Russian Roulette: Family secrets [2021 version]

Ch. 14: Where the bloody hell are you?

Mackenzie put down her phone.

Patricia had called again, this time desperate. The people Marco owed money had gone after Giancarlo, the oldest of the sons, and given him a brutal beating.

He had ended up in intensive care at the hospital.

They had left a message with Giancarlo that next, they would come for Patricia. Her mother had been frantic, crying and pleading.

What could Mackenzie do? She did not have the money; she had given everything she could, and even tried to get her father's help. There was nothing more she could do.

Fear festered inside her like poison, making her weak.

It felt like she could not breathe, and cold sweat formed all over her body. She became dizzy and her vision blurred. Mackenzie needed to throw up or pass out.

Maybe both.

She had to get out of there.

Hands shaking and heart racing, she shut down her computer, closed her office, and made her way to the elevator.

"Mac?" Alyssa came running up to her. "Are you ok?"

"I don't feel too good. I'm going home sick."

Taking in Mackenzie's pale face and dull eyes, the slumped posture, and the robotic tone of her voice, Alyssa knew Mackenzie needed to get home. "You look like shit. Do you have a cold? Want me to call a cab?"

Alyssa gently supported Mackenzie into the elevator and rode down with her.

"I can drive you home if you don't have the strength for a cab. It's no trouble. I'll rearrange my meetings."

Not wanting to bother her friend or impede her meetings, Mackenzie opted out. She needed to be alone most of all. "No, don't do that. It's ok. If you call me a cab, I'll be fine."

Eve from the reception called a cab for them and smiled sympathetically at Mackenzie. The cab got there in ten minutes, and Alyssa helped Mackenzie into it.

Mackenzie looked sick, pale, and weak. Her eyes were half-closed, and her voice had no life to it. Alyssa worried. She did not want to add to the situation by pointing that out to Mackenzie. She assured Mackenzie to check in on her later and made her promise to get some food and a lot of water and then go rest.

Hopefully, it was just a bug.

The elderly cab driver studied his passenger in the mirror as he drove toward the trashy neighborhood where she had asked him to take her. She truly did not look well; but she did not look sick, more like broken. He wondered why somebody dressed like her, with her looks, and being picked up at a prestigious company like Granstons, would want to go to the address she had given him. That was no place for a lady, and his passenger certainly gave out all indications of being one.

"Lady, are you ok?" he softly asked.

Mackenzie lifted her head with trouble and gave him a tired smile. "Not really, but thank you for asking. I just need to go home."

He nodded and kept driving, watching her doze off. She looked drained, with beads of sweat on her upper lip and a sort of clammy sheen on her pale face.

Fifteen minutes later, he stopped and turned to her. "Stay here and relax. I'll just run into this store for a second."

Mackenzie hazily nodded, not sure why her driver had stopped. If he needed cigarettes or whatever, she could wait for a moment. She did not have enough energy to think about the real danger of staying in a strange cab somewhere she had no clue where was. It did not register with her in her condition.