Chapter 12
Cathal
“Don’t leave any trace of blood, Anmara,” Lucas whispers to me.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I whisper back in a higher note while wiping the blood trail with the shirt I removed from me, and while Lucas is carrying him through the dark corridor.
Lucas had his t-shirt taken off him and put on Blake’s wound, but he couldn’t press it there and carry him, so the red liquid also reached the ground. And what else could I do besides remaining only in my bra to not undress Lucas to wipe the blood stains from behind us?
We were lucky that the entire tunnel was made of stone and there was no carpet.
I don’t know what I would’ve done if it were.
I mean, there remain some stains, but only a few knew about this tunnel’s existence.
Also, I don’t think the people who acknowledged it would say anything or notice them, given the rest of the stains along the way.
You could only reach the basement with a special key that not many people had. I know that I found it while searching for a perfume in Marshall’s stuff, and I tossed and turned every stone of this hotel to find out its purpose.
To use the lift, you needed a card, but a normal one wouldn’t have let you go to the basement.
Moreover, you couldn’t even open the door to the stairs going down here without it, because it is always locked.
The special key also had a chip inside that acted like a hotel card, letting you discover hidden places.
So yeah, I don’t think many people know about it, given how deeply it was buried under the hotel owner’s possessions and then hidden by me. He most probably forgot about it. I hope he didn’t have a backup, and what I found in the chest weren’t acts committed here.
I am still scared of whoever else had it, especially after the state we found Blake in.
Going back to the present, we reach the creaky door, which I carefully open and let Lucas go first to the elevator.
We are also lucky that it is parquet flooring here, not carpets. Ironically, given that rugs cover most of the superior floors.
We enter the lift, put the key over the card reader and press the button for my floor, with no other place in our minds.
I am praying in my head that the door won’t open on any other floor.
I don’t know how I could explain such a situation.
I am probably also doing it out loud, because Lucas turns his gaze to mine, after looking in all of the elevator’s corners for a camera.
And then I realise what I thought about earlier: the floors are surrounded by carpets. Shit…
I wipe the blood from the floor and put my shirt over the wound, praying to all the existing gods to prevent more spills until we reach the apartment. And not to be seen by somebody in the cameras from my floor.
I exhale in relief when the lift’s doors open on the right floor, and there is nobody around.
I rush to the door and try to unlock it.
By mistake, I keep trying with the key I’m holding tightly in my hand.
Even though the door I hear opening is on another floor, I hurry and open the door using the correct key, gesturing for Lucas to enter.
I look on the floor in search of a blood trace, but with the crimson colour of the carpet, no one would even notice it.
Right after Lucas entered, I notice in my peripheral vision just one more door on this floor. I almost forgot that it is Marshall’s, because, as he told me, he wanted the highest floor just for himself.
'And for you, Anmara,’ as he kept telling me. And I, as in love as I was, I believed him. Now I’m not so sure what I felt, but it was clear that repulsion was the frontrunner.
I realise I stood still in the doorway just when I hear a whimper of pain that brings me with my feet on the ground. I quickly enter, close the door, and run to the safe room.
I don’t know why I am so lost in my thoughts instead of facing reality.
Because you love talking to me, honey.
Not now, stupid.
I get next to Blake, who is now in bed, still bleeding, but awake and with his face contorted with pain. I then remember that I have a first-aid kit in my room for my moments of clumsiness.
Yeah, you mean all of the time.
I feel Lucas behind my back. He helps me by getting the box from the upper side of the closet that I was struggling to take. His being so close to me feels so good, but I can’t think about nasty things now.
I go to the other room beside Lucas, open the kit, and take the hydrogen peroxide, the iodine, a strong solution for stopping the bleeding, and a bandage. Also, the scarf from the box.
I move his shirt out of the way where his wound was, and I shiver at the sight of it and how much blood there is. It is quite deep and seems to have been made with a knife. I hope with all my heart that it didn’t hit a vital organ.
I take the scarf and shove it in Blake’s mouth, making him send me arrows through his angry gaze.
