Hush - Fighting Fate #2 (19 page)

“I can’t talk right now. Can you come?” I asked softly.

“Yes, of course. I’m on my way.”

“Wait!
Mia?” I waited for her to respond. “Can you…come alone?”

I was met with silence for a few heartbeats
, then, “Sure, babe. I’ll be right there.”

While I waited, I slid my sunglasses on to
try to hide the bruise. I knew it wouldn’t cover it all, but it was better than nothing.

Ten minutes later, Mia’s little car pulled up in the patient pick up zone, and I hurried to get the door open before Mia could get out.

“What happened?” she demanded the second the door was closed.

I sighed. I knew there was no way around it. I was going to have the bruise for a good week or so, and I still had to go to school. I just didn’t want to lie. I was sick of lying.

Sliding my sunglasses off, I turned to face her.

I cringed at the gasp that exploded from her. “What happened?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

I slid my sunglasses back on before answering. “Mom fell down the stairs last night. I heard the thump and ran out to check on her. I tripped at the bottom and smacked my face on the banister.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh shit. Is your mom okay?”

I swallowed against the sudden emotion that wanted to break free. “She’s pretty banged up. She’s got a few broken ribs and a broken wrist.”

“Oh my god! How the hell did she manage
to fall down the stairs? Was she half asleep or something?”

I had
to seriously stop myself from clenching my teeth. I hated that I had to make my mom out to be a clumsy idiot instead of just revealing that her husband was a disgusting pig of a man. “God knows,” I said instead.

Mia exhaled a huff of air. “
Jesus, Kaeli. You and I are done with hospitals, okay? No more.”

I sobered as I caught her sideways glance. It had been a month since Mia had fallen and hit her head, landing her
self in a coma for a couple of days, but it still felt like it’d only been yesterday. We’d all been terrified we were going to lose her.

“I think I can agree to that.”

Mia slowed for a truck that had its indicator on to move into our lane and gave me a brief glance. “Am I taking you home?” she asked.

I paused. The thought of Ken being home stopped me from answering straight away. Could I face him yet? I didn’t think so, but I needed to grab a quick shower and nap before heading back to the hospital.
And I needed my car.

Sighing, I nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence. I knew Mia wanted to say more, but wasn’t quite sure where to start.

Before I climbed out, I paused with my fingers on the handle.
‘Thanks for coming to get me…”

I watched her bite her bottom lip nervously. “That’s okay. Let me know if I can do anything else. And send your mom my love. Tell her I’m thinking about her.”

Smiling, I climbed from the car. “I will. I’ll ring you tomorrow.”

With that, I went straight inside and up to my room.
I hoped like anything luck would be on my side and I’d miss seeing Ken altogether.

Chapter 36

Noah

Setting the empty beer bottle down on the bar, I gestured to the barman
for another. After stewing over the latest development in the fake pill dilemma, I decided I needed to check in with my team before letting TJ in on my thoughts about Ken.

Knowing TJ like I did, I had no doubt about the way he’d react i
f I told him I thought Ken was The Shadow, and I didn’t want to risk Kaeli getting caught in the middle if shit went down because of it.

Gazing out across the bar, my eyes paused briefly on Leah and the old guy
who was currently putting in some major effort to pick her up. I repressed the urge to laugh, knowing how disgusted she’d be having to pretend she was actually enjoying it.

The barman snapped the top off the bottle and placed it down in front of me.

“And one for the pretty lady over there – whatever she’s drinking,” I said, nodding in Leah’s direction.

The barman turned to
see who I was talking about then nodded. I watched him mix her drink and deliver it to her, indicating towards me when she enquired about its arrival.

Leah’s face lit up as she eyed me. She held the drink up and mouthed
a thank you, eliciting a scowl from the old guy trying to pick her up. I smiled a fraction, giving her an intense look that spoke of nothing but lust. She licked her lips in return.

We kept this interaction up for a while longer, until the old guy got the hint and stormed off in a huff
. Not long after that, Leah slid off her stool, giving me a flirty glance, and sashayed off towards the bathrooms.

I watched her the whole way until the door closed behind her
swaying hips, then threw back the rest of my beer and followed.

Leah was checking the stalls for occupants when I slid in through the door. She gave me a little nod to confirm we were all alone before exhaling quietly and giving me a grin.

“How’ve you been, Patch?” she said softly.

L
eah had called me Patch since the first time we’d met in the Captain’s office. I’d had a sticker on my jacket that’d come off a shipping package I’d opened that morning, and as eager as I was to get to my first assignment, I hadn’t checked the mirror before running out the door. Unfortunately, the name stuck just as much as the sticker had.

I grinned at her. “Hanging in there,” I said cryptically.

She let her gaze roam over my face, unabashedly showing me just how much she wasn’t acting when she was showing her interest in me. “When this assignment is over, you and I are going to celebrate,” she said.

Her eyes twinkled, letting me know exactly how she wanted to celebrate.
That too, had been something she’d stuck with since that first encounter in the Captain’s office. She’d never made any attempt to hide her interest in me. It was one of the things I liked about her. She didn’t play games. What you saw was what you got, and what you saw what pretty easy on the eye.

With long blonde hair and warm, chocolate eyes, she was hit on wherever she went. Over the last eighteen months,
I’d often considered taking her up on her offer and seeing where things went when the assignment was over.

