Where am I? 

Blinking, I open my eyelids, but they close again immediately. God, I'm tired! What is it? 

"Don't move," a dark voice whispers, making me stop dead in my tracks. Is that Leroy? "Otherwise the stitches can open again." 

The stitches? 

With difficulty, I finally manage to open my eyes and look straight into Leroy's face.

"Where am I?", I croak in a whisper. He understands immediately and hands me a glass of water, from which I drink greedily, yet carefully.

He puts a hand on the back of my head and advises me not to lift my head otherwise, because the effort would immediately shoot into my stomach. And then it all comes back to me. 

God, I've been shot!

"Am I going to die?", I ask straightforwardly as soon as he puts the glass down again and sits down on the bed at my hip. My voice trembles. 

"No, you're not going to die. The bullet is out and the wound is very well taken care of. The doctor said that you're out of the danger of dying now, but I recommend from my own experience that you don't move too much because all of a sudden you can still be in danger of dying again if the stitches open or if the wound becomes infected." Leroy points his finger at a first-aid kit. "That's why I'm going to change your bandages regularly." 

His last words sound like a command in my ears, probably because he already suspects that I don't agree. 

"Yang could do that, too," I whisper, letting my eyes wander shyly. So we're in the bedroom. 

"Yang lacks experience, though." And with that, the subject is seemingly dead in the water for him, as he slowly stands up before walking slowly around with his arms folded in front of his chest. 

"So who were those people?", I ask instead, also leaving the subject alone for now, but I will come back to it. Leroy shakes his head without looking at me. 

"A gang full of little brats," he replies, gritting his teeth as he walks to the window. "Who had more in their pants than I thought. They're little boys who wanted to get into my territory and I didn't allow them because some of them were too young for me and they really should still think hard about whether they want to put their lives in the hands of the Mafia until they've breathed their last. And the others were untrained and grinned too much for me. But I never thought that they would have such big balls and dare to attack me in my house. Well, those balls have been chopped off by now." 

His brow furrows deeply and when he gives me a look I recognize the guilt in it, but he averts his gaze just as quickly, so I'm not at all sure.

God, maybe I'm not seeing, right? As if Leroy would ever feel guilty! 

"What did you do to them?", I whisper, unsettled by my thoughts.

"Nothing to worry your head about. You'd better get some sleep," he interjects and slowly approaches me again. "But before that, I need to know if you've been hit anywhere else. I remember you limping back once and only getting shot the second time. What happened the first time?" 

"I don't know," I confess, frowning in confusion. But then a light comes on in me. Leroy seems to have realized from the expression on my face that I do remember now because he squints his eyes.

Oh God, I can't tell him that! I had felt something, and it was between my breasts, where I'm sure I won't let him look! 

"You know now though." 

"I think I do," I confess quietly and immediately want to smack the back of my head. Why did I tell him that now! "But I don't remember exactly where," I hurry to say, by which time Leroy is already standing next to me, gingerly pulling the blanket away. 

"Yang might look at it," I chirp, but he just shakes his head. 

"No, I can't risk her missing something. Now hold still," he orders, almost scanning my body before looking me in the eye again. I still have my shirt on, but my stomach has been exposed, wrapped in a white bandage with my shirt rolled up. 

"But it wasn't on your stomach too, was it?" he asks, biting his lower lip. I shake my head and feel like rubbing my arms when a cold draft brushes me and I shiver. 

"I'll be quick," he says when he notices and suddenly starts patting down my legs. 

"I still think that Yang...-," I begin, but at that moment his fingers accidentally brush my middle as he feels my inner thighs and my next words catch in my throat. 

"Oh God," I say as his hands are on my ass. Leroy rolls his eyes, either because he can't find anything or because of my reaction. 

"Where did you feel the pressure?" he asks, touching my stomach gently. My body acknowledges his touch with goosebumps. 

"I want you to stop now," I say instead, looking him firmly in the eyes. 

"It could be a tracking device or a bug, Katrina! Now pull yourself together, I'm not trying to turn you on, I'm trying to find that thing." With these words he leans down to me, his eyebrows drawn together in annoyance, and takes a closer look at my neck. As he does so, he is so close to me that I can not only smell his scent but also feel his breath on my skin. 

I hold my breath as his gaze falls between my breasts. He squints his eyes and takes my T-shirt between his index and middle fingers as if he wants to take a closer look at something, and then I see it too. The little hole in my top. 

"I want...-," I begin, but by then I hear the hissing sound as Leroy simply rips my top. 

