“Don't touch me,” she warned.
The pretty girl smiled and Jaz observed she had very straight, white teeth, freckles that at a distance she mistook for sun tan and golden-brown eyes framed by dark red lashes. An upside-down tear drop made her face, defined by high cheekbones. She had a light-hearted air about her and treated Jaz's warning in the same way before holding Jaz's wounded hand up to inspect it. She studied the cut -Jaz staring at her silky hair the whole time- before Skye looked back at Maria.
“It's not as bad as it looks,” Skye said. “My herbs should work.”
Herbs? Jaz wondered with a mixture of scepticism, curiosity and unease.
Maria nodded.
Skye glanced towards the bed where Driver sat. ”Is it okay if we sit down there?” she asked.
Jaz eyed it with mixed feelings. She needed to sit down -amazed she'd lasted this long without falling over- but the fact that she felt relieved and even yearned to sit there because it was near her kidnapper (her kidnapper for god's sake!) made her mangled toes curl. She cringed at the pain. She remembered the sound of clipping from her drugged state and her jaw locked together as if reliving the pain.
She couldn't will herself to move. But as soon as Maria gave a confirming nod, Skye's dainty hand wrapped around the wrist of Jaz's sliced hand and she led Jaz to the bed. Jaz felt like a child being led by her mum on her first day of school.
She sat down on the right edge of the bed, Driver had moved over a little to the left to give them some space, and Skye sat between them. He didn't change position and stole looks at her hand as Skye began cleaning the blood from it.
He dropped his fingers a little, raising his head so he could get a better look. It was a small motion but Jaz saw him and their eyes met. She felt the same annoying emotion willing her to keep eye contact with him but she slapped it away and locked her eyes on her hand. When the blood and the stinging got too much she stared at the floor. She didn't look at him again.
Not until he spoke. “I think it's time you all left. She needs to rest.” It wasn't a suggestion.
When Jaz glanced his way, his gaze was fixed on her aunt.
Erica had barely moved an inch since being shaken by her niece. Now she turned to scowl at Driver.
Driver skewered Erica with his powerful eyes, silently ordering her to obey him.
Jaz noticed he had pretty, thick, black eyelashes and at that, she forced-demanded, willed, begged- herself not to look at him again. She didn't know how long she could avoid it; at least, she hoped, until she could look at him without admiring his eyelashes.
“We will talk again,” was her aunt's final word.
Jaz couldn't even look Erica in the eye, she was that outraged and furious with her. She kept her eyes fixed on the animal-hide rug until she heard her aunt close the door, her footsteps fading down an unknown corridor.
*
“I think Jaz should have a shower. Freshen up,” Maria suggested in a gentle voice.
Jaz gazed at her with a blank expression.
“Driver put your suitcase away,” Maria added. “He'll get it out for you when Skye is done here.”
“I need my bag,” Jaz said.
Driver got up. Jaz watched his boots move towards the built-in closet. He slid the door open. She saw a few men's shirts and shoes on the floor in the small opening before he pulled out her suitcase and shut the door.
Those clothes looked very similar to the ones... You've gotta be kidding me! she shrieked inwardly with disbelief. She'd had a niggling suspicion but now she was certain: this was Driver's bedroom.
She didn't know whether to be horrified or grossed out. In the end she landed somewhere in between, but a missing item distracted her as Driver carried her small, red suitcase a short way before placing it on the floor in front of her.
“My handbag?” she questioned a little impatiently. She needed her iron pills fast. She'd already stretched herself.
“Alf!” Maria called out the door.
Jaz turned at the sound of a nearby door opening and then approaching footsteps.
A young man's voice just outside the bedroom door replied, “Yes, Ma'am?”
Jaz saw only the tips of his orange trainers from the doorway.
“Bring her bag,” Maria instructed.
“And the bottle?”
“That too.”
Bottle? Shit! Does he mean my pills? They know? Jaz tried to conceal the horror in her face but it was a poor effort.
Skye, who was applying a strange mushy green mixture on Jaz's clean cut, looked up when Jaz's hand tensed. Jaz barely saw her. Her eyes swept over Skye before falling back on Maria.
The young man entered. Jaz recognized him as the one who'd brought the tray; and who she'd attacked. She cringed as the guilt took over before being squished by her growing anxiety.
He observed her with intrigue before Maria said lightly, “Thank you, Alf.”
The young man gave her the bag and then left the room.
“We only found out today,” Driver said.