Unknown POV
"So he postponed a meeting this important, to tend to some assistant?"
The old man in front of me grunted, displeasure written on every line of his face.
Even with tubes and syringes hooked on almost every visible surface, the man looked sharp as hawk, eying everyone around with clear, dark eyes.
I considered it a personal victory, to be able to hide things from them.
"And here I thought he was finally ready to... Well, obviously I was mistaken." He looked away, disgusted, which seemed to be his default expression.
I remained silent, swirling my scotch and bringing it to my lips. I paused midway, however, when a tentative, female voice spoke, "shouldn't you wait some more?"
I sighed in pity as the old man grunted, but otherwise ignored her altogether. As always. Picking up the file from the table, he went through the papers one more time.
Then, to everyone's surprise, actually did answer her question with a sigh.
"I've waited long enough."
**
Ruth's POV
"You drugged me!"
I swallowed, feeling like tiny shards of glass were tearing through my throat, but kept my eyes fixed on the man sitting on front of me.
His face went from delighted to confused, to concerned then finally settled on something that cannot be explained as anything other than an 'oops!'
A throat cleared loudly, making me snap my eyes to two uniformed men sitting next to Caleb, a notepad and recorder poised like they were attending a press conference.
"Drugged, you say?" One of them asked, sending a suspicious glance towards Caleb, making him scowl.
"That's not what she meant," he said pointedly, then glanced at me, as if waiting to clarify.
I blinked, not being able to catch just what he wanted me to clarify. My head hurt like the brain inside was fighting to crawl out of my skull and make a run for it, and everytime I blinked, it got harder to open my eyes back.
When I didn't respond, Caleb responded, "why don't you explain what you meant, Ruth?"
Maybe I had said something completely different than what I had intended to? It was possible, I supposed. God knew, my brain felt strangely uncoordinated with the rest of my body.
Frowning, I repeated slowly, "You. Drugged. Me."
I sighed tiredly. Speaking felt like work. Even breathing felt like work and I was tired of work. The blackness hovered on the edge of my consciousness, and I went for it without thinking, welcoming the rest it promised.
As if coming from a distance, I heard a deep voice saying, "No. No...No...No you can't sleep, again. Ruth. Keep your eyes open. Doctor will be here in a second."
Along with it came other voices, jumble of words that sounded like, "... Come with us... Can't touch ... Influencing the victim... Kidnap."
Kidnap?
Then all at once, it came back to me. The SUV. Darkness. Gun. Huge men. Caleb.
Oh, god.
My eyes snapped open to see Caleb being physically removed from the room by the cops, but my tongue felt too heavy to work at command.
He was resisting them, but they had still managed to drag him all the way near the door before he roughly shook his arm free and scowled at them furiously.
Their words sounded garbled and I raised myself up, only to be swept by the feeling of overwhelming nausea.
I dropped my head into my hands, feeling like I needed to reach inside my skull to sooth the pain in my head away.
"Ruth? You okay?" Suddenly, his voice sounded much closer. Raising my head, I looked up as his arm wrapped gently across my shoulder, while his other one shook the cop roughly off who tried to pull him away again.
"I will not be stepping anywhere when she needs me, okay?" His furious voice hissed.
Need him? A righteous part of me scoffed. But other part who's name eluded me right now felt strangely touched by his words.
Making another valiant effort at speaking, all I managed was, "Caleb... Gun."
My eyes felt blurred, and I blinked a couple of times but instead of clearing, my vision clouded even more.
My head throbbed even more as someone from other side of my bed said, "gun? He has a gun?"
Jeez, can't people keep it down here?
I turned my head to snap at the voice, but that movement made my head swim. I licked my parched lips, and in the next second felt something cool touch my lips.
I turned back to the man half-hugging me from beside the bed, to see him holding a cup of cool water to my lips.
This close, I could see his dark eyes up close. It came as a surprise to me to see something soft was reflecting into them.
But before I could linger much on it, I felt myself get cross-eyed for focusing on something longer than I should've.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I sipped at the water he was holding to my lips, feeling like I was given an Oasis after walking for days in Sahara desert.
I greedily gulped it, finishing a cup in practically 2 sips.
"More?" Caleb asked and at my nod, filled the cup again and held it to my lips.
Grateful, I gulped that in as well, even as he murmured, "slowly, now."
As I was slurping on my fourth cup of water, my thoughts went back to the events that had put me here in the first place. Just remembering it made my heart beat faster and my head hurt more.
Caleb's breathe tickled my ear, making me shiver, remembering what that huge mountain of the man had whispered into my ear.
Dizziness suddenly swept over me and my eyes well up. But at that moment, we heard a small commotion just outside my room.
The door opened with a bang and few people marched inside. Their forms were blurry because of the tears and my headache, but I made out fuzzy outlines of two people walking upto me.
