Page 116 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
“Fuck,” she growled. “That was Tomas.”
Slamming on the brakes, the headlights illuminated his prone form on the ground.
“Is he?” she asked, as fatigue and dizziness rolled over her. Did she kill him? Should she be more upset? He shot her, on purpose even. There was no love lost between them, but she never seriously hurt a person, accidentally or on purpose, and didn’t like the feeling.
“Grab him. Toss him in the back,” she said, refusing to let that scumbag wreck her karma.
“Absolutely not,” Winter said.
“Look, I’d do it myself but I’m bleeding, and the longer you’re stubborn about this, the more blood I’m losing.” It was a dirty trick, dangling her injury in front of Winter, but why couldn’t he just do as she asked? “The faster you move, the faster I get us to the hospital.”
The computer woke at the word hospital. “Is medical assistance required? Summoning the authorities now.”
Huffing in irritation, she jabbed the cancel button on the control panel. Again.
“Fine, but I am not happy,” Winter growled.
“I don’t need you to be happy. Chop chop.” Through the front windshield, she saw Winter haul an unconscious Tomas to his feet. Trusting he had the situation in hand, she rummaged through the center console for the first aid kit. It was a basic kit, but all she needed was a wad of gauze to stop the bleeding.
She ripped open the package and pressed the gauze to her thigh. She flinched from the pain. Applying pressure hurt worse than being shot. Knowing she ran over Tomas helped to ease the pain—goodbye good karma, hello negative aura energies—but she should have hit him twice.
“Done.” Winter tossed Tomas into the back, the unconscious man’s hands bound properly with cord, and he slammed the cargo hatch closed. “Tell me why would you spare any consideration for this male,” he snarled.
“Because he may be an asshole, but I’m a good person and I hit him,” she shot back.
He puffed up, as if with a bit of misguided pride. “I am pleased that you feel at ease enough to casually curse and no longer try to be perfect.”
Mari wanted to deny that she tried to be perfect, but fair was fair. “What are you doing?”
“You are in no condition to operate a vehicle,” he said, punching in a code to the control panel, switching the driving functions to him.
“Your eyes—”
“The computer is intelligent enough to be autonomous.” He paused. “This is familiar.”
“I hope so. I know you can drive.” He had driven down from the mountain on Fortune. At the time, Mari took the way he gripped the steering wheel as indicative of his dislike of her. Now she realized it had to be discomfort.
“No. I drove the night of the party.”
“Why would you do that?”
He frowned. “I do not know. Rebel drove us here. I could have taken a public transport home or checked into a hotel, but I did not. I needed her to drive at night, so why is this familiar?” He brushed his fingers along the control panel, like that could help him remember, then he shook his head. “It does not matter. Computer, take us to the nearest hospital,” he ordered.
Mari leaned back in the seat, letting Winter and the computer guide the vehicle to the surface streets.
“Is this an emergency? Do you require medical attention? I shall alert the hospital of your arrival,” the computer replied in a perfectly pleasant if flat tone.
“Yes. Do that,” Mari said. She felt shaky, cold, and tired. Adrenaline crash.
Winter pressed something into her hands. It was a fruit bar, smooshed in the middle and the packaging worn from being stuffed into the center console. She didn’t care, tearing into the fruit bar and trying to remember to chew her food.
“Tell me how you disarmed the human,” he said.
“I didn’t do a good job of it. Behold,” she waved the fruit bar at the wad of bloody gauze on her right thigh.
“You broke his hold.”
“Oh, easy. It’s the first thing they teach you at flight school. Okay, second thing. First thing is to respect gravity. Second thing, some asshole passengers think they can overpower a single pilot, so don’t let them. Swearing is fun. Ass. Butt. Jerkface assbutt.”
