Rett walked my direction. Pausing, he lifted my hand. His eyes went to the doctor and back. “You’re in good hands, Emma. Dr. Dustin wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t loyal to the Ramses name.”
I nodded as he planted a kiss on my hair.
Dr. Dustin and I waited until Rett disappeared, not through the door she’d entered, but the one he’d earlier indicated went to his suite. After the door closed, she came closer. “Emma, I was given some information about your injuries. Can you tell me more?”
My lip went between my teeth, weighing what I should and shouldn’t say.
“I need to treat you,” she said. “To treat you, I need as much information as you can give me. Whatever you say is confidential, covered under doctor-patient privilege.”
“I was taken.”
“By Mr. Ramses?”
I curled my lips into a grin because in reality she was correct. “No. I don’t know who.” I lifted my wrists. “They must have drugged me. When I woke, I was tied to a chair.”
She inspected my wrists. “It looks like they used zip ties. The plastic can be very sharp.”
Was it odd that she knew that?
“I don’t know what they used. I was also blindfolded and gagged.”
“Mr. Ramses was the one who saved you?”
I nodded. “He was.”
“I can assume these perpetrators are in police custody?”
While I was very new at this life, a bit of my naiveté from earlier in the day had been lost in today’s lessons. “You could assume anything, Dr. Dustin.”
“Thank you for being honest with me, Emma. Now, tell me, can you walk? I’d like to help you to the bathroom. The light in there will be better, and I need to see everything.” She lifted my hand. “If it would be helpful to the police, we can take samples under your fingernails and see if there is any DNA they have on record.”
“Would you pass it on to the police?”
“That is the usual chain of evidence.” She tilted her head. “My partner, Dr. Thomas Bidwell, mentioned that Mr. Ramses prefers to deliver evidence to the authorities himself.”
“We should do that,” I said.
“Okay. After I check you over and we get any samples, we can work together to clean you up and care for your injuries. I have some medicine and bandages, assuming you don’t need anything more complicated.”
Grimacing, I pulled back the covers. “Oh.”
My legs were covered with red speckles. I hadn’t seen them before. I lifted my arms, seeing the fainter red dots that we’d talked about earlier. A recollection of pops and the spray of warm liquid—blood—returned. My stomach lurched.
“Emma, are you all right? You became very pale.”
I nodded. “I think getting cleaned up is a good idea.”
With Dr. Dustin’s help and still wearing Rett’s shirt, I got out of bed. Then I stopped, looking at the remaining doors. “You’re going to think I’m crazy” —and I probably was— “but I don’t know which door is the bathroom.”
“May I?”
I nodded.
Leaving me in place, Dr. Dustin went to the first door, the one nearest the entry, opened it, and turned on the light. “I found it.”
Emma
When the doctor and I entered the bathroom, which not surprisingly was even nicer than the one upstairs, the first thing I noticed was my reflection. I stood for a moment—Rett’s t-shirt falling to above my knees—wondering if the woman in the mirror was really me. She moved when I moved, tilted her head when I did, and her bloodshot eyes followed mine. Yet we were detached from one another.