Wrong place, Wrong time

18

Magdalena

The heat surrounding my bruised body makes me feel like I’m wrapped in a warm and safe hug. Holding on to that thought, it appears that someone might actually be holding me. Considering the fact that it feels like I’m sitting on a bear, I’m guessing Malcolm is my seat. Coming to my senses, I finally remember what went down before I fell asleep again. They must have given me some more pain medication. I began to feel sleepy after the pain in my ribs subsided a bit. The embarrassment slowly begins to creep in. I try to keep my squirming to a minimum, to not alert anyone of me being awake. The inability to keep it together is not how I usually am. I’ve kept it together for all twenty-three years of my life, and now, all of that has suddenly gone out the window along with my dignity. It just keeps getting worse, and we’ve just finally gotten out of that hole. I need to be stronger.

I feel Malcolm squeeze my arm, making my thoughts come to a halt.

“I know you’re awake.” He begins with a whisper, the feeling of his deep voice rumbling in his chest against my other arm gives me the chills. “You’re squeezing your eyes shut too tightly. You’ll end up giving yourself a headache.” I immediately relax my face, drawing out a chuckle from Malcolm.

“Too late.” I whisper back to him, already feeling the headache pounding behind my eyes.

“Let’s get some sugar in you.” I open my eyes to find him already looking at me. I quickly look away from him, as he helps me move to the bench between himself and Scarface. My legs were resting on Scarface’s lap. I don’t remember putting my legs there. And should I be calling him that or Damiano? I’m not sure yet. I swear I could have just taken a seat at the end of the bench, but here I am, yet again, sandwiched between these two. Scarface passes me a coke.

“Drink.” He orders me. My hand is shaking as I grab the bottle in my hand. I struggle to bring it to my mouth because of the shaking. Feeling countless sets of eyes on me doesn’t help the situation either. A hand wraps around mine, helping me to drink. As much as I’ve avoided any more eye contact with anyone else, I can’t help glancing at Scarface as he helps me. His facial expression remains neutral, not giving away what he is thinking.

“Thank you.” I mutter, still not meeting his eyes. Deciding to woman up, I think now may be a great time to apologize for my embarrassing meltdown. Again. “Look,” I sigh, “I’m s-“.

“Don’t you dare.” Isaac interrupts me, making my eyes snap to his. He remains silent for several moments before continuing: “You’ve seen some s**t you’re probably not used to. You have been subjected to some things that never should have happened,” I close my eyes in an attempt to keep the memories at bay. I’m not ready to talk about it yet, and he seems to know that since he doesn’t press the subject further. I honestly wouldn’t even know where to start. How many girls have they done this to? I feel my mind spiraling once again, unable to help myself. A hand coming from my right side, Malcolm’s hand, squeezes my knee, bringing me back from my thoughts. “Yet you were crying for someone else’s unfortunate ending.” Isaac leans forward to catch my eyes. “So don’t you dare apologize, my love, capiche?” He claps his hands dramatically. He continues to look at me until I give him a nod. He’s intense. “Good girl.”

I lean back against the side of the truck, finally looking around at each person in here with me. Roman and Axel are chatting away in the corner along with Riggs and Hunter. Wayne is tapping away on a computer doing god knows what, while talking to Scarface, who is still sitting next to me. Malcolm is listening intently to their conversation but not interfering. I take a deep breath, forgetting my injured ribs for a moment making me grit my teeth. This alerts Nico, who’s eyes haven’t left me for a second since I awoke. He nudges Isaac, who immediately looks at me as well.

“Are you okay, doll?” Isaac asks, studying my hand clutching my ribs again. “Do you need more pain medication for the ribs?” Malcolm squeezes my knee again, the reason unclear. I seem to have gathered everyone’s attention again.

“Uh, no.” I respond, blowing out a careful breath. “I think the medication is making me a little nauseous, so I’ll hold out for a while.” I move around a bit to see if a different position will ease my discomfort. Axel approaches me and squats down to my height. He carefully places a hand on my forehead. I’m guessing he’s feeling for a fever.

“Are you allergic to morphine?” Axel asks, now putting two fingers to my wrist to feel my pulse.

“I don’t know, I’ve never tried it before.” I respond. “Maybe it’s just the lack of proper nutrition, fluids, stress and a teeny tiny bit of trauma.” My theory garners a smile from him. “I’ll be okay, thank you.”

“Just try not to put too much pressure on those ribs, I’m not liking your symptoms. Don’t puncture a lung, please.” Axel is right. I ease my hold on them, even though it felt better when I added pressure. He returns to his seat next to Roman, who sends me a smile. I still struggle to find a more comfortable position, but I try not to move around too much, afraid I might annoy Scarface or Malcolm.

“You can lean against me.” Malcolm tells me, his hand still on my knee.

