Tayla spent the next twelve days curled up on the mattress in her room, every morning she was given a bowl of porridge with a glass of water and two painkillers. The painkillers usually lasted until dinner where she was given two more to get through the night. Her lunch consisted of lumpy soup and dry bread and then dinner which was a mixture of scraps from other peoples plates. Juan had to spoon feed her because all her muscles ached and she couldn't use her hands.

By the twelfth day Tayla was able to walk to the toilet, hunched over yes but it was better than wetting herself in bed. Tayla knew she must of smelt bad but she could hardly breathe through her broken nose. Each breath she took was ragged gasp which made her chest ache. She wished she could just stop breathing and save herself the pain.

When she had finished in the toilet Juan was stood outside the door leaning against the opposite wall, his gun in one hand. With his free hand helped Tayla stand up straight and he lead her down the narrow hallway to a paint chipped door. He pushed it open to reveal a small tin bath full of clean steaming water.

Juan helped Tayla to peel off her dirty bloody clothes and to step into the bath. Tayla was in too much pain to register the fact she was completely naked, if she had any rational part of her brain working she would have run away as fast as she could, screaming at the top of her lungs. Instead Juan helped her into the bath and she let a painful gasp as the hot water trickled into her open wounds. He unwound the bandages form Tayla's hands and she could see in the early morning light what Lewis Tennant had done to her.

Her hands were swollen and a mixture of blues, purples and yellows. Her fingers which were missing nails were scabbed red lumps.

"Put them under the water." Juan said.

"I can't." Tayla croaked as she stared at her hands.

"Do it slowly, close your eyes."

Tayla did as she was told and Juan carefully held her hands as he brought them closer to the water. "Take deep breaths."

Tayla took in as deep a breath as she could manage with the broken ribs. When she opened her eyes again her hands were submerged in he already murky water. Her hands stung but they were no longer throbbing.

Juan helped scrub Tayla clean and once she was all dry and her wounds repatched she was lead from the little bathroom and down the cramped hallway. Tayla had been given a baggy plaid shirt and someone's sweatpant shorts. She struggled to walk in them even with the ankles rolled up. They rounded a corner and it opened into a great big warehouse and they were stood on the highest balcony.

"Welcome to my empire." Juan whispered into her ear.

Tayla took in her surroundings, on the ground below her were stacks and stacks of plastic covered blogs, she guessed they were drugs. From this distance she couldn't tell what drugs specifically but she realised that this was a bigger empire than she could ever imagine. Men in shorts and singlets moved about the stuffy warehouse sorting and storing the various drugs.

"This one of my storage units, this one is weed but each warehouse is a different one." They walked down the stairs to where a fat man with a cigar was leaning back in a chair his feet on a desk. "This where the orders come in, we make sure the orders are then ready for the couriers."

"Who are your couriers?"

"Mainly men the big drug companies in America send, sometimes I send my own men if I want to make an impression and I know it will get there without a hiccup." He said pushing a door open and leading the way out into the Mexican dessert. "Sometimes though these couriers are caught at the border and are locked up. Thankfully it can never be traced back to me."

"Really?"

Juan smiled and tightened his arm around Tayla's shoulders which was the only thing keeping her upright. "My family is big, I have brothers on the border, I have brothers in the Mexican police and I have brothers in the American police."

"Uh wow." Tayla was beginning to struggle to breathe in the sweltering heat, all she could see were shimmering warehouse with people and cars surrounding them. Juan noticed Tayla was losing her grasp with reality fast and he helped her over to the nearest Jeep. He laid her across the back seat and he hopped into the driver's seat.

"Where are we going?" Tayla mumbled.

"You new home." Juan said.

They drove in silence and Tayla lost count of how many times her head was banged against the seat. The roads were just dusty hole ridden tracks and even with the Jeeps suspension it was an uncomfortable ride.

Her new home was actualky Juan's two story victorian style house, it looked as though it had been ripped out of the 1800's and dumped here in the middle of the dessert. The paint was peeling and the windows were cracked and dusty. Juan helped Tayla up the the fronch porch steps before pushing the door open and stepping inside.

It was cooler inside the house because all the curtains were drawn and cool air blew out of the air conditioning unit above the front door. The interior of the old house did not match up with the outside. Everything as far as Tayla could tell was modern, through to what looked like a lounge to her left was a fifty inch plasma tv screen with black leather sofas.

"I'm home!" Juan shouted.

There were footsteps and a tall thin woman emerged from the kitchen, she wore a summery dress and had her long black hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun. She looked at Tayla who was now leaning against the wall.

"Is this her then?" She asked.

"Yes," Juan replied. "This is Marie my wife, and Marie this is Ali."

Marie kept on scowling. "Nice to meet you Ali." She almost spat the word Ali.

"Like wise." Tayla spluttered.

"She can have Josie's old room." Marie said turning back into the kitchen. Juan helped Tayla up the stairs, on the second floor their were three doors. One was open and she could see a bathroom, the other she guessed was Juan's room, the other was to be Tayla's new room. It was a large room, it looked bigger than her room back at Cherub. It had pale blue walls, a double bed and photos of a young girl on the walls. A shelf of teddies and personal items stood beside the dresser.

"Who is Josie?"

"She was my daughter, died when she was ten of a fever."

"I'm sorry."

Juan shook his head. "Don't be." He helped Tayla sit down on the bed. "I'll bring you dinner and when you're feeling better you need to start earning your keep."

Tayla nodded and lay down on the bed, Juan left the room and shut the door behind him. Tayla snuggled against the pillow and one thing rested in her mind. She should've been thinking about the chances of stumbling across a giant drug ring, instead she was thinking about whether or not this room had been disinfected since Juan's daughter had died. She didn't necessarily want to die from a fever, she could think of slightly better ways to go.

A/N:

DISLCAIMER: Robert owns the lovely cherub idea

Sorry if that chapter was a bit boring, or a little less dialogued. It needed to be done. I'm sorry.

Review and let me know what you think.

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