Page 14 of Collateral Claim

I point directly at Daniel’s kneecap. “Five, four…”

Scarlett bursts into the room, and with one look at her father, she assesses him. Daniel’s red in the face from pain and breathes through his teeth, a whimper escaping him once in a while.

Quickly, she uses Daniel’s tie as a tourniquet and compresses the wound. In between administering first aid and telling the staff and Wilfred what to do, she glares at me.

I rise from the couch with a groan, realizing I’ll have to find out where my brother is the hard way. “No ambulance. No sirens,” I order. “Did you eat?” I ask her as blood seeps between her fingers and over the ring.

The housekeeper brings Scarlett her black leather doctor’s bag, and Scarlett injects her dad with something.

“Did you eat?” I ask her again.

Dr. Pembroke patches up her father, then rises from her kneeling position on the floor, her hands bloody, her face streaked with blood too. She comes to me and looks up from her five-foot-nine position. I’m six foot six, so I’ve still got nine inches on her. Nine inches is a good length. The length of my dick. Not that that matters now, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

“What kind of a man shoots a woman’s father and then asks her if she ate?”

“The kind of man who knows his priorities.”

“You’re an asshole.”

She really turns me on. I swipe a smear of blood from her cheek and lick my thumb so I can taste it. “Did you eat?”

“Yes, I ate.”

“Good. We won’t call an ambulance since it’s a flesh wound that you fixed in record time. When people ask, you’ll explain that your dad had an accident with a weapon. We carry the same pistol, so that’s believable. Once you get him comfortable, you’ll pack your shit, because we’re leaving.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she says, her voice full of venom.

“Is that so?” I glance at her dad. It’s enough to get my point across.

Scarlett steps back and swings, but I catch her wrist. She tries to tug her hand away, but I hold firm. “There is only one way out of this, and that is to give me information on the whereabouts of my brother.”

“I’ll get it for you,” Daniel says through clenched teeth. “I’ll get the information.”

Finally! “In the meantime, I’ll hold your daughter as collateral.”

Chapter 7

I don’t think so!

Scarlett

My father’s blood trickles down the drain of my bathroom sink. Hands red and raw from harsh scrubbing with the brush, I stare into the mirror, wondering about the conversations that went on between my father and Endo that led to Endo shooting him.

I imagine Endo demanded that my father provide information he doesn’t have on a man neither my father nor Wilfred knows.

Endo’s mistaken.

He’s deranged.

Nevertheless, he means to take me away from home.

But I don’t want to go anywhere with him. Not now, when he hurt my dad, who’ll need his wound tended to.

I dry my hands and rub lotion on my skin since I’ve washed as if I were scrubbing outside the OR before going in to perform surgery. Which would be worth it if the patient on the table wasEndo. Briefly, I wonder what it’d be like to perform brain surgery on him or at least cut him with a scalpel and watch him bleed.

Not bleed out, for sure. But just maybe a little bit. But then I’d feel bad and have to sew him up and nurse him back to health, which would defeat the purpose. I’m better off never dealing with him at all. However, I don’t have the luxury of walking away from him.

I change into clothes without bloodstains. The matching pair of beige and brown suitcases I bought for my trip catch my eye. I can hardly wait to get away from everything in August, especially now with Endo in my life.