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I felt across the floor until my fingers met with semi-warm flesh—the unconscious guy’s arm. I moved my fingers downward to check his pulse, then upward, searching briefly for injuries as I went until I reached his neck. I prodded upward gently, but it didn’t take long to find the swollen lump at the back of his head, just above the nape of his neck and about the same size as the goose egg-size bump I’d seen on his temple. His pulse was strong and steady, and he was still breathing, but if his brain continued to swell, there was nothing I could do about that here.
I closed my eyes, trying to divert all my body’s resources to listening, hoping for the faintest indication that there was someone—anyone—nearby.
There was no sound, not even the distant hum of traffic.
I opened my mouth and screamed as loud as I could.
“Help!” I cried, over and over again. I had no idea when Crooked-Nose—Diego—and his thugs would return, but I sure as heck didn’t want to be here when they came back.
I screamed more. Louder.
Over and over again until my throat was raw and every scream felt like broken glass shredding its way up.
There had to be someone, somewhere.
But no one came.
No voices. No crunching gravel footsteps. Nothing.
I slumped against the pole. It had been a useless endeavor. If there’d been any hope of finding help nearby, Diego would have had me gagged to keep me quiet. It felt like worms writhing beneath my skin to sit here and wait to die, but I couldn’t think of anything I could do.
I squeezed my eyes shut, and an image of Nico flashed behind my eyelids. Strong, powerful, lethal. He’d know what to do. He’d know how to escape, and even better, he’d know how to make Diego and his lackeys pay for what they’d tried to do.
Sobs clambered up my chest as warm tears trickled down my cheeks. I was never going to see him again. There was no bubble of hope this time. I’d tried to escape twice, and I’d failed.
I felt around for the unconscious guy’s wrist and checked his pulse again. There wasn’t much point. Diego was probably going to kill him too, but still, the almost-nurse inside me wouldn’t just sit idly by. And in truth, it felt less lonely to know there was another beating heart nearby.
This time, though, as I counted out the beats, his arm twitched. Then it twitched again, like a weak effort to pull his arm out of my grasp.
I held on, waiting with bated breath.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” I asked when he made no more movement.Please, wake up.I didn’t really think there was anything more that could be done with the two of us awake, but I shook him anyway. “Hello?”
He pulled his arm free this time and stirred. Then he groaned and seemed to be trying to get his arm beneath him.
“Wait,” I said, then felt around to get a supporting hand beneath his back. I was little help with one hand fettered, but it was something.
He yanked on his hand, seemed to realize it was shackled, and shifted his position to sit up, gripping his head between his free hand and the pole.
“Where?” he rasped after a moment.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know. It’s some old industrial building, but I couldn’t tell you where.” It was all the bearings I could help him get.
I thought he moved his head incrementally in a nod, but it could have been the play of shadows.
“Who are you?” I asked after a moment, hoping my guess that he was friend rather than foe was correct.
“I’m—” He gasped. “Merde!” he cursed, looking this way and that, though I imagined he couldn’t see any better than me. He stopped and his shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry,signorina. I don’t know what happened.” He put his free hand on my arm, but removed it quickly. “SignorCosta wanted to make sure you were protected—it was just a precaution.” He scoffed. “Or, I suppose it wasn’t. I failed you,signorina. I failedSignorCosta.”
He sounded so crestfallen that I felt the urge to say something, anything.
“It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known.”
“I should have—”
“Don’t,” I said, putting my free hand on what I hoped was his knee. “There’s no sense in regrets at this point. We’re still alive. I say we figure out a way to keep it that way.”
I didn’t really think there was a way out of this, but since he’d woken up, it felt like there was maybe a tiny shred of hope. If this man had been watching over me on Nico’s orders, then it was possible Nico knew I’d been taken.
