Page 138 of Beni

“An old family debt, how about that?”

Ah.

“Good enough for me.”

“Great, now hush.”

“Are you going to tell me why I’m here?”

The doctor let out a hard breath and gave Beni another look. “You are as … difficult as the one that looks just like you.”

“His name is Bene.”

“Yes, he told me that.”

“I have a lot of questions.”

“So it seems.” The man shook his head, and resituated the bandage back in place on Beni’s chest. “Lucky for you, the wound looks good. Not to pat my own back here, but having done too many of these fucking things, I can handle a wound like this.”

Beni was pretty sure that was the first time he ever heard a doctor swear while tending to him. That included the one he called a prick for resetting his bone when he was twelve, and had broken his ankle from falling out of a tree trying to climb as high as his twin had in the back yard. That shit hurt.

“As for your question about being here,” the doctor said, pulling off the latex gloves and discarding them to a nearby trashcan, “as you can see from the monitor there …” He pointed at a machine showing Beni’s blood pressure, and heart rate. “Your vitals have been stable from thirty-six hours in, so I gave your uncle the choice to move you to a place where you would be more comfortable waking up. He decided to do that, and here you are.”

Beni remembered none of that.

“How long was I out?”

The man checked his watch. “Fifty-two hours, now.”

Huh.

“You are very lucky, young man,” he said, “and I hope you know that.”

Beni nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

“I removed the IV this morning because you were showing signs of waking up, and the quicker you start doing for yourself—eating, walking to the bathroom, drinking—the better. You were getting antibiotics to prevent infection through the IV, but you’ll be taking it in pill form now. And you’re going to be in a lot of pain for a while. Painkillers will only do so much, and you’re going to have to be careful about how much you take. Understand?”

“I got it.”

“You won’t be doing very much for the next two months except resting. That includes work, picking up a broom … that pretty woman waiting out in the hallway with the rest of your family. Do you hear me?”

Beni’s laughter echoed in the quiet bedroom. God, it hurt like hell. His chest felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer and beat on him over and over until there was a giant, bloody hole left behind. But none of that mattered. Not one bit of it.

Why?

Because he was alive.

Maybe it was the sound of his laughter filtering outside the bedroom, but soon, the space was full of familiar faces. They slipped into the room one after the other—all wore smiles, and he grinned back, gaze sweeping over them to find the one he wanted the very most.

He loved seeing his ma. Knew he scared his dad. All his brothers looked like they wanted to both kill him and hug him. His twin practically bounced on his fucking heels, only held back by his mother locking her arm around his at the elbow. His friends, and the rest of his family also came into the room, but they hung back.

With her.

August.

She smiled softly, waving two fingers as his gaze finally landed on her. More than anything, he wanted to get up out of that bed, and go to her. Or even, have her come to him. Both worked just fine for his purpose of getting her closer, as far as he was concerned.

That was hard to do with everyone talking at once, though.