by Jill Sanders
“Where are you taking us?” He knew he needed to keep them talking or distracted so they couldn’t hear what he was doing. Even if he couldn’t completely focus on their faces, he could tell that broken nose guy no longer looked over his shoulder at him.
“We are going to get paid.” They both laughed. “We are getting paid big for that little one. For you, I think maybe we just feed to the sharks.” They both laughed and started speaking in Greek, or what Jason assumed was Greek. He recognized a few words, but they were talking too fast for him to catch anything important.
Jason finally got his hands free and twisted so he could start working on releasing his legs.
He listened to them speaking and thought he heard them say “Derby”, “millions”, and “ferry”.
When his feet were finally freed, he moved over and felt for Katie. Realizing that they hadn’t even tied her hands or feet, he lay there and tried to think of his next move.
How was he supposed to fight these two off if he couldn’t even see straight? Plus the vehicle was moving too fast for him to make a jump for it. If he tried something while they were still moving, well, he didn’t think his head could stand a car accident. So he stayed still and kept trying to focus his eyes.
Less than an hour later, he could feel the turns and stops of being back in a large town or city. He reached over and tried to see if Katie was awake, but she didn’t move. He would just have to carry her after he took care of these two. Somehow.
When they came to a stop, he watched as the bigger man, Mikolas, got out while the smaller man, Raul, sat behind the wheel, looking off in the distance.
Moving slowly, he got up onto the balls of his feet and looked out. He could see Mikolas out in front of the van, talking to a large man. The pair stood by a small boat and he could tell they were at a small marina.
Moving quickly, he put his sharp pocket knife against the other man’s throat.
“Don’t move.” When the man nodded, he asked, “Where are we?” Jason watched the two men on the dock. They were in a heated discussion and he watched as the larger man reached for his wallet.
“Igoumenitsa docks.”
“Where are the other men that were looking for us?”
“What other men?”
“Don’t mess around with me. The other men at the airport.”
“They went ahead to Rome. They will be watching the airport and bus stations for you.”
“Who wants Katie?” He watched as the men argued some more and knew that his time was running out.
“I don’t know. Mikolas deals with that.”
He bent down and grabbed the tire iron he’d seen earlier, probably the one they’d used on his head, then he hit the man, knocking him out.
He quickly stepped over Katie, then quietly opened the back doors. Picking Katie up, he tossed her lightly over his shoulders. She didn’t move. When he sprinted for the first building, which was just a few feet away, he realized how dizzy he was. He didn’t hear any shouting and hoped he’d gotten away, unnoticed. When he reached the corner, he ducked behind it and continued to run until they were a dozen blocks away. He weaved through the empty side streets, taking different routes so they didn’t travel in a straight line. He felt a little drunk and was sure he looked that way, but it was almost impossible for him to walk in a straight line. Several times he’d ended up grabbing onto a wall of a building to steady himself.
Finally, when he hit a few larger streets, he started to pass people, and he was thankful no one said anything to him. Instead, they just looked at him funny, so he tried to avoid as many people as he could, keeping instead to back streets.
His vision was going gray around the edges and he was finding it harder to carry Katie. His breath was coming in quick bursts and he worried what would happen to them if he passed out. He tried hard to stay focused.
He didn’t know where he was going, but knew that they had to get as far away from the docks as possible until he could see straight. Several times he stumbled and almost fell, so he’d grabbed on to the wall and had been walking with his hand against it. He finally felt his energy wavering when he heard an angel.
“Parakalo?” A woman stepped in front of him, causing him to come to a complete stop. She held her hands up and continued to speak to him in Greek.
“English?” he asked. He tried to hold onto her voice, tried to keep from passing out.
“Vai, yes of course, do you need hospital? Is woman hurt?” He notice then that the young woman was wearing a nurse’s outfit.
“Yes, she was given sleeping powder of some kind.”
“Vai, parakalo. Yes, please, come with me to nosokomeio.”
Jason looked at her not knowing what she was saying.
“Hospital.”
He nodded slightly and followed the woman back about half a block to where he’d passed an older white building. Not seeing clearly, he’d run right by the hospital.
“Ohi, you are bleeding.” She pointed to his head as they walked in the doors.
“Yes, I was hit and knocked out.”
“Did you?” she made a motion like she was sleeping.
“Yes, I blacked out.”
“Ohi kalo,”
Jason walked over and laid Katie down on a gurney the woman was motioning toward. When the woman gestured for him to lay down on the other one, he sat down facing Katie. He watched as an older doctor rushed in and started examining Katie.
“My name is Airlea, you?”
