Draft version - Russian Roulette - Family secrets

Ch. 39: Where the bloody hell are you?

Mackenzie put down her phone.

Patricia had called again, this time desperate. The people Marco owed money had gone after Giancarlo, the oldest of the sons, and given him a brutal beating.

He was in intensive care at the hospital.

They had left a message with Giancarlo, that next they were coming for Patricia. Her mother had been frantic, crying and pleading.

What could Mackenzie do? She did not have the money; she had given everything she had and even tried to get her father's help. There was nothing more she could do, still the fear gripped her making her weak.

It felt like she could not breathe, and cold sweat formed all over her body. She was dizzy and her vision blurred. She needed to throw up or pass out.

Maybe both.

She had to get out of there.

Hands shaking and heart racing she closed down her computer and office and made her way to the elevator.

"Mac?" Alyssa came running up to her. "Are you ok?"
"I don't feel too good. I'm going home sick."
"You look like shit. Do you have a cold? Want me to call a cab?"

Alyssa gently supported Mackenzie into the elevator and rode down with her.

"I can drive you home if you don't have the strength for a cab. It's no trouble, I'll rearrange my meetings."
"No, don't do that. It's ok. If you call me a cab, I'll be fine."

Eve from the reception called a cab for them and smiled sympathetically at Mackenzie. The cab got there in 10 minutes and Alyssa helped Mackenzie into it.

Mackenzie looked sick, pale and weak. Her eyes were dull, and her voice had no life to it. Alyssa was worried, she did not want to add to the situation by pointing that out to Mackenzie. She assured Mackenzie to check in on her later, and made her promise to make sure to get some food and a lot of water and go rest.

Hopefully it was just a bug.

The elderly cab driver studied his passenger in the mirror as he drove towards the trashy neighborhood where she had asked to be taken. She truly did not look well; she did not look sick, more like broken.

He wondered why somebody dressed like her, with her looks and being picked up at a prestigious company like Granston's would want to go to the address she had given him. That was no place for a lady, and his passenger certainly gave out all indications of being one.

"Lady, are you ok?" he softly asked.

Mackenzie lifted her head with trouble and gave him a small smile.

"Not really but thank you for asking. I just need to go home."

He nodded and kept driving and he watched her doze off. She looked drained with beads of sweat on her upper lip and a sort of clammy sheen to her pale face.

15 minutes later he stopped and turned to her. "Stay here and relax. I'll just run into this store for a second."

Mackenzie hazily nodded not sure why her driver had stopped, if he needed cigarettes or whatever she could wait for a moment. She did not have enough energy to think about the realistic danger in staying in a strange cab somewhere she had no idea where was, it did not register with her in her condition.

A little later the driver came back loaded with plastic bags. He pulled a chilled bottle of water from one of the bags and handed it to her.

"Here, drink a little. I wasn't sure what you liked, so I bought a few things my wife swears by when you're not well."