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“Listen to me closely, Dino,” he growls. “If you ever want your daughter back…”
“Fuck off, Max,” my dad laughs. He actually laughs. “Nice try, prick.”
Max looks stunned. “Dino, I’m talking about yourdaughterhere.”
“And I’m not negotiating with a punk like you,” my dad retorts. “And you can bet I’m not paying you a fuckin’ dime.”
The phone clicks off. I stare at it, realizing my dad just hung up on my kidnapper in the middle of negotiations to set me free. Max stares too. He takes a measured breath and sighs. His eyes drag up to mine, and he frowns.
“I- sorry,” he sounds almost repentant. “That didn’t exactly go as planned.”
“Yeah,” I answer quietly.
His frown deepens. “Your father’s a real prick, you know.”
I smile thinly. “Yep. I do.” I look away and then back at Max. “Is he really pimping girls?”
He nods.
“Women or girls?”
Max’s mouth tightens. I want to throw up. I look back at him again, but this time, he looks pale. He sways as he reaches for his phone and slips it into his pocket. He takes another step and staggers. Pain winces on his face, and I frown.
“Um, are you okay?”
“Fine,” he grunts. He steps towards me and stumbles again. This time, he almost falls over before he catches himself on the edge of the sofa.
I stare at him with concern. “Are you sure you’re…”
“Fine…” He slurs. “I’m…”
He suddenly collapses on the floor in a heap. I gasp and rush over to him. I know he’s my kidnapper, but I’m also a doctor. Well, I will be a doctor. But the impulse to help and heal is too strong to ignore. Bad guy or not, he’s in really rough shape.
I look at his tattered and dirty shirt. The blood stain is bigger than it was before. I pull the shirt up over his abs, and I gasp at the bleeding wound. This is bad, and if he doesn’t get patched up soon, he’s definitely not going to last much longer.
I chew on my lip and look at the door. I know freedom is on the other side of it. But then I look back at the man sprawled unconscious on the floor.
“Goddamnit,” I mutter to myself. I run to the bathroom and start tearing through the cabinet under the sink for medical supplies.
7
Max
The first thingI feel is pain. It’s dull and aching, but it’s there. I blink and see darkness. But then I blink again, and my vision swims back to me. Consciousness seeps over me like melting snow. I groan, and I sit up.
“Fuck!” I hiss. Pain rips through me, taking my breath away.
“Hey, hang on. Relax.” Hands touch me, and I jump. On instinct, I grab the wrist with one hand and reach for my gun with the other. But my belt is empty, and the wrist I grab is delicate and smooth. I blink away the cobwebs and look up. In disbelief, I realize it’s Tessa’s gorgeous blue eyes staring back at me.
“Stop moving, you’ll tear out the stitches,” she mutters. She pushes me back. I could fight her, but I don’t. I let her push me back across the bed I’m lying in. I glance around. I’m still in my loft hideout, in the bed I keep in the larger open area. But the staggering thing is, she’s still here, too. I look back into her eyes, and she even smiles a little.
“Relax,” she says quietly.
“What the fuck happened?”
“You fainted like a little girl seeing a mouse.” She grins at my confusion. “I’m not sure if you knew this, but there was a bullet lodged under your lower ribs?”
“You don’t say,” I grunt. I glance down and see a clean white square of bandage taped to my side.
