Page 121 of Savior

He lunges for me, and I pull the trigger.

A cacophony of blinding sound and lights invades my senses, and I drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

“What the fuck? What has she done?”

“I didn’t think she would…”

“You fucking egged her on. I saw you!”

“Shut the fuck up, Sully! I need to think. What do we do?”

There’s nothing more to do, boys. I’m free!

I wakewith a sick feeling in my stomach. The room spins as my heavy eyes open against the immense swelling. My fingers come up and inspect a bandage around my head.

Beeping sounds far off, but it gets closer as the moment stretches, and I come back around.

“Well, hello there,” a woman says, leaning over the bed and smiling warmly at me.

I’ve never seen her before.

“Where am I?” I manage.

My mouth is dry, and my body aches. My stomach feels like someone is gnawing at it with very sharp teeth.

“I’m Aggie, your nurse. I didn’t think you’d wake so soon. We only just weaned the anesthetic from your system a few hours ago. I see why he likes you; you’re a strong one.”

For a split-second, my belly warms with the idea that Luca’s found me and I’m in a hospital he got me to.

But then she says, “Mr. Barone loves the girls who have a strong will. Not that it matters in the end. Because his will is stronger, I suppose.”

I try to move my other arm, and handcuffs clang against the metal arm of the bed.

“Precaution, dear, of course. Once you’re better and settled, those will be a thing of the past.”

The sick, gnawing feeling in my gut gets worse. Burrows deeper.

He caught me, and now I will be a caged bird for the rest of my life. However long that’ll be.

“Hell of a wound they had to sew up. What were you thinking?” she asks me as she moves around and checks all the bags of medicines and fluids surrounding me.

I was thinking I’d be free of him.

I keep my mouth shut. I don’t know this woman, and she works for him. It’s no use speaking. It’ll only make it worse, like last time.

I close my eyes.

Fuck, I hate that I’m back here.

“You were thinking you’d be free, hm? It’s the first time someone’s tried to escape that way; I’ll give you that. It’s a good thing they got to you in time. You’ll have a nasty scar, but that’s about it.”

She whistles as she takes down some notes on her clipboard.

I watch her vehemently, looking for any landmarks to figure out where I am. It seems to be a warehouse. There’s blue sheeting surrounding me and lights beyond them. The hospitalbed and machinery have been brought in, but it is likely not for me.

It’s just like the place where Ardesia had taken Lorenzo when he got shot protecting me.

“Everything looks wonderful, dear. I’ll be back in a few hours. If you need pain medicine, click that button right there.” She points to a button on a chord connected to a pole, with medicine steadily dripping into an intravenous line.

---