“I don’t want anyone to hear you, so stop frowning and… try to handle the pain. It’s gonna be big,” I say before opening the hydrogen peroxide and pouring it on his injury, pointing to Lucas to take one of his hands.
The pain Blake is feeling is so strong that his face twists from the pain he feels. I can even hear a muffled scream coming from the thick scarf. I only keep my gaze on the bubble forming on the wound, because I can’t face his gaze full of suffering.
Everything is different when reading a book. You are only imagining the stuff the people are put through. Instead, in real life, it’s much more cruel and heavier than I could have thought.
I also pour the solution that helps the blood to coagulate, and I’m not even watching Blake, as tense as I feel him. I just take his other hand and let him give me one bit of the pain he is feeling, so as not to keep it all inside.
Not long after, the bleeding stops, and I can exhale the air I was holding.
I take a clean piece of cloth, put some iodine on it, and wipe his wound to remove the clogged blood.
I take a magnet from the first-aid kit and go around the injury, just in case, while Lucas gets the scarf out of his mouth, seeing that he calmed down.
“I wasn’t shot, Anmara,” Blake says with a hoarse throat.
When Lucas hears him, he goes out of the room and comes back with a glass of water, which Blake quickly drinks.
“Can you tell us what happened and when it happened?” I ask him after putting the magnet back and prepping a bandage.
He clearly needs to go to the hospital, but I cannot trust anything related to this town. And however much I want to get out of here, I need some ideas for a book. My conscience won’t let me leave Tamwine without finding out its mystery, whatever danger I may find myself in.
Maybe I am a big idiot for wanting to fall for the danger and most probably risk my life, but I want to be a part of this story and tell it my way. I don’t even need fantasy ideas, as gloomy as the world we are living in is.
But if someone dies, I’m gone.
You say so now, but we’ll talk later.
“I think last night,” Blake starts by saying, removing me from my thoughts while I put his bandage over the wound.
“Even though you were upset at me, I wanted to bring you some food. When I was in the kitchen, somebody came up from behind and stabbed me with a knife. All that I can remember is the blade that entered me and came out quickly. The one who stabbed me went away in a second. I didn’t even manage to see his face, only his massive back.
Also, nobody cared what just happened to me.
Everyone was looking at me indifferently while I was struggling to stop the bleeding with what I could find, so they knew and didn’t wanna intervene,” he gulps, remembering the moment.
You love to risk it all. I can’t wait to see you in his position, and let me continue or start to bolt like a frightened cat.
“When I went out of the kitchen, wanting to go directly to you, I saw the masked man waiting for the elevator. When he saw me, he got me before I could run away and put a cloth over my nose and mouth. I woke up in that tunnel or whatever the hell it was shortly before seeing you. So, I don’t know who attacked me, but I have a hunch about who’s behind it,” Blake frowns, looking over to Lucas, who copied his expression in the meantime.
“Even if it’s the last thing I’ll do, he won’t see me coming,” Lucas says in a voice so harsh that it gives me chills.
I am scared and horny at the same time.
A lethal combination.
“No, you won’t do anything!” Blake says, trying to maintain his calm attitude. “He’ll only get angrier, and you won’t be the only one who will suffer," he says, moving his gaze to mine.
“Why do you always gang up on me when speaking about this man? He sounds like the devil on Earth who knows your every move,” I say, rolling my eyes.
I am too annoyed that they only see me as a little girl who isn’t capable of defending herself. I mean, it's half true, given the attraction between myself and the gym, but also the defence class I took a few years back.
I have already guessed that Lucas is in some kind of criminal organisation or something similar based on what he told me. I don’t know what more it could be or what more they could do other than torture people for information about drugs.
The two of them exchange gazes, keeping their lips in a straight line, and then they both look at me.
“Unfortunately, you can compare him to one,” Lucas says with a sad laugh. “He is the root of all the wickedness. The big Cathal…”
“Shut the fuck up, Lucas! She already knows too much!” Blake says.
“I know that already, but I am sick of keeping secrets from her!”
“That’s because you’re so vulnerable when it comes to Anmara. It’s pathetic and painfully obvious, especially if Cathal knows this too. He will take full advantage of it, and as I know him, he already started to do that,” Blake growls.