Page 98 of Total Obsession

"What about your side?" I asked. I touched the bruising area gingerly, and he hissed in pain. Looking at him now, I was amazed that he'd been able to perform like he had for the past few hours.

"No helping it. Broken ribs," he replied.

"Well," I said. "Just wait here. I can at least go and get ice."

"Be careful," he said. "Anyone approaches you, yell."

"I'll be fine," I said. "The ice machine is right next door."

"Wait," he said, tugging at my wrist. My eyes flashed a bit of anger at him, but his grip against my hand was gentle. "Your fingers," he said. "They need to be treated."

He reached for his undershirt nearby and ripped a piece of cloth from it. His movements were slow, and he winced in pain as he worked, but he carefully wrapped my cut fingers with his shirt, tying the material tight but not too tight.

"Take one of those,” he said, pointing to the same pocket in his jacket where I'd gotten the pill he'd taken.

I fished another pill out of his pocket gingerly, looking at it before finally deciding to take it. I looked back at him, but his eyes were closed and his breathing was labored.

I threw my clothes back on and walked out of the room with the ice bucket tucked under my arm, leaving the door cracked open just slightly. It was past midnight and the entire place felt dead.

I had so many questions for Axe, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to get any of them answered tonight. It was obvious that he needed sleep and was in terrible amounts of pain.

By the time I'd gotten back to the room just minutes later, he was already passed out on the floor. I fixed a makeshift icepack to his side and sat back on the bed. Throughout the recent times I'd known him, he'd always seemed so put together and in control.

Despite the circumstances, it was nice to see that he was still human.

He still bled when he was cut, just like the rest of us.

* * *

When I awoke in the morning, Axe was looking much improved. His shirt was off and he'd wrapped his ribcage up in some sort of bandage that he then also placed up and over his shoulder a few times.

I hated to admit that even after everything we'd been through, he still looked good without a shirt on. His muscles rippled in the low light of morning. It was obvious, too, that Axe was a lot stronger than he may have looked with a three-piece suit on, because even with a busted shoulder and broken ribs, he'd still managed to lift me into a car.

There were a few prepackaged snacks waiting on the table, along with some coffee. I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I started looking around to see what time it was.

"If you're looking for your phone, that's unfortunately long gone," Axe said.

I frowned at him.

"Why?"

"Because we could very easily have been traced with it."

"Again," I said, swinging my legs to the side of the bed and stifling a yawn. "I'm not the one that they want. I don't see why I should have to lose my phone over the whole thing."

"I know you have a lot of questions," Axe said, and I snorted. That was the understatement of the century. "But, at least come and eat something."

"Is it poisoned?"

He gave me a look of utter exasperation. "No. It wouldn't be logical for me to go to the trouble of finding you in the city and bringing you here for safekeeping just to poison you in the end, now would it?"

I scrunched my face up at him but didn't say anything. I just made my way over to the coffee and took a sip. Tasted normal enough, so I kept drinking.

"Are you really going to answer my questions?" I asked. "Truthfully?" I added.

"Yes," he said, sitting back in his chair. "I owe you that much."

"More," I said.