by Maria Xystra
“You’re bleeding like crazy and all you care about is your phone?” I help him climb into the front and quickly go around to the driver’s seat. I try Eric one more time but again, in vain.
He connects his phone to the car and dials as I drive out the gate.
“I still think we should get you to a hospital,” I tell him again glancing at his wound and reflectively flinching at all that blood.
“Do you want to go to a hospital?” he teases me seeing my reaction. “Are you sure you can drive?”
“Do you think now is the right time to joke?” I scold him.
“Yo!” Eric’s voice comes through the speakers.
“Eric! Where the fuck are you? Why aren’t you answering my calls?” I make sure my panic is pretty obvious through the phone.
“Lex?” he hesitates. “What’s up?”
“Cole is hurt! Someone attacked him!” I dominate the conversation seeing how the person next to me who is always in top shape, slumps into the seat and starts drifting away. “Hey!” I slap his leg to get his attention.
“WHAT?? ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Eric’s alarmed voice is difficult to hide.
“Yes! What do I do? He won’t go to a hospital!”
“No! No hospitals! Where are you? Don’t take him home!” Eric barks at me.
“We’re in the car! Where do I take him?”
Eric lets go of an exasperated sigh and I can practically see him dropping everything he’s doing and getting his keys. “Take him to your place, Lex. I’ll meet you there.”
“OK, OK,” I comply and start heading that way.
“How is he?”
“He’s…I think he’s in and out of conscience.”
“No! Keep him conscious! You MUST keep him conscious!”
“OK!” I find I’m even more terrified after Eric’s words. “How? How do I do that?”
“I don’t know, just, just keep talking to him-”
“What do I say??”
“STOP FREAKING OUT!”
“YOU’RE FREAKING ME OUT!” I scream at him.
“OK, OK, I’ll see you at your place, gotta go,” he hangs up.
Must keep him conscious.
Right.
“Cole?” I shove him and he moans. “Are you with me?” he slightly lifts his head and smiles. “OK. Look, remember…remember the first time we met? Hm?”
“Mmm.”
“Tell me about it. What happened? Do you remember when you asked me-”
“You asked me first, Tipsy.”
“About my drink?” I finish my sentence while he starts his. “Huh?”
“You asked me first,” he repeats.
“I didn’t-”
“You said… Mondays are… not working for you either,” he smiles as he recalls.
“Well, Tuesdays don’t seem to be working for you either,” I comment, and he tries to laugh but his sharp inhaling reminds me he’s in great pain. “Sorry! I’m sorry!” I bite my lips in a silent reprimand.
“And you said your drink was drink…”
“Yeah, I know.”
“And you bumped your head…” he continues with apparent effort.
“I’m actually surprised you remember that.”
“I also remember…your bottle of water…with vodka” he continues bringing up one of our meetings.
“Yeah, guess who made me start my day with alcohol! I thought I was gonna get fired that day. Instead, you offered me the Auracle project and my career rocketed just like that.” I smile and turn to thank him, but I see his head dropped to the side and his eyes closed.
“Cole! Cole!” I take his hand in mine and squeeze it hard. He recovers his senses and tries to settle in his seat. Still holding his hand, I navigate the car through my neighborhood. “Nearly there, come on. Don’t leave me, now. Come on keep your eyes open a little longer. Come on, Cole. Come on, babe.” I blab uncontrollably and then realize what I let slip.
I try hard to find something else to say to keep him conscious until I park. And I let the bomb explode.
“Alex is working with Digit,” I state and brace for his reaction.
He blinks a few times and draws his eyebrows together.
“Alex? …with Digit?” he seeks confirmation.
“Yeap.”
“How d…how do you know?”
“I saw them the other night talking about the money they’re taking from you.”
He ponders for a minute and I jump out of the car and help him towards the elevator. The loud roaring of a bike fills the underground space and Eric parks right next to the Beast and runs towards us. He drapes Cole’s arm around his neck and supports his weight as we ride up the cart.
I let them in and they go straight to the bedroom.
“We gotta get his t-shirt off,” I tell Eric as he drops him on the bed.
“Can’t wait to see me naked?” Cole grunts through his pain, not letting the opportunity of a snarky comment go by.
“Get me some towels, water and your first aid kit,” Eric commands in a no-nonsense tone.
I comply and join them again.
“You can go, Lex,” Eric picks up on my reluctance, probably evident by my ferocious nail-biting.
“I’ll be outside, if you need anything let me know,” I shut the door and leave them to it.
I busy myself tidying around the house until my phone rings.
“Sam?”
“Is he OK? What happened?” a frenzied voice cuts straight to the chase.
I take a deep breath and start explaining the events, on the verge of falling to pieces. “There was so much blood, Sam! Blood everywhere!” I murmur trying to keep my voice down.
“Calm down, honey. Are you OK?”
“Yeah, I …it’s just…I don’t know.”
“Do you need me to come over?” she sounds worried about me too.
“No, no, it’s fine. I…it’s just that I was…so damn scared, you know? He seems to have lost lots of blood…”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be fine…” she tries to reassure me. “If it was that serious, I’m sure they’d go to a hospital.”
