Page 148 of Sins of Innocence

And I have to take her home to check on our girls.

Double fuck.

Chapter thirty

Five Women and a First Aid Kit

ÁINE

The apartment door barely closes behind us before Joy sees the blood.

"You're hurt!" She points at Kieran's arm, voice pitching. Then she runs across the living room and throws herself at him.

He drops to a squat that fast and takes her full on against his chest. "It's just a little blood, sunshine. Nothing to worry about."

Yeah, that's not going to have the calming effect he thinks it will.

"You're bleeding?" Sadie demands from the hall.

"It's just a graze." Kieran sets Joy aside gently and stands. "I'll wash up in the bathroom."

Neeve tosses the book she's reading on the sofa and jumps up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Mom?" Her voice waivers.

"Sadie, get the first aid kit from under the bathroom sink." I grab Kieran's hand and pull toward the couch. "You, sit down. Neeve, I need the peroxide from the medicine cabinet."

"Joy, go ask your gran to make Kieran a cup of tea."

The girls scatter and I tug Kieran down. "Come on, big guy, time to take your medicine."

"What medicine?" he asks, sounding bemused. But he sits.

"The 'you're part of a family now and there's no washing the blood away in the bathroom and pretending like nothing happened' medicine." I sit down on the coffee table facing him.

For some reason, I haven't let go of his hand. "Taking care of yourself sets a good example for the girls. Do you want them thinking they just have to suck it up if they get hurt?"

He goes stiff, repugnancy at the suggestion radiating off of him. "No way in hell."

"The best way to teach them it's okay to rely on family when you're hurting is to let us take care of you."

"But it doesn't hurt."

"Compared to what? A broken leg? Kieran, you were shot," I whisper yell that last bit so the girls and mom don't hear. "Don't try to tell me it doesn't hurt."

"We don't deny our feelings in this family." Sadie arrives with the first-aid kit, her tone a pretty good imitation of mine.

It makes Kieran smile.

Which helps Sadie's shoulders to come down from around her ears. Neeve too. My middle daughter silently offers me the peroxide and cotton balls.

I take them and set them beside me on the coffee table. Sadie opens the first-aid kit and places it next to the peroxide.

I tug on the hem of his t-shirt. "Come on, let's get this off."

"You don't need to take it off to clean the graze," Kieran balks.

"Don't be a baby. You're not going to run around in a shirt splattered with blood, are you?"

When I see from his expression, that is exactly what he planned to do, I shake my head and tug the shirt up his torso.