Page 33 of The Runaway

“Of course, I am. It’s not every day you see someone with so much metal inside them, but I’d just like to talk about your hand for right now.” The woman repeated what the doctor said, and I ducked my head in a nod before he continued. “You did fracture your hand, broke two knuckles and a finger, but none of the pins are misplaced, so we won’t have to surgically fix them. I’m sure you considered having them removed, but if they’re not causing you any pain, there’s really no need to do so. That being said, it’s highly likely that you’re going to lose some function of your hand.”

“… Oh… that’s okay. I’m right-handed. I’m used to not being able to do things.” After spending the last week speakingonlyEnglish, I found it a little difficult to speak Russian even with an interpreter. Licking my lips heavily, I reached my right hand to my shoulders to nod. “I can’t lift my arms to my shoulders, or lift things, or stuff like that. It’s not a big deal that I can’t curl my fingers as tightly as I did before. When my ex tortured me, he basically made it impossible, anyway.”

“Alright. I also looked at the plate in your forearm and the pin in your elbow, and they seem totally unaffected by the impact. If you’d punched your mother-in-law any harder, you would probably be in worse shape. So, I am going to prescribe you some pain killers, and you’ll come back to me in about four weeks to get the cast removed and replaced with a brace. Carlyle Santino has already paid for it— you just need to show up.” Nodding in understanding, my lip twitched when Jacob grumbled to himself when Carlyle Santino was mentioned. I, for some reason, had faith that their bargain was true— Carlyle took contracts very seriously, whether they were written or verbal.

“What about Makovich? Does he know I’m here?” Turning to the woman, I heaved a sigh of relief when she shook her head. “Good— Good.”

“I’ve been told to tell you that whatever Aleksander Makovich is paying to get rid of you, Carlyle will triple it.” My brows rose at that, and she pulled her shirt up to reveal a congealed mass of flesh. Horror closed my throat as I covered my open mouth, but she only smiled sympathetically. “He has a soft spot for broken things held together with tape. His philosophy is that fear is not more powerful than respect.”

“Why… why is he helping me? I don’t want to work for him. I’m tired of rich men that own the world.”

“You’re tired of richdicks, and Makovich may rule Russia, but even that country is a small pond compared to all the world. Aleksander inspires fear. Carlyle inspires respect. You respect him, he’ll respect you. Also, he doesn’t want you to work for him. You’ve been through a lot, Joci, and you shouldn’t have to go through anymore. Whatever Makovich offered you is not enough. It may seem like a lot, but it’s not.” I couldn’t really argue with that; I didn’t have much experience with the American dollar, after all. “He looks at us and sees his dead sister. So, I’d think that he’s not helpingyou, but trying to fix his past mistake at not helpingher.”

“What do I have to do?” The question earned me a small smile, and she shook her head. In this moment, I couldn’t remember her name, which made me feel a little shitty.

“It’s already done. You should get the deposit in a few days. He’s not very patient, either. As for Aleksander… Carlyle is about fed up with his shit and probably going to kick him out of America early. In their meetings, Aleksander seems to think he has something Carlyle wants, but… he doesn’t.”Thatwas surprising, and a harsh bark of confused laughter burst from my throat. The woman shrugged a little, standing up from her seat as my brain struggled to catch up to what she’d said. “I’m on my way to a meeting with Ophelia, now, to discuss what to do. The only thing Carlyle stands to make is more money, but even then, he’s not interested in working too hard for it.”

“… Aleksander wants to run for Prime Minister of Russia. And I know for a fact that he’s planning to send Darren Willians to sign some things tomorrow. His girlfriend is my English teacher. She said he’s about done with Aleksander, too. That Darren is tired of Aleksander thinking he’s all-powerful and can treat him like a dog.” Clearly, she hadn’t known that, and I wished frustratedly that I’d remembered her name as I licked my lips heavily. “Darren said he only worked for Makovich because he was born Russian. This happened right before we left, so I’m sure if you push the right buttons…”

“Do you know of anyone else that has a grudge against Aleksander?”

“Everyone?” I spread my fingers uselessly, and she nodded firmly before pulling out her phone and leaving the room. The door closed, and I sucked in a sharp breath before smacking my palm against my forehead. “Illya! That’s her name! Ugh…”

“Are you sure it was a good idea to tell her that? What if Aleksander finds out? He’ll kill you, Joci.” I jumped— I’d forgotten Jacob was in the room— and my gaze flew to him to widen. His serious face held eyes that locked onto mine, and guilt sloshed up my throat.

