LUXURE

33. THE END OF AN ERA

When we made it to the warehouse on the other side of town, Giovanni carried me out of the car and into the building. He placed me in a chair in what looked like an office.

"She hasn't spoken much." Giovanni said as an older man walked into the room. He was much smaller than Giovanni who towered over him.  I'd seen this man before, once or twice, but I don't remember his name.

"She's in shock, which was to be expected. Now, I want you to wait outside while I tend to her." He said as he pushed Giovanni out of the room. I watched this man closely as he set a large bag down on the table and pulled out gauze and other medical supplies.

"Now don't worry, I'm just going to clean your wounds." 

He put gloves on as he walked to the back of the chair. I felt him adjusting my hair out of the way. I had lost the wig at some point when they left me in that cell. My hair was tangled and heavily disheveled. Dried blood matted the hair in the back. He gently moved the hair to the side to get a better look at the cut. 

"Yes, hmm. As I thought. You'll need a few staples. Let's see here..." He rummaged through his bag. "As I thought." This time he sounded disappointed. "I'm going to have to stitch it instead." 

He only used a few stitches to close the cut and then moved to examining my hand. The cut went from my wrist to my pinky. It was still bleeding so he decided to glue it instead. 

After the cuts were dealt with, he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of me.

"Alright now, Scarlett. I need you to tell me. Did they assualt you? Sexually?" He was straight forward with his question, which had taken me aback. I blinked a few times before I shook my head.

"Not that I know of... " I said as I put my head down.

 "Well, there's not much I can do right now with what I've got, but I'll send some medications to your house for precaution.  An image of the small room they kept me in flashed through my brain and I winced at the memory. 

The doctor finished up with explaining the care instructions and let Giovanni back into the room. He looked at me with sad eyes, like I was fragile and I looked away, unable to handle his sad look.

"Scar, I'm really so sorry. I did everything I could. We saved Jordie first, but then we completely lost them, they had a new hide out outside of the city." He put his head in his hands as he sat down on the chair in front of me. "I thought I lost you and it was all my fault." I looked at him and saw his shoulders heave up and down like he was crying. I reached out with my good hand and set it on his shoulder. He looked up at me with red eyes and tear stained cheeks.

"I'm here now, Jordie's safe. It's okay." I tried my best to sound reassuring but my voice came out as more of a squeak.

He got off of the chair and knelt down in front of me as he grabbed my good hand. 

"That will never happen again." He said sternly as he looked me in the eyes. "I've already made some calls to ensure that." I nodded, not fully understanding what he meant but agreeing nonetheless. 

Giovanni had set up a makeshift bedroom in one of the rooms at the warehouse. When I asked him why he told me we would never go back to that apartment in case they found out. He also explained in more detail what happened. After they threw me in the back of the trunk, he told Mark to follow them if he could without getting caught. He explained the reason he himself didn't go after them was only because of Jordie, he wanted to make sure he could do everything to make sure Jordie was safe, but in doing that, they lost track of me and couldn't find their hideout for a few days. Miguel and the other assholes had reached out for ransom wanting money and rights to the port so they could use it to transport their drug trade. He also explained that when they sent a picture of me lying unconscious, that's when they were able to hack the phone and get a location, so they planned a rescue attempt, bombarding the location with heavy guns. Giovanni had been in the mix but had eyes on the building, so when I broke through the window, he spotted me running and that's how he found me.