"For Yang to come," I continue to speak in my mind, looking down at my shirt with my jaw hanging open. I quickly raise my arms and cover my upper body, whereupon Leroy firmly grabs my wrists. 

"Don't move so fast or you'll tear your stitches!"

"Hands off," I shout indignantly as he slowly pushes my arms down on the bed next to my head. "Oh God, you're so embarrassing," I complain as he extensively examines my half-naked torso and feel the blush shoot into my cheeks.

I understand that he only means good, but still, Yang could have looked! Just as he lowers his head so far that his nose almost touches my bra, a noise makes us flinch. I contort my face because this time I did feel a slight burning sensation on my stomach. 

Someone is knocking.

My eyes widen and Leroy seems to listen one more time as he keeps a close eye on the door before rising jerkily and throwing the blanket on me. 

Not a second later Danny walks in. 

Oh God, that was so close! 

"Papá? Is everything okay? Why did I have to come early after all? It was so much fun with Paul!", Danny pouts, whereupon Leroy sighs and goes up to him and gets on his knees in front of him so that he is at eye level with his son. 

"I just missed you. I'm sorry, that was selfish of me. You can go back soon, I promise. Besides, I remembered that I swore to play football with you. So, get the ball and wait for me outside," Leroy says and kisses him on the head, whereupon Danny starts to grin broadly before running out again, but not without waving at me, which immediately makes me beam.

Leroy sighs as soon as Danny is gone and turns to me. My fingers clench into the blanket instinctively. 

"You looked. There's nothing there," I say quietly, trying not to sound too desperate, but Leroy merely tilts his head briefly and lets his neck crack before he's back on me in just three steps.

Then he leans down to me again so that I am forced to press myself into the pillows, but he still leaves the blanket on my body. 

"But I saw something, and I really don't want to embarrass you, but I need to check again." His jaw is tense and his story features so hard, like stone, that I can't shake the feeling it would bother him to treat me with such care when he's more used to being rough.

Speechless, I can only stare at him. Okay, then just look, I think to myself, but nothing passes my lips and Leroy waits for no more permission.

He reaches for the blanket and exposes my upper body so that I am once again only in my turquoise bra under him. I grit my teeth and look towards the ceiling when I feel his hand on my stomach and his fingers gently slide under my bra.

But he doesn't head for my breasts, he stays between them, careful not to touch them either, or so it seems to me. He strokes the spot several times and scratches it lightly with his finger until I also feel that there is something there.

When Leroy withdraws his hand, I look at him again. He is staring at something small and round that he is holding between his fingers.

Judging by his expression, he doesn't seem to know what it is himself, but then his forehead smooths out. Now he will know. 

"What is this?", I ask quietly. 

"This little thing here is a murder weapon. Some kind of electric spider. In the next few hours these legs would have -" he says, pointing. "Drilled into your skin. It would have caved in, and since they were aiming for your heart, you'd probably only have two or three hours left now." Leroy stares unblinkingly at the thing and suddenly destroys it by simply crushing it as if it were nothing. 

My eyes widen as I realize what he's getting at. 

"And then?", I ask in a panic. Leroy looks at me.

"Then you'd be dead." 

"But why do they want to kill me? And who wants to kill me?", I echo in panic, to which Leroy just shakes his head. 

"I have no idea," he counters and runs to the window. I don't believe him. He may have no idea, but he has an idea of who it could be, oh yes, he does, the look on his face gave him away. I grit my teeth and close my eyes angrily. Of course, he keeps this information to himself. 

"Would you please give me a new top?" My voice sounds oddly firm and admittedly angry, which doesn't escape Leroy, who first gives me a dismissive look before he gets moving and returns with a light blue knitted jumper.

He helps me to sit up carefully, again feeling the pain quite clearly before he puts the jumper on me. What the hell, I think to myself. At least let him make himself useful then if he's going to get me into this trouble where I have to fear for my life. 

"You should get some more sleep. We'll leave in the morning," he says as soon as I'm lying down again and hands me some painkillers. 

"Where are we going?" 

"We're going to visit my uncle for a little while." 

"But I don't know if I..." Meaningfully, I look down at my body. How does he expect us to go visit someone when I've just been shot? 

"You're not going there to work, chica, you'll still be able to recover. We're going there until things calm down a bit around here. Yang has fainted from fright and she should take some leave first to regain her composure, which she won't do if we stay here. Besides, I have some things to do there, so it fits." 

With these words, he dims the night light and leaves the bedroom.

☼ ❅