As one of them bounded ahead, I instantly made out black t-shirt and dark jeans, covering a huge - huge! - body. A glitter of something gold on his chest made me cross-eyed again and I squeezed my eyes shut.
A startling image of The mountain and The Bulldozer flashed in front of my eyes and an involuntary shrek left me.
They are coming to get me again! My disoriented brain commanded me to protect myself. Now!
As if on instinct, I grabbed the cup that Caleb was still holding out of his hands, flinging it at the freaking nabber with as much force as I could muster.
A loud scream rang as my shot hit its mark, followed by strings of weird curses, and a flurry of activities started around me.
My head swam, the peace I had felt a moment ago evaporating and I felt myself getting sweaty. All this took probably in a fraction of a second, but everything felt like it was happening in a slow motion to me.
I gulped for a second, thinking I had it under control before the sound of shattering glass made me jump hard.
Wrong move.
Dizziness swept over me like rolling thunder and it felt like the very insides of my interstines were crawling up my chest.
Vaguely, I felt Caleb's arm leave my shoulder and rush ahead somewhere as bile rose in my throat and I turned on the other side of the bed as my four cups of water made its appearance along with my stomach acids.
Phew! Atleast I didn't spew on my boss, was the last thought I had before I opened my eyes to see a drenched, stinking and very pissed off cop glaring at me in disbelief.
Oops, indeed.
**
Caleb's POV
If someone had told me this morning that before today's sunset, I'd have hung half out of a car window, chased a car kidnapping my assistant or be sitting near her hospital bed in handcuffs, I'd have punched them in the face for being high that early in the day.
But now as I sat near her bed in handcuffs, glaring at the doctor for shining a torch in her eye and making her flinch, I couldn't decipher how it came to this.
Here I was, being perfectly cute and feeding her water, basking in the glow of her grateful gaze, and suddenly Leo had to be Leo and bound into the room like someone was having a fucking stroke.
I could remember the exact moment she registered him, and was about to tell him to give her some fucking space when she had snatched the cup out of my hands and flung it at him like a javelin.
To her credit, even bleary-eyed and suffering a headache, she managed to hit him right in the eye, adding a perfect mark to his ruffian look.
As if on cue, Leo groaned from the far end of the room, dropping his head back on the spare cot he was lying on.
I couldn't help the snort that escaped me, making him glare at me with his one good eye while holding an ice pack on the other one.
"I can't believe I nearly burnt the rubber off my wheels to save this hellcat." He grumbled, apparantly realising he was just a little off in his assessment of calling her a 'munchkin' this morning. I walked up to him, dropping into a plastic chair next to his cot.
"Serves you right for playing your looks way too well," I quipped, unable to resist, eying the thick gold chain around his neck pointedly.
"What, this?" He said, pointing at that outrageous piece of jewellery before whining, "but it completes my thug look."
And it really did. At 6'5 with heaps of muscles and cropped blonde hairs nearly the same colour as his golden tan, Leo looked every bit the thug that people generally pegged him to be.
The dark clothes, the gold chain and the colourful swirls of tattoos climbing on both sides of his neck, like an octopus trying to reach his head perfected his old-movie gangster look.
"Well, then don't moan about getting beaten up for it."
"I didn't get beaten up, punk. She just caught me by surprise!" Leo defended.
"Yeah, tell that to the world when they find out that you got yourself mangled by a girl who doesn't reach your chest in her heels." I snorted, eying the said girl on other side of room as she gave her statement to the cops in hushed tone.
I frowned when she blinked rapidly, concerned that if she was even in right state of mind to give a statement.
The doctor had assured us that she was, judging my her quick reflex to defend herself as she took a shot at Leo, but she might still have a mild concussion, and that worried me.
Leo got off his cot mumbling something about getting more ice and as he went to pass by me, I asked him in a low voice.
"Did you postponed the meeting?" Keeping my eyes on the crowd near the bed.
"Yeah. And also took care of that other thing you told me."
Relief swept over me and I mumbled, "thanks, bro. I owe you one."
"We are a family, Caleb." He said with conviction before leaving the room.
The cop, still stinking of vomit, removed my handcuffs and instructed us to not leave the state until they take another statement from Ruth when her headache was gone.
He gave a few more instructions about kidnappers and my statement that they had taken after the throw-up incident, but I barely paid attention.
My feelings felt tangled up with exhaustion and an admittedly unhealthy concern for my assistant, work and the day's event.
But as I prepared to discharge Ruth from the hospital, it was Leo's words that took over my thoughts. For some reason, I found myself thinking about people I generally tried to avoid thinking about.
Maybe it was Leo's presence, or the fact that I was in Boston again, or the strange flashes that I had this morning that had triggered these feelings.
Whatever the cause may be, at the end of the day, as I drove a sleeping Ruth and a now-silent Leo back to the hotel, one thought kept clattering in my mind.
Family. That's what's it's always about.