an old lady.”
The card was in neat script. Welcome to Keller’s. Nice to finally meet Bishop’s woman. Figured these would come in handy after the long separation.
“I guess word really does travel fast around here,” she murmured as she turned the card over in her hands.
“You have no idea.”
She grabbed a comfy looking sweatshirt and a pair of black leggings—simple clothes but they were expensive. And from a designer she remembered from the pre-Chaos days. How Keller had access to all this...
Well, she supposed the rumors about his connections were all true.
Several moments later, when she was still riffling through the clothes, there was a knock on the door. Bishop called for whoever it was to come in, and she turned in time to see a tall man in scrubs enter. Behind him was a woman pushing a cart of covered trays.
“Luna, this is Doc Morrison. And this is Rocio—when she doesn’t see me at the diner, she brings me food.”
“He needs to eat more,” Rocio told her, her accent thick but her words clear. “You too. I brought extra.”
“I think she just came to get a look at you,” Bishop told Luna with a wink and Rocio gave him a playful slap on the arm. Then she turned to Luna.
“You need anything else, mama, you call me, okay? Bishop’s got the intercom number.” She pointed to a box on the wall that looked like an alarm system as she spoke. That wasn’t anything Defiance had, and she wondered how Keller had hooked that up. Where he’d gotten the equipment.
Before Luna could do more than just thank her, Rocio was gone. She turned back to see Bishop stripped out of his clothes, down to just his boxer briefs as Doc Morrison checked him over, much in the same way the first doctor had post fight.
“How’re the ribs?” Doc Morrison asked and Bishop shrugged, which could mean anything from, “fine” to “hurts like hell.” Doc Morrison obviously spoke Bishop, shook his head and handed him a bottle of pills. “Take these for the inflammation. Two tonight, two in the morning. That should be enough to get you through the worst of it. You need to rest, hear me?”
Was he in serious pain? She noticed the dark bruising coming through now—it was hidden under his arm, up toward his armpit and it snaked around his back, the pattern a dark and ugly touch against his otherwise golden skin. “Is he okay?”
“We’re just watching his ribs. They were a bit bruised after the last fight,” Doc Morrison explained. “He doesn’t like to take much pain medicine.”
“She doesn’t like seeing me fight,” Bishop said.
“I’m sure my wife wouldn’t like it either.”
“I’ll rest, Doc,” Bishop said.
“And eat,” Doc Morrison added, before turning to her. “Do you need anything? Allergy pills? Birth control?”
Her stomach flipped a little, but his manner was so straightforward and nonjudgmental that she managed, “I’m okay for now.”
“Anything you need, just call. I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said, left with a wave and a quiet close of the door behind him. Bishop went over and locked it, sat down still in just his boxer briefs and began to eat.
“Come on,” he told her, pointing to the food. He uncovered the trays and she joined him at the small table in the far corner of the room by the kitchenette area.
“I get the feeling that you’re...”
“A kept man?” he asked, without a trace of irony. “Guess there are worse things.”
“They treat you like the golden egg.”
“Did you not see me kick ass at the fight, babe?” He took a bite of the crisp bacon. “Every punch is money. I’m making Keller a fucking fortune.”
And keeping him off Defiance’s back took more than those fights , she thought, but didn’t say it out loud. Just because Bishop shouldered the burden didn’t mean he wanted it discussed like he was some kind of saint. He was far from it, and that made him even more attractive.
“You liked watching me fight,” he added.
“I like
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