Protecting Taylor

Chapter 32

It's been a week since my buddy Eric and I have been in Russia's and it was agonizing. I had been sleeping on the couch in our motel room because I refused to share the bed with him and he wasn't willing to sleep on the couch.
All we had done so far was plant recording devices and watch the men move in and out of the building through a sniper scope. It was freezing in Russia right now and it added to my irritation of dealing with the boss's son.
Eric was basically worthless and served no purpose on this mission. He just stood around while I staked out the building.
After figuring out a pattern, I decided it was time to move in. Eric was rather hesitant and wasn't the brave hotshot he impersonated. Eric's daddy would be oh so ashamed.
I saw the man with the briefcase a block away and decide now was the time to strike. We had to hurry to meet up with him before he entered the building or else we wound have to try again another time. It would be stupid to throw ourselves to the wolves by following him inside.
We were hidden in a narrow alley and as soon as the man turned the corner I wrapped my hands around his neck and slammed him against the wall. He kept a tight grip on the case.
"Give me the case or I'll blow your brain out your ass." I said.
After his initial shock he knees me in the stomach and I hunched over.
"Cука" He seethes.
I swung my leg around into his face. Something cracked and I could only assume it was his nose based on the fact it sat crooked on his aging face. He swung the hard case at me and I dodged his attempt.
Eric could jump in at any moment now; I almost forgot he was here. The Russian swung the case again, this time slamming it into my side.
"Fuck!" I exclaimed as pain rippled up my side.
I was aggravated now, and even more aggravated that my partner was of no help. The next time he swung at me I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him. I slammed him into the wall and adjusted his arm further back to increase his pain.
"Drop the case." I demanded.
"No." He muttered.
I pulled his arm back further and he screamed. It was close to breaking.
"Drop it."
"Okay!" He whined with a thick accent.
He release the case and I grabbed it. I saw his hand move towards his pants. It wasn't a surprise he was about to pull a gun on me. I reeled back and smashed the briefcase across the back of his head, knocking him out cold.
I was panting when I stepped away and saw Eric's startled gaze. My hands moved up in an exasperated gesture.
"Thanks for the help." I yelled.
"I'm sorry, I froze."
"Let's get out of here." I muttered.
"Is he dead?"
"No."
I moved passed him and he followed, most likely afraid of me leaving him alone.
"Where are we going?" He asked.
"Back to the motel. I want to look through this." I said holding up the metal briefcase.
We didn't speak on the walk and I was glad for that. He was on my last nerve. I would have been better off doing this alone.

