When they finally got there, I tried to keep Sal from seeing my face. But it didn’t work.
“What—?” He lifted up my hair. Then he spun around and slammed his fist into a wooden pillar.
We all heard the familiar whir of a security cam changing direction, to focus on the disturbance he’d made.
“Control yourself,” Wei whispered to him. “We don’t need any cops showing up.”
“I’ll kill him,” he muttered between clenched teeth.
“Sal… don’t.” I laid a hand on his arm. “I’m okay.”
“Okay?” he practically shouted, pointing at my face. “That is not okay!” He looked at Wei. “Do something.” Then back at me. “Does it hurt?”
“Of course it hurts, pigeon brain,” Wei said, exasperated. “Come on.” She took my arm. “Let’s get out of view of that thing and get you cleaned up. Don’t do anything stupid,” she said to Sal. “Wait right here. Derek—watch him.”
“I’ll kill him,” Sal repeated under his breath. “When I find him, I’ll kill him.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Wei said. “We need to talk to my parents. They’ll know what to do, and who to go to in order to get it done.”
Derek, who’d been standing there staring at me the whole time, finally spoke. “We’ll go outside. Sal needs to cool off. And, Nina… red is not your color.”
I thought about smiling, but even the thought hurt.
Wei dragged me off to the bathroom. Nothing could’ve prepared me for my reflection. I hardly recognized the girl staring back at me. My lips were swollen, way beyond collagen-pumped, and bloody. My entire left cheek was as big as an orange and bright red to boot. I had to touch it to make sure it was really me.
Wei dabbed at the blood from around my lips.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry.” She continued cleaning my face with wet tissues. “I’m trying to be careful.”
A couple of white-haired ladies entered and peered at us suspiciously. I wondered if they were security—you could never tell.
“My friend slipped and fell on the steps outside,” Wei said. “Looks awful, doesn’t it?”
They obviously weren’t security or we would’ve been questioned on the spot. Wei’s explanation brought out the grandmother in both of them. One dug around in her purse and offered up a couple of Band-Aids. The other handed me a bottle of OTC pain meds.
“Keep them, dearie.” She gently patted my hand. “I have plenty more at home. Government issue, don’t you know.” She winked at me.
We thanked them and they left. But not before making dire predictions about how much worse I would look and feel in the morning.
Wei doctored up my lip with the Band-Aids and I swallowed a couple of the pills.
She stood back, surveying her handiwork. “That looks a little better. I can’t do anything for the bruising, though. That’s going to take a major makeup job or some of Mom’s concoctions.”
“Great story about me falling on the slick steps. I think Gran will buy it, too. I can be a real klutz sometimes. I can’t tell her what really happened. I don’t want her worrying about me every time I leave the house.”
“No, I’ll be the one doing that now.” Wei’s hands were firmly set on her hips.
“Oh… you want me to check in with you before I go anywhere?” I mimicked holding my PAV receiver. “Wei, this is Nina, I’m leaving for school. Wei, this is Nina, I’m going to the store for Gran. Wei, this is Nina, I’m going to the bathroom. Oh, wait—that’s not outside, is it?”
We both started laughing, which wasn’t too bright on my part. “Ouch, ouch!” I grabbed at my face, tears trickling down my cheeks. “I really can’t laugh.”
We finished up and went outside where the guys were waiting.
“Nina, are you all right? I will make sure he regrets he ever laid a hand on you…” Sal said. I knew he would, if he had the chance. I even fantasized for a second that he, or someone, would “take care” of Ed.
“So much for a day at the zoo,” Wei said.
“I need to get home.” The pain pills hadn’t kicked in yet, and I was exhausted, plus I was feeling nauseous again. “Ed wanted the book. The accident looked bad, but if he was able to get to the apartment…” Images of Ed terrorizing Gran and Pops came to me and my stomach churned. I ran back to the restroom, making it just in time before throwing up. I fought the vision of Pops trying to defend Gran and Dee against Ed. Pops wouldn’t stand a chance.
Wei’d followed me in. “Come on, Nina. We’ll get you home. Ed’s trannie slid into a transit, right?”
I nodded.
“Even if Ed wasn’t hurt, he’d be tied up with CTA investigators for hours.”
We went back outside to where the guys were.
“I’ve got practice with Riley. We’ve got another show coming up at Soma. I think we were a hit the other night,” Derek said. “If you need me, though, I’ll call him. We can do it later.”
“I’ll be fine.” It was getting painful to talk. “But don’t say ‘hit’ again.” I tried to smile, but that hurt, too.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Derek said. “Wei and I can take you home. You need protection.”
“You guys go on.” Sal put his arm around my shoulder. “I’ll make sure Nina gets there safely.” I could get used to this kind of attention from him, but not under these circumstances.
When we got back to the apartment, instead of taking me right upstairs, Sal pulled me into the emergency stairwell.
“You’ve got to be careful, Nina. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you.” He wrapped me in his arms.
“Stop.” I pulled back. When I saw his confusion, I quickly added, “You were crushing my face, it hurts.”
He moved my hair aside and barely brushed his lips across my cheek. “I would never hurt you.” He traced a finger lightly around the reddening on my face. “He will pay for this. I should have been there to protect you. I shouldn’t have let you be alone.”
“Sal, I wasn’t alone, I was with Wei. It was my fault.” I ran my hands up and around his neck, pulling him closer to me. “You can’t exactly move in. And I’ll be fine. I won’t be that careless again.”
“I’ll pick you up in the morning. It’s not that far out of my way.” That wasn’t true—but I knew he would be there. And that he would be there every day until he was sure I was safe. I kissed him—I didn’t care that it hurt. He took the elport up with me, not leaving until I was inside the apartment.
Gran didn’t believe my slipped-on-the-snow story. She removed the Band-Aids, washed the cuts with hydrogen peroxide, which really stung, and put a spray-on protectant over them.
“That should help.” She leaned on the bathroom doorjamb. “You want to tell me what really happened?”
“I was careless,” I said. “But I’m okay.”
She pointed to my wounds. “I wouldn’t call that okay.”
“Gran, I’m almost sixteen. I have to be able to take care of myself. And I’m learning.” One more lie wouldn’t hurt. “Wei’s teaching me some of her martial arts moves. This won’t happen again.”
Cold packs helped with the swelling, but it was impossible to sleep on the side of my face where Ed had hit me. Banged-up face or not, I tossed around, replaying the day’s events. Ed knew my FeLS contract was missing, so I was right, he had been behind the break-in. Even if he wasn’t the Chooser at my school, he still had the authority to have me chosen. And the minute I left, he’d take Dee. The book was at the center of all of this. I couldn’t keep it safe any longer. And that meant finding my father, as soon as possible.
Despite the pain, I felt sleep overtaking me. Before I drifted off, I thought that even if Ed had my contract, the FeLS agency had to have a record that Ginnie’d bought out my contract. Gran would call them in the morning. That would be one less thing for me to worry about.