Now how should I play with you?
Chapter 13
‘Christian’
I hear Reuben before I see him.
“You're being noisy.” His voice feels like it’s a room away from me, but I can still feel the animosity from his words alone as I blink my eyes open.
“If you're going to argue, do it somewhere else,” he growls from outside my door. “My friend is sleeping.”
I vaguely remember saying something similar before passing out. It was a bid to calm him down before he lost his shit and killed the paramedics, but it’s… strangely nice that he’s taking my words so seriously.
I’d woken early this morning, and both the nurse and doctor did their extra tests before telling me I’d be fine, and that it was a miracle I wasn’t crushed to death on impact.
The miracle though, was me. Reinforcing most of my bones before I was hit.
It’s been four days since the incident on the cruise ship and now the sun is setting from my window, cascading hues of blue fading into splashes of orange and gold. I have to be more than six floors off the ground, because the cars in the distance look small. From here, I can see the bridge over the river in the distance, which I crossed with Reuben and the team on my first arrival.
It’s all really… pretty. I can’t pull away because I want to ingrain the scene into my memory.
It’s my first time in a hospital. The people—staff—are nice to me, they make sure I have everything I need and notify Reuben the moment I’m awake. He must’ve been busy picking up after the incident, since he’s only come now, at the end of the day.
I tried to leave to see him at first, but the staff also wouldn’t let me. They say my injuries will take about six weeks to heal properly, and that I should rest.
I’m lucky they hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary with my body.
Anyhow, people bodies are really frustrating. I can’t stay six weeks in this place, no matter how pretty it is. I’m not sure if I was able to prove my worth to Reuben this time, since I’m the only one on the team who got injured.
I’ll have to speed up the healing by a few weeks, maybe do some grunt work around the estate since Reuben likely won’t let me go on another mission until all six weeks are up. But this’ll be my chance to improve Christian’s reputation outside of Reuben’s team.
The door opens right when I’ve made up my mind, and I hear Reuben pause in the doorway.
“You’re awake.” His voice sounds strange to my ears. Vulnerable. When I turn to meet his eyes I’m half-surprised that he looks so exhausted.
“The doctors told me you were sleeping.” He’s switched out his grey suit from that night for a black version, notch lapel, double-breasted. All he needs now is sunglasses to finish the look and save the world from cyberspace invasion, but there’s a tiredness beneath his eyes and a messiness to his updo that drags a frown to my lips.
“You look like you should be the one sleeping.”
“Rest is hard to come by when someone decides to raid a high society event.” When he approaches, his smile is fearless, as though the tiredness I saw a moment ago was just an illusion.
I don’t notice that the sheets are bunched tightly into my fists. “I should be out helping you. Not resting.”
“You were hit by almost three hundred pounds of aluminium entertainment.” He takes the seat by my bed. “We can handle a few days without you.”
That’s what I’m afraid of.
“What about Camille?” I ask. “Lucia?”
“Camille’s shut herself in since Josei’s death,” he says quietly. “She doesn’t come out of her room, and Lucia…” His eyes darken. “You’ll see her soon. She visits you often.”
I have a lot of questions regarding the aftermath, but the moment I open my mouth to ask, Reuben leans over to rest his head on my lap.
My hands are frozen in the air like a fool, and it’s like my spine is locked into place, but his eyes are closed.
I’ve never seen Reuben like this before… I’m not entirely sure where to put my hands.
Should he be doing this? Surely a leader would want to appear strong at all times in front of his subordinates. Though I should be the least to talk, stars, I broke down in tears in front of him already.
