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Michael shakes his head at us. "I told you this isn't an overnight care place. I can plaster his wrist and set you up wherever you want him. I'll check back in the morning."
"What are we going to do with him?" My head whips between the three men.
"He needs to be kept warm, and the drip is hydrating him with electrolytes. Physically, he'll be fine in a day, as long as we can keep him still and calm. After three days without food, everything is shutting down, so we take this slow and steady."
I have so many questions. Maybe the myriad of bruises isn't so bad for him after all. Three days of cold and starvation doesn't seem such a relief now.
The translator enters the room, and the subject gets annoyingly changed.
Chapter eleven
Nico
Myeyesflickeropen,and I'm hit with bright light.
I'm so confused. There has been nothing but darkness for days now.
There should be rain. Pouring water or something… The men kept coming in, using the bathroom, and hitting me each time as if it was a standard part of using the facilities. Only their sounds and the pain got through the darkness. Each time I heard the sound of running water, I knew what was coming next.
But now, even with my eyes closed, there isn't darkness. The light seeping through my eyelids is red.
There is blood…
Or maybe…
There is no blood.
Instead, there are voices.
One is male and speaking in one language, the other is female, talking another.
I don't know what either of them are saying.
My eyes open, glancing down at my hands. Where there was red there is now white.
The red was blood.
Gavriil's blood.
"Gavriil?"
He was trying to protect me when three men entered his house. They were yelling at him to hand over the kid. They meant me. They wanted me. Gavriil told me to run upstairs, as the men were blocking the door. His bedroom window opens onto the sloped roof above the kitchen, and I got out. The men were right behind me, I had nowhere to go, and then I heard the gun fire. I couldn't leave him.
Being tied up in the shower gave me plenty of time to reflect on that.
I could have tried running away, but with the men chasing me, I doubt I would have changed the outcome. Even volunteering to go with them instead of running wouldn't have saved Gavriil.
I try opening my eyes again, and the white is broken up by dark shapes. I am not alone. The wait in the shower is over, now it is time to find out what they wanted from me.
My limbs are heavy, but they do move when I try. The tight bindings around me are gone and I'm lying down.
I peer out from under my eyelids and blink until the face of Knox Thayer clears.
Knox Thayer. The second head of the cartel. Second head? Deputy head? It's something like that. Or hair. Something to do with his head.
I look at the man next to Knox, but I've no idea who he is, so my eyes continue to wander.
Caeo is opposite Knox, a strange woman by his side. Caeo is a slightly more reassuring sight, because Caeo is just an important man rather than the hair man, face man, head man. Rather than something more important that whatever Caeo does.
