“I'm good,” she wheezed as she managed to get her breathing mostly under control.
“I know you're scared, Teresa, but Prey is looking for us, and I'm not giving up. Not while you're in danger, not until you're safe.”
The words were said so fiercely, with such determination that her gaze couldn’t help but snap to his. Fire danced in his dark eyes, and his jaw was set. He wasn't just willing to fight for her, he was primed and ready to go.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Sorry?”
“This is my fault. You're going to die because of me.” Somehow, she swallowed down the emotion that threatened to choke her.
Actually, she was sorry for more than that. She was sorry about their past, that things had ended the way they had, maybe she hadn't tried hard enough to reach him, maybe she’d let go too easily. When no response came to her letter, she’d stopped trying to reach him. While she knew it wasn't her fault he’d abandoned her, Teresa couldn’t help but think she should have done more.
“Good morning.”
The voice coming from the man strolling through the door to their room drew both their attention, and they saw a man dressed in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. They already knew that some of the medical personnel working for the ring were doing so by choice, presumably for the money. Others had been blackmailed into doing it, and others still were like Isabella, who had been abducted, trafficked, and forced to do it against their will.
It was clear which category the doctor belonged to. His cheerful attitude and the cold, calculating gleam in his eyes gave him away.
But another person trailed after him. A woman. She was older, maybe in her fifties. A bruise was on the side of her face, and she kept her head down, looking at the ground as she walked into the room following the doctor. This woman wasn't there by choice, Teresa would bet anything on that.
Did that mean anything good for them?
Could they use that?
Convince her to help them?
“We need to draw some blood for testing,” the doctor announced. “We already have a potential match based on the preliminary tests we ran on the blood we took when you first arrived.”
Since he walked over to her bed first, she had to assume he was talking about her. They had a match for one of her organs already? Did that mean she didn't have long to go before they started stealing her body parts?
Ava had been gone for two weeks and only had one organ taken. Then again, her escape had changed everything, and all that had happened over the last couple of months had shaken up the trafficking ring. If they wanted to keep in operation after taking hit after hit, it was no wonder they had to work fast.Otherwise, they risked a raid that would cost them more organs, more money, more guards, more nurses and doctors.
“The nurse is going to take more blood,” the doctor informed her. “I'm just going to check your vitals.”
As the man’s hand touched her wrist, recoiling was pure instinct. Only there was nowhere for her to go, and his amused smirk told her he knew it and liked it. Teresa wanted to do something, lash out however she could, but she couldn’t see any benefit in doing that.
Beside her in the other bed, Micah’s body was still and tense, fury radiating off him as the doctor touched her, taking her pulse and then taking his time to brush her hair out of the way as he pressed the stethoscope to her chest.
She was pretty sure he did it slowly just to bother Micah, who let out a small growl.
“Your boyfriend wasn't a planned addition, but there was no need to be wasteful, especially since you and your company seem so intent on destroying our work.”
“Of course we are,” she snapped, a moment of anger drowning out her fear. “What you're doing isn’t just illegal, it’s cruel and psychotic.”
The doctor tutted. “And to think I was nice enough to let you two share a room and you speak so disrespectfully.”
“There’s nothing about you worthy of respect,” she spat out, and when the doctor laughed and brushed the pad of his thumb roughly across her bottom lip, Teresa didn't think, she merely acted.
Clamping her teeth down on the digit, she refused to let go even as the man howled and blood dribbled into her mouth.
Served him right, treating people like they were nothing more than a bag of organs to be sold so they could profit. He was a monster, and she absolutely would not show him an ounce of respect.
Teresa kept her teeth closed around the man’s thumb until he swung a fist into the side of her head, and she saw stars.
“You’ll pay for that,” the doctor snarled as he cradled his injured hand to his chest. “Your little display of defiance will be punished, and it won't change anything. We already have someone lined up to take one of your organs, it won't take long to sell off the rest. Take the blood,” he snapped at the nurse before disappearing out the door.
With apologetic gray eyes, the woman made quick work of drawing blood, and then she too disappeared.
