Nothing But Thieves (English)

9. Chapter

I lay on the floor panting. I had to briefly close my eyes and curl up. This is what you get when you fall down a slope. My tied hands weren't much help. In addition to a nasty headache, there was another thought in my mind: escape. I had to get back on my feet and move on as quickly as possible. The leader was definitely on my heels. And with my white T-shirt I wasn't particularly inconspicuous here in the forest. I opened my eyes again and sat up. I carefully ran my fingers along my temple. Blood was on my fingertips. This confirmed my pain analysis. I cursed quietly. My clothes were dirty, my body covered in scratches and cuts. With wobbly legs, I carefully stood up again and slowly tried to continue on my way.

The leader's voice suddenly sounded behind me: "Leon, stop it, dammit. I won't hurt you."

As if. He and his team of bank robbers were to blame for my situation. If they hadn't taken me hostage, I wouldn't have to run away from them. And get help.

My head was pounding relentlessly, perhaps I had suffered a concussion. But I couldn't take that into account. My chances of escaping were almost zero because he had already seen me, but I had to keep trying. I leaned against a tree for a moment and could hardly breathe. The sounds of my breathing masked anything that might have given away an attacker.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my back and heard a smug 'Gotcha'. I spun around, looked into the boss's eyes and clumsily stumbled backwards away from him, caught on a root and fell to the ground again. I stared at him in horror, my eyes wide. He shook his head.

"Leon, look at you. You are hurt. It didn't have to be this way, you know that," he said. I didn't dare say anything. He sighed. "It's good that I'm prepared." With these words, he pulled his backpack off his shoulders and rummaged through it. Frightened, I tried to push away from him. But it was clear that I wouldn't get far.

"And what do you try to do now? Please stay here, you stubborn little child," he scolded and I stopped. He sat down next to me, and I felt his eyes on me.

"Look at me," he said demandingly. I closed my eyes briefly, looking up at him tired and tormented. He looked at me searchingly, an expression that I hadn't expected and that confused me. He had something in his hands.

"Grazes, cuts and two lacerations. You took everything with you on your way down," he noted. "You ran toward that fucking slope with such stoic confidence that I shot into the air. My thought was that you would stop and stand still, not that you would throw yourself down in a high arc. Damn, you took everything you could."

He had a cloth and a bottle in his hand. He let the contents flow onto the cloth, a clear liquid. My first thought was chloroform, but he didn't need that. His condition was much better than my own. And I was well aware that chloroform was an absolute fairy tale. Everything else was more efficient.

"This is going to be a bit painful," he announced and pressed this cloth onto my temple. Disinfectant? It actually burned, so I backed away briefly and gasped in shock.

"Stop moving, you have half the forest in your wounds," he said in a stern but almost fatherly tone.

I snorted briefly. "Don't act like you care," I blurted out. I couldn't pinpoint exactly where I got this spark of courage from.

He pointed a threatening finger at me. "If I didn't care, I wouldn't have brought a first aid kit."

"If you cared, you would have left me at the patrol car," I replied.

He calmly raised his shoulders. "We just loved you so much that we couldn't chain you to this car," he laughed. As if it was more of an uncle-nephew weekend and not a kidnapping/hostage situation.

"What are you actually looking after me for? Your colleagues have made it very clear that sooner or later they will kill me. Get rid of the unpleasant witness," I said sullenly as he wiped the blood from my split lip.

"We are thieves, not murderers. As long as I have something to say, no one will touch you. And if we get caught, you'll have to testify that we treated you well," he concluded as he put a band-aid on the gash on my temple. He looked at his work and nodded contentedly. Then he started to look at my arms. If he was so kind, I could try my luck. I demonstratively presented my hands to him.

"Then you can certainly untie the rope for me, since you love me so much?" I asked hypocritically.

The leader laughed briefly. "Oh Leon, you're lucky I didn't give you the sedative that's also in the first aid kit. Or I knocked you out." He still examined my wrists.

"You're right," he said, pulling the rope back and tightening the knot. "I had to make some improvements there, not that you could still free yourself."

I gave him a dirty look. Of course I would disappear at the first opportunity that presented itself. Although I didn't have much experience in active police service, I could honestly say that I didn't like being held hostage by criminals.

He grabbed my upper arm and pulled me up. With quick movements he had stowed the remaining things in the backpack, shouldered it and grabbed my upper arm.

"We're both going back to the hut now. You didn't get too far before your sailing lesson," he stated. I had to acknowledge this with a snort. If I hadn't fallen down that stupid slope, I would have absolutely lost him.

"Luckily you didn't hurt yourself any worse. If you broke your neck out here it would have been unforgivable," he concluded as he pulled me towards the cabin.

"Because you would have lost your leverage," I added. He shook his head but said nothing further.