Fire ignites in her eyes. “Pedro and two, maybe three others. Victor might be here too. Be careful.”
“We will get them, and find Marco. Victor is for tomorrow.” I stroke her face, hoping my touch conveys everything I’m feeling.
As soon as the medication hits, her anxiety and pain fades. Deena is mostly conscious, but her words are slurred and her eyes are glassy. “Marco?” she asks again.
She’s losing track of time, and I move Kade up towards her while I suture the deepest gashes and superglue the more superficial ones.
If there was more than one trained doctor or even a nurse, we could have treated her arm while tending to her other injuries. The judgment I made to treat the knife wounds first is still the right one.
Leaving Kade with Deena, I go to the room I have stacked with medical equipment and supplies. With Marco, I discoveredmy maternal instincts made me a bear when it came to his welfare. It doesn’t matter that I’m not his mother. I walk back to them, reading the instructions on the splint box, comparing it to the air splint I also have. I leave the air splint on the counter. I can always use it on the flight back to the city.
The fracture isn’t compound, nor is it in a horrible position. It would be very painful, but it’s probably the best kind of break you could hope for. Poor Deena groans a couple of times when Kade and I set her arm in position, but she doesn’t wake up.
Kade and I start to clean up, but he snatches me as I’m passing, dragging me into one of his cuddles. It’s quick, but his touch packs a wallop, reenergizing me.
“If she’s settled, I’ll got out and see what I can do there.”
I nod against his chest, inhaling more of his steadying cinnamon scent. “Marco knows to hide.”
We freeze at the sound of a sharp whistle. We hear the whistle a second time, and we move to the front door. It’s wide open, exactly how I first saw it. Roshka emerges from the trees.
“Grab your kit and go with him.” Kade pulls away and beats me back to where I had my bag sitting, all packed and ready to go for this very situation.
I stay clinically minded, not letting my emotions take over. I don’t know what I’m walking into as Roshka starts shepherding me to where I need to be.
I pass by Aleksei, who is tying up two men. They’re not people I’ve seen before. “Another one should be here. Pedro. He’s an asshole.”
“Santiago is tracking him down,maya. Nalla is through the trees. You’re safe with the dogs, and I’m literally right behind you. We can’t find Marco, but there are signs he was here.”
“Okay,” I say, walking past him as he continues restraining them. “I should have grabbed something of Marco’s for the dogs.”
“I’ll call Kade,” he says, pulling his phone from his pocket.
Aleksei’s voice is drowned out by the racing beat of my heart. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I press on the flashlight, and the soft glow isn’t strong enough for the pitch-black of the forest. But it will do.
At the hideout, I see the signs Aleksei was talking about. The door is ajar but the space isn’t wide enough for someone to fit through. It’s like Marco changed his mind before he got inside. I squat near the scuff marks in the leaf litter. They’re small, and around them, the earth remains undisturbed. There’s no indication of a struggle, and while there’s a possibility he was plucked off his feet, there’d be evidence of that.
Dropping to my knees, I search around the leaf litter, trying to find the rocks we put out here. I find one near the back, and as soon as it’s free, I’m banging it against the hard wood of the wall in the beat Marco, Deena, and I made ours.
Bang, bang, bang, echoes through the night. He won’t hear that, but I hope he picks up on the vibration. We’d tested how far it was until he couldn’t feel the thudding, and it was far enough he had a dozen places to hide.
I keep banging on the side of the hideout until Aleksei squats behind me and takes over.
“Nalla and Roshka have his scent. We sit and wait,” he says. He’s so close, his breath hits the back of my neck, and I lean into his support.
The dogs don’t need any instruction as they start moving slowly away from each other, their noses pressed to the ground. Aleksei shuffles around, then crosses his legs, giving me somewhere to sit.
He hits the rock, following the same pattern before stopping. “Is your friend okay?”
“I think so. They beat her up pretty badly when they caught her.”
“Only weak men beat up women.” He tsks before banging again. “Being brave, and a little silly, must run in the family, huh?”
I know he’s teasing, and it’s exactly what I need. The alternate is me getting lost in the fear Marco must be feeling all by himself.
“I will teach him not to be… so much like you, wife.” He chuckles.
I twist around, ready to defend myself, when one of the dogs starts barking. I barely have time to register the sound before Aleksei is lifting me off his lap, then pulling me along as he races through the undergrowth toward the sound.
