Cool fingers on my forehead rouse me and I gasp, eyes flashing open, then clenching shut from the bright sunlight.
“Leo, it’s all right. I know it hurts. Just take this. You’ll feel better.”
“Celeste,” I croak, awash in relief at the sound of her voice until the truth about last night rushes back to me. At least half of it was true. “Ay Dios, Manny.”
“I know.” Her voice sounds just as wrecked as I feel, and I open my eyes, turning toward her and reaching out despite the agony that sears through my shoulder.
“No,” she says, grimacing and pushing against my chest. I fall back with a groan and turn my head instead. Even that hurts, but it’s worth it to see her face.
“Are you all right?”
She has dark circles under her pretty eyes, and her normally healthy bronze skin is ashen, but she nods and gives me a weak smile. “Just tired. Here.”
She holds up a large white pill, and I open my mouth, happy to take whatever it is if it’ll take the edge off any of what I’m feeling. I dry swallow before she can bring the water glass to my lips but let her feed it to me anyway. My mouth is parched, so I take a few extra swallows, enduring the ache of having to move just to reach an angle where she doesn’t spill.
A little more conscious, I push up on the elbow of my good arm and frown around us. We’re lying in a huge bed in a room I don’t recognize. I’m wearing nothing but my boxer briefs, and she’s in a baggy T-shirt and sweats. “Where the fuck are we?”
“I brought you to Maddox. He patched you up. Papá sent Dr. Yao over a couple hours ago but he said there wasn’t any more he could do that we hadn’t already done. Maddox did a good job.”
“This is his bed?” I ask, a foggy cloud of memory flitting just out of reach. I barely remember the events after getting shot. I can recall the lights of the freeway and the sounds of voices. Benny and Baz and two other men. One must have been Maddox.
Jesus, I probably owe the fucker my life. I glance down at the bandage that’s taped around my entire shoulder, then ease back onto the pillows.
“Does Papá know what happened?” I ask.
“I told him everything. Elena knows. Baz and Benny are at the house. Toni’s driving up.”
Her voice breaks, and my throat closes up. I reach for her, hooking my hand around her shoulders and pulling her to me. Toni isn’t just her best friend. She’s mine too. Half of my favorite tattoos came from her, the other half from Maddox, or as many as I could get in the year since I’ve known him. At this point, the two of them and Celeste are the only people who know me best who aren’t family. I have no family besides my brother.
Had. I close my eyes and hold her tighter. Wet tears cover my chest from her soft sobs, and my own cheeks are soon drenched. When I can breathe evenly again, I awkwardly hook my fingers around her hair from behind and pull it away from her face, touching her cheek. The numbness from the drug is taking over, all my pain receding, and it leaves me with the residue of the moment.
Celeste is in my arms. What an awful fucking excuse for me to have her here, but the fact remains that she is here. Holding me. Crying on my shoulder. Sharing my pain.
“I love you,” I say, the words slipping out before I can register the barrier has fallen. Fucking drugs.
She sniffles and lifts her eyes to mine, then laughs. “Really? I thought he was just saying that to get me to sleep with you.”
“Who?” And wait, sleep with me?
“Maddox told me your secret.”
“I’m gonna fucking kill him.” But something warm and comforting spreads through me even sweeter than the pain pill. Or maybe it is just the pain pill. But the horror of last night recedes a little at the thought of the pair of them taking care of me.
“It’s okay,” she whispers, leaning closer and sighing against my neck. “Because I love you too.”
I’m paralyzed by her words. Words that I never in a million years imagined I’d hear from anyone, much less her. I need clarification, some sign that I’m not hallucinating. I’d sure as fuck happily wake up from this dream if it meant Manny wasn’t dead, but it would be hard as hell to let go of this feeling if it isn’t real.
As if reading my mind, she says, “It isn’t new. I think it started when Papá hired you to protect me. But you know what Papá’s capable of. I wasn’t about to confess if it would put you in danger. After last night, I couldn’t not tell you. Maddox only made it clear that it was dumb for me to hold back.”
“Maddox,” I mutter, then chuckle. “I fucking love that guy.” I give her a sad, sleepy smile, and she raises her eyebrows at me.
“Pretty sure the feeling is mutual there too,” she says. “He’s a good friend.”
There’s subtext somewhere beneath her words, but the drug has kicked in hard, and I don’t have the mental capacity to find it. I toy with her hair some more and lift my head, inhaling the woodsy scent that makes no sense on her but feels right all the same. She sighs and turns her head just enough for my lips to graze her jaw. I’d be content just to lie here and hold her, so it surprises me when her lips brush mine.
I don’t respond at first. My reactions lag behind the awareness that she just kissed me. But all it takes is the gust of her breath across my lips and molten heat rushes through
