A little girl emerged from the tarp, her blond curly hair dirty and matted to her head in places. Her clothes were tattered, and she looked like she hadn’t eaten a full meal in weeks. Her face was pale, with dark circles lining those beautiful blue eyes. When she saw me standing there, she ran straight to the man and hid behind him. There was no way he stole her, and if he did, she needed to be stolen.
“Look, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said and tried to move a little closer. That baby needed help.
“Fuck that, I don’t know you, and I’m not in the habit of accepting handouts from people I don’t know. For all I know, you could have told them to come back. We have to go.”
I backed up, I wouldn’t win a fight against this man, and I knew if I tried to stop the little girl from leaving he would rip my head off my body, I could see it in his eyes. It was like he was a momma lion protecting his cub, except he was a massive man with skin an artist dreams of. “Fine, if you want to leave, go ahead. I have a few dollars upstairs in the till take it and get her some help.” I pointed at the little girl who was still behind him.
He started walking and pulling her behind him, but she was barely moving, her feet dragging awkwardly against the floor underneath.
“Angel! What are you doing? We have to go.” He turned and bent down toward the girl yelling at her.
“Inkpop, I don’t feel well. I don’t want to go. Sleepy.” She fell into him. Her body giving up for a second before she pulled herself back up and looked into his eyes.
“What? What’s wrong? Tell me.” The man I was sure would take my life if I sneezed too hard, kneeled and held onto the small child as she practically collapsed onto his shoulder. His anger now fear. It was obvious he cared for her. I rushed over to them, grateful her passing out was enough to distract him from me.
I put my hand to the small child's head; it felt like I was touching the side of a furnace. She was so hot. “She’s burning up; we gotta get her to a hospital.”
“No!” He snapped at me before he lowered his voice slightly, “No, we can’t go to the hospital. They will be looking for us. The people we are running away from can’t get their hands on us again. Especially not her. I know you didn’t ask for this shit, and you don’t owe us anything, but I’m begging you not to call anyone.”
“How bad is this shit you are in?”
“The worst.”
I shook my head and looked to the ceiling; I’d just gotten out of the shit. All the stress was gone, and now I could already feel my stomach knotting in dread, from only a few minutes with them.
“Fine, you can stay here with her. I’ll get her some medicine, but if she gets any worse, she’s going to need to go to the hospital.”
He nodded and picked her back up, walking her over to the tarp and laying her down. “I’ll take care of her. I always do.” He whispered more to her than to me.
Great, this was just what I fucking needed.
Chapter 8- Ink Pov
Ink POV
I heard the door close shut upstairs, and I finally was able to let out a fucking breath. I woke up and almost shit my pants when Lou’s voice echoed in the room. I knew we were caught. There was nowhere for me to go, we could get out of the door we came in, but they’d catch me. There was no way they wouldn’t.
I was expecting her to scream when she saw me. I was nothing more than grateful and confused when she didn’t. No one did anything for free; she wanted something. She saw us she should have squealed. The woman surprised me yet again when she walked back downstairs, armed and looking for me by herself. I had no idea what she was planning to do, but I couldn’t let her get close to Angel with a loaded weapon. I’d been expecting none of the events of today.
Angel getting sick was the worst of all the surprises today. I couldn’t take her to the hospital. Those motherfuckers were already looking for us so, I already knew they’d go to the hospital and the police station. Ruby wasn’t just going to let me go. I had a life sentence to pay for the death of her brother. A murder committed by a club, I had no love for.
“Angel, can you hear me, baby?” I wiped her warm head again, trying to move her hair out of her face.
“Hmm?” She replied before a chorus of body clenching coughs came out of her mouth. They all sounded wet, and when she inhaled in only seem to start the fit again. She curled up tighter and began to shiver. I wrapped the tarp around her and did what I could to get her some heat. It was the swim.
“She needs some clothes.” The woman had come back down the stairs and was standing quietly behind me.
“Does it look like I have a spare set of clothes for her right now? I will get them when I can.” I turned around and continued to tend to Angel. I watched out the corner of my eye as the woman started moving some boxes around. She pulled out one of them and starting yanking some clothes out.
She grabbed a few things and shoved them at me, “Here. Now put the damn clothes on her. The poor thing probably has pneumonia. She isn’t going to get better naked.” She stood over me and waited for me to
