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IMARA TILTED HER HEAD AS ABE cleaned her wound. “How did you know I cut my shoulder?” she asked.
“How mad was Naki when you had to postpone your picnic because of this mission?” he countered.
She shrugged off his question, trying to forget that she delayed plans with her sister. Again. Naki hadn’t been mad. She’d been disappointed, and that hurt worse. All this talk about being better friends, and, so far, they’d barely spent a few hours together. Even being roommates.
She frowned and pushed the thought away. “You’re trying to change the subject. How did you know I cut my shoulder?”
He gave her a look, apparently knowing exactly where this conversation was headed. “You’re never going to let this go, are you?”
She waited until Keiko and Husani were busy lifting people onto the hover carts before she continued. Even then, she lowered her voice. “I won’t let it go until you accept you’re a healer.”
He swept a cleansing wipe across her skin. “I’m not, and you’re wasting your breath.
“How did you know about my shoulder?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “I saw the blood on your shirt and...”
“You had a gut feeling?”
“Yeah,” he said with a nod. His fingers froze, and he shifted focus to her eyes. “Wait. Is that how you first started noticing your hila? With a gut feeling?”
She nodded, not trying to hide the grin on her face.
He shook his head. “I’m just a random guy with medical training. My gut feeling isn’t the same as yours.”
“Why not?”
He dug through his bag and let out a huff. “Why won’t you let it go?”
“Why won’t you just accept it?”
He narrowed his eyes at her, clearly trying to look angry, but failing miserably. He put a bandage over her cut. “I’d be very upset with you right now if... If I didn’t love cleaning your wounds so much.”
She snickered and gave him a quick stare that was decidedly unprofessional. She wiped the look away a moment later. “You never told me why you got medical training. Was it because of your mom? So you’d always be prepared if something happened to someone you love?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It was because of this job.” He stopped shaking his head, and let out a quick sigh. “Okay, yes, and because of my mom, but it doesn’t mean I’m a healer. You’re reading too much into it.”
He glanced back at Keiko as she and Husani lifted the last person onto the hover cart.
“Are you thinking about your mom?” Imara whispered.
“Yeah,” he said before he gulped. “And Keiko’s mom.”
She reached for his hand and gave it a quick squeeze before Husani or Keiko could see. Abe looked back with a little smile, but it fell a moment later. He shook his head slightly. “Takara is insane. If she hates Keiko so much, why doesn’t she just ignore her?”
“And why did she slap her for no reason?”
“Exactly,” Abe said with a nod. He let out a sigh and stuffed the rest of his supplies into his bag. “It’s weird. I know what I went through with my mom was horrible. It was. But what’s worse, losing a parent who loves you or having one who doesn’t?”
* * *
THEY LEFT THE REHAB center, only to be met with a gangster gripping his bleeding thigh. Imara gasped, but Abe was on his knees stopping the blood before the gangster could say a word.
“You were at the restaurant,” Imara said. “You wanted to join us.”
The gangster let out a yelp as Abe pressed against his wound. Only a moment later, he seemed to feel some relief. “Yeah,” the gangster said.
Husani and Keiko looked at each other, and Abe seemed too distracted by the wound to be aware of the conversation.
Imara swallowed and spoke in her soothing voice, which she hoped would make him feel more at ease. “What’s your name?” she asked.
The gangster stared at her for a few seconds before he responded. He seemed more surprised by this question than unwilling to answer. He shook his head as if trying to shake away the shock, then said, “Rajesh.”
“How long have you been with Sef?” Abe asked.
Again, Rajesh stared. He narrowed his eyes at Abe, then at Imara, clearly puzzled by both of them. He shook his head again and said, “I started working for Sef when I was thirteen years old.”
He stopped, and Imara gave him a little nod, urging him to continue.
He blinked at her, but then the words came spilling out. “Before that, I didn’t even live in Egypt. I’m from India. I came here with my parents on a vacation.” He sucked in a breath and held it while he stared at the ground. After holding it, he let out the breath slowly. “My parents died in a sand-storm by the pyramids. Sef had me captured before anyone could realize I was missing. I’ve been working for him ever since.”
His story twisted her gut into a jumbled mess. She tried to smile and said in her soothing voice, “Why do you want to join us?”
“I want food,” he answered. “And freedom. Sef is controlling, but... not. When I’m with him, I want to help him. It seems like the most important thing in the world. But then sometimes it hits me all the terrible things I’ve done and I cringe that this is who I’ve become. I just want him out of my head. I don’t want to hurt people anymore.”
She nodded, hoping to encourage him. “It feels good to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing.”
He looked down at his hands and swallowed. “I don’t have money. Or a job. Or a place to live. I have nothing. Can I even join you if I have nothing?”
“Guess what?” Abe said as he finished applying a bandage over Rajesh’s wound. “You’re hired. We have a place you can sleep, and I’ll make sure you get plenty of food.”
Rajesh blinked again, but not so much from surprise. This time, it was because tears formed in his eyes.
Imara felt like crying too. Not only could they help him, but they also finally had one of Sef’s men on their side.