An image of Kaeli popped into my head
like a roadblock. I wondered if she would consider any sort of relationship with me when this nightmare was all over. Of course, I’d have to make sure Ken was put away for a really long time so she wouldn’t have to worry about him coming back for her or her mother.

The thought of Ken
brought it all rushing back into perspective. The smile slipped clean off my face. “What does Captain know about these fakes that are going around?” I asked.

Leah
slipped right into business mode along side of me. I had a feeling she thought it was her offer that had given me the incentive to get on with it, but I wasn’t in the mood to clarify.

“We know it’s the fakes that are landing people in
the hospital, and we know the fakes are being produced by someone who calls himself The Shadow.”

I nodded to let her know she was right. “I think the Shadow is Ken Lehmann. I saw his son, Aaron, at the Cross
earlier tonight selling the fakes.” I pulled out the packet I’d pulled off him and handed them over. “I lifted these off him as he left.”

She lifted her eyebrow up, letting me know she was impressed, but as she took them,
she shook her head. “Ken’s not The Shadow. We’ve been following him since you informed us of his step-daughter’s involvement. Done some pretty thorough digging around. There’s nothing there. There was supposed to have been at least two exchanges involving The Shadow over the past fortnight, and Ken’s been under our watch the entire time.”

I frowned. I
t had to be Ken. “He could still be working from a distance. His kid knows something. I’m sure of it. He just had that look about him. One minute he was all cocky and arrogant, and the next he looked like he was about to have a full blown panic attack.”

Leah shook her head. “Captain’s positive it’s not Ken
, but we do know the originals that are being crushed are confirmed to be genuine Mr. X’s.”

I nodded to let her know I already knew that.
I did a quick mental recap of all TJ’s buyers. Ken was the only one who’d been buying more than usual.

I sighed. Captain had a rep for having a sixth sense about these things. If he didn’t think Ken was
The Shadow, then chances were he was right, but I didn’t want to rule it out on gut instinct alone.

“
TJ pulled a seller off the corner this morning. Vinnie’s pulled all the data off his cell, including The Shadow’s supposed number, so we can probably test it out. I have a line to his step-daughter, so I could get her to watch him when we try.”

Leah shook her head again, this time with an exasperated expression.
“Come on, Patch. She’s a known drug dealer’s step-daughter. You can’t let her get to you like that. Chances are, she’s just as dodgy as he is. I’ve been watching her at school. She’s just good at playing little miss innocent.”

I felt myself tensing u
p at her skepticism of Kaeli. I started shaking my head before she’d even finished speaking. “No way, Leah. You’re reading her wrong. Trust me, Kaeli’s not involved. She’s a victim in this.”

Leah rolled her eyes and growled. “Jesus, Patch. Just because she looks good in a skirt, doesn’t mean she’s a victim. She’s probably getting some fancy car for a graduation present in return for her services.
You can’t let her get to you like that. You’ll end up letting the whole operation go to shit, and for what? Because a pretty school girl batted her eyelashes at you?”

I blinked at the bitterness in her voice. I knew the situation with Kaeli could look as though she was playing the game, but I had no doubt she was innocent. Anyone w
ho spent five minutes with her should know that. I didn’t know where her bitterness was coming from.

“I know what you’re saying, Lea, but you need to trust me on this one. Kaeli’s as innocent as they come. She’s only in it to keep her mom safe.”

Her eyes narrowed as she watched me, then her lip turned up with distaste. “You like her, don’t you? You want to bag the drug mule.”

I couldn’t help it. My hands tightened into fists. “Leah…” I said in warning.

“No, Patch. You need to get your fucking head in the game. I’m not about to let you destroy eighteen months of hard work because your mind’s gone all mushy over a fucking girl.”

I had no idea where the hell all her anger was coming from, but it was starting to piss me off – especially
her suggestion that I was about to fuck up the operation. “I’m not interested in her like that, okay? I just know she’s not in it with Ken. If you’ve spent five minutes with her you should know that. I need you to trust me on this, Lea.”

Leah narrowed her eyes even more and pursed her lips with annoyance.

“Look, if Captain doesn’t think Ken’s The Shadow, then he’s probably right, but I still think his kid knows something. He’s jumpy. Put some detail on him and see what comes up. Meanwhile, I’ll try to find out what TJ’s got from this guy’s cell.”

Leah nodded, her face relaxing until she resembled the Leah I knew. “Okay, I’ll let Captain know.” She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. “Just look after yourself, okay? I worry about you.”

I squeezed her back a little, not really feeling it. “You know I will. We just need to get to the bottom of this Shadow business or the exchange won’t go ahead, and you know what that means…”

She sighed against my chest. “Yeah. I’m not sure I can watch you go through another six months.”

I shuddered. I wasn’t sure I could actually survive another six months.

Chapter 37

Kaeli

M
om slept for most of the day. She’d been awake on and off but the pain meds kept her pretty out of it most of the time.

At some point
, around mid-afternoon I think it was, a nurse told me Ken was in the waiting room, but no one asked me to leave and I didn’t offer.

I spent the majority of the time reading Mom’s favorite book to her
from my kindle. Occasionally, whenever I read a particularly exciting part, she would sigh, or a little smile would tug at the corner of her mouth. It was those small things that gave me the comfort I needed and the motivation to keep going.

It was just after five when
Dr. Miller came through to check on her for a third time that afternoon. I didn’t have that much experience with hospitals, thank god, but I had to wonder if it was normal for a doctor to visit their patients that often.

He gave me an assess
ing look as he walked in. “How’re you going, Kaeli?”