Page 7 of Velvet Deception

Fisting my hands and scanning my surroundings, I headed for the pharmacy like a skittish animal of prey ready to be pounced on.

“You okay?” the pharmacist asked once I arrived at the right door to collect the medication.

“Yeah. Sure. I’m fine.” I nodded, but it was too hurried of a gesture, looking like a bobble that I couldn’t stop.

I wouldn’t be able to breathe normally until I was out of here. Hyperventilating wouldn’t do me any good, but just being in these hallways triggered me too damn much.

“Sign here. And here.”

“Yep.” I barely looked at the electronic tablet I scribbled my name on. I was too busy scoping out the people around me, the cameras overhead.

“Okay,” the pharmacy tech said as she took the tablet back. Her brows were raised high at how I’d dragged the tip of the stylus all over the screen, making a very loopy and weird signature. “Careful out there,” she advised blandly.

You mean be careful inhere.

“Sounds like it’s been a wild night in the ER with all the Alborada festivities.”

“Oh.” I swallowed, my throat and mouth so dry. “Right.”

With the two bags of medications packed up inside—antibiotics, mostly—I turned on my heel and practically sprinted out of there. Every step I slammed down in my escape was one fraction closer to escape, and I picked up the speed as I went.

Only once I was outside, under the open warm nighttime air again, did I sigh in relief.

No one had approached me. Nothing bad happened. I stuck to making it an in-on-out errand, and I was so thankful that it had worked.

I wasn’t sure when I would stop trembling in fear. As I shoved the bags into my backseat, then reached for the door handle tothe driver’s door, I couldn’t cease the tremor that wracked my body.

It was an in and out job. And I was out.

“I did it,” I whispered, hoping to soothe myself with vocalized reassurances.

But really, that didn’t mean much. The Cartel had eyes and ears everywhere. I could be just as easily—or more easily—snatched off the street as I could be in the hospital. Their reach was far and mighty, and any assumption or hope of safety was an illusion I couldn’t fully buy into again.

With another rush of jerky clumsiness, I wrenched the door open and slid in. A stab of my finger on the locks calmed me, and I didn’t delay in starting the car for the return to the clinic. As I drove away, my heart rate slowed. I breathed steadier, and I blinked, willing the dizzying rise of my blood pressure to continue to fall.

A gaggle of partiers tossing out firecrackers forced me to reroute my way, and I furrowed my brow to see better and fully concentrate as I drove through a different side street near the hospital. I was familiar with all of the area, but I wasn’t as versed with driving down these roads.

It was likely why when I slowed for a turn and spotted a man lying in an alleyway, I did a double-take.

“Oh, shit.” I didn’t dare get out. Peering at the still man in the alley, I worried. I was still recovering from the panic. I was still on edge just being near the hospital, but beneath that, a concern about this stranger struck me. The Hippocratic Oath was no laughing matter. Ineededto nurse. My nurturing skills came to me automatically, and the sight of a person in pain called to me.

“Shit.” I grimaced, stalling before driving on. Out here in this system of alleyways, shadows hung darker. Nooks and crannies hid deeper. Anyone could be out there, waiting to attack. That man on the ground could be a decoy. A lure.

But… he’s a doctor.

He had to be. The white doctor lab coat was a giveaway. And the lack of motion from his body suggested he had to be wounded or dead.

I peered around the alley, waiting for a jump scare.

Don’t, Sofia. Don’t.I had to temper this need to help and save and rescue. I couldn’t get into business that wasn’t mine when it could very well be dangerous for me. It didn’t make sense how I could swing from panic and fear to concern and caution, but that was how it worked.

It’s not my business.

And this close, it could most definitely be the Cartel’s business. They could have done this, depositing a man out here.

But a doctor?

I shook my head, too scared to get out. I had to do all I could to stay off the Cartel’s radar.

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