18
ZOEY
“And what are you doing now?” I ask the doctor. He turns his head slowly and gives me an annoyed expression. I can’t help it. He showed up here with his gray hair sticking every which way, reminding me of Dr. Brown fromBack to the Future. He opens his mouth to start saying something, but Leone cuts him off before he can.
“Watch it, Doc,” Leone growls at him.
“I was only going to say maybe I should give her something to calm her down.”
“I love her just the way she is,” Leone responds. I’d stick my tongue out at Doc, but heissaving my man.
“Ahh, you’re always so sweet.” I lean down and give Leone a kiss.
“Sweet?” Doc mutters under his breath. “Maybe she needs a CT scan. Did she hit her head?”
“Can we finish this?” Leone growls again. The doc gets to it.
“This part is going to hurt. You sure you don’t want something stronger?”
“No.” Leone shakes his head.
“Maybe a little something?” I try to encourage, not wanting to see Leone in all this pain. He’s in this mess because of Xanny and me. I hate that he got hurt because of us. I’m still finding it hard to believe that this is about whatever money was in Marvin’s safe that is owed to Nick Davinci.
Sure, the money is owed, but I think Leone could and would easily cover it. To my Leone, this is about a man wanting me dead. And while Xanny might also think Nick is hard up for the money, I don’t think he’ll be coming for her head. Sophia already texted me about hanging out again sometime soon. She even asked if there was any luck on finding my sister yet.
She’d been so sweet about all of it when I told her. She actually understood a bit the position I was in. Once upon a time, she too had a sibling that could get himself into trouble, and more often than not it was because he wanted to protect her, so she got it. It was nice to hear from her that things all worked out for the best and her husband and brother are now close. I don’t think Xanny and Leone are going to be BFFs, but I do think that maybe they could get along eventually. After all, they both have one giant thing in common: me.
Leone shakes his head again, refusing any sort of anesthesia, so I go about distracting him the best I can.
“You did it,” I say as I see Doc picks up some long metal forceps-looking thing. That’s my guess of what it is.
“Did what?” Leone asks. I put my hand on his cheeks and turn his face toward me, dropping another kiss on him. I want all his attention.
“You got Xanny back. Time for you to collect.”
A slow, sexy smile slides across his lips. I see Doc start to slip the forceps thing into Leone’s wound. “What is it you’ll be collecting? I mean you already collected one thing, but you said that wasn’t it. I really want to know what it is.”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?”
I tap my finger to my lip, trying to figure out what it is that Leone could want from me that he hasn’t already gotten. Then it hits me. Heat blooms through my cheeks.
“I, ah—” I start getting flustered. “You’re so big, and I’m so small. I mean, you even call me your little one.” A confused expression crosses Leone’s face. I guess he thinks it would fit. “I’ll try. I know you wouldn’t hurt me, so if you think it will work, then okay.”
“I’m not sure what you’re thinking, little one, but I don’t think it’s what I’m after.”
“Anal,” Doc says.
“Watch your—FUCK!” Leone bellows as Doc pulls out the slug that was lodged in him.
“Meow!” Out of nowhere, Bentley lands right on top of Leone’s stomach. His teeth show as he hisses at the doctor. Doc stumbles back and slips right off the side of the bed. The forceps go flying into the air along with the slug. They end up hitting the floor while the crushed bit of bullet drops onto the bed.
“He’s protecting you.” My eyes fill with tears. “He thinks Doc is trying to hurt you.” Bentley steps off Leone and walks to the end of the bed, where he proceeds to growl and hiss at Doc who’s still down on the floor.
“Can someone get the damn cat out of here?” Doc grumbles, but he doesn’t make a move to return to the bed. Bentley goes to jump down towards the doc–I’m sure to finish this fight–but I grab him.
“You’re so sweet,” I tell Bentley as I give him kisses and cuddle him close. “You’ve always been my protector, and now you’re Leone’s too.”
“Starting to see she has a different definition of the word ‘sweet’ than the rest of the world.” Doc comes to his feet.