Page 8 of Broken Minds

I reached out and brushed the hair from her forehead. She jerked back, sucking in air over her teeth, but she wasn’t quick enough for me not to see the cut on her forehead, right in her hairline. It wasn’t big, but it was deep. I thought the worst of the blood had come from her nose, though.

I studied it with a frown, and she kept her hand down, allowing me to look.

“Do you think it’s broken?” she asked, her voice muffled, like she was suffering from a bad cold. Already, blue and purple bruises were forming beneath her eyes. With a sickening sensation, I realized I wasn’t going to get away with taking her out in public any time soon. She looked like a beaten woman, even though I hadn’t been the one to do this to her. If she combined how she looked with any kind of fear in her eyes, people would get suspicious, and I couldn’t afford for someone to call the cops on me. I’d end up arrested before I even got to her father.

I pursed my lips. “It’s too early to say yet. We’ll have to wait for the swelling to go down. I’ll go and get that ice. Stay here.”

“Where else am I going to go?” she muttered.

I ignored her and took the elevator back up to the kitchen. I emptied some ice into a jug then dug under the sink for where I thought I’d seen a first aid kit. I wasn’t going to attempt stitches on her forehead, but I thought there might be some Steri-Strips in there that might help.

Quickly, I checked my phone to see if I’d heard from my driver, Henry, or my pilot, Javier, but they’d still not replied. Had something happened to them? The storm had been bad, but I’d thought they’d out-flown it. I’d been enclosed in my own little bubble here on the island, and I hadn’t thought to check any news reports.

Pushing the thought of them out of my head for the moment, I took the ice, a towel, and first aid kit back down to Jolie. For once, she’d done as I said and was still sitting in the same spot as I’d left her. The blood flow looked as though it had stopped, and she was now using the damp tissue to wipe the dried blood from her hands.

“Here, this will help.” I set the items down on the table. Emptying a handful of ice cubes in the towel, I wrapped them up and handed them to her. “Put that against the bridge of your nose.”

She nodded and took the ice and did as I told her.

“Now,” I said, “hold still.”

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