“Me too.” Scarface adds, not even glancing my way. Isaac smirks in his direction. I somehow know he wants to say something to piss him off again, but he doesn’t. Surprisingly, I find myself having to lean against Scarface while my knees press more in the direction of Malcolm. They’re both sitting so close to me it would be impossible not to touch any of them. Scarface stiffens at first, almost making me pull away, but he quickly leans back against the wall to make it easier for me.

“Thanks.” I whisper to him. He doesn’t respond, but his cheek twitches a bit as if he is trying not to smile. I don’t think he enjoys smiling very much.

“How long have we been driving for?” I ask no one in particular.

“About four hours.” Malcolm answers me. I realize now that I have no clue about where we are going.

“Where are we headed?”

“Portland. I’ve got a base there, and a clinic.” Scarface explains.

“Will I go back to New York?” I have so many unanswered questions. I don’t know where to begin. Like, what do I do now? I don’t have my suitcase or my passport. I don’t even have a place to live. There are so many things I need to work out. This is an odd situation. There are no police involved in this and I highly doubt there ever will be. These people are criminals, yet they actually saved me and brought me with them, but what do they expect from me now? I’ve seen a lot, and they’ve told me quite a few things – I still have yet to figure out what the hell Malcolm actually does. The question I’m left with now is, have I seen too much?

“We’re flying from Portland to New York when we’ve gotten you all patched up.” Wayne adds to the conversation. “Can’t have you flying in this condition, young lady.” He sends me a wink.

“Are you going to let me go?” My eyes stay on Wayne’s. He quirks a brow at my question and glances towards Malcolm and Scarface. I guess he doesn’t have a clue.

“What do you mean, Lena?” Malcolm turns to me fully.

“I know who you are,” I meet Malcolm’s gaze. “Well, not really. I only know what you’ve told me, even though I’m still not sure what you actually do.” I really don’t know that much now that I come to think of it. “Okay, I don’t really know much. I don’t even know what I know.”

“Lena.” Malcolm pulls me out of my spiraling mind again. He looks slightly amused with a grin plastered on his face.

“I guess what I’m trying to ask is; Do I know something that I shouldn’t, which means you can’t let me go or have to kill me?” Isaac lets out a snort.

“How many gangster movies have you been watching?” Isaac asks me in-between laughs. It seems like most of the guys find it amusing as well.

“Based on your response, too many.” My cheeks heat at my stupidity. Am I really that far off?

“Excuse my laughter, love. You really do crack me up.” He wipes fake tears from his face. “Actually, normally we would have already killed you.” My eyes widen at his sudden statement. “But, we’ve taken a liking to you. You made Nico laugh after all.” That is most definitely concerning and not at all comforting. “If anything, Damiano owes you a favor or two.” He winks at me.

“Oh, no.” I shake my head. “He doesn’t owe me anything. We’re good. I’m just grateful you didn’t leave me in there. I’d much rather be killed by you, than suffer whatever fate was awaiting me with them.” I don’t even want to imagine how the rest of my days would have played out if they left me behind.

“Isaac, stop freaking her out.” Malcolm stops Isaac from continuing his very honest reason for not killing me. “We’re granting you immunity. No one touches you. You’re not going to die.” I don’t know if I find their words comforting or not, they still haven’t answered whether they’ll be letting me go.

“We still don’t know much about you, or why you ended up where you did.” Scarface adds. “Technically, you could be working for someone from outside the US, who has sent you to gather intel on the mafia.” His speculation leaves me gaping like a fish.

“You think I’m a spy?” I ask him directly. I’m unsure if I should feel honored or offended at his blatant accusation.

“Maybe. It’s always the ones you least suspect.” He’s onto something, that’s always the way it is in the movies.

“I can’t argue against that.” I sigh, defeated. “I want to tell you that I’m not a spy, but that’s exactly what a spy would say.” I feel tears well up in my eyes, annoyed that I have nothing to defend myself with.

“No, no, no, wait, pulce. Don’t f*****g cry.” Scarface sounds panicked as he suddenly wraps an arm around my shoulder. “You would be a shitty spy. No one would even think about sending you to get me, you’re build like a f*****g mosquito. I was trying to make a joke.” Huh?

“That’s what you call a joke, Damiano?” Isaac asks him accusingly. “Boy, we’ve got a long road ahead of us with this one.” He whistles to himself.

“Look, fuckface, I’m f*****g trying.” Isaac is shaking his head at Scarface like a disapproving mother while they continue to bicker back and forth. Nico looks angry, like he wants to bash Scarface’s head in. Not this again. If I had just stopped these dumb tears, this wouldn’t be happening again. All the tension in my body is building back up, making the pain in my ribs worsen again. I attempt to pull one of my knees to my chest, so I can curl up in a ball to ease the pain, but Malcolm's hand prevents me from doing it.

“Enough.” A simple word from Malcolm, with an underlying threat, silences the room. “We need something more for the pain.” He beckons for Roman and Axel to do their thing.