“You get your information from Joci, right?” The doctor spoke up, having been quiet this whole time, and Jacob tore his eyes off mine to nod. “Someone like him seems all-powerful to his underlings, and she had every right to be terrified of him. But Carlyle Santino is not someone Aleksander Makovich wants to piss off. A lot has changed in the past few years. Carlyle’s organization is much more stable and wide-reaching than ever. Not to mention… Carlyle inspires. His business associates won’t abandon him because they don’t like him. I’m sure that Aleksander doesn’t have that safety, even inside Russia.”

“How’d you understand me?” Turning my questioning gaze to Jacob, I almost felt stupid for asking— healwaysunderstood me. Even when I didn’t say anything, he seemed to know. He smirked a little grimly, clasping his hands between his knees as he sighed.

“Prime Minister is pretty much the same in most languages. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever you said was information Aleksander probably didn’t want Carlyle to know.” My lips parted in a surprised ‘o’, and Jacob pushed himself to his feet to roll his shoulders with a grunt. “Let’s get you home, yeah? I’ve had enough drama for a while.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I paused before standing to frown at Jacob. “I don’t want to kill myself. I don’t know why I did that.”

He smiled that warm, beautiful smile— that one I couldn’t get enough of— and held out his hands for me. Even if I had no one else in the world, I had Jacob. He put up with so much, so fast, so wonderfully… and for what?

Potential. In Russia, I had no potential. I couldn’t be or do anything of my own volition. I was forced to do whatever Aleksander wanted because he’dsavedme.

Gingerly taking his hands, I smiled back, and Jacob’s widened as his eyes glistened so brightly with all the emotions he knew he would feel. Eventually.

America was the land of potential, and not just monetarily. Everything in life would get better and easier, and all of it would happen with Jacob and I, side by side, together.

34

Jacob

“What are you doing here?” Caleb jumped off the sofa and yelped in surprise, and I couldn’tbelieveall the shit that had happened today. Joci unglued herself from my side to shuffle heavily to the bedroom, rolling her shoulders very gingerly out of the corner of my eye. Tightening my grip on the huge folder of her medical images, I glared at my cousin as he opened and closed his mouth a few times.

“I— I’ve been here since Roerich called to cuss me out about what Mom did. I’m really sorry…” Caleb trailed off at my withering glare, and I clenched my jaw hard. He shuffled awkwardly, his face drawing in discomfort— but, despite apologizing, he didn’t look guilty at all. I honestly didn’t know what was worse, at this point.

“Do you seriously not feel responsible at all for any of this, Caleb? If you’d fucking manned up and taken responsibility for the little, stupid shit that I asked you to do, this wouldn’t have fucking happened! All I fucking asked of you was to respect my boundaries and my space— clean your dishes, even if it’s just one. Do your own fucking laundry. Don’t be a fucking bug flying around my face when I specifically say I want to be alone! Howfucking difficultwas that!” My voice got louder and harsher, until I was shouting, and Caleb actually started to tear up. The sight of his eyes reddening and watering only made me switch from rage to apoplexy. “Why can’t you fucking be an adult, huh! Why did you have to go complain to Aunt Jess— as if she ever fucking did anything good for you! She raised you to complain, and she’d make the problem go away! Well, you’re a fucking adult, now! Your actions have fucking consequences, and I’m tired of enabling you!”

“If you’d just fucking grew some fucking balls and accepted that you’re a fucking loser and needed to change, I wouldn’t be kicking you out right now! Nothing I wanted from you was difficult, Caleb! You’re just a lazy piece of shit that cries when you have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’m so fucking sick and tired of you acting like working a busser for shit money, but not trying to get a better job or any fucking useful fucking skills, means you have the right to bitch about your piece of shit life!” I forced my teeth together before I startedreallygoing off on him and losing my fucking mind. Tears streamed down his face as he shook from the struggle not to cry. Inhaling fire through flared nostrils, I closed my eyes briefly. When I spoke up again, my voice was lower, but there was no fixing the roughness of disgust that thickened my tone. “You’re a loser, and a brat, and the only reason I’ve put up with you for this long is because I didn’t want to rock the boat. But guess what, Caleb— it’s gone and capsized. Get the fuck out of my apartment, and don’t come back. I’ll put your shit out before I go to work on Monday.”

He ran away, and the bitter thought that he was going to call his mom and tattletale on me raced behind my eyes. The front door of my apartment slammed shut, and I whipped around to storm over and lock the deadbolt. I had the key, but I never used it, so Caleb couldn’t reenter my apartment.

Fuck him, anyway. Fuck this whole day.

“Ugh.” Sneering at the sofa on the way to my room, I made a point to get a new one; maybe, Joci and I could make a thing of it when she felt better. “I need sleep.”