Finding Forgiveness

“Ssh,” I snapped.

He stopped and stayed quiet the whole time that I sewed the flesh of the man back together. I did a neat job and not a drop of blood escaped once I was done.

I then wiped the entire area with the antiseptic and soaked up the blood from around him.

“That’s all I can do,” I said to Andrea. “Now we just wait.”

He nodded and stepped away into the kitchen running a hand through his hair.

He then flicked his wrist to his men. “Go to your stations, I will keep you updated.”

A few minutes later, it was just Andrea and I in the kitchen… well and the half-dead man.

“What’s his name?” I asked.

“Jaime,” he replied.

I looked at his face as he lay there unconscious. He was young. Not a kid but his stubbly beard wasn’t quite complete enough to belong to a man.

“Will you care if he dies?” I asked.

“What sort of question is that?” he questioned.

“You didn’t seem to have a problem killing your own men before,” I said thinking back to when he shot four of his men in the warehouse in Mexico after I gave their names to Leo.

“Did I shoot those bullets, Blanca?” he asked pointing to the two still in on the table that had been in Jaime. “No. So I don’t want him to die. If he does, that’s life and I won’t dwell on it.”

I nodded and went to wash the blood off my hands in the sink.

He then poured a glass of tequila and looked back to me, “Where’s your ring?”

I looked down to my hand, realising that due to Andrea’s abrupt and chaotic arrival, I had never put it back on as Chico had advised.

“Oh-” I began. “I didn’t want to get blood on it.”

He nodded and took a swig of the tequila.

“Get some sleep, Blanca,” he said. “I’ll watch him and wake you if anything changes.”

I nodded, “We’ll take it in turns,” I said sitting down on a nearby sofa.

“And good job,” he added. “I was certain he’d be dead within the hour.”

I smiled briefly before laying my head down on the sofa and falling dead asleep. I woke at 3 am and took over watch from Andrea but there was no movement until 5 am when Jaime slowly began to stir.

At first, there was just a low groan and then the twitch of his hand. Soon enough he opened his eyes and looked around the room before a whole wave of confusion and panic began to set in.

I quickly approached him and put my hands on his shoulders to try and stop him sitting up and disrupting the stitches, “Stay still.”

This only made him more restless and he pushed against.

I didn’t speak a word of Spanish, how was I supposed to reassure him?

“Andrea!” I shouted. He was asleep on the sofa but quickly woke up. “Ughh… Casa… casa de Martinez,” I stuttered.

He just looked at me even more confused. Fortunately, he was weak from his injuries and with every movement he winced in agony so my attempts to keep him down lasted long enough for Andrea to take over.

He put a single hand on Jaime’s shoulder and looked into his eyes, causing him to instantly calm and stay still.

“Jaime, Jaime, Jaime,” he said putting a hand on his shoulder before speaking to him in Spanish.

I watched as Andrea explained everything, pointing to the stitches, the removed bullets and then me.

“Gracias, Se? ora,” he said to me in a weak whisper. “Thank you,” he added in his best English.

I nodded and smiled before I helped Andrea move him upstairs to a spare bed where he spent what was left of the night.NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

“Your skills impressed me, Blanca,” Andrea said as we lay in our bed, the light of dawn already filling the room. “I’ve had men with injuries nowhere near as bad as that die on me before.”

“Well, I had plenty of practice in my mate’s army,” I replied. “First patient I’ve treated on a kitchen table though.”

“Hmm,” he said. “He’s your responsibility until he is well enough to go home.”

I nodded, “Okay.”

I suppose it gives me something to do.

It wasn’t until midday that Jaime woke up again.

“Hola,” I said. “Do you speak English?”

He was still laying on the bed on his back with no shirt so that I could fully see the wound. It looked to be healing perfectly and he didn’t look quite as deathly white as he did the day before.

He nodded, “A little.”

“How do you feel?” I asked.

“Weak,” he replied with a frustrated groan. “And heavy.”

“It will be days before your body has recovered from the blood loss. I’m sure Andrea will let you rest here until then and I will keep an eye on the wound. The sanitation was far from desirably last night and I need to make sure it doesn’t get infected.”

“Why are you helping?” he asked suddenly turning to me.

His eyes were an olive green and they stared directly into mine with a totally serious face.

“What?” I asked.

His eyes glanced to the doorway momentarily before looking back at me.

“You know that we are fighting against your mate, right?” he added in a hushed tone. “Last night we weren’t but the ultimate goal is to bring him down.”

I felt my heart sink into my chest/

“You would have died,” was all I could say. “I can’t let people just die.”