Immediately, Mordichai went to his brother and gripped his shoulder. “You okay?”
“I’m good. Not so sure about Rubin.”
“Introduce us to your lady,” Trap said. “She kicked ass for you.”
Amaryllis thought that was a good thing. Trap might accept her into the circle after hearing and watching on the phone while she tried her best to heal Malichai’s leg. She was more interested in Rubin’s assessment of Malichai’s injury but before she could say so, she realized they were deliberately giving him time to recover.
“Amaryllis, these are my brothers, Ezekiel, Mordichai, Trap and Rubin.” Malichai indicated each one. “This is my woman, Amaryllis.” Malichai took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
She tried not to pull her hand away, but the gesture had embarrassed her a little. The darkness helped, although she knew they could see every bit as well as she could.
“Nice job you did,” Rubin said. “Especially for a first time and given the mess his bone had to have been. Just seeing it again after you worked on it, I realized how close we came to losing him. You saved his life whether you know it or not.”
“What is going on with his leg?” Ezekiel asked.
“I’m not certain what is causing the continual damage, but if I had to take a guess, I’d say it had something to do with the second-generation Zenith. The damage originates around the wounds where Malichai slapped on the field dressings. Of course, they were the worst wounds.”
Rubin ran his fingers through his hair. “I need to sleep. All of you do. Malichai. You and Amaryllis need sleep, as much as possible. I want you treating that leg with care. You walk, and slowly, not jog or run. You swim as often as possible. In the water you’re exercising it but it isn’t weight bearing. I’ll check it daily to make certain you aren’t overdoing it. Stay off it when you can. No more standing around. When you sit, put the leg up.”
“Roger that,” Malichai said.
“We have to get out of here before anyone sees us in this room,” Ezekiel said.
Just like that, they were gone. Like ghosts. Amaryllis slid down and Malichai curled around her. She had a hundred questions, but her eyes were already closing, and she fell asleep before she could ask any of them.8Malichai flashed what he hoped was a charming smile at the older woman working behind the counter at the magic shop. “I’m actually looking for a good friend of mine. She owns the shop. Miss Crystal? I’m only in town for a few days and we had an appointment to meet, but she didn’t show.”
A flash of annoyance crossed the older woman’s face. “She isn’t here.”
Your charm clearly isn’t working. Mordichai’s amused voice slipped into his head.
Malichai gave the mental equivalent of flipping his brother off. He leaned on the counter and gave the woman another smile. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Tess.” She gave it abruptly. “Why?”
“Just being polite,” Malichai said and gave her another smile, this one not so charming. “Where is Miss Crystal? She’s never broken an appointment with me yet.”
“I have no idea. She asked me to cover for her and I’m doing it. If you’re not going to buy anything, you might move along.” She had a slight southern accent, but she certainly didn’t have southern manners.
Malichai’s eyebrow shot up. “I doubt Miss Crystal is aware of how rude you are to her friends and customers. If I didn’t have to go swimming this morning as part of my physical therapy, I’d be going to the cops to ask them to do a well check. You’d have to come up with answers then.” He turned and stormed out, making certain to limp heavily, before she could respond.
As part of your physical therapy? Mordichai sounded very amused. You might have overplayed that one, bro.
I wanted her to know I was injured, and it’s true.
Limping like a three-legged dog wasn’t enough?
Malichai couldn’t help the small grin as he made his way down the steps of the magic shop and limped through the alley, ignoring the other stores.
She’s watching you, Mordichai reported. A man joined her. Getting photographs now. Will run them through facial recognition. Now they’ve been joined by a third man. You’ve gained quite an audience. Don’t overdo your performance.
I think I’ve done this before, and my acting has always been praised for outstanding realism.
Mordichai groaned. I knew that one stupid article that was planted in the college paper was going to come back to bite me in the ass. You didn’t actually act in that play, Malichai. It was a setup.
So you say and you’ve always been jealous of my ability to impress the audiences with my skills. Malichai rounded the corner and almost ran directly into Amaryllis. She’d been sound asleep when he’d left that morning.