Their Situation, Our Problem

Chapter 13

Amara awoke to an empty and spacious room. There was a bed, two side tables and not much else. The walls were bare except for the one directly in front of her which had a door. She turned her head around, taking it all in. She stopped when her vision reached behind her. The room had three walls. Where the fourth wall was supposed to be a giant window occupied its space instead. It was all glass; from floor to ceiling. What she saw beyond the glass wall was what had woken her up. A bird. A bird sat on a tree branch that touched the wall and he was just pecking at it. Behind the bird, were many more trees. They went from the desert to a forest. How long had she been out?

Amara crawled to the edge of the bed to try and stand but the immediate pinch at her ankle stopped her. As if the strange room wasn't enough of a reminder of the huge problem she was in, her ankle decided to alert her as well. She looked around for her crutches but didn't see them. She didn't have crutches but that wasn't going to stop her. There was no way in hell she was staying put. She stood up slower and with more careful movements. She was about to hop towards the door when she heard movement outside her room. She jumped back on the bed and crawled backward until she was pushing back on the headboard. She turned to look for anything that could help her, but the only things available were the lamps on the nightstands. And resourceful, she was, so she snatched the lamp up and held it in front of her. As the door opened, she hurled the lamp as far as she could. Nik dropped what he was carrying and dodged the lamp by a few inches. It flew right past his head and crashed into the hallway.

"What the fuck are you trying at," Nik yelled furiously at her as he marched up to the bed.

Amara grabbed the second lamp and held it up in front of her.

"Stay back," she commanded, but her voice betrayed her as it wavered.

"Or what? You're gonna throw another lamp at me?" Nik thundered, "Put that down before you hurt yourself,".

"I'm only hurting you if you get any closer," Amara threatened. Nik looked murderous, but she was not backing down.

"Where's Sophia?" Amara asked.

Nik sighed. He seemed more annoyed than angry now, but he still seemed frustrated.

"I'll tell you if you put the lamp down," Nik bargained.

"Tell me where Sofia is or I swear you're going to be knocked out in the next couple of seconds," Amara promised as she raised the lamp higher.

"Jesus Barbie calm down. Your cousin is in another room just down the hall. Now please put the lamp down. No need to overreact," Nik tried to placate Amara.

"Overreact? Overreact! You knocked me out and when I woke up, I am in a room I don't recognize and my cousin is missing. I think I am reacting with an appropriate amount of distress," Amara quaked frantically.

"Yeah, Elijah told me to apologize for that," Nik stated.

Amara waited for him to apologize but he only stood a couple of feet away from the bed. The silence stretched on until Amara prompted him, "well?"

"Oh, I'm not going to," Nik stated boldly, "I'm not sorry, but I thought you should know that at least Elijah feels guilty."

Nik paused, he seemed to consider something before coming to a decision, "Look, I may not be a good guy, but he is. Sort of. Most of the time. He has morals is what I'm trying to say. Now put the lamp down, he said we're not hurting you so we're not."

Amara slowly dropped her hand. She laid the lamp on her lap, but didn't let go of it, "Why should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't, at least not me, but you should trust Elijah. Damn that pesky little moral code of his. He feels indebted to you two, which is why he's going to make sure you two get out of this alive." Nik explained as he walked around picking up what he had dropped.

"By taking us hostage?" Amara asked.

"Okay that was my fault, but you wanted to go to the police station. I had to do something," Nik defended himself.

"Because that's what sane people do!"

"Yeah, maybe in Small Town, Kansas, but in Vegas? The city is known for its corruption. How naïve are you?" Nik asked.

"I am not naïve!" Amara stressed.

"Whatever you say princess, but know that your cousin shot someone yesterday. That person's friends found her within a few hours. Why do you think that is? Let me tell you why. It's because your cousin killed that man and that man had friends in high and quite illegal places. So, if you think that little obstacle at your place was a one-time thing then you're even more naïve than I thought because they're still looking for her. How easy do you think it would be to take her from somewhere she's not being protected but held for pickup?" Nik stopped moving around the room and turned to look at her.

"Not everyone is corrupt," Amara mumbled.

"True, but enough people are," Nik remarked.

"What are we supposed to do then?" Amara asked defeated.

"My siblings and I may not like it, it adds two more factors to our current problem, it's going to be a lot harder to keep a low profile, and we can't exactly leave you anywhere, but we're going to make sure you two stay alive," Nik explained.

"How? Are these people ever going to leave Sofia alone? Are you just going to keep us locked up forever? We have parents that are going to wonder where we're at? Actually, they're probably already worried sick. They're not going to sit still," Amara ranted.

"You talk a lot, you know that," Nik stated.

"You don't answer questions, you know," Amara fired back.

"Let us worry about your situation. And as for your parents, Rachel informed us of their cruise ship status. We have at least three weeks before they notice you're gone," Nik answered.

Nik let Amara think over all the new information he had just dumped on her. She looked scared, conflicted, stressed, and a whole myriad of other emotions.

"Why are you here," she finally asked?

"This is my house."

She could have snarked back but instead sent a grim expression his way.

Nik looked her over and reconsidered, "I came to look at your ankle. To make sure you didn't hurt it more back at the gas station."

"Are you all into the medical field," Amara asked?

Nik chuckled as he walked to the side table.

"What's so funny," Amara demanded?

"The fact that you still think Elijah is a doctor," Nik smirked as he put down the items he had picked up as he had been talking to her. He set an ice pack, some bandages, a bottle of pills, a water bottle, and a sandwich on the nightstand.

"That was just some BS story he came up with on the spot so we could handle our shit without you two acting out. Doctor sounds safer than Director of Security," Nik confessed.

"But he wrapped my ankle," Amara said as she looked down at her ankle.

"It doesn't take a genius to wrap an ankle. I gave him the highlights and that was it. Did he even look over you cousin?" Nik asked as he moved around the room.

"Now that I think about it, not really," Amara thought out loud.

"So he works Security for someone? Is that how you're all involved in this mess? Does he do security for shady people," Amara asked?

"We've had a sordid past, that's all you need to know," Nik said. He ended the conversation as he started to unwrap her ankle.