warily look at the big-jowled monster and wonder why anyone would ever think it needed help looking scarier. It looked like it was out of a nightmare already with one ear that looks like it was chewed off to the base, and the other barely a point.
“This is your dog?”
“Tony’s, but he treats him like shit, so he’s mine now,” he says as he pulls money out of the ATM. He crams it into his pocket, then in the light of the ATM, he pulls me toward him and checks my arm.
When he takes out a knife, I step back, a little terrified of what he’s going to do.
“Are you serious right now?” he asks. “You honestly think I risked everything to save you only to gut you in a bank parking lot? What do you think I’m going to do then, wear your skin and parade around in it?”
“You have that look about you, man,” I joke.
He looks amused but also slightly confused. “Sometimes… sometimes I question my sanity. I take that back. Quite often I question my sanity when dealing with you.”
I nod because that really makes sense. “You know… it’s not my fault.”
“Which part?”
“I would think any normal person would back away when someone pulls out a knife.”
He sighs and cuts a good chunk of my sleeve off before wrapping it around the knife wound.
The moment he starts applying pressure, I realize that now would have been the proper time to shy away from him. “Ow, fuck, fuck, fuck. What are you doing to me? Stop.”
“Do you want to bleed to death?”
“Not really but it sounds less painful than this.”
He returns to sliding the cloth up. “Then deal with it until we can get you something else.”
“Fine. But I think it’s good. Thank you… for all of this. For risking so much for me.”
“It wasn’t for you,” he says stubbornly.
“Okay… umm…”
“It was for the dog.”
I glance down at the horrid thing. “Awesome. Anyway, thank you for deciding to invite me while you broke out the dog.”
“You’re welcome,” he says as he continues fiddling with my arm.
I warily pull away. “What are you doing?”
“Well… seeing as I haven’t tied the cloth yet, I need to tie it to stop the bleeding.”
He has to be joking. What he did before was clearly tight enough. “You already did that.”
“No, I just slipped it in between,” he says as he grabs onto me before I can run and ties the cloth.
Pain spikes as heat rushes to my head and the world decides to flip around a bit. When my vision clears, Shepherd is staring down at me. “What are you doing down there?”
“Watching the stars,” I say as I try to figure out if I need to crawl away from him now.
“Ah, makes sense, makes sense. How about we get moving before we’re caught?”
He holds a hand down to me and I glance at it. It’s a traitorous hand. But when I set mine in it, I feel a warm rush of something that pushes the pain back just a little, especially when his fingers close around mine. “Am I dying?”
“You really want to know?” he asks as he steadies me before grabbing the chain on the dog.
“Yes. Please.”
“It’s a long way from your heart. You’re all good.”
I stare at him because I’m positive that wasn’t helpful in the slightest. “Wow, Dr. Shepherd. You’re amazing.”
“Thank you,” he says as he starts dragging me after him.
“I feel light-headed.”
“It’s probably because of the way your head just collided with the blacktop. After you hit there was a moment of ‘Why didn’t I grab you as you fell?’ but it was too late to really analyze it, you know? Your head had already smacked the ground at that point.”
“You have saved me just to kill me, haven’t you?”
He gives me an extremely nonchalant shrug. “You know, it’s not at all unlikely. Come on, now. We need to hurry.”
“The only place I’m hurrying to is my grave,” I whine as I try to keep up with him. It’s a bit hard when the throbbing of my arm is now accompanied by a throbbing in my head.
“Don’t be so dramatic, it’s not cute.”
“I’m not even remotely trying to appear cute,” I say as I try to wave to myself. My right sleeve is ripped off, my left sleeve is coated in blood, I’m pretty sure there’s blood on the back of my neck, I’m handcuffed together, and I feel disgusting.