One Dark Wish, page 25
Since she still had time, she ate the pie. She was hungrier than she’d realized. She also had reason to be.
After wiping her hands with many napkins, she sank into the velvet and closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure what she loved most about Nate. His arms. Yes, those were nice arms to have. His powerful thighs that could spread hers. The things his lips could do. And his fingers…Good golly Moses…his fingers.
“Sarah?” Nate’s voice startled her, and she opened her eyes to find him kneeling in front of her. “Let’s go see your father.”
* * *
“I talked to one of the guards,” Nate said as they waited for an elevator in the hospital’s lobby. “The newer part of the building has security cameras. But they haven’t finished updating the older part where your dad’s room is.”
Because of the large number of patients and small number of staff, no one paid attention to them. When they got onto the elevator, Nate pulled out a card from his coat pocket, held it to a magnetic keypad, and pressed 4.
“What is that?”
“A key card. We need it to get to the fourth floor to access the older part of the building.”
The doors opened, and they got out. “Did you steal that key card?”
“Yep.” He walked toward the end of the hall. They passed a few rooms with closed doors and, thankfully, no nurse stations or employees. He used the card again to get to the stairway.
“Are you even a little bit sorry?”
“Not when it comes to the safety of those I love.” He kept climbing.
Since she couldn’t argue with that, she followed him up the stairs to the eighth floor.
“The guard said this door isn’t alarmed yet. In case he’s wrong, be prepared to run.”
Nate opened the door slightly, and she peeked under his arm. This area smelled older, like new paint over mildew. He shut the door quietly.
They were at the end of the hallway, near a waiting room and a nurse’s station. Six rooms were clustered around the station, and a hallway led to the next station and another six rooms, and finally a third similar configuration was at the end. The length was lit with overhead lights.
“My dad’s room is at the far end of that hallway?”
“It’s also locked.” He checked his watch. “The nurses change shifts in one minute. There are no visitors allowed on this floor, and the elevators are locked. No one comes here without an escort.”
“If we’re seen, we can’t claim we’re lost?”
“No. Once the change starts, the guard said the staff converge on the nurse’s lounge for coffee. We’ll have a minute, maybe two, to get to the other end.”
“And my dad’s locked room?”
“I think that’s what the six-digit code is for.”
“You think?”
“It’s a best guess.” He rubbed his chin with his fist. “Maybe you can ask Augustus.”
There was a tinge of laughter in his voice, and she hit his arm. Except he probably didn’t feel it. No man should have that many muscles in his arms.
He kissed her quickly and opened the door an inch. When he slipped out, she followed. They knelt behind a low wall that separated the waiting area from the rooms. Sure enough, when the clock on the wall struck five thirty, three nurses left their stations and headed for a door in the hallway between the first and second cluster of rooms. The nurses from the second and third clusters were headed in their direction.
Nate kept a hand on her shoulder while they stayed crouched. When he nodded, they ran around the station and down the hall until he raised a hand. The lounge door had a glass window, and they had to crouch below the line of sight to pass it.
Once on the other side, he took her hand and ran. His legs were longer than hers, and she struggled to keep up. By the time they hit the third station, he was almost dragging her.
The last door had a metal plate with the number 424. Below it was a keypad with a red indicator light. Nate typed in 802419, and the light turned from red to green. They rushed in and Nate closed the door behind them.
Nate locked the door while Sarah went to her father’s bedside. Machines flanked Mr. Munro’s bed, blinking colors and bleeping sounds.
“Dad?” Sarah reached over the bedrail and took her father’s hand. “It’s me. Sarah.”
Joe opened his eyes. Unlike Sarah’s brown eyes, Joe’s were a deep, dark blue. “Sarah?”
“It’s me, Dad.” She kissed his palm. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
“You shouldn’t be here.” Joe threw a hard scowl in Nate’s direction. “Who’s this?”
“This is Nate,” she said. “He’s my friend.”
Joe stared at Sarah before his head shook, his eyes rolled, and his fingers clawed.
Nate moved her aside. “Your dad’s having a seizure.”
“We need to call someone.”
“We can’t without being caught.” Joe started convulsing, and Nate took Joe by the shoulders and rolled him to his side. His eyes blinked rapidly, and his breath was choppy. “Get his cannula.” While Nate turned off the silent alarm button on a machine, she found the cannula behind the bed and hooked it around Joe’s ears and beneath his nostrils.
Joe’s seizure stopped as quickly as it’d come on. He lay on his side, but his eyes were clear, and his breathing had evened out. Hopefully Nate had turned off the alarm in time.
“Dad?” Sarah lowered one of the side rails so she could sit on the edge of the bed and hold Joe’s hand. “Are you alright?”
Joe sat up again and fixed that cranky blue gaze on Nate. “Who are you?”
“Nate Walker,” Sarah said patiently. “He’s a friend.”
“Augustus isn’t here, is he?” Joe scrunched his face. “He’s a pussy. And I’m sure as hell not walking you down the aisle to meet him.” Joe coughed before adding another, “Pussy.”
Nate laughed while Sarah frowned. “I’m not engaged to Augustus anymore. And stop saying that word.”
