“For now.” I nod. “But this won’t hold forever. He’s going to need a real chest tube, and medication, and somebody to monitor him. Youreallyneed to take him to the hospital.”
“You have supplies to do all of that at the hospital?” Roman arches an eyebrow at me.
Of course, we do. It’s a hospital.
I ignore the idiocy in his response as relief floods me. Have I finally gotten through to him?
Suddenly, he turns to Joe.
“Take her to the hospital so she can get the supplies she needs and bring her back here.”
Joe nods.
My eyes widened in horror. “Are you crazy? Even with the right supplies, this is nowhere to do the level of care he needs. It’s probably crawling with diseases.” Judging by the cockroaches on the floor and all the fast food containers scattered around, that isn’t an exaggeration. “You can’t do this. This is kidnapping. It’s child endangerment. Your son needs a doctor.”
Roman stands, stalking towards me with the authority and candor of a man who isn’t used to someone questioning him. “I’ve had about enough of that smart mouth of yours. He has a doctor. You. And if you want to live, I suggest you do what I say. Go to your precious hospital, get the supplies you need, then come back and fix Ty. If anything happens to him, or you so much as utter a word of this to anyone at the hospital, I will put so much lead in you that you’ll sink to the bottom of the Hoover dam. Are we clear?”
I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, the words dying in my throat. My knees threaten to give out on me at any moment and my whole body quakes..
He takes a punishing hold on my arm, fingers digging into my bicep so hard that I almost whimper. “I said, are we clear?”
All I can do is nod. I’m in way over my head here.
Chapter Three
I’mgoingtojail.
Either that, or I’m going to die. There’s just no other way that this can work out. A few hours ago, the worst thing I’d ever done was get a speeding ticket and now I’m about to rob a hospital. Somehow, it’s not the felony charge or potential jail sentence that scares me the most. It’s the cold, vicious criminal who’s only redeeming quality is that he cares about his son.
At least I think he does. I don’t have more than a few small glimpses of his vulnerability to go off of, but why else would he be making me do all of this? For some reason, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his love and concern for Ty. Whether he deserves it is something else entirely.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Roman and his friends are into. The guns, the matching tattoos, the avoidance of police…Not to mention how they knew the attack was on them or how no one even batted an eye when they heard Romankidnapped me at gunpoint. It all screams gang, and there is no shortage of that in Las Vegas.
They give me exactly five minutes to clean myself up before we leave. Joe hands me an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of leggings to change into, and I can’t bring myself to think about who they belong to. One of their wives? Girlfriends? Or the most likely option—they belong to another woman they’ve abducted. I frantically wash all the blood from my body, paranoid that I’m going to miss a spot and blow the entire thing. Letting my blonde hair out of its ponytail, I drag my fingers through it in an attempt to make myself look presentable.
The drive with Joe to the hospital is quiet, my hands trembling and sweaty. With each turn he takes, my heart pounds in my chest and the closer we get, the harder it is for me to breathe. By the time he pulls into the parking lot, I’ve almost worked myself into a full-blown panic attack.
“In and out.” Joe’s voice jerks me back to reality.
“Wh-what?”
“Breathe. In and out. You’re so nervous that you’ve been holding your breath. You’re going to make yourself pass out.” That’s actually not a bad idea. If I pass out in the emergency room, someone would have to check me out and at the very least, I could buy myself some time.
“Here.” With a smirk, he hands me a water bottle. He’s getting more amusement out of this than he should be, which doesn’t make me feel any better. “You’ve got to calm yourself down. If you walk in there like this, you’ll have everyone in that hospital suspicious of you.”
I swallow, staring at the big red Emergency Room sign. “Maybe Iwantto tip them off.”
“No, I think that’s about the last thing you want to do. At least if you value your life,” he says, cutting the engine. “Roman doesn’t make empty threats. And no offense, Doc, but a sweetlittle thing like you wouldn’t last twenty-four hours under his torture.”
Torture.
Wild ideas of what exactly he means by that flash through my mind making my stomach knot. “What kind of people are you?”
“The less you know, the better.” Joe checks his rearview mirror as a couple passes by. “Even if you do save Ty, Roman can’t let you go if you know too much.”
The idea of him letting me go seems like a pipe dream, but I have no choice but to play along. Roman hasn’t shown the slightest bit of remorse or retreat, but Joe is different. I wouldn’t jump straight to nice, but he’s notquiteas hostile as his boss and he hasn’t held a gun to my head.
“How do you want to play this?” he asks, unbuckling his seat belt. “You want to say I’m your boyfriend? Cousin? How well do you know these people?”