“Jason, and that’s Katie.”
“Kalós, you wait, I get better English.”
Jason watched as the pretty brunette walked away, then he turned his attention to the doctor and nurse taking Katie’s vitals.
Less than a minute later, a young boy around twelve walked back in the room with Airlea.
“This is Michael, he is English better.”
“Hi, Micheal.” Jason looked down at a dark-haired boy. His clothes were bigger than they should have been and his hair was long and wavy. He wore a large smile on his face, but Jason could see concern in the young boy’s eyes.
“Hello, Airlea wants to know what happened, was there an accident?”
“No, we were jumped.” When the young boy just looked at him, he clarified. “Two men hit me and gave Katie some sleeping powder, or so they called it, then they put us in a van and brought us here. I knocked one over the head and we ran away until I ran into Airlea here.”
The boy turned and translated.
“Ohi, Ohi kalo,”
“That’s not good,” Michael translated. Then the boy listened as Airlea asked more questions and turned to translate again.
“Airlea needs to know how long you blacked out for.”
Katie could hear talking, but couldn’t understand any of it. Then something that smelled terrible was put in front of her face, and when she moved to push it away, a hand grabbed hers, holding it down until she coughed and opened her eyes.
“Vai, parakalo,” a skinny, older man said, hovering over her. “Ágrypnos.”
“Katie?” She heard Jason’s voice and turned her head towards him. He was sitting on a bed next to hers, with a young dark-haired boy standing close to him, and a beautiful, busty, brunette hovering over him. The woman’s hand was on his knee, and Katie watched as she leaned closer to him, keeping her eyes on his face.
The woman was beautiful by any standard. Her dark skin glowed with rich, caramel colors and her eyes were big, dark, and beautiful. She had a figure that any woman would be jealous of. Her full, red lips made Katie wish she had a little makeup on herself right about now.
Jealousy slammed into her so quickly, she sat up and was almost across the space to rip the woman’s arms off Jason’s knee.
“Ohi kalo.” Strong hands pushed her back down.
“Katie, lay still, we’re at the hospital. Sit still so the doctor can look at you.”
Then she noticed the blood dripping down his forehead and tried again to get across to
him.
“Jason! You’re bleeding.”
“Yes, Airlea is just about to stitch me up,” he said in a low voice. She watched as the pretty woman pulled out a very large needle and got it ready for him. Katie looked at Jason just as his eyes focused on the needle. He turned white and passed out, falling backwards onto the bed.
Laughing at Jason’s one weakness, she pushed the doctor’s hands away.
“I’m okay,” she tried to tell them, but she was forced back down on the pillows. Her stomach rolled a little, but for the most part she felt fine.
Forty minutes later, she watched as Jason started waking up. She sat in a chair next to his bed in a private room and smiled as his eyes focused on her.
“Well, if this was your way of trying to ditch a girl after sleeping with her, there are better ways.”
“What?” He shook his head and quickly grabbed it with a moan.
“Oh, no, you shouldn’t move around. You have a very nasty concussion. They want to keep you overnight. They told me you might feel ill, so here’s a bed pan.” She handed it to him and watched as his color turned a little greenish. She walked over and rubbed his back as he proceeded to vomit into the pan.
“You’re very lucky, you know,” she said a few minutes later, as he leaned back and closed his eyes. “The doctor took x-rays and assured me that there is only a small chance you’ll have major brain damage.” She tried for humor and smiled when his eyes flew open.
“Oh, ha ha.” He closed his eyes again. “Can you do anything about those bright lights? And maybe find me some mouthwash?”
She walked over and grabbed a small cup that Airlea had left for just this instance. She watched as Jason rinsed his mouth.
“Anything else?”
He looked at her. “Yeah, don’t leave this room.”
“I won’t, there’s a police officer just outside the door. They called them after you explained what happened. I’ve spent the last half an hour recapping what you told them. Only I can’t remember anything, so they want to talk to you in the morning.”
“Good.” He leaned back and closed his eyes again. She went over and tried to dim the lights, but ended up just turning them off instead. Then she walked over and said, “Scoot over, I’m coming up there with you.” When he did, she slipped off her shoes and lay down next to him, putting her head on his shoulder.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For saving us.” She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat as he slept.
Chapter Nine
By the next morning, Katie felt almost human again. Since they’d lost both their backpacks back at the barn, the hospital had provided a change of clothing for them. Jason’s pants were too short and his shirt looked like it had been popular in the eighties, but they had showered and were both smelling a great deal better than they had yesterday.
