Page 86 of Lash

"There is glass in the frame, Tati," I growl, the pain making me snappy. "I am fine. It glanced off my hipbone. The bone is not broken. I am not seriously wounded. It is merely painful and bloody."

She slides down to the bench, worry painting her features. "You have to put pressure on it."

I chuckle. "It is not my first time being shot, my love."

Rev tears a wide swatch from his already torn shirt and hands it to me. With no other materials to create a pressure dressing, however, I will have to hold it in place, so that is what I do. I press the makeshift bandage against my hip, hissing as the pressure sends a sharp lance of pain searing through me.

"Good, bro?" Rev asks, his voice tight with pain.

I extend my fist to him. "I will be fine. You?"

He taps his knuckles against mine. "Straight through the muscle. Could be better, could be worse. Have to see if I can manage a rifle or not." He winces. “Later, though."

Solomon’s voice crackles from the radio. "Good work, guys. Anyone hurt?"

Kane thumbs the radio. "Yes, but not bad. Rev took a round through the bicep and Lash took a glancer off the hip."

"There's a med kit in here," Sol says. "Need it?"

Kane glances in the rearview mirror. "You guys need a med kit?"

I grunt as I shift positions. "I could use a pressure dressing."

Kane relays the message, and Solomon answers after a minute. "We got one. Pull up alongside and I'll toss the kit."

"Copy," Kane says.

Once oncoming traffic has cleared, Kane accelerates up alongside the Suburban. The rear driver's side window rolls down and Solomon hangs out the window, a large red soft-cover med kit in his hands. Kane inches closer until the vehicles are less than a foot apart, and Solomon tosses the kit into the truck bed. I slap it down out of the air and pin it to the bed with my hand before it can bounce out, and then Kane drops back and pulls in behind the other car again.

I open the kit one-handed, rifling through it until I find the pressure dressing. I rip open a thick square of gauze with my teeth, slap it against my wound, and then wrap the stretchy ACE bandage around my torso and tie it off—the little pins won’t hold well enough under movement. This creates pressure against the wound, helping it absorb and clot so I lose less blood.

“Hey, can I see the kit when you’re done?" Rev asks. "This shirt is soaked through already."

I pass the kit through to him, and he folds a gauze square into a smaller, thicker rectangle, and uses another ACE bandage to compress it in place, and we both let out identical grunting sighs.

"Never thought I'd miss a long, boring shift at the Hel Gate," Rev says, referring to the heavily guarded and secured entranceto Hel, the ultra-exclusive brothel that's part of Club Sin. "I'm outta practice with this shit."

I laugh. "I agree. Now that I have experienced a life of peace and boredom, the action of firefights is much less appealing."

"I used to live for this shit," Rev says. "Now, I just wanna get home and veg out in the common room with Myka."

Tatiana, who has been loading the empty magazines, glances at Rev. "Tell me about Myka, please, Rev?"

He leans his head back and sighs. "She's…fuck, I don't know. Everything. She came from a super conservative Christian family. No cursing, women couldn't wear pants until she was, like, a grown-ass woman and decided she didn't agree with that rule. Church on Sundays and Wednesdays, no dating, only courting with chaperones."

Tatiana laughs in disbelief. “That sounds horrible."

Rev barks a laugh. "She'd agree, Tatiana.”

"Please, Rev, call me Tati or Tiana.”

"Tiana, like from The Princess and the Frog," Rev says, laughing again.

Tatiana frowns. "I do not know this."

"Disney movie," Rev answers. "That is where a princess has to kiss a frog to turn him back into a prince. Only, in the Disney version, she turns into a frog instead of him turning back into a person."

Tatiana snorts. "Rev, why do you know this?"