Obsidian Music (Lion Security Book 3) (4 page)

I stilled but slowly nodded. Yes, I needed a fucking hospital. A fever couldn’t be healthy for the babies. “Okay. Please, just get me to a hospital. But one far away from here. Don’t go to the closest one.”

His lips thinned, and suddenly, his eyebrows snapped together under his cap. His head snapped around in all directions before resting on my face. “Let’s get you out of here.” He picked me up too quickly, but I kept still and quiet as he put me in his cab.

Once we were moving, he kept glancing at me. I could feel it. And it unnerved me, and I fumbled for the window controls, trying to let some fresh air in. The woods had terrified me, but being couped back up frightened me even more. Once the window was down, I rested my hot head against the doorframe and let the wind cool my sweating flesh.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I promise. You can rest,” the man stated.

And, yes, I knew he wouldn’t, even though he kept staring at me. I knew evil now. And he wasn’t evil. But he wasn’t to be completely trusted. So I kept silent and closed my eyes, making sure not to fall asleep even though I was dead tired.

The truck driver carried me into the third hospital we passed. I had no clue what town we were in, but he had done exactly as I had asked. Almost immediately, I was taken in for surgery…but only after I had made them do a sonogram. And I saw all my babies were fine.

Then, they told me they were putting me under a local anesthetic, and I had no memory of them taking off my chains or re-breaking my arm and fixing it correctly since it was crooked.

I woke to beeping sounds. There was a doctor standing by the bed, the same one who had talked to me before surgery, and he was watching my face. The same as the truck driver, who had apparently stayed. No one else was in the room, and the door was shut.

I stared at it, and my lungs seized. “Please open the door!” It came out a croak, and my throat was sore as hell, but I couldn’t stay in this room with it shut. I tried to move my hands and get out of bed, but my left arm was in a cast, and my hands and wrists had been wrapped in gauze. But I didn’t feel as hot as I had before.

The doctor leaned forward, pushing me back on the bed, stating, “First, I need to ask you a question before I open that door. Our conversation needs to be private.”

I sucked in oxygen, and stared at the closed door, feeling tears spring to my eyes. “Fine.”

Hurry the fuck up!

The doctor leaned away from the bed and nodded his dark head toward the truck driver. “This gentleman says that he found you on the side of the road.” He cleared his throat, and said quietly, “Your fingers are too cut up to do a finger print on, but this gentleman believes you’re Elizabeth Forter, the woman who disappeared two months ago. Are you that woman?”

I tried to keep from freaking out, but I felt my eyes flick to the driver. “How would he know who Elizabeth Forter is?” God, he wasn’t a bad guy. I knew I wasn’t wrong about that. At least, I didn’t think so.

The doctor said softly, “Elizabeth Forter’s picture has been flashed all over the news for the past two months while everyone has been searching for her.” He glanced at my head, his eyebrows rising. “Your hair is the same color. Although, it’s only an inch long so I can’t tell if it’s curled. And the one eye that’s not swollen shut is green like hers.” He stared into that one said eye. “Are you Elizabeth Forter?”

My lips pinched even further, and I glanced around for something to protect myself with, squinting with my good eye. “What would you do if I was?”

He sucked in a breath, watching me. “I would call the authorities and let them know you’ve been found.”

I shook my head. “Wrong answer. You would give me a fucking phone,” since I couldn’t see one around here anywhere, “and let me call Lion Security.” I didn’t trust the damn authorities right now. And sadly, I didn’t know Daniil’s phone number off the top of my head, and I was positive it wasn’t listed anywhere unlike Lion Securities. I had programmed it into my phone before he had broken it, and after that, I had used the bodyguards’ phones. My heart clenched for a moment, but I pushed it back, along with the memories of Trofim. Right now, I needed to focus.

Both men stilled, and their eyes widened even more, but the doctor wasn’t one to be shaken too badly. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, and asked, “Number?”

“I don’t know,” I stated, staring at the door again. “Call information. And when you get Lion Security on the line, ask for Grigori. Do not use my name over the line. At all.” It could be fucking traced for all I knew.

The doctor nodded slowly and called information.

I tried to breathe, staring at that door, but I couldn’t take it. “Can you please open that door now?”

Doc nodded while dialing the number to Lion Security.

The truck driver jumped to open the confining door.

It was as if I could breathe again, my lungs unclenching and my vision becoming clearer even though I could barely see without my contacts. But it was good enough. I knew I wasn’t trapped. There was an outlet, so to speak.

