"Guys, help me get him to the couch," Inéz said.
"No, I just need to lie down. I’ll go upstairs to my bedroom."
The girl laughed seeing as the Capo tried to manage to hold his weight and to drag himself up the stairs. His legs denied him as soon as he was on the first step. Rolling her eyes at his immature, macho bravado, she glanced at her friends. "Then help him to the room. I’ll grab the kit and be right there," she said and left in search of all the necessary things. As a mobster, he surely had more than one first aid kit around.
It didn’t take long to locate everything she would need, and after a minute she was in front of Noah’s bedroom door. She hadn’t been there as it was strictly off-limits for any of them. The man liked his privacy, but he made it seem as if he had something to hide. When she stepped in the room she was proven otherwise. Everything looked the same as all the other rooms in the penthouse.
A set of swears sounded from the bathroom and both Drew and Isaac met her. Their clothes were covered in blood and their faces showed annoyance. "He’s even more unbearable when he’s injured," Drew murmured, heading for the door. "He’s all yours but maybe we should call a doctor."
"I’ll do my best to stop the bleeding. Haven’t seen the wound yet. Just send Flavio up here when he arrives. He’s probably more used to handling such things."
"He said no hospital over the phone. If Noah is still conscious and aware, everything is alright. But to keep him alive until he gets here," joked Drew and they heard a scowl slip their Capo’slips. He must have heard them.
Inéz rolled her eyes.
"Well, happy birthday," Isaac mocked and they left.
Ignoring the wish, the girl went into the bathroom. Her eyes landed on Noah’s crumbled form against the bathtub’s side and cringed. She put the first aid kit down on the floor and kneeled in front ofhim to take a better look. As he let go of his stomach, she pulled his shirt up and sawaknifewound.Itwasastabratherthanaslashandwentprettydeep.Becauseof all the blood, Inéz couldn’t even be sure that he didn’t also have internal bleeding. She wasn’t a doctor and only knew the basics of what she had to do. Breathing out, she glanced up at Capo.
"I will clean it, but to be honest it doesn’t look good, Noah. We might have to drive you to the hospital if the bleeding doesn’t stop," she said, grabbing a towel. She pushed it against the wound harder. Pain flashed on his face.
Once blood didn’t entirely obstruct her line of sight, she heartily sprayed disinfectant as whatever weapon had made its way in might have been dirty. And most likely had been. Somehow, Inéz couldn’t imagine mobsters caring about sanitation. Because this attack had certainly been connected to the business. Noah would have been able to fight back without a problem if it had been a mugging.
She laughed uncontrollably just thinking about it. Noah looked at her weirdly, his eyebrow shooting up. "Care to share, cara?"
"Do you? You still haven’t said what happened. Who stabbed you?"
The man regarded her as she was still trying to stop blood from coming out with wipes. She looked entirely focused on the task as she’d never done anything similar. She had no experience with such situations. It was her first time trying to handle something mafia-wise.
"I went to the place that was said to be filled with Bratva fuckers. My Capodecina got the word that they would make a move to get control over Las Vegas soon. I wanted to check it out and see what we were actually dealing with. They spotted me," he explained.
"And it didn’t occur to you to get some backup? They could’ve killed you. You’re theCapo, Noah. Ifyou die, the whole Famiglia is left without a boss and out in the open for the taking. Not just the organization but the city along with it," she reprimanded him. "For someone so intelligent, you sure like doing stupid things."
Noah smirked. It seemed as if the girl cared about him. And she actually did. For some odd reason, she was not only attracted to him appearance-wise but also as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she liked spending time with him. When he wasn’t being his annoying self. There was someone much more interesting underneath those layers of monstrous behavior and unsettling words.
"Don’t worry, cara. Flavio is more than capable of staying in power and keeping everyone safe."
"Your dearest brother is a notorious psycho," she murmured.
"And I’m not?"
Inéz nodded in agreement. "You are, but what you are also is alive, so next time use that little thing called a phone and ask for reinforcement."
The blood wasn’t the problem anymore. Somehow, she’d stopped the bleeding, which hopefully meant that the internal organs were alright. However, the wound was still deep and required stitches to heal properly. The girl took the needle out, sterilizing it. The memory of Lynette’s cuts flashed through her mind. She had carefully watched Noah take care of them and she now intended to do the exact same thing.
"Do you even know what you’re doing?" he asked curiously. His lips pulled into a smirk.
"Believe it or not, I have been present in a certain situation when this guy, a total idiot, by the way, stitched up the cuts on a girl’s legs," she drawled, winking at the man, making him laugh. He took off the shirt completely.
She followed the steps, remembering them vividly like the entire ordeal had been yesterday. And everything was going alright. Noah didn’t whine once, showing that he had really been through it quite a few times. After all, his life was anything but safe. But today’s action was beyond stupid. With so many people working