I opened the case when I got through the door. It was packed full of money. It was Italian currency.
"Holy shit." Eric gasped.
"Indeed." I nodded.
"How much is there?"
"At least a million in American dollars."
"They have to have billions in that building."
"Maybe, but they most likely have stored it elsewhere by now."
I closed the case and laid it on the desk.
"What are we going to do with it?"
"Take it with us." I said.
"Steal it?"
"It's not stealing."
I shrugged my jacket off with a wince. After the cold wore off I realized my side really hurt.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"While you were enjoying the show father Russia was hitting me with a hunk of metal."
"I'm sorry I didn't do anything. I didn't know what to do." He said.
"Why did you even come then?"
"My father thought I could handle it."
"You should have started out with an easier mission or maybe just figure out a different job."
"Why the hell isn't there a mirror in here?" I mumbled.
"What do you need a mirror for?"
"To look at my side."
"I can look at it for you. I did medic training."
"You did medic training? Why?"
"Isn't everyone required to have it?"
"No, I never did it."
"My dad said if I was ever injured it would come in handy."
"Well it was never offered to me and I don't know anybody else who had it offered to them. I'm not surprised it was offered to you." I rolled my eyes.
"Are you going to bitch at me or are you going to let me check you out?" He asked with a wink at the last part.
"You're a pervert."
"Come on, I'm kidding!" He said sitting down in the battered rolling desk chair.
He rolled towards me. I stepped back.
He smirked, "I don't bite, sweetheart."
I glared at him and he exhaled a laugh.
"Fine." I gave in.
"All jokes aside, I need you to take off your shirt." He said.
"This is the only time I'll comply to that request from you. Better not tell daddy, he'll ream me."
I winced trying to get the shirt over my head. My ribs stretched painfully.
"Here," he murmured helping me undress.
"Thank you." I muttered.
He sat back down and pulled me closer by my hips.
"You're very thin." He comments running his thumbs over my hip bones.
"What's this?" He asked brushing his thumb over the scar on my stomach where I had been shot.
"What's it look like." I raised my eyebrow.
"A bullet hole. You were shot?"
"Yeah a few years ago."
"Damn, that's hardcore."
"I guess."
He ran his hand across my stomach.
"Does this feel okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, it's fine."
"Okay, good."
Eric prodded my ribs and I flinched. He stopped and looked up at me.
"Are you good?"
"Yeah, just finish up."
"Alright, just relax."
"I am."
"No, you're not. You're all tensed up."
I forced myself to untense.
"There we go." He murmured.
He continued to presses and poke my ribs until I felt a sharp pain. We both hissed.
"What?" I said breathily.
"You have a broken rib."
"Perfect." I muttered.
"Just relax your torso and I'll finish up and then wrap your ribs."
"Wrap them? With what?"
"Uh, a bandage. They're in our first aid kits."
"I don't have a first aid kit. I was never issued one. I don't get special treatment you know."
He didn't say anything. Eric just continued to feel my ribs and down my side. After he was done he got up and went to get his stuff out of his bag. He was being oddly quiet. I could tell he was thinking really hard.
He sat back down and unraveled the bandage. I washed him focus on wrapping the bandage around my ribs, it was painful to have the pressure on them, but it had to be done in order to keep my rib from moving.
He finished up and ran his hands down the bandage to my waist. Eric rubbed his thumb over the scar on my stomach again.
"I don't want to do this for the rest of my life until I becomes my dad." He said quietly.
"What?" I said backing away and out of his reach.
"I don't want to hurt anyone and I'm not happy trying to do this."
"Well, what do you think you're going to do."
"I don't know, but I can't do this."
"You've already done the advanced education program and did your training. Are you just going to throw that all away?"
He shrugged and looked as the ground.
"You can't tell me you've never been interested in doing something other than this." He spoke.
"I don't know. What do you want to do? I don't think your dad would be happy with you wasting your time on training if you weren't going to do what you trained for."
"My dad wouldn't want me to do anything that isn't this. That's the problem. I want to be a doctor. I don't know, something about helping people instead of hurting them is much more appealing to me."
"Doctors make a lot of money. Wouldn't your dad be proud of that?"
"No, he needs me to take over for him."
"So you're just going to be unhappy?"
"Do you think what my father is doing with this organization is right? I mean, you don't have the training to treat your own injuries. You're skin and bones. Do you think my dad is treating you well?"
"I don't know."
"I think you do know. Just like I think you know it's illegal to being doing this at all considering that we're minors."
"We can't change it so we might as well not worry about it."
"That's the problem. We're just pretending it's all okay when it's not."
"I don't know what you expect me to do. He's your dad, you do something about it."
"I can't."
"Well, then stop talking about it like we can change it."
I put my shirt back on with Eric's help.
"All my life I grew up under his thumb." Eric said.
"I'm sorry for that, but it's not like I've been running free. They pulled me off the streets after I ran away."
"Ran away?"
"Yeah, I ran away from home."
"Why?"
"It doesn't matter and I'm not going to tell you why."
"Fine."
"But I will say I know how great the outside world is."
"Aren't you on some mission in New York right now."
"Well, I'm kind of everywhere actually. Taylor's on tour right now so we're traveling a lot."
"Taylor?"
"Taylor Swift."
"What?"
"She's a singer-"
"I know who Taylor Swift is." He cut me off.
"Well then what did you say what?"
"I just can't believe it. She's huge."
"Yeah, I know. She's really great though."
"Seriously? Isn't she really stuck up?"
"No, she's really nice and she takes care of me. She's been helping me with my health issues."
"Is that why you're so small?"
"Yeah, I take these pills because I don't absorb nutrients right."
"She's gets you some fancy doctor, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess. I'm really grateful for her."
"That's special." He nodded.
"It is and she has these cats and one of them are really grumpy but likes me a lot. Her name is Meredith."
"I'm glad you have that."
"Thanks, it's not permanent. I'm just waiting for the boss, your dad, to tell me when it's over and I'll go back to my regular life. I'll miss it though, I really do like it."
"We're victims you know."
"Maybe we are, but I'm just taking it one day at a time."
"I guess that's what we just have to do. Thanks for letting me talk to you about this."
"I don't mind. You aren't half bad when you're not being a prick."
He laughed and hung his head.
"I guess I come by that honestly."
"I guess you do." I laughed.
He really wasn't that bad, just stuck with this life, like me.