Page 59 of It's Going to Be a Chrome Christmas
Not offering him any sympathy, Trixie said, “There’s more of that if you don’t behave,hermano. Lay back down.”
A string of Spanish curses flew from his mouth. He groaned in pain as he heeded her instruction. “Aren’t you just a little ray of sunshine,” he grunted out.
She frowned at him. “You’re the one who showed up on my doorstep and interrupted my date.”
“With the criminal?” Trixie paused; how did he know about Cayden’s record? “Really,abeja, what were you thinking?”
There were many things Trixie wanted to say to him just then, and none of them were in regard to Cayden or the childhood nickname he’d just used to address her. She held up the bottle of peroxide in obvious threat. “You have a bullet in your shoulder and you want to talk about my sex life? I’m more than happy to let you bleed out, or better yet, call the cops as I should have done when you first showed up on my door.”
Her eyes narrowed when she saw his skin pale under the dirt and blood. “You didn’t, did you?”
She shook her head. “No, and I’m still kicking myself about it.”
Lee laid his head back on the pillow. “Good, thank you. I’m sorry for coming here, but I didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t think you’d be here.”
“Then why come here?”
He winced when he tried to shrug. “Needed a safe place to lay low.”
“And the bullet in your shoulder didn’t indicate that that safe place should be a hospital?”
Lee shook his head. “Can’t. Let’s just say I shouldn’t have been where I was, even though I had a good reason to be there.”
She did not like that answer at all. “What the hell have you gotten yourself mixed up in,hermano?” She reached forward and wiped the fresh flowing blood away from his wound.
Lee glanced down at his shoulders. “Go get a pair of needle nose pliers. Do you have a sewing kit?”
Trixie’s eyes widened. “You have got to be kidding me. You want me to get that bullet out while you’re awake?”
“No choice. I need it out.” Trixie opened her mouth to argue, but he shook his head. “Just get me the pliers. I’ll do it. It’s not that deep,abeja.”
Bile rose in her throat. Cayden’s angered face popped up in her head. If this was how she made him feel by forcing him out, then she deserved whatever wrath was headed her way as a result. “We do this, and then you tell me everything.”
“I’ll tell you what I can.”
Trixie wanted to argue that that wasn’t good enough, but her eyes landed on the bullet wound and she thought better of it. When it came down to it, he needed that bullet out sooner than later. Wasting time arguing with him could just be making him worse.
Trixie went into the garage and pulled out a pair of needle nose pliers. She had a small pocket sewing kit in her bathroom. Most of the time she didn’t care if she ripped her clothing, or got stains on them. She mainly had the kit to replace missing buttons. She hoped she had enough thread for whatever it was Lee was about to do.
She grabbed another mixing bowl from the kitchen. Lee’s eyes were closed when she re-entered the bedroom. At first, she hoped he’d passed out again, but they opened as soon as he heard her. His dark eyes were weary, but she recognized their usual stubbornness. That was good at least. If he had the strength to keep that up, she had a feeling he’d be just fine.
As long as she didn’t hit anything vital when she pulled the bullet out of his shoulder. Nausea rose again, but she forced it down. Her bedroom, only an hour before smelled like her coconut body wash from Cayden’s and her shower, now was drenched in an aroma of copper and peroxide. How had her perfectly planned weekend with Cayden turned so wrong? Would he ever forgive her?
Trixie shook the thought from her mind. Lee was her priority right now. She’d deal with Cayden once she knew her brother wasn’t going to die in her bedroom. She stumbled at the sudden flash of findingAbueloin this very room. She was not about to let her brother die here too.
Without speaking to him, Trixie poured most of the bottle of peroxide into the new bowl. Then placed the pliers into the clear liquid. She had thought about the lighter she’d grabbed from the kitchen but figured the peroxide was a better sterilizer.
Lee was struggling to sit up. “I need a mirror.”
She shook her head. “No way. I’ll do it.”
His eyes narrowed. “Trix. Get me a mirror.”
They stared off for a moment before Trixie journeyed to the bathroom to get a small mirror. It had been theirabuela’s. She hated what she was about to use it for.
Lee reached into the bowl and pulled out the pliers. He positioned her hands with the mirror where he needed it to be. “Hold it steady.”
Trixie tried, but her hands shook so badly she had no idea how he saw anything in it. As soon as he’d inserted the pliers, Trixie had had to look away. She forced her jaw closed, feeling the hot dogs and beans in her stomach rebelling against remaining down.
