Page 48 of The Long Way
Chapter 12
“Just out of curiosity, how long is this silent treatment going to last?” Cain demanded as he negotiated the car down a twisty two-lane highway. They’d left Eli’s cabin before daybreak, after saying a surprisingly emotional goodbye to Molly and Chelsea and obtaining Eli’s promise to purchase a burner phone as soon as possible in order to stay in contact with them. That had been nearly two hours ago, but other than a few brief, barked directions and one stop to take a leak, Damon had been completely,stubbornlysilent the entire time, which was not helping Cain’s own mood. Not one little bit.
“Maybe when I stop being pissed at you for going to bed last night without letting Eli check your arm.” Damon folded his arms across his chest.
Cain exhaled sharply as he pulled around a minivan full of children and got them back in their lane. “And how was I supposed to know it was a bullet wound? I figured it was a rock or glass or something, just like you.”
“Youweren’tsupposed to know!” Damon exploded, turning in the seat to face Cain. “That’s the whole point of having someone trained in first aid checking out your injury, so you can have it treated properly before the whole fucking thing gets infected and your fucking arm falls off!”
Cain’s eyes nearly rolled back in his head. “Right, of course. Not that Eli is a doctor or anything, but apparently his magic powers extend to medicine. If my arm falls off, why don’t you just bring me back to Eli and he can reattach it?”
“What thefuckis wrong with you?” Damon cried, throwing his hands in the air.
“Not a damn thing! That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” Cain roared back. His chest heaved, his breaths nearly audible in the sudden silence that rang through the car. He tried to regain his hold on his temper.
It wasn’t Damon’s fault that he and Eli were… whatever they were. Or, more to the point, it wasn’t Damon’s fault that Cain’s stupid crush on him had grown all out of proportion.Be an adult about this, Shaw. Hooking up means nothing.
“Damon, chill,” he said in a calmer voice. “The great and powerful Eli said I just have to keep it bandaged and cleaned.”
“Chill? Are you kidding me? You wereshot, Cain!” Damon crossed his arms and went silent again.
Cain didn’t get Damon’s mood at all. But then, the whole morning had been pretty fucked up, starting from the moment Eli had barged into his room - well, into Eli’sownroom, really, where Cain had finally fallen into a fitful sleep - with a glint in his eye, demanding to see Cain’s injury.
“Damon says he wants me to look at it,” Eli had told him when he’d refused. “And frankly, I don’t give a good goddamn what you’d prefer.”
After a quick assessment of Eli’s height, bulk, and proximity to the door, Cain had grudgingly relented. Eli had pulled off the bandage Damon had placed there yesterday and whistled through his teeth, his eyes briefly lifting to Cain’s. “How’d you say you hurt this again? Cause this wasn’t caused by some chunk of glass, kid.”
Because Eli was a wound-detective, too. Asshole.
“How do we even really know it was a bullet?” Cain asked Damon now. “Eli’s not psychic, or anything. It just looks like a big cut.”
“Really?” Damon shook his head in disgust. “Eli was in the service, remember? He knows what a gunshot wound looks like.”
Cain pressed his lips together. He wanted to fire back with something snarky, like “Is there anything Eli doesn’t fucking know?”He mentally patted himself on the back for withstanding the temptation.
Last night, he’d tossed and turned for hours, listening to the indistinct hum of the conversation happening downstairs while his arm had burned like fire and his mind had whirled. He’d had no idea where things stood with him and Damon, but that was fine.Really.
He was here to help Damon get his sister and Molly to safety, and then to help bring his father to justice. The stupid crush he’d developed on Damon Fitzpatrick had nothing to do with it. And so what if he and Eli were fucking downstairs? Damon hadn’t made him any promises, after all, so he was free to do whatever he wanted. Eli was enormous and gorgeous, and some kind of superhero. He wasn’t akid.
So, fine. Apparently there was no way for Cain to win here. His father was an asshole, which made Cain’s every thought and action suspect. It fucking sucked, but Cain could almost understand it. Damon was making it quite clear that whatever they’d had two… or was it three? … nights ago, and whatever strange emotion he’d seen in Damon’s eyes in the parking lot the other morning - had been a momentary blip.
Cain could hardly abandon Damon on the side of the road, but he wasn’t going to take another mile of Damon’s silent-treatment bullshit, either. He put on his blinker and pulled onto the grass verge at the side of the road.
“What the hell are you doing?” Damon demanded.
“Stopping.”
Damon glared at him. “Any particular reason?”
“I’m on strike,” he said coolly. “Until you explain to me exactly what you want me to do here. Am I supposed to apologize for being shot? Iamtruly sorry, if for no other reason than because it hurts like a bitch. But I sure as hell didn’t do it as a personal insult to you, so could you maybe stop being an asshole?”
Damon blinked, scowled, then blinked again.
“I didn’t say you did it as an insult to me,” Damon said, though his peevish tone indicated Cain’s words hadn’t been too far from the truth. He darted a look at Cain. “I’m pissed that you got hurt. And I’m more pissed that I didn’t insist on you having it checked last night.”
“But it was my choice,” Cain reminded him reasonably.
“A stupid choice.”
