Page 27 of Merciless
“Ahhh! You motherfucking…cocksucker!”
I examined the line of blood growing thicker inside my forearm. Fucking Foghorn caught me with his spursagainwhile I was trying to collect eggs. If the rooster was so determined to not have his children become breakfast, maybe it was time to throwhimin the pot.
“Fucking asshole.” I kept grumbling on my way into the house, heading for the kitchen sink to wash the cut. I was so preoccupied with cursing out the rooster that I didn’t notice Javier at the kitchen table until he spoke.
“You can trim back their spurs,” he told me in flawless Spanish, raising a mug of tea to his lips.
“Oh yeah?” My native tongue flew from my mouth without thought as I turned to face him, keeping my arm under the running tap water. “You know much about roosters?”
“I come from a family of farmers in Mexico,” Javier said with a nod and a small smile. “You can trim the spur with nail clippers or grind it down to the quick.” His eyes shifted toward the backyard. “The challenge is not getting sliced up while you hold him to do it.”
“Sounds like it would be a two-person job.”
“Or three or four,” he chuckled, looking back at me. “They’re crafty sons of bitches. Especially when they’ve got a brood to protect.”
“Don’t I know it.”
I took my eyes off of Javier to turn off the water and stem the flow of blood on my arm with a towel. When I looked up again, his elbows were braced on the table and he held his head in a white-knuckled grip.
“Javier!” I hurried to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder, but he flinched and pulled away from the contact. “Mari!” I called toward the bedrooms.
“No, don’t yell,” Javier wheezed painfully, hands moving over his ears. “It’s too loud.”
“What’s going on?” Finn and Lis poked their heads out from the living room.
“Get Mari, something’s not right.”
I hovered protectively over Javier, not wanting to touch him or leave his side. A few drops of blood had fallen onto the table’s surface. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned that they came from his nose rather than his ears.
“What’s happening?” Mari darted in moments later, rubbing her eyes and blinking. Her face had lines in it and her hair was mussed like she’d been napping hard. Reaper’s parents and Gunner were right on her heels.
“I don’t know,” I told her. “One minute he was fine, we were talking. And then…”
“Everybody back up. Give us space, please.” Mari went into medic mode like the flip of a switch. She placed her hands on her dad’s shoulders, holding firm when he flinched at the touch. “Dad, I need you to talk to me. Tell me what—“
Javier began muttering in a long stream of gibberish. I picked up some Spanish words that didn’t make sense in the context, and it sounded like there were some other languages garbled in too.
Mari’s face went white. “Oh no. No, no, no, no.”
“Babe, what is it?” I went to her side despite her earlier request for space. She looked like she was about to fall to the floor at any moment.
“I think…he’s regressing.” Her gaze was locked onto her father’s face, which was still propped up by his hands, mouth moving rapidly without saying anything. “He’s losing the ability to speak. Or retain language, or something.”
“Oh, Mari…” I was shattered on her behalf. She had just gotten him back and now…
“No.” Javier’s hand snapped out, grabbing one of hers. “It’s not that, not that, not that…” He sounded like a malfunctioning robot.
“Baby girl, step away from him.” Gunner had come up beside me, his posture defensive like mine had become. If this was the Sha trying to regain control of one of his drones, Mari was in danger. Shit, weallwere.
“Dad, let me go.” Mari’s attempt to yank out of her dad’s grip went nowhere, so Gunner and I stepped up to help her.
“Sorry, Javier,” I muttered before forcibly breaking his hold on Mari’s wrist.
Gunner and I each restrained one of his arms, pulling him back against the chair he sat in. More blood trickled from his nose, his lips still moving rapidly while his voice was at a frenzied whisper. His eyes stared blankly at nothing in front of him.
“I think we should take him back to the hospital, sweetheart,” Finn broached gently.
“Not yet.” Already past the shock of her father grabbing her, Mari wiped at the blood under his nose with a napkin.
