Page 13 of Zombie

We stood in front of the men as they observed me. Curious and skeptical gazes met mine.

“Z-man, I don’t like this one bit,” Arrow’s voice chimed in my head.

I didn’t like it either, but what choice did I have? I needed to get information, and this was the only way to do it.

“Listen up!” Sarah said to the men. “This is Dante Ricci, my brother.”

I hated how she changed my last name. Hearing it out loud made me want to gag.

“As you have all been informed after Daddy’s death, Dante and I will be taking over operations.”

Fuck, shit. Anxiety curled in my stomach as I tried to keep even breaths. If I had known that was the plan I could have prepared more for this. And maybe, just maybe, I would have told Chief about this so we could have devised a plan of our own. But there was nothing I could do now. I was here and I didn’t have backup.

“How do we know this stronzo is on our side?” one of the burly men asked.

Sarah gave a cruel smile. “That is precisely what we are going to find out tonight. For now, get to your stations.”

I stayed composed even though every part of me wanted to run out of this building and straight to my team.

I looked at her, schooling my face to keep my expression cool. “And what are you expecting of me?”

“First, you are going to tend to my wound while we have a small chat and then you are going to do me a favor.”

An ominous feeling crept through my bones, but I gave her a curt nod before walking over to the medical bed. I didn’t give the other men another glance, though I felt their beady eyes following my every move. Sarah walked over and sat on the table before removing her sling and her shirt.

I let out a curse of shock when I saw her shoulder. Around the bullet hole was a purple-red stain with spider-like veins coming off of it. Green pus leaked out of the wound.

“Do you have gloves?” I asked as I continued to inspect the clearly infected area.

“Top drawer,” she responded with a tilt of her head toward the small rolling cabinet that sat next to the bed. I took out a pair of gloves and drew an intentional breath.

Treat her like a normal patient, I thought to myself.

Only she wasn’t a normal patient. She was in charge of an operation so cruel to humanity that I was sure she’d lost her own. But if I wanted to infiltrate the Ricci Empire I needed to do this.

I pressed my fingertips around the open wound. “How long has it looked like this? Did you seek medical attention after it happened?”

She winced, making me move my hand away. “It’s gotten worse in the last week. I didn’t have the luxury of getting checked out since everything that happened with Daddy. Alberto used to be a medic, so he got the bullet out and sterilized the area. He’s been trying to keep it clean.”

“You need antibiotics. Without getting bloodwork, I have no way of telling how bad this infection is—because it is definitely infected. You should have been almost healed up by now.”

Sarah let out a grunt when I dabbed the wound with gauze, wiping off the blood and pus.

“You may need to go to the hospital. I’m not sure I have everything I need to fix this,” I said.

Sarah shook her head vehemently. “No, no hospital. Daddy always said we take care of our own, and that is exactly what is going to happen. There’s a medicine cabinet in the other room with everything you should need. Alberto just wasn’t sure what to give me.”

I didn’t know who this Alberto person was, but he clearly sucked as a medic. She was lucky to be alive at this point. Based on when she was shot, she was almost certainly septic.

I went over to the other room and grabbed a bag of saline and some IV antibiotics. Thankfully, the place was stocked with everything I needed to help get her back on her feet.

“You should just let the bitch die,” Arrow said in my head.

“I wish. I need to find out everything I can,” I muttered to myself.

With careful precision, I put an IV line in Sarah’s good arm and flushed it with saline. When the line was clear, I hooked up the bags of fluids I had grabbed.

“Every few hours this bag will need to be changed. I assume Alberto or one of the men can handle that,” I said frankly.