Joe frowned at Nate. “Are you a pussy, son?”
“No, sir.” Because, really, what else would one say? “I’m here to protect Sarah.”
Joe nodded. “Then talk her out of this foolish Augustus nonsense.” Joe looked around the room. “Hugh should be here. He’d know what to do.”
Nate knew it was petty, but he was annoyed by the Hugh Waring lovefest.
“Dad.” Sarah touched his face. “Have you heard of Remiel Marigny?”
“No.” Joe reached for a paper cup of water, but his hands shook and the water spilled. Sarah held the cup, and once he finished drinking, she placed it on the table.
Nate squeezed her shoulder. Joe was fisting and unfisting his hands.
“I wish I had some tea to give him,” she said. “It always eases the headaches that come after his seizures. When he drinks it regularly, it lessens the seizures.”
Joe’s fists hit the bed on either side of his hips. “That tea tastes like shit!”
“Dad!” Sarah looked at Nate. “My father doesn’t normally curse. At least never in front of me.”
Nate took one of her hands. “It’s okay. Cursing and other outbursts can be caused by seizures. Besides, your tea does taste like—”
She put a hand over his mouth. “No more cursing.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He wanted to kiss her hand but didn’t want to embarrass her in front of her father.
Joe yanked off his cannula. “Get me the hell out of here.”
“I’m going to solve the cipher, Dad.” Sarah rehooked her father’s cannula. “If I can solve it, I can get you out.”
Joe squinted at Nate again. “Who are you?”
“Nate Walker, Dad. He’s my friend.”
“Can’t he speak?” Joe sneered at Nate. “You a cop? Or military? Except for the pussy hair, you got the look about you.”
“Ex-army, sir.”
“You going to marry my daughter? If so, you gotta get rid of the pussy hair.”
Nate coughed on his own spit.
“Oh my gosh. Dad.” Sarah pressed her face into her palms. “This is embarrassing.”
“Duly noted, sir. I promise, before the wedding, to cut the pussy hair.”
Sarah dropped her hands and stared at him.
“Augustus,” Joe said irritably, “he had pussy hair and a pussy name.”
Nate laughed again.
“Please stop saying that word.” Sarah glared at both of them. “It’s not polite.”
“She’s bossy,” Joe said to Nate. “Smart, though. And stubborn. Likes her own way.”
No kidding. “Good to know.”
“Dad, please.” She poured him another cup of water. “Do you remember anything else from the night behind O’Malley’s Pub? Anything unusual you saw before you passed out?”
This time Joe took the cup on his own. “Hugh got the call about a disturbance in the alley behind O’Malley’s Pub. Since the owner was a buddy of mine, I rode along.” Joe closed his eyes. “We went around back and found six duffel bags and two guys beating each other. One had a gun, and I pulled my weapon. The thug wouldn’t put it down. Hugh and I called for help and…” Joe’s voice trailed off.
“What else do you remember, Dad?”
“I fired my weapon and felt a sting in my neck. First Hugh fell to the ground, then I did. It was like I was trapped in my own body until everything went black. When I woke up, days had passed. Four officers were dead. The two dealers were dead. The duffels had been filled with heroin. The prosecutor accused us of running drugs and killing other cops.”
Nate dragged over the only chair and sat next to Joe on the other side of the bed. He had a sick feeling in his stomach. “Joe, do you think someone stuck a needle in your neck?”
Joe swung his head from Sarah to him. “Who are you?”
“That’s Nate,” Sarah said softly. “He’s my friend.”
Joe nodded. “A needle in the neck is possible.”
Nate pressed his elbows into his thighs. “Do you remember seeing a man right before getting stuck? Maybe two men with an odd walk? They would’ve hit their chests and—”
“Yes. Our backup hadn’t arrived yet, and I was paralyzed but not completely unconscious. Two men came out of the shadows. No one believed me. Our defense attorney told me and Hugh not to say anything.” Joe grabbed Nate’s arm. “I’m not supposed to say anything. Someone will get hurt.”
Fuck. “What. Did. You. See?”
Joe threw himself onto the pillow, one arm with a trailing IV over his eyes. “Right before everything went black, I saw them bow.”
Chapter 31
Sarah stood to pace the room. “Dad, are you sure you saw two men bow?”
“Of course.” Joe kept his eyes covered with his arm. “I was told not to tell anyone.”
“Who told you that?” Nate asked.
“Those same two men came to see me in the hospital. They said if I told anyone what I’d seen, Sarah would be killed. Then before they left, they bowed again.”
Nate clasped his hands behind his neck. “Did they bow to the waist?”
Joe nodded.
“Good,” Nate said. “That’s good.”
“How is that good?” Sarah whispered. “My father saw Fianna warriors bow. We both know what that means. We have to get my father out of here. Now.”
He took her shoulders and pressed his forehead against hers. “It’s possible Remiel was behind the drug deal and your father got in the way. I also think Remiel’s men injected your father with…something before the Prince’s men showed up to stop the drug deal.”
“I knew something terrible had happened to my dad because after that night, he was never the same. I’d just never realized he’d been deliberately poisoned.”
