24. Engineering ution #2
“She shot a man,” the officer said bluntly. “We’re taking her to the paramedics so she can be attended to. You can accompany her, sir, but we have questions for her and footage to review before determining whether it was self-defence.”
“They’re doing their job. Just come with me to get this fucking thing out of me,” Poppy begged, not wanting to bleed to death because they were arguing.
She looked for Sophia in the crowd, sure she would want to see her handiwork, but the sudden burst of agony as the officer helped her into the back of the ambulance made her forget everything else.
She sat on the stretcher while they examined the wound. In the breeze coming through the doors, she could feel how much she was sweating, the adrenaline working its way out of her system. Instinctively, she reached for Isaiah’s hand, needing to feel grounded.
“Can you please remove it?” she asked the paramedic, whose nametag read ‘Susana’, as she hooked her up to a blood pressure monitor. The officers didn’t leave the doors, making it clear she couldn’t leave.
“We should really get you to a hospital. We need to X-ray the area,” the paramedic said, looking to Isaiah to back her up.
“No hospitals. Please, I want it out. Just remove it and stitch me up,” Poppy ordered, grateful that Isaiah didn’t butt in or try to force her. She didn’t want to lure Sophia to the hospital where Mina was.
The paramedics argued in Italian before conceding.
“It doesn’t seem to be in too deep. We can try, but you need to sign a waiver,” one of them said, filling a syringe. “Something for the pain.”
The other paramedic handed Poppy a clipboard, and she scribbled her signature as they injected her shoulder. The sting wasn’t nearly as painful as being stabbed. She doubted anything would be in the future.
Isaiah watched them like a hawk as they padded the area with gauze before removing the knife. Even with the painkillers, the pain blinded her, and she squeezed Isaiah’s hand so tight she was sure she broke a bone or two.
“How’s Mina?” she asked, trying to distract herself as they cleaned the wound and started on the sutures.
“She’s in the hospital having surgery. We’ll know more in a few hours,” Isaiah said. “Don’t you want to go and see her when she comes out?”
“No,” Poppy said, a little too quickly, and Isaiah looked alarmed. “Sorry– the pain.” Her reason was pathetic, but his brow relaxed as he accepted the excuse. “She’ll need rest, and seeing me might stress her out. We’ll go when she’s out of danger and recovering.”
An officer appeared asking for the evidence – the knife. He held out an evidence bag, and one paramedic handed it over while the other kept pressure on the wound and gave her something to help with the bleeding.
“Captain Hamill helped us examine tonight’s surveillance footage, confirming that Davide was the one who attacked Mina and pulled the knife on Poppy. We’ll still need to take your account, so you can’t leave the country until we finish the investigation.”
“We’ve given you some antibiotics and something for the pain, but you’ll need to go to the hospital or see a doctor soon to make sure you don’t develop an infection. This is only a temporary fix,” the paramedic cautioned, securing the bandage.
“I promise. Can I go?” Poppy was sure Sophia wasn’t going to let her go far.
“Where are you going to be staying?” the officer asked. “We’ll need to be able to find you.”
“I don’t know.” Poppy looked to Isaiah.
“They can stay with us,” Phoebe said, appearing with Axel.
Amid the pain, Poppy felt terrible at having ruined Phoebe’s night. She had so much to celebrate, yet here she was, bailing them out at the scene of a murder.
“How did you get past the tape?” Isaiah asked as Axel hugged his friend.
“Told one of the officers we had important information. I found the waiter who gave me the note that I think sent Poppy here, but they were paid one hundred euro to pass it along by a woman wearing a hood, and they didn’t get a look at her face, or a name.
We tried to ask for cameras, but there weren’t any in the staff smoking area where they were approached,” Phoebe said, looking at the officer guiltily.
“Sorry, I can’t help we’re their friends, and they’ll be coming home with us if they’re free to leave. ”
Poppy admired her fierce defence of those she cared for, feeling unworthy of such support. Tonight should have ended with a celebration, not them having to lie to an officer and risk going to jail themselves.
She was getting down from the ambulance with Isaiah and Axel’s help when Captain Hamill confronted them. Poppy had been expecting this.
“Where did you get the gun?” the captain demanded, not caring who was around or who could hear. Poppy understood her grief, but she was putting her own life at risk by asking these questions. Sophia wouldn’t accept another threat to her plan.
“It was in the surveillance room on the desk when I entered,” she said. “It should be on camera.”