“We’ll give you some more, but keep the dosage smaller than before. We don’t want you vomiting, how does that sound?” Roman asks me, squatting down to my level.

“That’s alright, thank you.” I smile at him in gratitude. Axel prepares the syringe and hands it to Roman.

“There, all done.” He smiles back at me. They return to their previous seats again. Looking at them, I wonder how they got roped up into this. They seem too kind and gentle to be a part of something having to do with crime or the mafia. From what I’ve gathered, these are Wayne’s men, but Wayne is one of Scarface’s men. Does that mean everyone technically belongs to Scarface?

“We’ll be in Portland in about an hour. We’ll get you checked out properly at the clinic there, then we’ll fly to New York.” I nod as Malcolm informs me about the plan. Riggs approaches us with a satellite phone in his hand and reaches it out for me to take it. I look at him questioningly, but grab it nonetheless.

“You can call whoever might be looking for you, to inform them you’re alright. Maybe tell them you have just been on a trip somewhere.” Riggs tells me. The problem is that I have no one left to call. I left my family for a reason, and I don’t plan on letting them know where I am. I cut off all contact with them as soon as I booked my one-way ticket to the states. It has taken me my whole life to gather the courage to leave that toxic household, and I’ll be damned if this incident is going to push me back there again. I won't allow that to happen, no matter how tempting it is. You might be wondering why I would ever want to return to a toxic household, and that’s understandable, but I know my parents. I know what to expect from them. I don’t know what to expect of my future as soon as I reach New York again. I know I’m completely on my own out here, in the big bad world. It’s a terrifying thought, not counting this incident. I’ve fought so hard for this, and I’ve worked even harder. I can’t go back. Closing my eyes, having made up my mind, I hand the phone back to him. His eyes narrow at me, my action gathering the attention of Malcolm, Isaac, Nico and Scarface.

“Thank you for the offer, but no one is expecting a call.” I avoid their eyes, hoping they’ll take the hint that I don’t want to talk about it.

“No family, love?” Isaac asks me curiously. Either he didn’t get the hint or he just doesn’t care. I’m leaning more towards the latter.

“Well, yes, but I’ve cut them off.” I shrug, trying to seem nonchalant about the subject.

“Is that why you came here?” Scarface asks, raising one of his eyebrows in question.

“Yes.” I sigh. “This is supposed to be my chance at making an okay life for myself, despite not having had the best luck to begin with.” I huff out a laugh.

“What was your plan before your shitty luck came to the rescue?” He leans back, seeming truly interested in my answer.

“Uh,” I think everything over before giving him an answer. “I had a lease on an apartment, but it fell through – or, well, I got scammed, so I just wanted to spend a night or two at the hotel while searching for another place to rent.” My cheeks heat at the memory of being scammed. “Then I would start searching for a job. I graduated from nursing school a year ago in Denmark, and have been working in a ward for cardiology since then. I just had my nursing license approved here for work, so I hoped I would be able to find something fast before my money runs out.” Thinking about all the paperwork I’ve lost, since my suitcase is probably long gone, makes me feel depressed. I don’t even have access to my bank account anymore, f**k.

“Congratulations on your degree, love. Nursing school is tough.” Isaac praises. I’m at a loss for words at the praise. He is the first person to congratulate me on my degree. I grit my teeth, no more tears Lena.

“Thank you.” I hope he doesn’t hear the emotion in my voice, but the curious glint in his eyes makes me think he caught on to something. Nico is staring at me intensely, like he can see my soul and the pain I’m carrying. I gulp nervously and look away.

“You’re a long way from home. You really don’t know anyone here?” Wayne suddenly joins the conversation. I shake my head.

“I’m the perfect victim, I guess. No one would come looking for me. So again, thank you for taking me with you.” I look at each of them, hoping they see how much I truly mean it. “Even though you probably wanted to kill me yourself at first.” I address Scarface, resulting in Isaac letting out a snort. Malcolm smiles widely as well.

“True that.” Isaac confirms between laughs.

“Shut the f**k up.” Scarface snarls at him angrily.

“Calm down, Damiano,” Malcolm orders. “She’s not wrong, but you came around, that speaks volumes of your character.” He nods proudly. I don’t want Scarface’s anger to be directed at me, so I decide to send him a thumbs up in panic. Malcolm tries to remain neutral, but as soon as he spots my thumb, his whole façade crumbles, and he lets out a bark of laughter. Scarface is looking at my thumbs up in disbelief, as if I’ve lost my mind, before his mouth begins to wobble. He shakes his head at himself with a smile, as everyone around us chuckles. I think I just embarrassed myself again. Isaac is laughing even harder than before.

“See? Isn’t she wonderful?” Isaac asks rhetorically. My face is probably as red as a tomato now. Sometimes I wish I was born a turtle, so I could hide in my shell. Forever.