Nate’s jaw was moving as if he was grinding his molars. “My headaches and seizures started in the POW camp when the guards shot me up with something. The doctors thought it was an opioid but could never identify it. At the prison hospital in Maine, they had to stupefy me with drugs just to keep the seizures under control.”
“If Remiel was responsible for both the POW camp and the O’Malley Pub massacre—”
“It means your dad and I were injected with the same compound.”
“Except my father’s situation is getting worse.” She shook Nate’s arm. “Look at me.”
When he did, she saw the truth in his eyes. His situation was getting worse too. Her breath shortened, and she felt light-headed. “They told my father there’s no cure.”
“They told me the same thing.”
She closed her eyes. This couldn’t be happening.
Nate took her hand. “Sarah—”
Noises outside the door startled her, and she opened her eyes. Two voices came through the door.
“Nurse?” a man asked. “Have you checked on Mr. Munro yet today?”
“Not yet.” The female nurse’s voice had a soft Southern drawl. “Mr. Munro gets his next dose of meds in fifteen minutes.”
Sarah glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost six.
“Who are you again?” Joe’s voice boomed, and Nate rushed over to whisper in his ear.
Sarah watched the door handle, waiting for the nurse to type in the code and unlock it.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” the nurse said. “Mr. Munro has been quiet all night.”
“And you’re giving him all of the meds?”
“Of course.”
“Fuckers!” Joe threw his cup at the door, barely missing Sarah’s head.
The paper cup fell to the floor, and Sarah grabbed tissues to wipe up the water.
“What was that?” the man asked.
“Occasional outburst,” the nurse said. “Side effect of the drugs you prescribed.”
“He shouldn’t be having outbursts if you’d given him enough sleeping pills.”
“You didn’t prescribe sleeping pills.”
“I need to talk to your supervisor.” Footsteps echoed until they both walked away.
Sarah dropped the wet tissues in the trash. “What are we going to do?”
“Joe?” Her dad turned toward Nate’s low voice. “You don’t mind getting wet, do you?”
“What the hell do I care?” Joe grabbed Nate’s arm. “No pussy hair at the wedding.”
“Got it.” Nate smiled. “No pussy hair.”
Sarah shook her head. She was both disgusted by her father’s newly acquired language skills and brokenhearted because it meant his neurological condition was declining. Nate leaned in to say something else to her father. But she couldn’t hear and didn’t care because the lock had clicked. Someone was outside trying to come in. “Nate?”
“Remember,” her father said to Nate. “Augustus was a pussy. No pussies allowed.”
“I promise.” Nate took out his gun and nodded to her. “Time to go.”
A moment later a female nurse entered with a pill cup. She stopped, her focus on the gun. “You two shouldn’t be here.” She looked back over her shoulder as if not sure she was in the right place. “How’d you get in?”
“Long story.” Nate pulled the fire alarm.
Three things happened at once. The alarm was so loud the nurse fell to her knees, hands over her ears. The sprinklers turned on, spraying everyone and everything. And Nate dragged Sarah out of the room.
She glanced back to see her father sitting up, soaking wet, and smiling.
Nurses ran around, yelling for help. She and Nate slipped as they ran toward the exit. No one noticed them since everyone was running into different rooms. The patients were now screaming, some were crying, and the mobile ones had come into the hallway.
They made it to the stairwell. Just as the door shut, she heard someone yell, “Stop them!”
She raced down the stairs behind Nate, not stopping until they reached the basement. She slipped on the concrete floor, and Nate gripped her elbow to keep her upright. “Where are we?”
“The morgue.” He pointed to the EXIT sign down the corridor. “Run.”
Their footsteps echoed in the empty space until Nate pushed the emergency door handle and another alarm sounded. They ended up in a receiving lane behind the hospital, shimmying between food trucks, parked ambulances, and hearses until reaching a main road.
Luckily, it was still dark and raining again. They crossed two more streets and found the truck. She prayed her father would be okay. She hated leaving him in that chaos. Although, from his smile, it seemed like he had been enjoying himself.
Nate opened the passenger door for her, and it wasn’t until he turned on the ignition that she realized he was driving again.
“Nate—”
His cell phone rang, and he answered it on speaker. He then tucked it into the center console so he could maneuver the truck out of the parking space. “Walker.”
“Nate?” Detective Garza’s voice sounded tranky—tired and cranky, like her father’s used to get. “Tell me you’re not at the hospital.”
“Not at the hospital.” Nate slammed on the brakes, and she gripped the dash. Fire trucks had blocked the way, and he had to do a six-pointer to turn around.
“Were you at the hospital this morning?”
“Yes.”
“Dammit, Nate. We talked about public disturbances—”
“We went to see Sarah’s dad and ran into trouble.”
Garza sighed like Nate was the most bothersome kid in class. “How is Mr. Munro?”
“Not great.” Nate waited for the light to change before turning left. “Can you find the evidence files used to build the case against Chief Munro and Detective Waring?”
“For the O’Malley Pub case?” Garza scoffed. “That was a national scandal. I’m sure those records were sealed.” Garza paused. “Oh. Right. You weren’t here then.”
Sarah studied Nate’s clenched jaw. He’d been in the POW camp.
