Protecting What's Mine(74)

“No. Only had it a couple of weeks.”

His answer was short but carried a message. He didn’t appear to trust the medical community any more than he did law enforcement.

“Look, if you’re not here to rough me up and you don’t have any weapons on you, I can take a look at it inside.”

He looked confused. And non-threatening, she decided.

Sunshine seemed to agree. She’d given up her guard dog stance and was rolling on her back on the grass.

Mack held up her hands. “I’m a doctor. That looks painful. I can help.”

“I’m not armed,” he said, still holding his arm. “But I’m not paying no hospital bills.”

“Your fee is to hear me out when I say I’m not dropping the charges. I hold no ill will toward your nephew.” That wasn’t exactly true. She still wished she’d had the chance to knock a tooth out of his mouth herself. “But he did this, and he needs to pay for his mistakes.”

“I disagree.”

“As long as we can agree to disagree, you can help me carry these bags inside, and I’ll take a look at your arm.”

She took two bags and let herself and Sunshine inside. She smirked when she heard the front door open again.

He stood silently in the doorway of the kitchen, holding the rest of her bags.

“You can put them on the counter and have a seat at the table,” she said. She turned on the overhead light and opened her med kit on the table. She unpacked alcohol swabs, gauze, saline, tape, a scalpel, and a syringe onto the table.

“Now hold on there,” he said, water blue eyes going wide at the scalpel and needle.

“Don’t worry,” she told him. “I’m a professional.”

“Never knew a lady doctor before,” he mused.

“What do you do for a living, Mr. Kersh?”

“I work at Shorty’s garage. The other side of town.”

There was pride in his voice.

“Really?” Mack asked. She pulled on gloves before opening an absorbent pad and placing it on the table under his arm.

“Shorty started me with tire rotations, oil changes. Easy stuff. Last week, I dropped a new engine in a Jeep, and I’m certified to do state inspections.”

“I need an oil change like 5,000 miles ago,” she said, gently prodding the swollen tender skin. It was red and hot to the touch.

“You really shouldn’t let it go that long,” Kersh chided her.

“If I bring my truck in, will you promise not to dump sugar in the gas tank?”

“Let’s see how this here boil goes first.”

She chuckled. “That’s fair. Okay. So what I’m going to do is swab the skin down with alcohol. I’ll give you a little shot of numbing stuff. Then I’m going to use the scalpel to make an incision. You won’t feel a thing.”

“I don’t need no sissy drugs.”

“That’s what all the big, manly guys say before they start swearing and crying,” she said cheerfully. She swiped an alcohol pad over the area and uncapped the syringe. “Little pinch.”

He looked away when she inserted the needle and made her think of a little kid trying to be brave. Wincing, he took in a breath through his teeth. Sunshine, sweet, innocent soul that she was, put her head on Kersh’s knee.

He glanced down at her. “That’s a pretty dog,” he said.

Sunshine’s tail thumped happily.

“She sure is,” Mack agreed. “There,” she said, withdrawing the needle and dumping it in a sharps box.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Have you had a fever?” she asked, tearing the packaging off the scalpel.

“Dunno.”

“An abscess is a bacterial infection. I have to open it up and drain it. Then I’ll wrap it up nice and clean and give you some antibiotics that you will promise to take exactly as prescribed. You don’t want to half-ass it and end up losing a chunk of your arm.”

“No, ma’am.”

She got up and ran a dish towel under hot water then placed it over the abscess. “We’ll give it a minute for the numbing to work. Do you want some water?”

“Okay,” he said. “Thank you.”

She filled two glasses, setting one in front of him.

“Alright. Let’s see what we’ve got, Mr. Kersh.”

“It’s Abner,” he said softly.

It was a big ol’ pocket of nasty, and Mack was glad the man had chosen today to threaten her. She drained the pus carefully, then flushed the wound thoroughly with saline. “That’s got to feel ten times better already,” she guessed.

“Seems to,” he said grudgingly.

She gave it another flushing, then coated the wound with antibacterial cream before snugly bandaging it up.

She was just affixing the last piece of tape when a knock on her screen door startled them both.

“Benevolence PD, open up!”

Kersh tensed, and Sunshine made a mad, barking dash for the new arrival.

“Door’s open,” Mack called out. “Don’t worry,” she told her patient quietly.

“Dr. O’Neil?”

“Back in the kitchen.”

The deputy, dark eyebrows knit together in a frown, entered. Her black hair was pulled sleek and tight in a stub of a ponytail. “Dr. O’Neil. I’m Deputy Tahir. I observed a suspicious vehicle in front of your residence.”