Page 102 of The Fates We Tame

Then dial again.

I don’t expect her to answer, but just hearing her voice brings me calm.

This time, I leave a message. “Was just thinking of you. Hope you’re having a good night with the girls, Sparrow.”

This time when I close my eyes, I manage to fall asleep.

I’m not sure how much later it is when the door to the medical room bursts open, and the lights flick on, rousing me from the sleep of the dead.

“You good for tonight?” Vex asks when he sees me lying on the medical bed. He eyes the painkillers still out on the counter with the lid off.

Concern radiates from him.

As I rub my hand over my face, I realize that only the dregs of a headache remain. “I’m good.”

I flex my fingers in and out. My hand felt tight during target practice. Maybetightisn’t quite the right word, but my fingers don’t seem to have the mobility I expect from them. It felt the same when I tried to stitch Clutch’s thigh.

But my fingers are the least of my problems.

“I’m fine.”

Vex crosses his arms. “Man, you look anything but fine.”

“So, I had a headache. I took care of it. I’m good.”

“If at any point tonight you don’t feel good, you get the fuck out of there. And I’m telling King you’re riding in the van with me. Not on a bike.”

“Fuck you. I’m going?—”

“Nowhere. You’re going nowhere if you can’t safely ride. So don’t be a prick and make me worry about your ass.”

I shake my head.

“We’ll tell King it makes sense for you to be available to help people as we drive in the event of trouble or some shit. I don’t know. I’ll wing it and make something up.”

“Fine.”

Vex takes the painkillers and puts the lid on. He reaches up into the cupboard where two other containers sit. “I’m gonnatake these as a precaution. You need one, you come get them from me.”

I know what he’s doing. The meds are strong. And the effect they have, powerful. “My gut says I should tell you I’m fine and to leave them. But, yeah, perhaps you should. Once every four hours. No more than eight a day.”

Vex nods. “Got it.”

“Now that we’ve gotten this out of the way, there’s something you need to come see.”

When we step out of the medical room, we see Halo and Bates.

“You guys should come see this too,” Vex says.

“What should we see?” Halo asks.

The rest of the men are in the kitchen. “Perfect,” Vex says. “I got something for us to bet on.”

King glances at Vex. “We’re leaving.”

Vex chuckles. “Yeah. But I promise you’re gonna want to see this.”

He hurries to his cupboard off the back of the kitchen with the meds, then brings out his largest laptop. He recently told me it’s an old beast of a thing that’s cumbersome but he loves because it never crashes.