Page 4 of Kissed By the Trillest Thug 2

Her voice snapped instantly from calm to alarm as she pulled the door wider. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t question why I was there or what had happened first. She just saw the state I was in and reacted like she’d done this a hundred times before.

Well, working in the emergency department trauma unit, I was sure that she had. I honestly was just blessed that she was even home. When I used to live there, she used to always pick up extra shifts after work.

“Hey,” I said weakly.

Her eyes dropped straight to my arm, and that was it.

“Get in here,” she said sharply, already reaching for me.

I tried to step forward normally, but my body didn’t cooperate the way I needed it to. The second I crossed the threshold, my balance gave just enough for her to catch me before I fully leaned into the fall.

“I got you,” she said, steadying me with a firmness that didn’t match how fast she was moving, “don’t you fall on me right here.”

She was smaller than me, so I knew that she needed me to try and help her as much as I could. The apartment shifted around me as she guided me inside, her hand firm at my back while her attention stayed locked on my arm. Her voice stayed controlled, but I could hear the urgency underneath it now that she had fully taken in what she was dealing with.

“What happened to you?” she asked, already pulling me toward the kitchen like she was thinking ahead of everything.

I didn’t answer right away. My mouth felt dry, and even forming words took effort I didn’t have. Before I could say anything, Ms. Gia was already moving.

“Sit down,” she ordered while pointing to a chair at the table without slowing her pace.

I lowered myself into it. I made sure to be careful, but I was barely steady. My arm was still pressed close to my body like I could hold it together through pressure alone. Ms. Gia was already across the kitchen, opening cabinets and grabbing supplies. Her movements were sharp and automatic. It wasn’t panic, it was experience. She knew what the hell she was doing. She was built for shit like that. More than anything, she had the demeanor to deal with shit like this. The kind that didn’t waste time on shock.

“You been shot,” she said flatly.

Her statement was more of an observation than a question, but I nodded once anyway to answer. That was all she needed.

“Of course you’ve been shot,” she muttered under her breath while shaking her head as she pulled things down from the kitchen closet. “You can’t just come over to say hello like a normal person.”

Despite everything, I let out a weak breath that almost passed for a laugh. She looked back at me immediately.

“Don’t you start laughing,” she warned while pointing a finger, “I don’t want to hear nothing out of you except breathing.”

All the items she needed were placed on the kitchen table. She grabbed my arm carefully, and the second she got a real look, her jaw tightened.

“Alright,” she said, more to herself now. “We’re going to fix this.”

Her voice shifted again. She was fully locked into nurse mode now. Although she was focused and precise, moving without emotion, I could feel that beneath it all she was concerned. She was a mother first, and I could feel the anger in her as well.

She reached for supplies and glanced at me again.

“You still with me?” she asked.

I nodded slightly, though everything in me felt like it was starting to slip out of focus.

“Good,” she said firmly. “Stay right there.”

She turned back toward the counter. She was already taking control of the situation like she wasn’t about to let me go anywhere. And for the first time since I left that shop, I let myself stop fighting it. I closed my eyes, and everything went dark.

GIA

The moment I saw him leaning too far back in that chair, I knew he was slipping.

“Hey… don’t you close your eyes on me,” I said quickly, stepping in before his head could drop any further.

But it was already happening. Tahari’s eyelashes fell, and his body went heavy like the fight to stay awake had finally run out. I didn’t think, I just reached out and slapped him across the face. Not hard enough to hurt him, just enough to pull him back.

“Tahari, wake up.”