Page 13 of Keeping Kara

Chaos couldn’t hold back the laugh. “Not happening. Besides, around me, your luck has changed.”

“If that’s true, you might never get rid of me,” she joked.

It took everything within him not to say, “Fine with me.” Baby steps. This woman had been through hell. Something he couldn’t even comprehend yet, but all the same, he knew it was bad. He wasn’t going to do one damn thing that would make her trauma worse.

“Okay, I’m going to take it out. But if you need me to stop, just say so.”

Chaos nodded his agreement, then pressed his lips together. That wasn’t happening.

Even though it was clear Kara had never had to remove a large piece of glass from anyone’s shoulder before, she was as quick as any nurse or doctor would’ve been. And just as gentle. He felt the gush of blood as the piece of glass came out of his back, but he wasn’t too concerned. Hopefully it would clean out some of the dirt and muck from the floodwaters that had gotten into his body.

He moved quickly, easing his flight suit off his torso and removing the shirt he was wearing under it.

“It’s bleeding, Arrow!” Kara exclaimed, sounding alarmed when she saw his back for the first time.

“It’s okay,” he said calmly, as he passed her the shirt. “Use my shirt and put pressure on the wound.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“It’s fine, Kara. There’s hurt, then there’s hurt. Do it.”

Immediately, she pressed a portion of his shirt against his shoulder, and he held back his hiss of pain. They stayed like that for a few minutes, not speaking. Until finally she asked, “How do I know if the bleeding has stopped?”

“Give it another minute or so,” Chaos told her.

“Does it hurt?”

“Yes.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Talk to me. What’s your story, Kara? How did you find yourself in a tree, in the middle of a hurricane, in a flash flood?”

CHAPTER FOUR

Kara felt sick. She was hungry, tired, sore, and scared out of her head that Nolan would suddenly appear behind a tree and drag her off once more. Pulling the large piece of glass out of Arrow’s back wasn’t something she would’ve volunteered for, but she really hadn’t had a choice. He couldn’t have gotten it out himself, and if he said it was better to remove it, then that’s what she had to do.

Thankfully for her peace of mind, he’d sat stoically while she worked, even though she had no doubt it had to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

Strangely enough, even after everything she’d been through, she wasn’t really afraid of Arrow. Yes, she’d backed away on instinct when he’d tried to touch her leg earlier. And there was a moment when she first woke up when she’d thought she was in Nolan’s clutches. But the smell of the mud and rain immediately helped her remember the night before. Her escape from the house, the tree, being in the water and thinking she was going to drown, and then having Arrow show up as if out of nowhere.

The fact that he’d voluntarily jumped into the river to rescue her was mind-blowing. It was a stupid thing to do, but she couldn’t get over how brave and selfless he’d been. The man saved her life, of that she had no doubt. And had been hurt in the process.

She didn’t want to talk about what happened to her. Didn’t want him to look at her differently. With pity. As a victim. But she owed him some explanation. After all, he’d risked his own life to save hers.

“To explain how I ended up in that tree, I need to go back a bit,” she said quietly.

He nodded.

It was easier to talk without him looking at her. Kara kept her gaze locked on her hands, holding the folded short sleeve of his shirt against the wound in his back.

“I met Nolan Colins at a coffee shop across from where I used to work. I’m an accountant, and I’d gone there for lunch one afternoon.”

“I thought you were an author,” Arrow said, interrupting her.

“I am. I mean, I do that in my spare time, which isn’t much from January to April,” she said a little dryly.

“Right, okay, go on.”