Suck it up l

Outside the Bistro, the stench of lead and blood drilled into her nostrils, yet Elma would not open her eyes as Riccardo had instructed. Or maybe it was because she was scared of him punishing her by letting her down on her own if she dared disobey.

Riccardo's arms were too comfortable for her to miss.

At the time, the most her mind could think of was saving up every muscle activity her boss was making as he held her firm for so long, walking so briskly, presumably to his car.

Elma stayed put, willing herself to fall asleep already so she wouldn't have to deal with the pain of him letting her off suddenly. Since she was enjoying his hold so much, she knew that that would hurt and so she squinched her eyes firmly shut.

In a little over twenty minutes, Elma felt his arms slowly unfolding from beneath her. Before she knew what was happening, her feet had dropped onto the road.

Did he have to walk so fast to get to his car? Elma sulked in her mind.

"In whatever you do, Miss Gray, try not to look over my shoulders. Do you hear me?" Riccardo told her.

Of course, she could hear him, but maybe it was a little late for his pep talk. The warning would have come in handy had he told her before putting her down.

She already saw everything. She could still see everything — the whole of it. Did a massacre happen out here? Elma found her knees starting to yield so she'd slide easily to the ground.

"Oh, god! Not this much blood!" She blurted almost immediately and started on her way down. She could scream right now or wail so much, but her eyes had suddenly lost all function for tears.

She just stayed gasping. But for Riccardo's grip, she could have fallen lightweight on the floor.

Why did he have to keep her from falling? "god! I think I'm going to puke!"

"Wait, you're looking?" Of course, she was doing just that. Riccardo could tell she wouldn't have the heart for it, so why had she disobeyed?

He did his best to trap her between his arm and face now that he saw her look so affected. His other hand gripping her waistline, he began to think that anyone could easily misinterpret.

"Now that you chose to see things for yourself, I don't care how hurt you feel from what you saw. Get in the car!" Riccardo said with a snap and loosened his hold over her.

"But I— I can't," Elma stuttered. "The Police, there's … there's people, and… and blood."

"Get in the car now, Miss Gray. We need to fucking leave this place."

"But," Elma said, trying to resist his attempt of chugging her into the passenger seat and shutting the door. "But are the Police gonna come?"

"Stop resisting already and get the fuck in," Riccardo said with a scratch to his voice as he managed to get her in. Shutting the door to her side, Riccardo got in the seat beside the driver's and ordered Reece to take them away. "Get a move on, now!"

...

The chopper landed in Kansas City no sooner than Elma had to clutch at the pit of her belly the hardest right then. She had wanted to puke so bad, either from the gore from before or from having to fly at all.

"I— I can't hold it," Elma mentioned as the noise of the rotors whipping into the air died down.

Riccardo rolled his head to her. "What do you mean you can't hold it? What can't you hold?"

"I think," Elma struggled with herself, her face frowning, "I want to puke so bad!" She emphasized her last word by burping too loud. It was a scare Riccardo hadn't seen coming. He sighed when he saw she was only testing him.

"Look," he said. "I understand your need to do this, but you have the whole tarmac available to throw up in. We are about to hop out of here. Can't you suck it up for a minute?"

Suck it up? Elma thought as she winced through the pain of having to keep back her contents. "Please," she managed to say and flew a hand up to her mouth. In a heartbeat, it became both hands.

"What? It's coming out already?" Riccardo's eyes turned round from seeing hers burst wide open, also poking the veins out of there. Was she doing too much to hold back herself?

"Here!" Riccardo said as he tossed her a pair of his shoes. "Though it cost quite a lot to get that, you can use it." He waited casually expecting her to use it. When no sound came from her, he turned away from the outside view only to find her hands gripping her throat at that point to keep up with wanting to vomit. "I told you to use my shoe, dammit!"

'I can't,' Elma thought mentally while shaking her head a lot.

"Well, what do you mean you can't?" Riccardo held a stern look on his face. "Use the fucking shoe, alright, and let me worry about how much it cost me to get it."

Though he said that, Elma was pretty determined not to damage his shoe.