outside. I didn’t take it.”
“I thought you left.” Finally, he looks up and meets my eyes. “You could have. You could be far enough now that I wouldn’t be able to catch up.” He finishes with the antiseptic, and after a moment of turning my hand over and closing it into a fist, he grabs a rolled bandage and tears the plastic wrapping off with his teeth. “Your hand isn’t broken. Not even close. But it hurts, so I’ll wrap it for you. Plus, it’ll help keep the broken skin clean.”
“I’m sorry for making you worry.” I study his hands just as he studies mine. “I wanted to get into town and back before you woke. Get supplies, help fix the damage I caused last night.”
“Last night…” He draws a heavy breath until his chest expands, and lets it out on a small grin. “I taught you how to hit, Q. I remember clearly,” he pauses on the word, “four years ago, teaching you how to look after yourself. But you completely forgot my instructions in the heat of battle.”
“I was nervous,” I joke on an almost silent chuckle. “I did my best.”
“It takes a lot of talent to cause a riot like that. So… well done, I guess. And don’t worry about me. I literally get beaten up every day. It’s my job.”
“With pool cues?”
He chuckles and shakes his head. “No, but I bet if you gave Bry a stick and told him to take a swing at me, he wouldn’t hesitate. He enjoys making me bleed.”
“Sometimes family is weird.”
When he’s done with my hand, I grab the next biggest bandage and start unwrapping it. “For your shoulder. I know you’re all about acting tough, but I can tell it hurts you.”
I rise from the bed, and make my way to his bag of clothes in the corner. I grab a clean shirt from the pile, toss it at him, and while he stands to shrug it on, I meander back in his direction and nibble on the inside of my cheek in thought. “How’d you hurt it?”
He sits back down and shrugs. “Training.”
“Was it intentional?”
“Like did the other guy do it on purpose?” he asks. “Nah. It was someone a little younger, a little too eager to show that he can stack up to a Kincaid. We were working on locks, and he didn’t release me when I expected him to. I tore my supra…” He frowns and tries again. “My supraspin…” Then he shrugs. “Something in my shoulder. It’ll heal in time. I just haven’t been all that careful with it this past week. What about you?” He allows me to work his left arm into a type of sling, while reaching up with his right hand and touching my left shoulder. “Can’t tell me it’s not bothering you.”
“I was working on the silks at the club.”
His brows draw closer together. “Silks?”
“Yeah. I taught myself how to dance with silks. It’s actually a lot of fun, and when I’m really feeling the flow, it looks really graceful. I just…” I tie the sling at the back of Jamie’s shoulder blades. “I don’t know. I always knew my life was heading toward a pole rather than a grand stage, so I figured I would turn lemons into lemonade. Learn something fun and new, teach the other girls.” I shrug and walk back around him to stand between his legs.
It’s both amazing and heartbreaking that his unbound hand goes to my hip. It’s a compulsion he can’t help. An obsession.
“Anyway,” I continue when our eyes meet. “I got caught up in a drop while I was practicing, and used my arm to stop me from slamming to the floor. I mean, it was a good save, but it was at the expense of something in my shoulder.”
“Something?” He tilts his head to the side and considers me. “You haven’t been to the doctor?”
“No, rich boy. I don’t go to doctors. They have this tendency to ask for money and ID. Neither of which I have.”
“So you don’t know what’s wrong with it, or how to fix it?”
“Pretty sure tribes in the Amazon don’t have x-ray machines or modern medicine either.”
When he says nothing but lifts a brow, I laugh and add, “My body will heal itself in time. And until then, I take care not to make it worse.”
“Bar brawls not included?”
I smile. “Exceptional circumstances.”
“Does it hurt today?”
It burns like the fire of a thousand suns. “It’s not too