Eric comes hurriedly out of the room and heads straight to the bar cabinet. He takes a bottle of whiskey and goes back. I follow him hesitantly but stay behind the closed door.
“Are you still there?” Sam asks me through the phone.
“Yeah-”
“AAARGH!” Cole’s piercing scream shocks me.
“Lex?? Was that Cole?” Sam’s voice sounds distant.
“I’ll call you back,” I hang up and get uneasy outside the door.
On Cole’s second scream of pain I reach for the door handle.
“What the fuck is going on in there?” I demand.
“Give us a minute!” Eric shouts preventing me from entering.
“Just tell me what’s happening!” I insist.
I can hear Cole grunting in his effort to hold back his cries. I turn the handle, but the door is locked!
“Eric! Open the door!”
In a flashing second the door swings open and Eric comes out, pushing me away.
“God, woman!” he complains. “We’re done, calm down.”
I try to move past him, but he won’t let me. I catch a glimpse of Cole as he gets off the bed – which is soaked with blood. I freeze motionless and let Eric guide me to the couch.
“You’re quite squeamish, aren’t you?” he places the whiskey bottle on the coffee table and retrieves three glasses and ice.
I wouldn’t call it squeamish…
“It’s not every day I have a stabbed man in my house,” I defend myself. “But I take it it’s not an unusual occurrence for you, huh?” I take a sip from the drink he’s passed me.
“What’cha mean?” he asks after a moment.
“You seem to be quite used to handling situations like that.”
“That’s because he used to play nurse when we were at the orphanage,” Cole says as he makes his way towards us. His naked torso is partly
covered with a bandage.
“Shouldn’t you be lying down?” I reprimand him.
He slumps on the couch next to me and lays back.
“Like this?”
“Not exactly,” I scold him again.
He puts his feet on my lap. “How about now?”
Eric laughs and finishes his drink.
“I’m gonna go,” he informs us as he gets up.
“Yeah, me too,” Cole adds and makes to move.
“Uh, I don’t think so,” I stop him. “Where are you gonna go anyway? Right where they attacked you? Why don’t you just invite them to your place for dinner?”
“I hate to say it, dude, but she’s right, you know,” Eric agrees with me.
Cole takes some time to consider his options looking back and forth between the two of us.
“You know I’m right. He knows I’m right. You’re staying here. At least for a while, until we get this cleared up,” I make my point trying to sound as firm as I can.
“We?” he raises an eyebrow at my comment.
“And if you think you’re going to leave me out of it, think again!” I warn him.
“Ooookay! That’s my cue!” Eric draws our attention. “It’s kinda late and I gotta get back to Sam…If he tries to escape, just give me a call. Or punch him in the ribs.”
I slap his arm playfully as he opens the front door. “Hey, dude, do you want me to get you anything from your place?” he asks Cole.
Before he gets the chance to answer I grab Eric’s sleeve and pull it threateningly. “Are you out of your mind? You’re not going there either!”
“It’s fine,” he starts “I can-”
“Why don’t we call Sam and ask her what she thinks?” I challenge him.
“OK, gotta go. Straight. To. Sam. See you guys tomorrow,” he salutes and disappears.
I join Cole back on the couch.
“You know, I’m gonna need some stuff from my place at some point,” he makes a move to place his arms behind his head.
“Make a list and I’ll go get it tomorrow morning. I gotta get Pearl from the bar, too.”
“Right,” he chuckles at my car’s name. “So, how long are you keeping me here for?”
“As long as it takes. For you to get better, I mean.”
He giggles. “I think you’re probably gonna regret this.”
“Oh, I’m definitely going to regret it!” I joke. He chuckles again and immediately winces placing a hand on his wounds. “Are- are you feeling any better?”
“Yeah, it’s just gonna take some time to heal… aaand, …thank you…”
I meet his eyes for a brief moment and shrug. “I didn’t-”
“And don’t say you didn’t do anything!” he cuts me from saying exactly what I was about to. “You found me, you brought me here, you called Eric…you’re keeping me here,” he adds teasingly.
“Finders, keepers!” I muse.
“What were you doing there anyway?”
“At the bar? I came to talk to you…”
“About what?”
“About…Alex.” At the mention of the name his face dropped, and his expression hardened. I crack my knuckles nervously thinking about how to start.
“You said he’s working with Digit, right?” he talks slowly and with caution.
“Oh, you remember that?” I try to delay the conversation.
“I got stabbed, Tipsy, I didn’t have my memory wiped out by Men in Black.”
I smile at that but make no obvious effort to break the silence.
“So, how’d you come to that conclusion?” he urges me.
“I saw them together…” I reply reluctantly.
“What?!? When? Where?” he sits up with difficulty.
“Maybe you should get some rest and we-”
“Maybe you should start talking,” he states in his not-taking-no-for-an-answer tone.
“I saw them talking outside Digit’s building,” I admit in a low voice.
“How do you know where Digit lives? And why were you there in the first place?”
I take a deep breath and he picks up on my hesitation.
“I won’t get mad, just stick to the truth,” he prompts.
