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“Charlie...” I sob out his name, craning my head back to look up at him. I squeeze my eyes shut a few times because I so desperately want to see him but I can't make out a face.
“Yeah, baby, it's me,” he says, and I know it's true. I recognize his voice now. “Where did Maksim shoot you?”
Bursting into tears, I fall into him, letting my vulnerability take over.
“He's back there.” I swallow down my nerves, hiding in Charlie's body. “Please, don't send me back to him.”
“I'll never send you back to him again.” Charlie wraps his arms around my shoulders, burying my face in his chest, embraces me with safety. “S'all right. Don't cry. Everything's gonna be all right.”
He smells like home, clean and soapy and musky. I hold him like I'll never let go. It's so bizarre that in just a few short months, he's come to mean more to me than anyone in this world.
“Baby, you need to sit down so I can check you over.” He tries to urge me backward. “I know Maksim shot you. I need to make sure the wound-”
“No!” I protest, clinging to him. I don't want to sit down. I don't want to be anywhere than where I am right now.
“All right,” he says. “All right. Just stay calm.”
I distantly listen to a commotion behind, which I assume is Carl coming around, and then Charlie starts barking orders to god knows who. “Guard this entrance. Guard the front entrance. Have the Scour Detail ensure our exit is safe and get back to me. We need to leave as soon as possible.” A long, questionable pause, then, “Whoever brings me Maksim gets a bonus.”
“I'm on it, boss,” someone says.
“Where did he shoot you, Blaire?” Charlie asks again, kissing my damp forehead. “I need to make sure the wound is clean and bandaged up.”
“In-in the stomach. And my back... he burnt my back.”
Charlie urges me back an inch so he can look down on me but I step into him, gripping his shirt with desperate fingers, not wanting him to let me go.
“Baby, s'all right.I'm not going anywhere. I justwant tocheck you over and wrap up your wounds.”
I sob then, shaking from head to toe. “Please, just stay with me.”
“I am. I'm not going anywhere, I swear.” Holding me to him in one arm, he lifts my chin with his other hand, forcing our eyes to align. His enlarge and glaze over with guilt. “Your face...”
He's seeing the bruises where Maksim slapped and punched me. He touches them, my black and blue cheek; my eye.
“James didn't mention this...”
“James?” I heave his name. “James was at my apartment. He... he...”
“S'all right. He's okay. I found him with a few shot wounds to his shoulder-”
“Shot wounds?” Anger comes over me, bubbling in my stomach with such rage I swear if Maksim was here I'd fucking shoot him!
“James is fine,” Charlie says, reassuring me. “He's had an operation and he's fine.”
Relief sweeps through me but it only serves to make me feel ill. I squint through the lights in the hall, a warm rush of nausea coming over me. “I don't feel well, Charlie.”
“Sit down then, please. It won't be long before we can leave.” He manages this time to sit me on something hard. The concrete cools the backs of my naked thighs.
I blow out a long, exhausting breath, and shut my eyes, holding the edges of whatever I'm sitting on. The sound of material being ripped apart, and then I feel pressure on my left knee. It makes me moan in pain.
“I'm sorry but I need to stop this bleeding.” Once Charlie is done bandaging up my right knee, I hear that ripping sound again and then he's wrapping something around my palms, first my left, and then my right. It doesn't hurt so much having him fondle my hands.
Next, he lifts up the shirt I'm wearing and bundles it around my chest. Cool air blows over my skin. It's so refreshing. I'm too warm.
There's a long moment of silence between Charlie and me, until something much thicker is being ripped apart.
