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Aurora:

Meet me in the library, last study room on the top floor. I’ll stitch up your arm.

Me:

You just stabbed me with a fucking ninja star.

Aurora:

You should have kept your mouth shut.

Me:

You didn’t have to stab me.

Aurora:

I did. You badmouthed my cousins. Are you coming or not?

Me:

Be there in a sec.

“You should change her name in your phone. Also, really? The girl just fucking stabbed you, Connor. What’s to say she’s not luring you there to finish the job?” Kenny asks me.

“Make sure I’m buried back in Boston. I don’t want my eternal rest to be in this hellhole of a city,” I tell him, and head to the library.

I follow Aurora’s instructions and find her in the last room with a medical kit laid out on the table.

I look from her to the needle in her gloved hands. “You’re not stitching me up.”

“Yes, I am. Sit down and shut up.” She points at the chair in front of her. “Take off your shirt.”

“If you wanted to get me naked, you could have just asked. You didn’t have to stab me,” I tell her. I shrug out of my blazer and undo the buttons of my shirt before slipping my arm free.

“I would say I’m sorry, if I was in fact sorry. But I’m not,” she says.

“Have you done this before?” I ask her.

“No, but I’m a quick learner.” She grins. “At least with this sort of stuff, I am.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing. You going to be okay? Need something to bite down on?” She quirks a brow.

“Like you?” I mirror the gesture.

“I meant like a belt or something,” she says.

“I’m good.” I brace myself for both the pain and the infection I’m more than likely going to end up with for letting her do this.

Why the fuck am I letting her do this?

I look up into her eyes and I see it. The concern she’s hiding. “I’m okay, you know. Not the first time I’ve been stabbed.”

“Who else has stabbed you?” she asks… casually? “Want me to sort 'em out?”

“No, I don’t. I want you to kiss me better since it’s your fault I’m bleeding. Again,” I tell her.