Taking a deep breath, I begin.
“When I realized something was foul with his book-keeping, I tracked down the bank transactions and a lead came up. I visited the address I was provided with and followed up. Well actually, I first ended up in an abandoned warehouse but then he took the money out of the account and that move led me to a new address; his place. The first night I went there nothing happened. I didn’t even know it was his block. But then, on the second night, he showed up and Alex met him outside. It seemed as though Digit wasn’t that happy to see him. I got closer and heard them talking about the money, and a plan they wanted to proceed with.” I leave out the part of them thinking about what to do with me.
I dare to cast a look at him and he seems painfully in deep thought, with his thumb between his eyebrows and his lips in a thin line.
“Did you really think it was wise for you to stalk them? You should’ve come straight to me,” he managed to say between gritted teeth.
“Well, I did come to you. Remember? You wouldn’t listen unless I had proof. So, I went and got some.”
“God damn it, Lex!” he blurts as he buries his head in his hands. He keeps his hands there and then draws them through his hair, exhaling exasperatedly. “Do you have a death-wish or something?”
“Well, first of all, you said you wouldn’t be mad!” I complain, “And secondly, is it only OK for you and your friends to stalk houses?”
“We are well aware of what we are getting ourselves into! You’re not! You could be putting yourself in danger and if I have no clue about it, how the hell am I going to protect you?”
“Well I’m not the one that got stabbed, am I?” we both turn to each other hot tempered.
Keeping silent, I let his words sink in and I’m not sure if I should smile at the realization that he wants to keep me safe or declare that I can take care of myself. It is not the first time he’s said this but now, things have changed. He was right about Alex, after all. Still, seeing him hurt has a greater impact on me than I expected, and I don’t want it to happen again because of me.
“You keep saying that, but what exactly do I need to be protected from?” I challenge him, and I instantly wonder, “Wait- Do you think that there might be a link between the two of them and the people who attacked you?”
Cole turns to me with a sinister expression. “Now, I do…it’s not unlikely…but it wasn’t them who came at me tonight…”
He looks thoughtful and I can’t help but ask for some details. “Did you see their faces? I mean…what…what exactly happened tonight, Cole?”
“You first.”
“What-”
“You tell me what you heard Alex and Digit talking about. Their exact words, Lex. Leave nothing out.”
With great hesitation, I close my eyes and replay the conversation I heard last week. Well stuck in my head, I have no difficulty recalling their words.
“Alex asked him if he took the money from the account and Digit said he did, so they said they’d proceed as planned.” I fidget for a moment and Cole motions for me to continue. “Digit was worried about me looking into it… but Alex said he’ll be the one to deal with it. And he told Digit to keep eyes on us.”
Cole takes a minute to register the information, bringing his clenched fist to his mouth.
“So, they’re ready to make their move…” he murmurs.
“Do you have any idea what they might have in mind?”
He shakes his head.
“What happened tonight?” I ask him again. “Did those men say anything to you? Is there a link between them and Alex?”
“No, they didn’t say anything. They just waited for me to come out and they jumped on me.”
“Two of them or all three?”
“The third one kept his d
istance.”
“Were they hard to fend off?” I dare ask him.
“They ambushed me, I didn’t see it coming. And they had a knife,” he reminds me keeping his eyes to the floor. I get the impression he feels it was his fault they managed to stab him. I resist the desire to caress him and hold my hands together tightly.
“But… Digit was at the bar, right?”
“Yeah, he asked for a meeting.”
“Oh.” I comment in surprise. “What did you talk about?”
“I didn’t say anything about the money he took, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“So, he’s not a…” before I finish my sentence with ‘a suspect’, revelation hits me. “What if he asked you for a meeting, knowing they would attack you, just for him to be off the hook and not to raise any suspicions?”
“Do you mean as an alibi?”
“Yeah! Think about it! If you had any reason to think he was behind the attack, meeting with him would throw you off track, right?”
“Hmm. That actually makes sense.”
“So…what’s our next move?”
“No, no, no, no… I’ll deal with it; you’ll stay out of it. This time,” he emphasizes his disapproval of my involvement.
“I can be helpful!” I protest.
“Oh, I’m sure you can! But you’d be a lot more helpful if you just stayed-”
“Out of it,” I finish his sentence bitterly.
“See? Not that hard to understand, hm?”
“But I-”
“Can’t you, just for once, do as you’re told?!?”
I cross my arms in defeat and slouch back in my seat.
“Fine. Then what’s your next move?” and before he reprimands me I continue. “You can keep me out of the field, but I have the right to know how you’re planning to proceed with this. Unless you don’t trust me enough to share,” I dare him, keeping my eyes on him indicating that I’m not taking no for an answer.
“We do nothing,” he states, and I get ready to argue, but he interrupts me. “Let them think they have the first-move advantage,” he refers to a game of chess as he leans back and settles in the corner of the couch.
A couple of hours later I wake up with a jolt and find Cole sleeping next to me, in what seems to be an uncomfortable position. I get off the couch and, in zombie mode, tidy up a bit and get new sheets for my bed. I return to the living room and turning off the TV, I try to wake him up.