Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Aiden hands me the phone with the video cued up. Luke snugs up onto the bed next to me. I play the video.
Ella is sitting in a tall-backed chair that suits her immensely. I make a mental note to have one bought for her. She is wearing a black lace dress and her hair is parted down the middle, falling to just above her shoulders in a long bob. She looks good. She looks happy. I feel much of the tension in my chest ebb at the sight of her.
“Do I start talking now?” She asks the question to someone off camera.
They respond in the affirmative.
“Hi, boys. Didn’t think you’d take so long to catch up with me, but maybe you’re losing your touch in your combined ages,” she grins. Brat. I cannot wait to get my hands on her again, and show her just how much touch I have not lost when it comes to her.
She’s now grinning from ear to ear just from imagining our reactions to that slight. “Hey. So, apparently… you’re not going to believe this… I’m a hostage. In England, of all places. I didn’t think they did that here.”
“What?” I look up at Aiden.
“Keep watching,” he says, his tone even more grim.
The camera shifts as a man comes into frame. It’s a face we all know. We’ve never met him, of course. You hope to never meet Mr. Red. It’s the equivalent of meeting the Pope, if the Pope was the leader of an international crime syndicate known for murderous brutality.
He speaks in a low, soft, refined tone. “She doesn’t know who I am, poor poppet. But I’d wager you gentlemen do. Deliver yourselves to me, and I won’t have to kill her. It would be a pity, given how charming I find her company. You have seventy-two hours from receipt of this video.”
“When did we get the video?” Luke asks the question.
I pull the IV line out of my hand. “We’re going. Now.”
“You know who that is. You know what he’s capable of.”
“Most of it is probably exaggeration,” Aiden says. “He traffics on his reputation. Ella looks unharmed.”
“For now,” I say. “Get the doctors and tell them to do whatever they need to do.”
Aiden calls the doctor, who arrives thirty precious minutes later. By that point, I’ve disconnected myself from the machines and am getting dressed. Putting on socks feels like hell.
“You really should stay, Mr. Levin,” the doctor says. “The bullet was very close to an artery, and when I say very close to, I mean it grazed it. During surgery, we repaired the area. We want you to rest to stabilize the area and allow it to entirely heal. There’s a small chance if you are knocked about, or over-exert yourself, you could cause a bleed that would be almost impossible to stabilize outside hospital conditions.”
“Or there’s a chance I could go bungee jumping and be perfectly fine.”
“Please don’t go bungee jumping,” he says.
“Alright, I won’t. But I am going to discharge myself. Maybe we can take along a pet surgeon. Do you have anybody around who would like to earn a hundred thousand dollars for three days of being on call to patch me back up if necessary?”
The doctor stares at me. “Are you serious?”
“There’s nothing illegal about employing a surgeon as far as I am aware.”
“There’s Brown. He used to be a field medic. He might be interested in being shot at for a sizable sum of danger money,” the doctor says. For a man who looks serious and staid, he’s actually what Luke would call quite chill.
We depart the hospital forty minutes later with Dr. Brown, who used to provide field medic services to the Marines, which means he’s very used to patching up all kinds of nasty wounds. My stomach hurts like hell. I’d rather die than admit that.
“You’re cold sweating,” Doc Brown says. He’s got one of those round, well-meaning faces, light brown eyes, and a dirty blond mustache to match his hair. He’s probably Luke’s age, and he has a solid presence. I like him. He feels trustworthy.
“Yeah,” I say. “Never mind.”
“Let me top you up,” he says, producing a small bag with needles and vials in it. I have a flashback to the last time outside the hospital that someone gave me a jab. It was Ella. I thought I could kill her at the time. Now, I’d die for her.
CHAPTER 18
Aiden
We are on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean, and I have never felt less at ease as I do right now.
I should have never let her leave New Zealand without me. I should have put her in restraints the moment I found her, gagged her, and brought her back home against her will. My foolish gambit of letting her come to some kind of emotional place of acceptance has failed. Now she is in the hands of someone even I fear. That is saying a very great deal.