Matteo waved out the open window as Simon retreated, heading back into the fray, undoubtedly. The sooner Ryker and Rafe finished with the cleanup, the sooner they could get back to hunting Tiernan down and putting him in the ground. "She's the one who was shot?" Doc asked as I stepped up to the panel and inserted my security code.
"Yes," I grunted as Sadie strode past.
“Rebel!” Sadie called. “Stay off my bed, you bloody little monster.” The dog lifted a paw to lick it, going to the back door and pawing to be let into the yard. Sadie quickly walked over, her compulsions making her more than happy to have the dog wait out her bath somewhere Sadie wouldn’t need to clean.
There was a moment of silence before Doc spoke. "And you do realize I'll need to touch her, yes? I know how you lot get about your women being poked."
I leveled him with a glare. "As long as the only thing you poke her with is a needle and forceps, you'll walk out of here alive," I warned.
"Oh, for the love of God, Enzo. He's a doctor. He's probably seen much worse than my shoulder," Sadie said. She went to raise a hand to place on her hip, wincing at the reminder of the pain in her wrist. "Let the damn man do his job and get this bullet out of me so I can get drunk and forget that it hurts like a bitch 'kay? Thanks."
She went to one of the stools at the island, easing herself onto it and leaning forward onto the counter. "The shirt will have to go, Baby Girl," I smirked, grabbing the blanket out of the basket under the coffee table where my sisters stashed it because they liked to say that everyone needed a throw blanket.
Women.
"Cut it off me, because this arm is not stretching up over my head for anything," she said as I wrapped the blanket around her waist. Tugging the shirt fabric out from underneath it, I took my blood-stained knife from my pocket and sliced the fabric open. The angry red bullet wound stood out against her tawny skin, blood leaking down to stain her white bra red.
Doc wasted no more time, stepping over as I shifted out of the way. Sadie used her injured hand to clutch the blanket to her chest, leaning that elbow on the counter for support. "I'll numb it first," he said. Sadie rolled her eyes like it should have been obvious. But many of the Bellandi men didn't require a numbing agent.
Men tended to be stupid like that.
He pulled the syringe out, filling it with a local anesthetic and touching the top of Sadie's shoulder to warn her of what was coming. She winced when the needle slid into the oversensitive skin surrounding the wound, her face pinching as he withdrew and repeated the process until he'd surrounded the entire thing. Stepping back to put the anesthetic away, he grabbed his forceps, and a curved needle and suture out of his pack and set them on the counter. Sadie paled at the sight of them, but swallowed past her obvious fear.
The doctor poked the area around the wound, waiting for Sadie to react to what should have been agonizing pain. "Anything?" he asked.
"Anything what?" Sadie repeated.
"Guess not," Doc chuckled. "Hold still." He went to work, pressing cotton balls to the wound to soak up the blood that interfered with his view. He grabbed the forceps once he could see well enough, pressing them to the inside of the wound. Sadie winced lightly, drawing my attention back to her face.
"You okay?" I asked, worry filling me. There was no reason she needed to feel more pain.
"Yeah. It isn't bad," she said, but the focus on her face made me hesitate. "Really. Just let him get it over with."
A glance back at the Doc confirmed he'd already found the bullet, wrapping the forceps around it and was working to wiggle it out of her flesh. "You were lucky," he said, dropping the bloody bullet on the counter finally.
The forceps, he set on the counter, not caring that they dripped blood everywhere. Sadie grimaced at the sight of it, still my compulsive monster despite the gaping hole in her shoulder.
As Doc started to stitch her up, I knew she'd be fine.
Compulsions lasted through bullet removal, evidently.
35 Sadie
He was driving me up the fucking wall. "I can move, you know. My legs work just fine," I snapped as he rushed to grab my phone off the counter where I'd left it. I unlocked it with my left hand, the thumb feeling awkward as I typed in the passcode. But the cast on my right wrist made it nearly impossible to use. Ivory’s message stared back at me, her fifth one in the last three hours. Asking if we needed anything.
Good grief.
"Shut up and deal with it," Enzo grunted. Rebel's head rested in my lap, my little monster clinging to me more firmly than ever with my injury. Between the three of them, I'd probably commit more murders by the time I healed.
It'd been a day. I'd lasted nearly an entire day of not being allowed to move, humoring Enzo's attempts to treat me like I couldn't function. But the time had come for it to end.
"Can I do something?" I begged, leaning forward to snatch the phone out of his hand as he brought it to me.
"Sadie, you were shot yesterday," he said, his voice exasperated as he glared at me. "Give me today. Tomorrow I'll take you to the estate, so Ivory gets off my ass about seeing you. We can sign the contract for the warehouse there."
"We're still buying the warehouse?" I asked, staring up at him.
"Do you not want it?" He looked at me like the thought had never occurred to him.
"It
