Davis’ eyes were coal black and unrelenting. Ari tried her hardest to meet them. She stood and sat next to him on the hospital bed. “I thought I’d been hit. I could barely breathe it hurt so bad.” She laid a hand on her chest. “But the bullet hit you. Not me.” With Davis watching every movement she unbuttoned the top three buttons of her shirt, spreading the fabric wide.
Every time she’d been with Davis, he’d been composed. Cocky at the club, confident in bed. Even at the shooting the other night, he never wavered. Staring down the barrel of the gun. But what he saw on Ari’s chest made him flinch. She didn’t know if it was pain or anger. She started to cover herself back up but he stopped her, reaching out to grab her wrist.
“I woke up with this bruise,” Ari said. The pit of her stomach fluttered under his touch.
Davis held his hand to her chest, balled in a fist but hovering over the purple mark. Wincing from the pain in his shoulder, he leaned over and laid his palm flat on her chest. She knew what he was doing. She knew the bruise was a match.
“I’m sorry,” he said, lifting his hand gently, removing the warmth.
“Why?” Ari asked. “You saved me.”
“I hurt you.”
“You saved me.”
“You wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for me inviting you. I’m the one that kicked Antonio out of the program and made him feel belittled, like he needed to save face. You wouldn’t have a concussion and that nasty bruise if I’d been more careful.” His tone was hard and angry.
Ari shook her head and laughed. “Do you really think you control everything?”
“I try,” he replied in all seriousness.
“That’s kind of stupid. Not to mention a little narcissistic.” That earned her a smile and to her surprise, his cheeks reddened in embarrassment. Before she could say anything else, she heard a knock at the door and Ari slid off the bed, hastily re-buttoning her shirt. When Peter entered the room Ari had her bag and was ready to leave.
“You don’t have to leave just because I’m back,” he said. He handed Davis a brown paper bag.
“I need to go. Oliver’s waiting on me, plus visiting hours are almost over,” she said, walking over to the door.
“Thanks for coming to see me,” Davis said. “Take care of that concussion, okay?”
“Okay,” Ari said. Peter’s phone rang and he went into the bathroom to answer it. Ari used the chance to mouth the words, “Thank you,” to Davis before she slipped out of the room.
Chapter 13
“What happened to your face, Ms. Grant?” Shawn asked when Ari walked by the activity room. The whole day had been like that. One question after the other about her injuries.
“Took a bad spill,” she replied and entered the room, where several groups of kids waited for their programming to start. The soda machine was in the room and she was in dire need of some caffeine.
“Ooooh, Ms. Grant, that looks terrible,” one girl said.
Another piped up, “I’d never come out of the house looking like that. You need to put some cream on that.”
Ari smiled at the young teenager sitting at a table with a group of girls. “Thanks, Devon. I’ll make sure I do that.”
“Did somebody hit you?” a girl named Shanna asked. Ari pushed her coins into the change slot and selected her drink. The machine hummed and the can landed with a thunk.
“Nope,” she replied. “No one hit me. Unfortunately, this is what happened when someone tried to help me.”
Ari walked through the room and she heard Shanna tell Devon, “I heard Ms. Grant was downtown and there was a big fight. Someone got shot.”
“Who told you that?” Devon asked.
“My cousin. He was there. Said Antonio was high and shot some guy he had a beef with.”
Ari paused next to the girl’s table. “Shanna, your cousin was there?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said. Then she narrowed her eyes. “You got that when Antonio shot that man?”
“Yes. I got this when Mr. Davis knocked me out of the way.”
“Is he the man that got shot?”
“Yes.”
“Antonio hates him. Says he’s the devil or a witch or something.”
“The devil?” Ari thought back to Davis saying Antonio was paranoid and delusional. She wondered if his drug use was a method of coping with mental illness. “Why would he say that?”
“He said that whole place is bad. That it’s a cult or something.”
“How is it like a cult?” she asked, but to be honest, she already had an idea of what he meant.
“They can’t leave that place and they have all these meetings teaching them how to behave and if they do anything wrong, they get punished.”
“That sounds like the group home I was in that time. It wasn’t a cult, though. I just hated it,” Devon said.
“It’s a very intense program,” Ari said. “I can see how it wouldn’t be the right fit for everyone.”
“I’m just saying.” Shanna looked at Devon and they both shrugged.
Rebecca walked into the room and said, “You have a phone call. I think it’s important.”
“I’ll take it in my office,” Ari said. She gave the two girls a stern look. “You two need to find something better to do than gossip.”