The Company

IV

"Oh, God," I breathed, watching the blood spread around Cam's body.

"It's cool, Ani, I'll be alright," he said, panting and squeezing his eyes closed.

I was putting pressure on the wound, but the placement made it difficult. If it hit his heart...

"I have to call the Doc," I told him firmly, scrambling to get my cell phone out of my pocket.

"It's too risky; they probably have him monitored."

"No, they don't even know about him, Cam. He made sure of that."

I dialed the number and waited, praying he would pick up.

"Mr. J's, what can I get started for you?"

I breathed out heavily, "I'd like to get a steak, super rare, with a baked potato, fully loaded. For delivery, please."

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"Address, please?"

I gave him the address and hoped that he was close. I had needed him a few weeks back, and I had only waited fifteen minutes. We weren't that far from the apartment I had been staying in at that time. I hoped he could make it faster than that. I knew that if the bullet had hit Cam's heart, it wouldn't matter what I did. There would be no amount of time that the doctor could make it in that would save his life. I couldn't lose him. He had only been with me for three days; how had this happened so quickly?

"Hold on, Cam, the Doc's on his way," I whispered to him, trying to keep pressure on the hole under his arm and stroking his hair.

"I'm sorry, Ani, I thought I had him. I didn't expect him to get back up. God, Ani, I was so stupid."

"Shh, don't think about it, Cam, you're not stupid. Just focus on breathing. You're going to be okay, I know it."

"You don't know that, Ani."

"You're going to be fine!" I snapped at him, fighting back the tears. I would not cry with him hurting like that.

He stopped talking, and I looked up at his face. He was out cold. I could feel that he was still breathing. We didn't have much more time. As I thought that, I heard a knock at the door. I sprang to my feet and sprinted to it, yanking the door open. The Doc and his assistant looked at me calmly.

"He's here!" I cried, "Hurry! He's lost so much blood already. Please. You can't let him die. Please!"

"Calm, Miss Markoff. Let us work. You sit there, on that couch, and do not move unless we ask you to."

I sat down obediently, my mind racing. I wanted to go over there and make sure that they saved him, but I knew that it would do more harm than good. I could do basic first aid if we were injured in the process of completing a job or something similar. I was useless with an injury like the one Cam had. I would only get in their way.

I heard the Doc whispering and muttering to his assistant, but I wasn't able to make out what they were saying. And then Cam started yelling. The Doc clamped a hand over his mouth and told him to be quiet while his assistant kept working on the wound on Cam's side. It wasn't much longer before Cam passed out again. My heart was in my throat. Soon after, they slowed down, and the Doc turned to look at me.

"He's stable for now, but he has lost a lot of blood. I'm going to need to take him with me. I've done what I can do here, but he will die if he stays here."

I hesitated. I didn't know where the Doc would take him; I'd never seen where he lived or worked.

"How do I know he'll be safe with you?"

"I am here, am I not?" he asked, "Miss Markoff, I have helped you many times. How many of those led you to being found out after?"

He made a good point.

"Will you return him to me when he is well enough?"

"You have my word."

"And you'll let him keep his phone? I assure you, it is untraceable."

"Yes, he will have it."

I nodded. "Okay."

I gathered some things I thought Cam might need while he was with them. Easy to do, since we stayed packed most of the time anyway. I grabbed his things from the bathroom, then gave them all to the Doc's driver, who had come inside the house to help get Cam to the car. I felt pretty confident that Cam was going to be alright, but I knew that I was going to worry constantly until I heard from him. I would need to distract myself.

I watched them drive away with Cam still unconscious in the back seat. As I turned and walked back into the living room, looking around the suddenly very empty house, I thought about what I needed to do next. I had to figure out how Jessica found us. We wouldn't be able to go back to that school; I was certain about that. I would have to burn our aliases there and instate new ones, and we would probably be better off moving to a new place again. I would just tell the landlord that something came up with the family, and we had to move home suddenly.

I grabbed our passports, IDs, and everything we owned with our current aliases' names on them, then put them in the sink and set them all on fire. I knew that Cam had a hidden pocket in his duffle bag, same as the one in mine, and grabbed one of the bagged packets from it at random. Colin Setly. What an odd sort of name. But it was clean, so I pulled everything out of the bag and replaced the old items with new ones. I did the same with mine, becoming Anne Jameson. We tried to keep as much of the background of all our aliases as similar as possible. Even if we were highly trained, it was easy to make a mistake or get confused when we had to change who we were as often as we did.

I spent the rest of the night looking up house listings to find the place we would live next, then high schools around the one I picked. I sent in enrollment forms for both of us that would be seen by the administration in the morning, confirmed a meeting with the real estate company that was renting out the house I chose, and then emailed our current landlord asking him to call me in the morning. Sitting back in my chair, I felt pretty accomplished, until I looked into the kitchen and saw how much blood covered the floor, the cabinets, and the walls. There were cleaning supplies under the sink in the bathroom, so I went to retrieve those and got to work scrubbing the kitchen clean.

"I guess I'll sleep tomorrow," I muttered out loud, under my breath. It wasn't like I could go to school anyway.

I fell asleep on the couch once everything had been cleaned and disposed of properly. I woke up about two hours later when my phone started ringing. The landlord.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Miss Markoff?"

"Hi, sir, thank you for getting back to me."

"Well, of course," he said cheerfully, "what can I do for you?"

"Well...I'm really sorry, sir, but I have to move out in a couple of days. I know it's sudden, and I don't expect to get my deposit back, but there's been a death in my family, and I have to move back home. They need me to go home and help out there, or they'll lose everything."

"Well, that is unfortunate."

It was silent on the other end of the phone for almost a full minute. I began to worry that it wouldn't be as easy as I had hoped.

"But that's alright. I understand. And we haven't even fully finalized the lease, so no harm done. I am going to have to keep the deposit for the rent money I am going to lose trying to find a new tenant on such short notice. But I hope the best for you and your family. I'm so sorry for your loss. Just leave the keys on the kitchen counter on your way out."

We ended the call on a positive note, and I was relieved that at least one part of my plan worked out successfully. I hoped that the rest would follow suit. My phone started to ring again. I looked down, then did a double-take. Cam.

"Cam?"

"Hey, Ani," he said. He sounded weak.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he answered, "I just might be here a while longer than I thought."

My stomach fell to my feet.