Lil patted Flix’s shoulder and motioned to Joe. “Why don’t you have a seat? I need to go help Navi, but I’ll come get you as soon as your brother’s ready for visitors.”
Joe beamed at Lil. After all this time, she was as warm and strong as he remembered. He wrapped an arm around Flix and led him to one of the red sofas. They sat, and Flix buried his head in Joe’s chest. On the other couch, Peter and Sadie eyed each other with obvious interest. Dear God, she’d grown. Those glasses Joe had helped buy barely fit. Sadie’s magnified eyes swept up and down Peter like he was the most exotic thing she’d ever seen.
Maybe he was.
Tentatively, she reached out and slid a finger down Peter’s arm, from his biceps to the back of his hand. “I’ve never seen someone so white.”
Peter swallowed. “I’ve never seen someone so beautiful.”
Flix snorted into Joe’s chest. Joe couldn’t blame him. They may have found Peter’s declaration cringe-worthy, but Sadie moved closer and examined Peter’s face, rubbing his jaw, his cheekbones, his lips. Peter blushed crimson.
Joe bristled. He extended his leg and used his foot to separate the two. “Knock it off. Sadie’s too young to be flirting.”
Sadie put her hands on her hips and lightly kicked Joe’s shin. “I’m fourteen, and I’m not flirting, Weasel. I’m experimenting.”
“That’s not reassuring, Mole.”
The door at the back of the kitchen opened, and Devin came through. “That guy Navarro wants you, Joe.”
Joe untangled himself from Flix and headed toward the back of the house. When he passed, Devin grabbed his waist and pulled him chest to chest.
“Is he some old boyfriend?”
The question surprised Joe. He probably should have expected it, and a part of him thrilled to the jealousy in Devin’s voice, in the squeeze of his hands. Another part of him didn’t understand why it would matter.
“Navarro?” Joe shook his head. “I had a crush on him once.”
“He’s sexy.”
Well. Joe jerked his head back as his surprise turned to shock. It’d never occurred to him that Devin’s attraction to men extended beyond the bounds of their relationship. Was that his own tinge of jealousy? “I guess.”
“But you two never...”
“He’s the most straight man I’ve ever met, and I was a child to him, an inconvenience.” Navarro probably would have chosen a different word. “Nothing ever happened between us.”
Devin grimaced and started to say more, but Navarro bellowed for Joe to hurry up.
Joe had thought he and Devin were solid again. Now he wasn’t so sure. He leaned in, kissed Devin’s jaw. “Little boy crushes don’t mean anything. I only see you, papi.” He pushed away and went through the door.
It led to a short hallway that ended in a concrete-floored exam room with large windows and bright lights. The quiet hum of electricity brought Joe’s breath up short.
He’d only left the Flats about two weeks ago. They’d had electricity. But he’d almost forgotten what it was like — the luxury of light when you wanted it.
Marcus lay on a gleaming steel table in the middle of the room. His face had paled to a sickly green, but his breathing was steadier than it had been in at least a day. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t appear to be conscious.
“Quit daydreaming, nuevecito, and get your scrawny ass over here to help. Wash and glove up first,” Navarro said as he cut Marcus’s pantleg away.
Lil hovered over Marcus, too, though instead of medical aid, she nuzzled Marcus’s temple with her cheek and whispered words of comfort.
Joe hurried through sanitizing his hands and joined them.
“Okay,” Navarro said. “I’ve given him enough universal anti-bac to make his guts glow for years. His arm’s been set. Now I need to do his leg and heel, and it’s going to hurt like a son of a bitch, even with pain meds. You’ll need to hold him down while Lili and I fix the breaks. Be ready to assist us if we need it.”
Joe nodded and pinned Marcus’s elbows to the exam table.
“Lie over him. Put your weight into it. He may seem weak now, but I promise you, he’s going to move when we get started.” Navarro narrowed his sharp brown eyes. “Keep him still. I’m depending on you.”
Joe resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He lay across Marcus’s pelvis and stomach while keeping his hold at the elbows. “Go.”
The jerk of Marcus’s leg rattled Joe. Marcus shrieked, his mouth opening so wide his lips turned white, and his hips threatened to leave the table. Joe pressed down and tried to tell Marcus he’d be all right.
“Leg’s done,” Navarro said as Marcus’s voice dropped back into a low whine. Joe had forgotten how fast Navarro worked. “Heel next. See if you can keep his hips still and hold down his other leg. This is going to wake him good, and I need to be extra careful of how I set the bone.”
Joe shifted sideways and cupped Marcus’s uninjured leg just below the knee. Navarro placed a foam roller under Marcus’s calf and unwrapped the bloody t-shirt Joe had bandaged the heel with earlier in the day. As soon as the bandage fell away, Marcus began to whimper and thrash. Blood dripped from the wound.
Joe clamped down and kept Marcus’s lower half still.
Navarro and Lil worked quickly. With a thin scalpel, Navarro slashed two small incisions in the back of Marcus’s heel while Liliana sprayed a highly pressurized, clear liquid all over the wound. Blood and bits of tissue fell away, and Marcus’s whining became screams so loud they drowned out the terse communication between Navarro and Lil. The liquid spray stopped, and the bone lay exposed, gleaming white and alarming.
Joe fought the urge to vomit.
Lil brushed something over the bone where it had split, then used tongs to pull back the muscle and skin around the wound. Navarro pressed the heel back together,
