by Rae B. Lake
“Fine, you can stay here with her. I’ll get her some medicine, but if she gets any worse, she’s going to need to go to the hospital.”
He nodded and picked her back up, walking her over to the tarp and laying her down. “I’ll take care of her. I always do.” He whispered more to her than to me.
Great, this was just what I fucking needed.
Chapter 8- Ink Pov
Ink POV
I heard the door close shut upstairs, and I finally was able to let out a fucking breath. I woke up and almost shit my pants when Lou’s voice echoed in the room. I knew we were caught. There was nowhere for me to go, we could get out of the door we came in, but they’d catch me. There was no way they wouldn’t.
I was expecting her to scream when she saw me. I was nothing more than grateful and confused when she didn’t. No one did anything for free; she wanted something. She saw us she should have squealed. The woman surprised me yet again when she walked back downstairs, armed and looking for me by herself. I had no idea what she was planning to do, but I couldn’t let her get close to Angel with a loaded weapon. I’d been expecting none of the events of today.
Angel getting sick was the worst of all the surprises today. I couldn’t take her to the hospital. Those motherfuckers were already looking for us so, I already knew they’d go to the hospital and the police station. Ruby wasn’t just going to let me go. I had a life sentence to pay for the death of her brother. A murder committed by a club, I had no love for.
“Angel, can you hear me, baby?” I wiped her warm head again, trying to move her hair out of her face.
“Hmm?” She replied before a chorus of body clenching coughs came out of her mouth. They all sounded wet, and when she inhaled in only seem to start the fit again. She curled up tighter and began to shiver. I wrapped the tarp around her and did what I could to get her some heat. It was the swim.
“She needs some clothes.” The woman had come back down the stairs and was standing quietly behind me.
“Does it look like I have a spare set of clothes for her right now? I will get them when I can.” I turned around and continued to tend to Angel. I watched out the corner of my eye as the woman started moving some boxes around. She pulled out one of them and starting yanking some clothes out.
She grabbed a few things and shoved them at me, “Here. Now put the damn clothes on her. The poor thing probably has pneumonia. She isn’t going to get better naked.” She stood over me and waited for me to put the clothes on her. Her pierced eyebrow raised in impatience.
“You want to turn around or something?” I asked as I pulled the covers back and began to undress Angel.
“The fuck? You want to turn around or something? I’m the woman here.”
I had been taking care of Angel for so long that it didn’t even fucking dawn on me that someone might think it weird I would change her clothes. “Fine here. Just hurry the hell up.” I shoved the clothes back into the woman’s hands and turned my back so she could help Angel undress and put some warm clothes on.
After a few seconds, I turned back around to see her fully clothed. A massive zip-up sweater, thick wool socks, and thick pants drowned her small frame, but she looked like she was warm.
I let my gaze fall back to the woman who was still sitting next to her. Her eyes were furious when she looked back up to me.
“What the fuck happen to her back?” She asked pointedly.
I glanced at Angel, who had already fallen back to sleep, “We can’t get caught. We can’t go back, or that will be the least of her problems.”
She stood up and looked me deep in the eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at me. Not as a slave, or a fighter but at me. I would do anything to save Angel from ever having to go back to Ruby, but I was running out of options.
“I won’t have no illegal shit going on in my place. If you are telling me the truth and those guys really are trying to take you back to some fucked up shit, I will help you. But if I find out you stole her or any fucked up shit like that, I will sound every fucking alarm you’ve ever heard and let them take you out of here.”
I nodded. A place to lie low. It wasn’t perfect, but we’d been through worse. “We will be out of your way as soon as she is well enough to move around.”
The woman sucked her teeth, “Fat chance that’ll be anytime soon. She needs a lot of recuperation. From the looks of things, so do you.” She looked down at my wrists.
“I’m fine.”
“You want to get an infection and be lying sick right next to her? How are you gonna protect her then?” She asked.
“You’re right. I’ll try and find something for me to wrap up my wrists.”
She turned around and grabbed a small white box from one of the shelves, “How the hell are you going to do that? In case you haven’t noticed, you can’t really leave right now.” She sat down on one of the boxes in the room and pointed to another. “Get that and come over here.”
I used my leg to push the box over to where she was and sat down in front of her. She opened the box, and a sharp metal tool was the first thing I saw. I jumped up immediately. Flashes of Ruby or Harrington cutting me, stabbing to me, jumped to the forefront of my mind. I’d be damn if I let this woman do that to me too.
“Hey, hey…” She put her hands up to show me she wasn’t a threat. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“What the fuck is that? You working with them. What is in the fucking box.” My hand was already hovering over the gun in my waist.
“What is what? It’s a first aid kit.” The woman swallowed hard as she bent slowly and opened the top of the box. The metal object still there. “This? Is this what you are freaking out about?” She lifted the object.
I relaxed a little bit, what looked so menacing a few moments prior was just a fucking pair of tweezers.
“I think they use them for stitches or something, tweezers.” She dropped the offending object back in the box.
I let my head fall before I sat back on the box in front of her. “I don’t do well with sharp objects.”
