Page 63 of Unrest
His eyes cracked open. “That’s it?”
“Don’t be greedy,” Remy chided.
His eyes closed again. “Tell me the damage.”
I ran through all of his injuries and the plan for healing, which hinged on him resting the arm and wearing a sling. He groaned about that.
“Don’t be stubborn,” I told him, “Or you’ll ruin your arm and joint permanently. Right now, the most important thing is for you to rest. And I have a little something to help you with that.”
I shot morphine into his drip line, and then pulled up the side rails of the bed. Captain Ward was on night duty, so he’d get to keep an eye on him. The bed was a bloody mess, but I didn’t want to move him until he was more stable. I hoped Texas Harry had a high threshold for pain because there wasn’t a lot of morphine or other pain meds.
Remy waited with me until the dentist came back for his shift. When we got to the common room, everyone was having dinner. They all looked over at the doorway, and cheering began, everyone clapping and whistling. What was going on? I looked around, and then people started laughing and pointing at me.
“They’re cheering for you,” Remy said.
“What?”
My face got hot when I realized they really were looking at me. Remy took a step away from me and I wanted to yank her back and hide behind her. I gave a small wave and rushed toward the kitchen with Remy giggling behind me at my awkwardness.
“You saved someone’s life, Amb,” she told me. My face was still on fire when I took a tray.
“I just did my job,” I muttered. I wondered how many lives I’d saved in the past. I’d been thanked profusely by crying people, but this was different. It filled me with warmth, like I was more needed and important than ever before. I started to imagine what Mom and Dad would think, and if they’d been watching from wherever they were now, but I had to blink that thought away when I could hardly make out the rice casserole dish in front of me through the tears.
I pulled myself together and said, “You go first,” to Remy. I walked close behind her, using her as a shield as we moved quickly to our table and I slid into the seat beside Tater.
“Dude,” he said. “I was sleeping—I didn’t even know what went down until I got here for dinner. Go, sis.” He held out a fist and I bumped it.
“God, I can’t believe he almost died,” J.D. said. He pushed his food around his plate with the fork. “He seems so . . . indestructible. He’s lucky you’re an expert.”
“I had lots of help,” I said, hoping to take the spotlight off myself. I looked beside Tater to Rylen. “What happened out there today?”
He sat back and exhaled. “It started off great. We found a drug store that the owner had boarded up. The place was pristine. Untouched. We filled the van.”
“Drugs?” I asked. The thought of meds got me all excited, and he must have known because he gave me a grin.
“Oh, yeah. We raided every last thing. Everything at the drugstore was solid. It wasn’t ‘til we stopped at a gas station that everything went to shit. Bunch of men attacked. No training, just standing there shooting us up. Sad, really. They were skinny as hell. Harris gunned down two from his window before he was shot.”
We were quiet momentarily, until I asked, “What did you get from the drug store?”
“It was a mom and pop shop, so they didn’t have a ton of each item, but they had one or two of almost everything. Medicine. Toiletries.Candy.”
Remy and I sat up straighter. Every guy at the table laughed at our sudden postured attention.
“Merry late Christmas,” Rylen said. He slid two slightly smooshed chocolate peanut butter trees across the table.
We snatched them up like prized treasure and held them to our chests. The candy had probably been put on the shelves in November when Christmas stocking stuffers were starting to be sold, but I didn’t care if they were months old. I was already dreaming of eating it in the privacy of my own room, taking tiny nibbles and savoring every single morsel as I moaned to my heart’s content.
I started to put it in my pocket when Ry said, “You’re not gonna eat it?”
“I’m going to eat it later,” I said, feeling kind of bad about denying them the joy of seeing my orgasmic enjoyment.
“Me too.” Remy put hers in her pocket.
“You two are going to make out with that candy in your room, aren’t you?” Josh asked as he grinned and nodded.
Remy turned super pink as Mark pretended to kiss something in his hand and then rub it all over his chest as his eyes rolled back.
“Shut up,” Remy said. “You all like to watch us a little too closely.”
