An Echo in the Mafia (Echo Reid, Reid Family Book #1)

Part 9

"That was more than 15 minutes."

Echo turned to find that Luke was pointing the gun at her as she entered the pool house. She nodded and moved to set the things she was holding down on the table, aware the gun was pointed at her the entire time.

"I thought you might be hungry." She said, taking off her rain coat and hanging it on the rack. Luke stared at the food, the gun still pointed at her.

"That was thoughtful." He said, voice cold. 

"You can put the gun down, I'm not going anywhere." She said with a frown. "You made the situation perfectly clear."

Luke stared at her for a moment as she turned to him, holding out a piece of fruit. He looked at it for a second, his brow raised before putting the gun down. 

"I'm assuming you didn't poison it?" He said, taking the fruit from her nonetheless.

"Of course not." She said, "I don't know about you but I'm no murderer."

Luke chuckled, clever girl. He watched her now, as she set out more food, including a sandwich and what looked like a bowl of soup. She was right, he was starving. Then, he saw what he was waiting for, a small pill bottle.

"What is it?" He asked..

"The only thing we had- some left over Vicodine." She said, handing him a bottle of water with the pills. He stared. "Oh come on, I already told you I'm not a murderer."

He almost laughed at the exasperation in her voice. That was knew- she was annoyed with him, something that people rarely showed him. He took the pills quickly and turned to her.

"Come on, I'll get you cleaned up." She said, moving towards him. "I might have to cut through it."

She inspected the jacket and watched him wince as she tried to move it over the shoulder. 

"That's fine." He said, "I've got plenty more."

He watched her as she moved, her fingers quite nimble as they maneuvered the buttons of his shirt, her hands very gentle as she pulled it off of him. She looked different in dry clothes. Every one of the curves he'd seen earlier were now hidden between what he would have guess were a boy's clothes, and yes, he'd seen every curve earlier. She didn't look as frightened as before, definitely not pathetic either- there was something extremely formidable about her... about her eyes as they glanced over him. Why did she hide under those clothes? They were all wrong for her...Still, she smelled nice. He guessed it was her shampoo and as she took to the task of cleaning him up, her hands were softer than he'd remembered or expected them to be.

"Mother fucker." He said as she wiped the wound on his arm.

"Hold still or it will be worse." She said, biting her lip in concentration as she moved. She was doing all she could to try to focus. This man might be the scariest and most dangerous person she had ever met, but he was also the best looking one and it was hard to ignore.

"Here, put your arm up here." She said as she lifted it onto her shoulder so she could bandage it. Luke winced. He noticed how she struggled to reach around him, after all, she was a small woman. She stood between his legs, her face close to his as she worked, but she never turned to look at him and this frustrated him.  Could it be that she couldn't stand to look at his scars?

He stood then, raising his arm best he could and noticing the way her eyes momentarily flickered. He absolutely towered over her.

"You're going to need stitches." She said, shaking her head as she turned back to the bandages and finished up. She stepped away, appreciating the work before moving towards the bag she'd brought with her. "Here."