“Ha, the lies.” The major freakout I just had seconds earlier completely forgotten, “Have you seen your skin, I am pretty sure all those tattoos aren’t stick ons.” She smiled and picked up my arm to look at my wrists. I sucked in a breath at the small contact.
When was the last time someone other than Angel touched me in a caring way? Years. It had been years.
“This looks pretty bad. I’m going to need to clean it out, and it’s going to hurt a lot.” She squinted up at me.
“It’s okay,” I replied as she pulled out a few bottles of liquid from the box and carefully poured it on the first wound.
She looked up to my face after the first pour, “That doesn’t hurt?”
Now I had to chuckle. She knew nothing of pain. What she was doing felt like a feather against my skin. “No. Do what you have to do. I’m fine.” I looked away as she dabbed and cleaned the cuts on both wrists. The cuts themselves weren’t that bad; they were already layered over the scars other binds had left. She wrapped them up and made sure to clean up the area.
“Inkpop. I heard her call you that. Is that your name?” She asked as she threw one of the used pieces of gauze in the trash.
“No, just a nickname. My name is Ink, and she came up with the Pop part on her own.” The woman looked at me expectantly; she wanted to know why. “I was skinny before all this, and she made fun of me one day, said my head was too big for my body. She said I looked like a lollipop.” I shrugged my shoulders, a little miffed I’d told her the story. “Inkpop.”
The woman put a hand to her mouth and tried to hide her laughter.
“Go ahead, get it out.” I waved my hand in a circular motion so she could get it out.
She laughed, her blue eyes squinting as her face broke out in a full smile. She took a few breaths before she ran her hand through her short hair, ruffling the locks before she put a hand out toward me.
; “Well, Ink, I’m Jazmine David, I guess we’re going to be stuck together for a little while. “
I grabbed it and shook it once. “Not too long.”
“Says the man with no shoes.” She turned and walked up the stairs back to the main area. I simply moved the box I’d been sitting on near Angel and sat to keep vigil.
Chapter 9
As the night went on, Angel got sicker and sicker. Her cough got rougher, and both Jazmine and I became more concerned.
“Ink, I don’t think we can do this here. She’s too sick. We have to take her to the hospital.”
“If it was an option, she’d already be there. Look just go about your business, and I’ll take care of her myself.” I shooed her away and put the cool rag on Angel’s head.
“Stop acting like an ass. I don’t want you guys to go; I want to help. I just don’t know how if she keeps getting sicker.” She huffed and ran her hands through her hair before she pulled slightly on of the many rings in her ears. Something she was doing more and more of while Angel got worse. Her nervous tick.
“This is what I have to work with Jazmine. I can’t take her to the hospital, and I can’t leave her, I have no play here.” I let my hands drop, I’d made the decision to swim across the sound, and now Angel may have to pay for it with her life.
“Okay, okay.” She pulled harder at the rings in her ears, “Okay, can I trust you not to destroy my shit?”
“What?” I looked at her like she was crazy, “What shit do you have here to destroy?”
“Are you kidding me, most of this stuff in here is my life’s work.” The attitude sparked across her face for a second before she waved her hand in the air, “Whatever, just don’t break anything. I’m going to go to the drug store and get some medication and maybe a humidifier. Depending on what there is.”
My first instinct was to question why she would do that. I had to force myself to show even a little gratitude. “Thanks,” I grumbled. This was the outside world; it used to be good. At least I thought it was at one time.
“No problem.” She bent down and wiped a hand over Angel’s flushed face before she turned and ran up the stairs. I heard the door to the shop slam shut a few seconds after that, and then there was nothing.
Angel was still very hot, but she seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
They won’t stop looking for you. Do you think you can hide down here forever?
I slammed my hands against my head. I had tried to ignore the voice screaming in my head since we escaped from the boat, but with all this idle time on my hands, I had nothing to distract me from it. The panic and paranoia were all-consuming. I wanted to do something, anything productive to get back at those fucks for all the years of imprisonment, but nothing I could do would end with me staying free. The Giles family reach was too long, and I was only one person.
I walked back and forth in the small space, my mind racing with ideas and thoughts on how to get my revenge and still stay safe. With every failed plan in my mind, the paranoia would ramp up higher. I looked out the window to the back door. I had sworn I saw some movement. Then I thought someone had come in from upstairs, but everything went silent. I rechecked the back door, and it was still locked. I tried to unlock it only because I never wanted to be locked in somewhere again, and it opened right up. I closed the door, that was stupid of me. Someone could have seen me. I waited to see if anyone was going to come through the front door, but I didn’t hear anything. Maybe they were waiting for me to come out. Were they on the side of the building?
“Hey, they only…”
I turned and rushed the sound. “No!” I screamed as my hand went to the gun in my waist, and I put it up.
“Ink!” Jazmine’s hands shot up straight in the air, and the bags she had in her hand scattered noisily to the floor.
“Oh, god!” I put the gun down, and I backed away. If I were a little faster, I would have shot her. “Jazmine, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry.”
She put her hands down and walked slowly toward me. “What happened?”
“When did you get back? I thought you were going to the store?”
