, just for a brief moment before jerking his gaze back down.
Jandro chuckled, nudging his friend's arm. "Tu eres un angel, Mariposa."
My chest fluttering more than it should, I just nodded and turned back to the kitchen. As I walked away, I swore I overheard Jandro saying something like, "See? Not all women are..."
Once again, I dropped off empties in the kitchen and returned with stocked platters and full drinks, including a fifth of whiskey for Shadow. My feet and arms screamed at me but I was doing the work of at least two people and couldn't afford to stop. I only did so when trying to breeze by Reaper and Gunner's table, and the Steel Demons president shot out like a snake to grab my forearm.
"Where's Tom tonight?" he asked, green eyes heavy and intense.
"I don't know," my teeth clenched against his unforgiving grip on my arm. "He owns the place, he could be anywhere."
"I need to see him."
"You're welcome to find him yourself. I'm kind of busy."
"Fine."
He released me so suddenly, I stumbled backwards and nearly fell on my ass. Despite recovering quickly and continuing my rounds to the tables, I felt his gaze on me as heavily as though his hands rested on my shoulders.
Ignoring him as best I could while I worked my tail off, he and his men finally reached a point where they slowed down on their eating and drinking. I took the opportunity to run upstairs to check on Kitty. Something inside had been nagging at me to check on her ever since she came to me this morning. If I focused on nothing else, I swore I could feel a stabbing pain on the lower left side of my abdomen, where my ovary was. I couldn't begin to explain how I knew, but my gut told me that sensation had to do with her.
I didn't know which room was hers, so I walked down the first hallway of doors slowly, listening through the thin wood for any sounds of someone in pain. Muffled moans and groans came through some of them, most likely sex sounds. Then a sharp cry at the end of the hall had me stopping in my tracks.
When I heard it again, I ran to the nearest door and pressed my ear to the wood. My pulse shot up at the sounds of agony on the other side.
"Kitty? It's me, the medic. Can I come in?"
A wail of pain answered me, and I opened the door to see a woman writhing on the bed, clutching her stomach. At her bedside, a girl of about seven years old sat with her knees up to her chin and tears streaming down her face. They both looked up at me with desperation in their eyes as I approached the bed.
"It hurts so bad," Kitty whimpered, her face screwed up in a mask of pain. "God, make it stop..."
"Kitty," I placed a hand on her cheek to make her look at me. "I can help you. Will you let me?"
"Yes, please! Fuck!"
I turned to the girl, who I suspected was her daughter, and gave her my best reassuring smile. "Hi, sweetie. I'm going to make your mom feel better, but I need my pack. Can you grab it for me? It's down the hall, fourth door on the left."
The girl nodded and took off, then I tried my best to examine Kitty despite her wriggling around.
"I don't care if you cut it out of me," the woman sobbed. "Just make it stop hurting."
"You're not going to feel a thing in just a minute," I promised.
Her daughter returned with my pack seconds later and I got started on Kitty's pain management. Morphine was too damn expensive and I was far from a qualified anesthesiologist. So I pulled out the box of small, metal canisters to give her the next best thing—nitrous oxide.
Within seconds of inhaling, Kitty's body relaxed and she stopped crying out in pain.
"You fixed her!" the little girl shrieked with relief. "Mommy, you're better!"
Kitty's head rolled toward the sound of her daughter's voice, a smile spreading across her lips. "Hi, baby..."
"She's not all better yet," I muttered, working quickly to clean and prep where I felt the cyst. The laughing gas wouldn't last long and Kitty would still be conscious so I couldn't afford to dally.
"This is going to look messy," I warned them. "Don't look down here. And I need you to hold still, Kitty."
