I can see better,” Lila orders, reaching for a medical bag from the top shelf.
“Do you trust her?” Raphael asks me, keeping his voice low.
“I do. Now, be a good patient and try not to cry. We wouldn’t want anyone to see you’re human.”
As Lila works on his thigh, she doesn’t seem concerned with how bad it is, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, I look out at already darkening sky. Night is coming.
“Are you a nurse?” he questions.
“Not on paper, but after spending so many years tending to injuries, some caused by your men, but mostly injuries inflicted by men thinking it’s okay to take their anger out on us women, the very people they claim to love, you pick up talents when needed.”
Raphael may have claimed to want me dead, but I now know that to be a lie. I’ve never known him to go after a woman. His father thought nothing of having my mother killed, but Raphael was different than him.
He’s still the boy I loved, only now he’s all man, his edge much harder than it used to be. Perhaps we were never destined to be together back then, but now, when we both have grown and know who we are ourselves, individually. Maybe that’s what will make us stronger together?
Lila finishes up with his leg and passes him a bottle of painkillers. “Take two every four hours and you’ll be fine.”
Gabriella throws a pair of sweatpants at him, which he catches with one hand.
“These will have to do. The women around here will be going to bed shortly, but they’re not going to want you parading around in your underwear. We brought you here because of Jamila, but our residents come first. The women here are wary of men, so you make one move that scares them, you’re out.”
He nods. “I understand.”
He won’t put the women here in harm’s way, I can vouch that much for him. Gabriella turns to me and opens the door.
“Can we talk?”
Heaving myself up to my feet, I follow her out into the hall. We walk toward the canteen where every table is full of women, talking quietly amongst themselves.
I smell the faint, lingering scent of his cologne before he limps to my side, standing closer to me than usual.
“They’re all wanting to fight. Everyone who can will stand behind you.”
Before I can open my mouth, Raphael speaks. “We’re going to need guns.”
A snort hits our ears from behind, and Lila walks around us, piercing the air with a whistle.
“Did you hear that, ladies? The man thinks we’re unprepared.”
Movement across the canteen renders Raphael speechless, as from under tables and chairs, the women pull out various types of weapons.
I can’t help but smile. I’ve known many of these women for a long time, and while I can’t say I knew they held their own arsenal of weapons, I knew they were fighters, fighting for their own protection, to live a life free from violence.
Lila spins on her heel and stares directly at the only man in the place.
“This isn’t our first fight, but it sure will be our last. Give us your word the blood will stop raining in Vita once this is over with, and you have our word we’ll help you in any way we can.”
“You don’t have to. We have men coming in to help us.”
Her laugh is laced with doubt and sarcasm. “Men haven’t won this fight in two hundred years. This city doesn’t belong to men, and men won’t see us coming. They’re too busy assuming we’re nothing more than vessels to bear their children and clean their homes. We’re well past believing men will be our saviour—we’re our own saviour.”
She walks off, and Gabriella scoops up a toddler hanging on her leg. Lowering his voice, Raphe says, “I’m impressed.”
“Don’t patronize them. These women live in fear every day. Keeping a gun and rising to fight when they feel like they don’t have any other choice shouldn’t impress you.” I turn to Gabriella. “I need a phone.”
We’re safe for now, but Trey and Cristian should be back soon, and they’ll need to know what to expect when they return to the city.
She digs out her cell from her pocket and passes it over. Trey’s number is the only one I can remember off the top of my head, so I punch it in.
It rings out four times before he answers, and I turn my back on