Andrew’s POV

There was so much blood. The dark shirt Jem wore was covered in it as he tried his best to shield it behind his hand.

He spoke to Patrick in his usual soft and calm voice but the white knuckle grip he had on his stomach distracted me from the words he was saying. My heart hammered in my chest as my hand moved on its own. 

My hand barely brushed his before he flinched away, a harsh glare fixed on his face as he stared up at me and for once they didn’t soften once he realized who had touched him.

“You’re bleeding,” I sighed as gripped his hand a bit harder but he didn’t allow me to move it. “Let me help.”

“I’ll be fine, I won’t be here long,” he sighed, his other hand never dropping the gun from where it was aimed at the door, tension was firm in his shoulders; he was a man to be feared but he was too pale, too much blood had already been lost.

“Yea you’re right, keep bleeding at this rate and you’ll be in hell in a few minutes,” Patrick scoffed, uncrossing his arms for the first time before taking the hand with the gun and carefully took it from Jem’s weak grip. Jem’s arm shook as he let it fall to his lap with the smallest nod of his head.

In seconds his shirt was on the ground and blood poured from the deep cut on his stomach.

“What the fuck happened,” Patrick asked, his hands immediately going to stop the bleeding Jem had given up on while I took out the first aid kit from under the sink. 

“I got stabbed. There was a meeting with a druggy, he got jumpy, pulled a knife, I didn’t get out of the way fast enough.”

“Is it safe to assume Dev has wrung his neck already,” I asked as I tried to keep my hands from shaking as I pulled out the gauze and put it over the deep wound.

“He wasn’t there, as to why we are hiding in a windowless bathroom.”

“Jem King bought down by a junky, that’s funny,” Patrick teased, a proud smirk on his face but the second Jem began hissing in pain that smirk quickly faded. 

Patrick can say he hates Jem all he wants but I don’t believe him. 

“What are you doing talking to addicts without Dev? Did you have any back up at all?”

“If things had gone according to plan I wouldn’t have needed Dev.”

“What’d you do, threaten him, jack up your prices, refuse him?”

“I’m not stupid,” Jem scoffed as he attempted to push our hands away but his strength was failing and his push became nothing more than a nudge. “And I’m not a drug runner, my time is a little more valuable than what he could have afforded to pay me. He was working as a representative for a cartel, they’re trying to get a new drug passed around but everyone is pretty skeptical about it. I was just about to tell him to shove it when a few cops showed up. He thought I was trying to set him up, stabbed me, punched the cop, and ran away.”

“So you decided to come to the sheriff’s house? Because that’s the safest place for you to hide. I could arrest you right now and save everyone else the time.”

“I decided to go where I was needed. After your little speech on the news the other day that cartel is going to be after you anyway, especially now that they think you tried to ruin our deal. Besides, we both know you won’t arrest me, we’ve been over this enough times for you to know that.”

Patrick only rolled his eyes. 

“Like you could do much protecting right now,” I mumbled as the bleeding finally began to stop. Blood clung to all of our skin as Patrick and I started cleaning Jem’s stomach and dressing the wound.

“I didn’t come to protect; if it came down to it Patrick could protect just fine on his own. I came to warn.” The room seemed to drop several degrees as Jem’s face turned from tired and caring to serious and deadly despite the fatigue set in his shoulders.

“If it’s got you this scared it must be pretty serious,” Patrick noted as he stood up and turned to the sink to wash the blood of his hands.

“This new drug they got is dangerous and it’s going to kill a lot of people. I don’t want it on my streets and you shouldn’t want it on yours.”

“What does it do?”

“It’s not unlike Heroin, you shoot it up the same way and it gives you the same high but it’s more addictive and it doesn’t take much for you to start hallucinating. They’re trying to sell it as a pain reliever and an easy high but from what I hear people are over dosing after a few doses, the hallucinations are violent episodes, dealers are already afraid to sell it because they don’t want their own men trying the product and being stuck on that shit.”

“What are they calling it?”

“Kerp.”

“Kerp? That’s a stupid name.”

“What do you want from me? It’s not like I named it.”

“If they’re so afraid to sell it why are you worried about it,” I asked even though I know I should stay out of it.

“Because all the cartel cares about is money. The cartel will sell it until enough people get hooked on it and start asking their usual dealers to sell it, after the leaders see how much money they could make off of it, loosing a few runners won’t matter anymore. They’ll hire new people every day if it means more money coming in.”

“Well who’s selling it,” Patrick asked with a sigh. “I can get a warrant and have this settled in the morning.”

“How the hell am I supposed to know that,” Jem scoffed as he slowly stood up from the toilet, his legs seeming to shake as he tiredly tucked his gun into the small of his back. “I just heard about it a week ago, I went out of town to try and learn about it and what do I get? A jump junky, a stab wound, and an ungrateful cop. What a fucking waste of time.”

“It takes a whole week to get that little information?”

“Let’s just say people like them don’t like sharing to people they don’t know. Especially one that has alleged history with a cop.”

A sigh left him as he reached for the door handle before stepping outside. Defeat seemed clear on his face as he moved to the front door with his eyes focusing on nothing but the ground. 

“So you just leave now, like you didn’t just show up out of nowhere, pick our lock, and bleed all over the damn place!” My fists clenched at my side but Jem didn’t seem to notice or care.

“I didn’t know I was so welcomed here,” he scoffed, his voice full of sarcasm. “Maybe I’ll stop by sometime next week, we’ll have dinner for old time sake.”

“You know that’s not what he meant,” Patrick said with a frown. “We don’t see or head from you for months and you pretend like nothing happened? You don’t get to come back like that.”

“Who said I was back? I’m here because I don’t want those drugs near my runners. That’s the only reason I’m here. I gave you a start, I’m sure you can do the rest on your own. But while I’m here, let’s do favors for favors, I gave you a lead, you keep your cops away from 23rd street, they’ve been getting too damn nosey over there and they’re going to end up getting hurt.”

“How do you expect to get back home,” I asked harshly just as Jem’s hand landed on the door handle. “You’re weak Jem, you’ll be asleep before you hit the interstate and how’s that going to look? Jem King dead, not because of gang violence but because he fell asleep driving. What a lovely headline.”

“I’ll be fine,” he scoffed as Patrick gave me a death glare. 

“If he wants to get himself killed then let him.”

“At least call Dev, let him pick you up, you can wait here until he comes.”

“I’m going home, Andrew. I’m not here for pity, I’m not here for love, I was trying to help and now I’m done. I won’t bother you again. Just let me be.”

“Fine. Then I’ll drive you.”

“Andrew,” Patrick hissed but I didn’t pay him any attention as I scooped up my car keys from the table and walked to the door. Jem glared down at me as my hand covered his on the handle. 

“Stay out of it,” Jem warned. 

“I will,” I promised as I stared up at him. Dark bags circled his eyes, the new scar on his check was red against his pale skin, his shirt hung too loose on his body, and every hair on his head was covered in black dye, not the slightest of color to be seen in the sea of black. All of the progress he had made was gone. “I’ll stay out of it. Just let me take you home. Please.”

The fight drained from his eyes slowly as a sigh fell from his lips. 

“Fine. But the second I get out of the car, you go home and we forget this happened. Fair?”

“Thank you.”