her relief and rushed through the door, turning to close it behind her. He gripped the edge of the door, stopping her from closing it completely. She glanced over at him, but decided it wasn’t worth the fight. She didn’t know where she stood with him yet and wasn’t willing to push her luck.
She reached for the light, but he pushed her hand away and pointed at the toilet, then he turned his back, pulling the door partly shut. She stared at him, or more accurately, his back. It looked like she was going to pee in the dark with an audience. Not that it mattered, there was enough light coming in through the small window that she could at least make her way to the toilet and feel around. She’d certainly had urinated in worse conditions than this. There hadn’t been any flush toilets where she’d been stationed in Sri Lanka.
Once she finished, she washed her hands. He turned toward her, took her arm, and pulled her back out into the hallway. She walked with him down a set of stairs to the main floor. They followed another darkened hallway into a room filled with people.
Shaun balked, catching sight of the man who’d argued with Jozef about killing her in the basement. She’d learned his name was Havel and, judging from the way he spoke to Jozef, he was some kind of enforcer or second-in-command.
Havel glanced at her then swiftly turned away, a cigarette clenched between his teeth. Jozef walked into her back when she stopped suddenly. His hands landed on her hips, steadying her as she was jolted forward. She glanced back at him, but his gaze went past hers and landed on someone else.
Shaun followed his line of sight.
An older man, his hair and beard grey and unwashed, was sitting slumped in a chair next to a fireplace. The light from the fire cast shadows over his body. He was big, probably quite imposing when standing. He was holding a hand to his face, and his other hand, which was bandaged, rested in his lap. The bandage concerned Shaun. Did they want her to help yet another prisoner? Was she about to go through the same scenario as the basement? Patching up a man just so this motley crew could torture and kill him.
She didn’t think that was what was happening here. The man was in a deferential spot, near the fire with a blanket on his lap, sitting in a leather armchair. He seemed to be an important man. Perhaps the uncle Jozef had mentioned in the forest.
When Shaun and Jozef entered the room, the man looked up at them with a kind of tired curiosity reflected in his gaze. He had sharp blue eyes, the same shade as Jozef’s. As they passed over Shaun, they narrowed in speculation.
She thought she understood. Not only did she stand out as a stranger and a foreigner in what she suspected was a tight-knit group, but she was black. Her skin colour set her apart from every person in the room, and most people in Ukraine. She wasn’t usually self-conscious, either about her skin colour or anything else, but when every eye in the room landed on her, she felt her cheeks burn in response.
She shifted slightly to lean back against Jozef. In this room filled with criminals, he was the only one she knew for sure wasn’t prepared to shoot her. Everyone else had varying expressions of skeptical, impatient and downright nasty. She really, really didn’t want to be the focus of attention anymore. Jozef, whose hand was still on her hip, gave her a gentle squeeze, which surprised her. So far in all of her dealings with him, he hadn’t shown a gentle bone in his body. Yet, he seemed to be trying to reassure her, which had the opposite effect. She now knew that she should be very afraid of the man sitting by the fire.
It was the older man who finally broke the silence. “You’re a doctor?” He spoke English, but his accent was thick, as though he didn’t do it often.
“Yes,” she said, a little hesitantly. Obviously, he meant her since there wasn’t anyone else in the room wearing scrubs.
“I think my nephew wishes for you to look me over before we leave for our next destination.” His gaze flickered past her shoulder to land on Jozef. “Complete nonsense, but the boy is stubborn. Won’t leave until I’ve been properly inspected.”
Jozef being likened to