“It will be,” I said. “But I need your promise that you won’t do anything this stupid again.”
He nodded. “I promise.”
“My name is Maxine by the way,” I said.
“Phineas,” he forced out.
I sighed. “I’m going to give you something that will help dull the pain, but it will knock you out too.”
He nodded.
“This way, I can help reset these bones without causing you more stress.”
“Do it,” he said.
I nodded and reached into my bag, pulling out a dark vial of liquid. I pulled out the cork and held the rim to his lips. He took a small sip.
“Take all of it,” I said.
He nodded and allowed the rest of the liquid to pour into his mouth. Within minutes, Phineas was asleep.
Several hours later, I emerged from the room, wiping sweat from my brow. I had to give the kid a hefty dose of pain meds designed for shifters. Even though he was sedated for most of the time, the pain seemed to prove too much for the kid and his system.
But once I had all the bones set, and his body bandaged up with more gauze than I knew what to do with, he was well on his way to mending.
“How is he?” Ghalen asked.
I nodded. “He’s resting and he’ll recover soon.”
He sighed. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” I said and gave him my card. “Call me if he needs anything else.”
“You can count on that,” he said.
I smiled and sighed. “I’m going to go home now and get some much-needed rest.”
“Very good,” Quinn said. “I’ll walk you out.”
I nodded and allowed Quinn to walk me down the stairs.
“You did good back there,” he said.
I laughed sarcastically. “No pressure or anything, right?”
“Right,” he said. “So, about the rest… any chance I can talk you into a cup of coffee?”
The detective from the SOTF caught up to us. “Miss, I need a minute of your time.”
I nodded then turned to Quinn. The three hottest shifters I had ever met in my life all wanted a piece of me. It was like I was the newest oddity. And I could tell by the way they all interact with each other there was no love lost between them.
I faced Quinn. “Rain check.”
The detective and I met each other’s gaze. “Ma’am.”
I sighed. “If you don’t mind detective, I’ve had a long night. Come by my store later today. I need to get some sleep.”
He nodded. “You can count on it.”