Together We Fall

Chapter 52 | Same Bruises, Different Pains

"Hold still," Luke said.

"Easy for you to say when you're not—fuck!" I hissed in pain and tightened my grip on his hair.

We were sitting on a Chesterfield sofa with my one leg on Luke's lap and my hand grasping his hair as he was wiping the scrape with disinfectant. Damn, it really stung my knee and I couldn't help but clenching Luke's hair as I was tolerating the pain he added.

"You think it doesn't hurt for me when you keep on gripping my hair like that?" He lifted one of his eyebrows.

I curled my lips, releasing his hair, "Are we done here?"

"Yep, there you go," Luke covered the last scrape he treated with a sterile bandage and taped it then he placed an ice pack on my bruised part of my thigh. "Hope that'll help."

"Thanks," I mumbled, staring at all the bruises on his body, his jaw and the cut on his lip. He just beamed at me, planting a kiss on my cheek before he moved his attention toward the television ahead of us, watching Mr and Mrs Smith.

As I glanced down at the ice pack he'd set on my thigh then looked back at him, the curiosity began to kick in. It gave me the desire to know what exactly happened last night after I was thrown into the backseat of Ned's car.

He startled once I set the ice pack on his jaw, "What are you—"

"You're not Wolverine. You need to treat these bruises," I slapped his hand when he tried to remove it.

"You should have it on your thigh," Luke argued. "These are just minor injuries."

"Minor? You look like you just got hit by a baseball bat," I shook my head. "Did you get into a fight?"

"With Ned."

I furrowed my brows, commencing the interrogation, "And how did that happen?"

"I was heading to a store then I saw him getting into his car, looking very suspicious. So, I followed him until he pulled over at the back of a hotel and found that..." he paused, averting his eyes from me and clenching his jaws.

"Found what?" I frowned.

"He..." Luke seemed reluctant to tell me what he was holding on his tongue that he wasn't able to utter which was slowly killing me mentally. He held my hand that held the ice bag on his jaw. "He...almost pushed you off the rooftop."

No utterance of a single word from me, no emotions were drawn in my face to express how I exactly felt about it, knowing that I nearly died if it wasn't for Luke. And Ned...wow. Pushing me off a building while I was drunk? I'd never thought he'd step up his revenge game and was bold enough to murder me with his own hands instead of using someone to do it like he did years ago.

And if Luke wasn't there to kick Ned's ass, I would be dead by now. Everyone would assume I'd committed suicide or got heavily drunk since Ned was the last person with and he was an undeniably good liar. He could go on, making up a story how I died and everyone would fall easily for everything he said.

And if I died, what would happen to Max? What would Ben do? What would everyone think of me? What would they say? What would happen to everyone if I were dead? What would happen to...Luke?

Luke caressed my hand as he gazed at me, "I'm so glad that I made it in time."

I stared at him in his eyes and I'd been silent for nearly eight minutes now. Sudden tears welling up in my eyes as the thought of death and the aftereffect of it flooding my brain with my expression remained flat for the whole time. I became vulnerable all of a sudden and I didn't like that kind of feeling.