Chapter 17

"I am what?" Serena asked in incredulity, not caring that the young man with the piercing eyes in front of her had a gun, a gun he was fast to pull out as he had demonstrated twice already that night.

"Coming with us" he completed simply with a deep scowl that seemed alien on his youthful face "Damn it, are females here stupid that they don't get things once?"

Serena was enraged and couldn't keep in her anger "I don't care about whoever you think you are. Nobody talked to me that way" she shouted, ignoring her subconscious that raised her eyebrow at her as if saying "really?"

"And I am going home," she said, making her way to the door.

She realised her foolishness though when two of the men that were with them blocked her way.

"Tell them to let me go" she yelled back at the young man. Basset, was it? Serena thought she had heard his brother call him that the other time.

That was before he fainted. Again.

"I would do no such thing and you would stop yelling like that. I do not care to attract attention to us nor would I tolerate you making him uncomfortable with your shout" he said before turning towards the window as he dialled a number on his phone.

Serena felt the frisson of real fear this time when she saw that he was serious. What? She couldn't just follow them just because he thought so. What would she tell Mathew? He would be so worried about her. She couldn't put him through such torture. What about her mother? Amara? The thought of her friend going frantic in her condition made her rush back to him.

"Please, you have to let me go. I… I have people waiting for me at home. I can't just go off with you like that. Please" she was not beyond begging this boy that she was sure couldn't be much older than a teenager but the way he held himself showed Serena that he was a man who knew how to use authority.

If she had to beg, she would beg. Nobody at home would understand.

"Oh, why didn't I just return home?" she thought fleetingly before he turned to her, annoyance clouding his face.

"I don't like repeating myself. Just as I don't like annoying women as well. You are coming with us. That is it" he said then he turned to speak as the person on the other end picked "Yes, are you ready?" pause "How many minutes? Good, we will be there"

Serena turned towards the bed to look at the cause of her dilemma, he was currently sleeping peacefully. Well, as peacefully as he could with all those holes in him.

Three, he had three bullet wounds in him and two of them were still wedged with the bullets. The doctor they called over had been efficient and fast in removing the bullet. Serena suspected that was something he was quite used to and she wondered again who these people were.

She had helped the man in handling his instruments and helped to calm the patient down too. Anaesthesia was applied yet he felt it. He woke up on their way to the hotel and in what seemed like a moment of clarity, he murmured thanks to Serena but his eyes rolled back again when the doctor was removing the bullets and he had been unconscious since.

Of course, Serena heard when the man said that he needed round-the-clock care till he recovered. She had even taken down the instructions he passed across that they were to follow. He had been pleased when she told him that she was a registered nurse. Never practised though she had added.

But the man had only smiled affably at her and told her that it never left the system. "Once a nurse, always a nurse" he had said before he rushed off to attend to someone else as he said.

Serena had even smiled because he called her capable. It had been a long while since anybody told her that sincerely. Not in sarcasm like her mother-in-law would or with underlying meaning like her husband would.

Then she turned to the brother to ask about the nurse he intended to get so that she could relay the necessary information to him or her. Her jaw dropped when he merely looked at her and asked "What nurse are you talking about? You are the nurse" then in the next breath "The flight would be ready soon. Make him comfortable"

She had no idea when she shouted a shrilly "What?"

He was not to be swayed though. He was bent on making her go with him to take care of his brother.

Serena glared at the injured man on the bed, wishing he could get up and talk some sense into his brother. She might not have a brother to worry about but she was also someone's daughter, someone's wife. He shouldn't just tell her to get in line and follow them.

This is… is kidnapping!

She turned to tell him just that when he brushed by her and collected a loose-fitting shirt from another man who had entered the room when she had been glowering at the patient.

"I…" she reflexively caught the shirt she tossed to her.

"Change him. The man said you know how to"

"What? I…"

"What? You don't know how to? What use is your qualification if you can't even change for a patient?"

She gritted her teeth, and spoke tightly "I can change for a patient and you are rude"

He raised his eyebrow malevolently "If I do not need you to take care of him, you wouldn't dare speak to me like that"

Serena felt a chill go down her spine and she turned away to remove the man's tattered shirt. It had been cut open when the doctor wanted to work on the bullet, so she didn't have much trouble in getting it off.

The only trouble came from her wayward system that couldn't ignore just how corded his muscles were, the full lashes that laid seductively on his face, the way his nostril flared slightly indicating that he was still with them. His perfectly sculpted lips begged to be touched.

Serena lost herself for a moment just staring at him as unaccustomed heat washed through her body.

Basset's mocking tone of "When you are done ogling him, kindly do what was asked of you, okay? After all, we have the whole day to wait for you" had jolted her from her reverie.

She swiftly did what she had to do as shame coursed through her.

Was her mother-in-law correct in her assumption? Was she truly a loose woman?

Serena was sure that no responsible married woman would fantasize about how a stranger's hand would feel on her. Nor would any professional thought of how it would feel if she pressed her lips to that of a patient.

"Oh, Serena," she thought to herself when minutes later, she was aboard a Cessna 210 Centurion to an unknown destination. The man, Kincaid, she was sure he was called had been strapped to a daybed to keep him immobile to avoid bleeding as the doctor had suggested.

When Serena had attempted to make a run for it when he was being loaded into the car that would take them to the runway. Two of the men had effortlessly carried her and on the instruction of Basset, they cuffed her to the daybed.

Even now in the plane, she was still cuffed.

Serena rolled her eyes as she wondered if they thought she would run out of the plane to walk on air just as a messy mix of fear and worry gnawed in the pit of her stomach.

What would Mathew think?