Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,38
and I tried to disguise my feeling of being caught by patting it.
“This is Uno. You haven’t been introduced properly. She’s a search and rescue dog. Good at finding people when they go missing.” His last word was pointed, and I looked up as he slid the door shut behind himself without taking his eyes off me.
“I’m not your prisoner, you know.” But I sure was starting to feel like I was.
Eli tilted his head to the side and wandered over to the ottoman near the couch, while Uno nudged my hand for more pats.
“Of course. How’s your concussion? And your wrist?” He sat down on the ottoman with a heavy thud and craned forward to look at my poorly bandaged wrist, and I self-consciously tucked the end into the wrapping.
“I’m fine.” I sounded petulant but whatever, this guy wasn’t going to be in my life for much longer. “How are your balls?”
He sighed and pulled his hair back, then held up his hands in surrender. “We got off on the wrong foot.”
“Right.” I finished tying one boot and quickly moved to the next. “Kidnapping someone tends to sour the relationship.”
He gave a short chuckle and smoothed his hands over his knees while he searched for my gaze, but I wasn’t giving it to him. I kept my eyes locked on my laces. “Look, I know it doesn’t seem like we’re on your side, but we are. We’re looking out for you. The best thing you can do for us, and for Derek, and for yourself is to stay here and get some more rest. Maybe get a doctor to bandage that wrist properly.” Eli winked at me with his black eye. The gesture was not unkind, but it made me angry.
“Hey, what I need help with right now is to get to an important appointment, so if you don’t mind—” I was cut off when he slapped my hand away from my boot. I recoiled, but he held my foot in place while rage throbbed in my belly and I frowned in confusion.
He grinned at me as he yanked at my laces and tightened the boot around my foot.
“These used to be mine, you know?” He smiled proudly and slapped the underside of the sole. “First pair that Derek ever bought me.”
It wasn’t news that Derek was a good guy, and I didn’t get what Eli was getting at. He was making fast work on lacing up the boot though. “This place is called the Vanguard Tower, did Derek tell you that?”
I nodded like the name of a building mattered. The Sears Tower had a nice name, as did the White House, but I wouldn’t like being held captive at one of those, either.
“Good. But I don’t think you really get what that means. Not yet, anyway.” Eli put a mysterious edge to his voice, and finished tying a bow and motioned for me to lift my other boot.
I reluctantly presented my poorly laced footwear, then slumped back into the sofa, ready to hear about the weird cult they ran under the guise of being good and helpful souls. I could spare five minutes for story time if it meant getting a little help…
Eli spoke towards his fingers as he tightened the boot, while Uno rested her head in my lap and I smoothed her ears back as I listened. “All of us work on the frontlines, we’re all dedicated to helping people. In our jobs, we save and heal, find and rescue…but our real work is with guys like you, the ones we meet who need the kind of help the system can’t or won’t provide.”
I flicked my eyes up, indignant. He must have the wrong idea about me. “I’m not in foster care, you know.” I immediately felt ashamed by how I sounded, like foster care was something to be ashamed of.
But Eli met my gaze and smiled, not seeming offended, his fingers paused on the knot he was halfway through tying. “I mean any system. Law and order, healthcare, education, military—those systems let people down.” His voice shook with emotion and I was surprised by how sincere he sounded. “We all went through a time when no one was there for us until we found each other. So, we have to pay that back. Pay it forward, I mean—to people like you.”
I swallowed down a rising uncertainty about my plan to get out of there, and Eli tied off my laces.
“And if people like me don’t