“Ink, I’ve been gone for hours. I’ve gone to two stores, actually.”
She came back? Did they follow her? “Did you make sure no one followed you? Did anyone see you come back here? Did you tell anyone about us being here? Even the…”
She got closer to me and put her hands on my cheeks, bringing my attention back to her and shutting me up. “Ink, no one knows you’re here. I promise you it’s still safe.”
I breathed in and out a few times, I could feel the sweat on my face start to dry, and my heart rate began to slow down. “I’m fucked up. I shouldn’t be here.”
She let me go and went back to the bags she’d dropped. I will agree you are indeed fucked up, but I think you’re right where you need to be.”
She picked up one of the bags and walked over to me. “I have no idea what size you wear, but I think these should fit you. It was a five-pack of v neck t-shirts and two different sweatsuits, one in black and the other in dark grey, some socks and a few pairs of chucks, three in men sizes three in girl sizes. I looked at them and squinted my eyes a bit. “Oh, I didn’t know what size shoes you were, so whatever ones don’t fit, I can take them back or donate them.”
I picked up the size twelves. I was a size eleven when I left.
“You’re doing too much for me, for us. You don’t have to do this. I’m not used to this shit.”
She chuckled, “Yeah, I can tell you ain't used to this shit, but I’m too invested now. I plan on seeing this through to the end, so you best just get used to me helping you.” She smirked and put the rest of the stuff she bought for me in my hands.
“I have been around gangsters and killers my whole life.” She started talking, causing me to look up and listen. “I know you are the latter; you will kill if you have to. It seems like you both haven’t had much choice, but can I trust you? I’m so worried about convincing you I won’t hurt you or that precious little girl. I need to know the same is true for you.”
“Yeah. You can trust me. I won’t hurt you unless you try to hurt Angel, then I promise you, good samaritan or not, I will rip your face off.”
She gasped and took a step back, but only for a second, then she was stepping right back into my space her stormy blue eyes glued onto mine, “I already promised you I wouldn’t do anything to her but the next time you threaten me, know that I could kill you right now and no one would say a word about it. You need me way more than I need you, don’t forget that shit.” She stared me down until I had no choice but to concede. You could tell a lot by a person based on how they reacted when they got intimidated. She did not intimate easily.
“Good, now that we understand each other, I want to take the two of you to my house. It’s not far from here, but it’s better for her, and you both can wash. Put the new clothes on.” She put her hands on her hips, “Or are you going to fight me about that as well?”
I put my hands up, “No, no fight, but in case you haven’t noticed, we can’t just walk out of here.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that. If I pulled my truck around to the back, the sliding door opens on this side. No one would be able to see you get in. I could make it look like I was just putting in some canvas to ship or whatever. It’s normal for me to do. It’s the stowing away of two refugees that’s not normal. What do you think?” She let the ring on her tongue slide in between her lips as she pulled on it with her teeth and waited for me to reply.
How many piercing did she have? I was beyond curious.
“If you can get us in the van without being seen, I think it’s worth a shot.” Almost as if an affirmation of the plan, Angel started another bout of coughing. The clothes she had on still not doing anything to keep the chill away.
“Let's do it. We need to get her out of here one way or another,” I had to hope for another miracle.
***
> Jazmine got us out without a hitch. It was like she was used to doing shit without other people knowing. I wanted to ask her about it, but it wasn’t my business.
“Okay, I think we can put her in this room here,” Jazmine said as she walked us into her house and moved toward one of the rooms on the ground floor.
The house was modest but spacious. There were two floors, the carpet looked plush and well kept. Best of all, there were no bars or padlocks on the doors. It was a home. I had been in countless expensive mansions and vast estates, but I had forgotten what a home looked like.
I followed behind her with a sleeping Angel in my arms. She only got up when she needed to use the bathroom. The coughing had become worse, and her breathing now sounded like she had an engine in her chest. I could only hope we could get her better here. There was a small bed with a large window facing the enclosed back yard. She would have a nice view when she woke up.
When I turned back around, Jazmine was already rummaging in the bags for something. She pulled out a thermometer and came over to Angel. She pressed the device to her head, and the screen lit up instantly 103.4.
“Shit.”
“Yeah, shit.” She pulled the device down and paced around the room. “Over the counter stuff isn’t going to work for her. She needs prescription medicine.”
“Do I have to tell you again about what I do and don’t have because I thought I was pretty fucking clear.” I was getting pissed off, she kept telling me what we needed, and I kept telling her what I had. Neither of those dynamics was going to change in the next few days.
She glared at me for a second before she looked back over to a sleeping Angel, who had just begun to moan and cry in her sleep. “Look, I have to run out. Same deal as the shop? Don’t break none of my shit.”
I grunted and turned my back on her. I got a chair from the other side of the room and sat down next to Angel. She was all I was concerned about right now.
***
More than an hour later, I heard Jazmine’s truck pull up. The big sliding door open and shut. She opened the front door and walked in, but then she slowed down. The change in pace had my ears perk up. I had spent a long time focusing on little things that would tell me what was to come. Slow steps usually meant an attack.