Airlea had come in and checked on Jason through the night. Katie had actually ended up talking to the woman for several hours and by morning, her opinion of her had changed.
Katie was quick to judge people and sometimes had to admit that she was wrong about certain types of women.
Gorgeous, busty, raven-haired beauties tended to put Katie on edge. Airlea was different; she was so kind. During the night, Airlea had helped Katie with some Greek and Katie had helped her with some English. They’d laughed and at one point, Katie had explained everything that had happened to them over the last few days. Airlea had hung on every word as if she’d actually gone through everything herself.
It was the first time Katie had felt like she wasn’t being judged by who she was related to. Actually, Katie didn’t even think Airlea knew her full name. If she did, she didn’t hint at it and that was just fine by Katie.
She found out that Airlea wasn’t an Emergency room nurse like Katie had thought. Instead she was a physical therapist for children. The young boy, Michael, had been her patient.
“You wouldn’t know to look at him, but this time last year, Michael couldn’t walk or speak. He’d been abused so much by his father that he’d been in a coma for two months.”
Katie’s heart broke a little for the young boy. Then Airlea smiled. “But he is doing well now, and has told me he wishes to be a doctor when he grows up. With the help of the hospital, and a new program we started, he might get his wish fulfilled.”
That was when Katie realized she’d been wrong about the woman. Airlea had even helped Katie fill out and file the paperwork to get their replacement passports.
“Usually it takes twenty-four hours, but I know someone who can push it through quickly. Hopefully, they will be ready by tomorrow.”
“That would be wonderful. We really do need to get to Italy as quickly as possible.” Katie was going to miss her new friend when they left.
She had tried to get some more sleep that night, but every time they came to check up on Jason, she just found herself not able to fall back asleep. Jason, however, had pain pills that kept him blissfully snoring for most of the night.
At nine the next morning, the police arrived to take Jason’s statement. The two young officers tried to explain what they could do for them, but after they left, Jason and Katie both knew there wasn’t anything they could really do. After all, they had a good description of the men, but nothing else. Jason did know their names, Mikolas and Raul, but the police officer told them that they were very popular names in Greece. If Jason had gotten a license plate number or their last names it would have been more helpful.
“I couldn’t even see their faces clearly at that point.”
Katie realized what kind of pain he must have been in, running through the streets, carrying her over his shoulders. She looked at him now and could see he was almost back to his old self. His coloring had returned and his eyes were back to their sparkly, light blue color. Yesterday, they’d been dull and she knew he’d been in a great amount of pain.
The doctors released them and Airlea told them where they could find everything they needed for the remainder of their journey, including the ATM and American Embassy.
“My friend says that you just need to answer a few questions to get your temporary replacements. It shouldn’t take long. Just ask for her at the front desk.”
Airlea had given them her friend’s business card.
When they left the hospital the first stop they made was to the ATM, where Katie pulled out a credit card and proceeded to get enough cash for ferry tickets to Italy, some new clothes, food, and anything else that might come up.
“Where did you hide that?” Jason asked, leaning against the ATM. He had a large bruise and a big knot on his forehead and looked damn sexy. The medicine the doctors had given him was easily taking care of the splitting headache he had.
His forehead had been covered with a white, square bandage earlier, but after leaving the hospital, it had been the first thing he’d discarded. His blue eyes sparkled again and she could tell that he was feeling a little better.
“I have an inside pocket on my pants that I’ve been keeping this in, just for emergencies.”
“Well, thank God for that. I didn’t want to have to call your family and ask for money to get us to Rome.” Upon hearing about her family, her cheerful attitude darkened.
“Don’t.”
“You know,” she turned on him, “have I told you how annoying it is that you know me so well?”
He pulled her close. “Kat, it’s because I know you so well that I can tell that at the mere mention of your family, you get upset and start over-thinking everything.” He kissed her on the forehead as they started to walk to their next stop.
They walked into the US Embassy to get their replacement passports, making sure to ask for Airlea’s friend. After almost four hours of answering more questions than they could count, they left with temporary replacement passports. Upon leaving the embassy, they were swarmed by news stations that had obviously heard that she was there. She kept her head down and
a tight hold on Jason’s arm. There were so many flashes from the cameras, she swore it took her half an hour to see normally again.
They fought the crowd and finally hailed a cab, which drove them to the small row of shops that Airlea had assured them would have some great clothing shops, as well as a place to get a decent meal and buy their ferry tickets.
She hated dealing with the press. They somehow made her feel inadequate and inferior, almost like she was back in high school, being judged by everyone. She knew the news of her being free would, no doubt, reach all the corners of the globe by nightfall.
