Page 4 of Ruthless Commander
“He is in the next room,” the doctor continued as he turned and headed for the doorway.
Orders were barked to the staff, and another man hurried through an open door. Each step was a deafeningboom…boom…boominside my head as I followed them through the door and into the prison ward. I scanned the beds, then stopped.
My brother’s face was barely recognizable. Swollen, bloody…and blue. But I knew it was him, knew without needing to see the familiar eyes of our mother which haunted me every single day.
“You can take him,” the doctor declared. “Here are his release papers.”
“Just like that?” I jerked my gaze toward him.
One nod and that was all I needed.You’re coming home now, Edon…you’re coming home.I moved to the side of his bed, watching his closed eyes and steady breaths. “Edon.”
A flicker, that’s all I received. He opened his eyes for an instant, didn’t even find me before they closed once more. Still, it was enough….it had to be. I glanced around for a way to wheel him out of there, but the bare, ugly ward gave me nothing.
So I stepped closer and dragged the sheet from his body, wincing at the blood that soaked his dressings and his shirt. “He’s bleeding.”
“They’re all bleeding,” he snapped. “You want me to patch him up with a dirty rag? ‘Cause that’s what I have to work with.”
I looked around the room, finding the cabinets empty and the shelves bare. There was nothing there, nothing but bodies, nothing but despair. I gripped the bottom of my t-shirt and dragged it over my head, stepping close to slide the garment under his prison uniform and press it against the largest bloodstain. “I’m getting you out of here, brother. I'm getting you out.”
He muttered something through pale, bloodless lips but I didn’t wait long enough to find out what it was. I just lifted him under his knees with one arm, and slid the other under his shoulders, and carried my brother out of there.
The warden watched me from the open doorway, glancing at my limp brother in my arms as I carried him.
“We are done here, Komandant?” he muttered, those beady black eyes scanning the tattoo on my chest before they fixed on mine.
I didn't answer, didn't even give the bastard another second of my attention, just carried my brother through the door of that fucking hell and out toward the yard. The gate howled as it opened and that same guard watched me carefully, lowering the muzzle of his rifle as I neared.
One hand snapped upward, the blade of his palm almost touching his forehead. I gave a nod and carried Edon through the gate and across the yard. Soldiers watched me from above, only this time their fingers weren’t itching against their triggers. It seemed word had spread I was here. It didn’t matter, I wasn’t here for them…not yet.
I wasn’t focussed on the end…more on the beginning. I lowered my gaze as the double gates to the prison slid open, the cameras above following my every move as I carried my brother from the prison and out into the world once more.
My car sat alone in the carpark. I heaved my brother higher in my arms and reached for the door handle. The car was old and cheap, paid for with a small wad of cash and a savage stare. It was more than I'd wanted to spend here, after all, we weren’t sticking around.
I laid my brother on the back seat before closing the door and rounding the car. I didn’t need to look over my shoulder to know they were watching me as I climbed behind the wheel and started the engine.
Edon let out a groan as I backed out of the parking lot and left that hell behind. He was in pain, more than I could imagine…I lifted my gaze to the rear-view mirror, catching the sight of my own lifeless dark eyes. On second thought, I did imagine, in fact I did one better. I relived. “You’re out now,” I reassured, and drove my boot against the accelerator. “And you’re never going back.”
Home was the last place my brother expected to be, but it was the place where we were going, for a while at least. I drove along the quiet roads, making my way from Ispeli back to the familiar countryside of home.
By the time we reached the dirt streets, it was growing dark. I hit the lights, finding one headlight already blown, and cursed under my breath. But I knew these streets, I knew this town…and I knew these people.
Whispers had reached me, even in the dark pit where I was.
There was talk of what was going on back home…
Then there was talk of my brother.
It took me three months to leave. Three months of demands and threats. Three months of waiting for them to come and silence me forever. No one did what I did and saw what I saw only to walk away. But in the end, that’s exactly what happened. I was discharged with a nice payout and sent on my way. It was either that or bloodshed…theirs, not mine.
Three months.
Still, it had been three months too long. I pulled into my family’s driveway and killed the engine. Ten minutes later, I shoved the key into the lock and switched on the lights inside my home. Memories slammed into me and all the hate and rage came flooding back from those last few months before I'd left for the army.
Edon didn’t want a brother anymore, not one he shared by blood, anyway.
His family had become the ones he'd chosen.
The ones he bled for.