“It is, but there’s no footage of how it got there. It just magically appears. What happened with Davide? What were you talking about? Why did you have to shoot him? Kill him?”
“I’m sorry about your friend, but he was going to kill me. He wasn’t in his right mind. I hope you’ll see in time why I had to do what I did.” Poppy tried to spell it out, not wanting the officers to understand her double meaning.
Captain Hamill wiped the tears from her eyes, studying Poppy closely.“I never should’ve trusted you– either of you. I knew it was going to get more of my people killed!”
The officers got between them, but Poppy knew the woman was angry and just needed tovent.
“I’m sorry he betrayed you,” she said again as her own tears fell.
The pain, the shock and whatever cocktail of drugs the paramedics had given her to keep her movingopened the floodgates.
“But he attacked Mina and confessed to the others.” She left out Sophia’s involvement so it wouldn’t start a manhunt.
She knew she was Sophia’s target and, unless prompted, wouldn’t kill anyone else.
“Davide came to delete the footage of what he did to Mina, and he would have killed me for trying to stop him.”
“But why? He worked with me for five years. Why now?”
Poppy wanted to tell her the truth, that he’d been just a pawn in someone else’s bigger game, and she would once it was over.
If she survived to tell the story, she would learn what wrong she had done to Sophia to awaken such hatred.
She despised Davide for hurting Mina and his part in this game, but he had got caught up in a wider web and thought he was helping and protecting someone he loved.
“I can’t answer you that now,” she admitted, and the betrayal in Captain Hamill’s eyes stung her.
Recovering her composure, the captain left without another word to return to her waiting crew. The cool breeze off the coast caused Poppy’s teeth to chatter –or the adrenaline was finally wearing off– and Isaiah wrapped his jacket around her shoulders.
“Don’t take what she said to heart. She’s in shock,” Phoebe said softly.
But Poppy saw the doubt in Isaiah’s eyes. He knew she was keeping secrets.
The paramedics and the officers finally gave the group the go-ahead to leave.
Axel and Phoebe hailed a couple of taxis; Poppy figured the couple wanted to give them some space.
Isaiah gave the address to the driver and helped her into the back seat.
She winced as she bumped her shoulder against the hard leather seat.
Isaiah was quick to help her settle against him so she didn’t feel it too much when they went over the bumps and dips in the road.
“You promised me that you wouldn’t leave Phoebe and Axel,” he said sadly, holding her body against his. “I could’ve lost you. When I heard the gun go off and the officers refused to let me go to you, I thought my heart was going to stop.”
Poppy’s head waged war with her heart. All she wanted was to protect him, but all she seemed to do was cause him such pain and frustration.
She couldn’t tell him that she had killed a man so that he would be spared.
She couldn’t put that on him when it had been her choice.
It had been her choice to take the lives of those who’d wronged her and others, and he had already put aside his duty to carry that secret.
“Are you going to say something? Please, Poppy, I need to understand,” he said gently. “Do you not trust me? Is that why you went alone?” The hurt in his words crushed her already heavy heart.
“I got a note when we were at the party that said if I didn’t go, I would find you in a pool of your own blood.
I had already seen what happened to Joshua, and I couldn’t bear the thought of your life being taken, of you being stolen from me.
I’ve never had a chance to feel about someone how I feel about you.
I can’t even understand it. I trust you, but I don’t trust you to protect yourself when it comes to me, whether it’s your job or not, and I can’t let you go,” she told him, studying his face as though she was afraid she would forget.
“You’re safe now, and so is Mina. That’s all that matters to me.
I’ve never had people to love or fight for me, and now that I have it, I won’t let it go.
You can call me selfish, reckless, or stubborn, but I’m not giving up love now that I’ve found it.
” Her chest rose and fell sharply as she confessed her feelings, not wanting him to believe that she doubted him for even a second.
She silenced his anger by pressing her lips to his. Kissing him was like tasting heaven, like taking a deep breath after drowning. All thoughts of death and fear faded away.
“You did what you had to to survive,” Isaiah said, holding her carefully so he wouldn’t hurt her.
“I didn’t do it to survive. It was a choice. You or him. I picked you,” Poppy admitted.
“We don’t need to talk about this now. You just need to rest,” Isaiah murmured as the taxi pulled away from the curb. She didn’t know if it was the crash of adrenaline or the cocktail of medications, but tucked under his arm, she sank into a deep and sudden sleep.