Page 70 of Painless
A heavy knock pounded at my office door, rattling all of us. Reaper and I exchanged a glance.
“This is your domain, sugar. You decide if you want people in here or not.”
“President.” I recognized Shadow’s rough, but oddly soothing voice from the other side. “I’m bringing news that we’ve detained three men found outside the walls.”
“Come in, Shadow,” I called.
The door opened, and the large man quickly filled the remaining space in the small room. Freyja, who’d been curled up asleep on my stool, woke up at the sound of his knocking, and after a quick stretch, trotted over to her favorite human. Shadow picked her up without hesitating, tucking her against his chest with his forearm as he scratched her head with his other hand.
“Hey man,” Jandro greeted tiredly. “Do you have General Tash waiting for us with a bow tied around his head?”
“No. I don’t know how to tie a bow.” Shadow actually had to raise his voice to speak over Freyja’s loud purr. “And it’s not the general, regardless. It’s three men from another MC.”
“Great,” Reaper growled. “More of the general’s puppets. I hope you broke a few of their fingers? Got them started on at least thinking about talking. How many do you estimate were out there in total?”
“That’s the thing,” Shadow answered hesitantly. “They said they’re alone, that they weren’t part of the attack. They came to the front gate and allowed themselves to be detained willingly.”
Everyone in the room stared at him. Except for Freyja, that is. Her eyes closed softly with blissed out relaxation in Shadow’s arms. There was no place she’d rather be.
“Did they have patches?” Gunner’s question cut through the silence. “What’s their club name?”
“Yes. They call themselves the Sons of Odin.”
Gunner and I looked at each other, clearly recalling the same three men who approached us at the cantina with his uncle’s severed hand in a bag. Reaper also rocked back on his heels with surprise.
“Did one of them have a raven?” Gunner asked.
Shadow cocked his head, still scratching Freyja idly. “I spotted a black bird flying over them as they approached, yes.”
“All of you, out.” I made a shooing motion toward the door. “Question them. Find out what you need. I have to keep tending to this one.” I jerked my head at Jandro.
Reaper chuckled, while Gunner beamed at me with a radiant smile. They each kissed me, while Shadow reluctantly slid a very sad-looking Freyja out of his arms. Once they were gone, I put on a pair of fresh gloves and slid a hand behind Jandro’s shoulder.
“You should be good and numb back here now, so let me check out this burn.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he groaned, using his little remaining strength to lean forward.
I pulled away the gauze I’d drenched in antibiotic ointment and did a closer inspection of his back.
“How bad is it?”
“Pretty bad,” I admitted. “You’re going to have extensive scarring. You might need skin grafts. I’m going to need to keep you on IV antibiotics for at least a week. I already gave you a tetanus shot while you were out, but the risk of infection is still high. You’ll need to let me know if you get a high fever.”
He looked at me over his shoulder. “You really mad at me,Mariposita?”
“Pissed,” I snapped. “The last thing I need is any one of you dying on me.”
He scratched his head. “I was really only gone for a couple minutes, huh?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t about to quit, but I started getting scared that you might…”
“Not come back?”
“Yeah,” I sniffed, picking hunks of dead tissue and debris out of his back. “And that would’ve sucked even worse, ‘cause I’d never get a chance to let you know how pissed I was.”
Jandro laughed softly. “I’m sorry to piss you off, babe. But I’m not going to stop protecting you. I don’t care if I come out on death’s doorstep, or end up looking like Shadow—”
“Okay first of all, that’s rude,” I growled. “He’s your friend. He carried your ass in here while I wrangled Dallas’s kids. Second of all, there’s nothing wrong with how he looks.”
