“Should have taken the pain pills, dumb shit.” Navarro looked up and smiled, but his eyes were full of tears. “I just lost the closest I will ever have to a child. And you are the only brother I will ever know, so please...”
“I’m so sorry,” Joe rasped.
“Please don’t make my pain worse by talking about things that are not your fault. I need to ask you for one last favor.”
“Anything.”
“Two favors.” Navarro held up a needle in one hand and a patch in the other.
The patch would make it look like Joe had never been shot. He pointed to the needle; he wanted a scar, a reminder.
Navarro nodded and put the patch back in a drawer. He picked up a syringe and popped it into a vein at Joe’s elbow. Once he’d collected a vial of blood, he added a clear liquid to the vial, changed out the syringe needle for a blunt-tipped applicator, and inserted it into the cavity the bullet had made. The warm flow of the bloody solution didn’t hurt, but it nauseated Joe all the same.
“It’s a formula to promote healing using the platelets in your plasma,” Navarro said. “You’ll have to take it easy and get some exercise with your arm every day, but you should heal fine. So, the favors. First, sleep before you leave.”
“Okay.”
Navarro started on the stitches. His fingers on Joe’s skin felt warmer than Joe had expected, and the rhythmic sting of the needle and pull of the thread felt like maybe Navarro could stitch Joe back together, make him whole again.
“Take Aria with you.” Navarro didn’t look up from his work.
“No.”
“It’s the only way to keep her safe.”
Joe couldn’t. Wouldn’t do that to Flix. “It’s her fault Sadie and Marcus are in a grave.”
Navarro’s eyes flared. “I thought you did that.”
Joe had no response.
“There’s plenty of blame for all of us,” Navarro said. “But once the townspeople figure out that Aria killed all those Sons, and they will, they will kill her. You have to take her away.”
“Lil’s the mayor. Can’t she protect her?”
Navarro’s gaze shifted to the door. His voice dropped low. “Lili’s angry right now, nuevecito. She’ll come around; I know she will. But if I don’t get Aria out of here, Lili may do something she’ll regret.” Navarro laid a hand on Joe’s good shoulder. “I need you. Please.”
Joe couldn’t say no to Navarro. But he had his own family to look after. “Flix. He’ll never forgive me. He might kill Aria in her sleep. She might kill him. You didn’t see her, Navarro, the way she looked at him last night.”
Navarro shook his head. “They need guidance, both of them. Sanders did a number on Aria, and the boy, he needs help growing into a man. You are the one who can help them.”
Joe didn’t believe that for a second. Flix and Aria were both stubborn asses. The only way they’d learn was through experience. Aria didn’t deserve their help. But if Navarro was right, and she would be killed for murdering the Sons, when Joe had the ability to take her away and try to keep her safe... Maybe Sadie and Marcus’s deaths weren’t exactly his fault, but Aria’s would be. “I need to talk to Devin.”
“I’ll have him come back here.” Navarro turned at the door. “Joe? I’ll miss you.”
Joe ached for hearing Navarro tell him that. “I’ll miss you, too.”
Navarro nodded and left. Joe pressed his palms to the cool metal of the exam table. Goosebumps spread up his arms and across his shoulders. The smooth surface reminded him of the wall. When the sun set, he was walking past that wall, into New America, and never coming back. A week ago, crossing that line had been his biggest worry. Now, he couldn’t summon any fear, any excitement, just the numb certainty that none of it really mattered.
Devin poked his head in and offered Joe a grim smile. “Hey.”
Just seeing him kick-started Joe’s sluggish heart. He patted the table next to him, and Devin limped over and hopped up. Joe’s goosebumps melted away, and all the pinpricks of sorrow and guilt that had stung his head and heart, they eased a tiny bit. “Hey.”
Devin ran careful fingertips over the skin around Joe’s newly stitched wound. “You got shot.”
Now the pinpricks were in Joe’s eyes and throat, and he laid his head on Devin’s shoulder and let a few tears escape. “I did. It’s so absurd.”
“Don’t do it again, asshole.”
Joe chuckled. “Don’t get your stupid self kidnapped again.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, and Joe reveled in the comfort. He’d take this feeling, this thing that wasn’t happiness but kept him warm all the same, as long as he could.
Devin sighed. “Flix is a mess. I don’t know how to help him.”
“You’re helping him already. Keep doing what you are, and when he needs something different, we’ll figure it out.”
“Marcus was a good kid. It hurts so much, losing your brother.”
Joe remembered how lost and broken Devin had been when he told Joe about how his brother, Tanner, had died. Maybe Devin would be the one to help Flix and Aria.
“I have to ask you something,” Joe said, “and you won’t like it, but I think it’s what we have to do.”
“Just say it.”
“We have to take Aria with us.”
Devin climbed off the table and stood in front of Joe with his hands on his hips. “That’s a mistake. You’ll wreck Flix. Peter, too.”
“Navarro asked me to. I owe him.”
“God damn it, Joe. We owe him. It’s a mistake. A big one.” Devin put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. “I’ll back you up on this, do what you want, but it’s gonna mess everything up.”
“Everything is already messed
