Page 5 of Wrangled
“Your ribs hurt? But you landed on your back,” Austin points out. I look away without replying.
Once the doctor has finished checking the back of my head, he tells me to lie back down again. “You have a goose egg on the back of your head and a small cut that will need gluing. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot, making things seem worse than they actually are. Everything else looks good. No concussion, far as I can tell, but you know what to look out for. Let me grab the glue.”
He moves away as Austin follows him with his eyes. When he turns back to me, he moves to the edge of the bed. Before I can react, he reaches up and pops open the top button of my dress. My mouth drops open in surprise, stealing my ability to object. He has the following three buttons open before I can think to protest.
“Mr. Dyer, what do you think you’re doing?” the doctor hisses when he walks back over.
“Your job, apparently. You could see she was injured elsewhere. You just didn’t care. I’d like to know why.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I whisper, drawing the edges of my dress together to hide the bruises he just exposed.
“Yes, it fucking does.”
“No. It doesn’t. If you make a fuss, the next time I need treatment, I’ll get turned away at the door. Please don’t make trouble for me.”
Austin grits his teeth before looking at the doctor whose face has paled. “Is she correct?”
“I do what I can, Austin, which honestly is more than most.”
“Right.”
The doctor sighs as Austin moves back. He cleans the area around my eye, applies the glue, and then pinches the skin together.
“Done.” He looks me over, a glint of remorse in his eyes. “I can give you some pain meds.”
“No, thank you. They make me drowsy, and I need my wits about me.”
I hear Austin grinding his teeth together, but I don’t look at him. I sit up gingerly as the doctor goes through how to look after my wound and what to look out for regarding concussions. It’s unnecessary. We’ve both been here before, and I’m sure we’ll be right back here before the month is out.
“Thanks, doc,” I tell him as I ease myself off the bed.
“Take care of yourself, Calliope.”
Sure. I’ll get right on that.
Austin gets the door and holds it open for me to pass. Austin heads back into the room, so I leave him to it, heading out into the waiting room.
Trisha eyes me with distaste. I offer her a broad smile, not caring when my lip splits once more. It adds to the look I’m going for, which is homicidal, at least today. I see the fear in her eyes, and it warms my little black heart.
“Try not to fall down again, Calliope. I know how clumsy you can be.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure if I do trip, it will be right on your boyfriend’s dick. Oh, wait, that’s right, you don’t have a boyfriend, do you? He traded up to Clarissa. Good for him.”
“Bitch.”
I curtsey, ignoring the pain. “Thank you.” I turn and walk out with my head held high, even though it throbs like a motherfucker and my eyeball feels like it’s hanging out of its socket.
Closing the door behind me, I breathe in the fresh air and take a moment to center myself. I had planned to wander around town so people could see my bruises and cuts. I wanted them to look me in the eye while they pretended they didn’t know one of their own was beating me. Making them feel like shit is one of my only guilty pleasures. But right now, I don’t think I have it in me. I look toward the diner before turning in the other direction toward the library. Decisions, decisions.
I hear the door open behind me, but I ignore it and decide the library will be the lesser of two evils. I might not have the focus to read right now, but perhaps I can find a hiding spot in the stacks and take a nap.
“Let me give you a ride.”
I jump at the sound of Austin’ voice, not realizing he was standing right behind me.
“That’s okay.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist.” He takes me by the elbow and leads me over to his shiny Range Rover.
