Kaori examined the shape huddled under the covers. Air conditioning was off, but in spite of the sweltering heat and the humidity, Ma?l’s body was wrapped in blankets. He was still sleeping—he slept all the way through the evening and the night. Including the time in the car, probably close to 18 hours. Seemed like a good sign. She placed her hand gently on his forehead. It was still burning hot.

  Ma?l’s eyes opened and he looked at her with a weak smile.

  “Good morning, Doc.” he muttered.

  “How are you feeling?”

  He yawned and stretched his arms as if pulling a bow.

  “I’m great.” he lied in an exhausted voice.

  “Sure you are. Now let’s get you to the hospital.”

  “We can’t go there, you know that,” he protested. “My body can recover from an infection, but not from a bullet to the head. We can’t risk it.”

  “How are they going to find us? You told me yourself, they’ll be searching for us in Pratchuap, not here.”

  Ma?l sighed.

  “They tracked us through a storm, on a flight all the way to Thailand, and they found us in the police quarters of a hotel we didn’t even check-in. Do you think that if I show up in a hospital with a stab wound, it won’t get reported?”

  Kaori paused. He wasn’t wrong. Oroshi’s men had managed to track them until now, nothing they had done worked. And a stab wound would be reported to the police. It could get them caught… but what if he died because she didn’t get him treatment?

  She couldn’t accept that, no matter what.

  “We need to get you treated. I’ve checked online last night, infected wounds can be really dangerous. You still have high fever. If the infection progresses, you could lose the leg, maybe even die.”

  She seemed distressed at the thought. Internet had a wealth of information but it did a poor job of keeping things in perspective. People dealt with infected wounds for centuries and while some resulted in death, that wasn’t the most common outcome, only the most extreme one.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “That could happen, but it’s rarely that bad. I’ve had infected wounds before. The immune system can fight it off—that’s what the fever is for.”

  Kaori pulled the covers off. “Let me look at it,” she said, removing the gauze.

  The skin was still hot, an angry red swelling covered most of the thigh, but the wound itself looked clean.

  “See, it doesn’t look that bad.”

  “The wound’s fine. The infection is not, it’s still spreading. You need a doctor. I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. There has to be someone who can help.”

  Ma?l didn’t answer immediately, then his face lit up with a grin.

  “Actually, we don’t need a doc. I already know exactly what he’s going to say. He’ll look at the wound like you just did, and send us to the hospital. And when we get to the hospital, they’ll give me some general purpose antibiotics, nothing more.”

  “So?”

  “We can skip this entire nonsense and get the antibiotics directly from any random pharmacy.”

  “We don’t have a prescription.”

  “We don’t need one. This is Thailand. You can go into any pharmacy and ask for a few boxes of Amoxicillin or some other broad-spectrum antibiotics. Those are sold over the counter here, no questions asked.”

  “Are you sure?” Kaori scrutinized him. He looked weak and exhausted, but confident.

  “Just tell the pharmacy it’s for an infection. I guarantee that if you bring me back some antibiotics, I’ll be on my feet by tomorrow. If I’m not massively better tomorrow, I’ll do anything you want.”

  “You better be right.”

  “Don’t worry. I—”

  “Or you’re going to be my slave starting tomorrow.” she kissed him lightly on the lips and sauntered off.

  He chuckled as she left. “No pressure then”

  Am I not yours already? He smiled at the thought—he could live with that.

  He crawled out of bed. Now that she was gone, he no longer had to pretend and he let out a groan as the pain tore through his thigh. His body ached all over as if he had taken a nasty beating and he felt so weak. Fever would do that to a man. He was drenched in cold sweat and the bed was completely soaked. She slept next to him and didn’t say anything. Some protector I am, he thought, feeling despondent. What did she do to end up with a loser like me?

  He ambled to the bathroom and took a lukewarm shower before heading to the sofa in the living room. He’ll get better soon. She wouldn’t be long, there was a pharmacy on the other side of island.