“Can I speak with Grigori, please? This is Dr. Walker,” my doctor, whom I had forgotten the name of asked over the line. “Yes. This is urgent enough to get him out of a meeting.”

“Grigori is Daniil’s son,” I stated factually, staring outside the door, but I could still see the look the doctor gave me that clearly stated ‘no shit.’ Guess he knew the family dynamics somehow. Must read the papers.

Dr. Walker cleared his throat, and stated, “Good afternoon, Grigori. This is Dr. Walker. I have a patient in my hospital that doesn’t wish me to say her name, but I believe you may have some interest in. She’s got red hair,” I ignored that general assessment, “and green eyes, and I believe she’s who you’ve been searching for. She was found this morning—” He stopped talking abruptly, and I could hear Grigori shouting over the line.

“Yes. She’s alive and well. She just got out of surgery—” He was cut off again.

“No. Nothing life threatening—” Again, he was cut off.

“Lacrosk Hospital.” He took his phone away from his ear, and shut it, slowly placing it in his pocket. His eyes met my good working one. Doc stated softly, “I believe someone’s on their way here.”

I—almost—smiled at that.

The whole fucking family would be here, no doubt.

I cleared my throat, and asked the doctor as nonchalantly as possible, “If someone is put in isolation, completely alone, for two months…,” I stared out the door, “…could that cause hallucinations while they’re down there?” God, Daniil had seemed so real.

“Yes,” the doctor stated instantly and started on a rant about the effects of isolation on a person. And, honestly, it did make me feel better. I knew I wasn’t a loon.

Well, that was until a nurse came in and tried to shut the door. I screamed at her, having enough of this closed-door business, and got out of bed, pulling the blanket with me. The doctor argued, and my feet were also wrapped up, but I pulled the blanket over my head in hopes that no one else would recognize me and made my way out to the hallway with the doctor and truck driver following, the doctor nicely pushing the IVs for me.

I sat there and waited.

Daniil would be here soon.

But I lost track of time, staring at the wall across from me.

I flinched when the doctor, who had sat down next to me—I hadn’t even noticed—and interrupted… God, I was singing that damn Russian song. I shut my mouth quickly, and his gaze stared hard into my eye. Softly, he began telling me what I could expect from being in isolation.

Nightmares. Loss of time. General phobias of being in large crowds.

I swallowed hard and nodded. I seriously hadn’t even noticed that I had zoned out.

The wall had…I don’t know…just triggered it somehow.

I tried not to look at it again, pulling the blanket over me more.

And then, there were flashes of light and pounding of feet.

People were shouting my name.

“Call security!” Dr. Walker barked harshly at the nurse, who was coming out of another room. He jumped to his feet, rushing to meet the reporters who were running down the hallway. “Get them down here. Now!”

The nurse rushed back into the room she’d come from.

I burrowed down into the blanket more, pulling my knees up under it and hugging them the best I could with a four-month pregnant belly full of triplets. But I glared out of the blanket at the truck driver, who stood over me protectively.

“Who did you tell?”

He gulped, and literally pushed a reporter back who got too close, sending the man back on his butt.

“My wife. No one else.”

I glared at the floor. “I appreciate what you did, but your wife has a big mouth.”

He hesitated, shoving another reporter back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think she would tell anyone.”

I kept my head down, pulling the blanket over my face further when more flashes went off. “If there was reward money…” In any high profile kidnapping case, there was always reward money. And pulling this stunt, right now, was not a smart fucking decision.

The truck driver bent down as security raced onto the scene, pushing the ever-growing reporters back. He leaned over, staring up under the blanket. His eyes were honest when he stated, “There is reward money. A lot of damn money. However, that’s not why I’m doing this. My first wife was kidnapped, raped, and then left dead in a field. I would never do this for the money. Never the fucking money. But I am sorry she called the press.” I shut my mouth then, seeing the raw pain in his eyes even though I wasn’t feeling much else other than irritation. The doctor had said it might take some time to ‘feel’ again. And if I couldn’t feel with that type of story, I needed to keep my mouth shut.

I did manage to nod, knowing that I would make Daniil give him whatever he had promised.

He nodded once curtly, then stood back up, still standing over me protectively, along with the doctor, who took up guard on my other side—after he put a hand inside the blanket and checked my pulse. We waited. I had no clue how far away we were from Daniil, but it was taking forever.

So long, in fact, the doctor caught me zoning and singing to myself again.

It was going to take some time…

“You know, maybe you should call the authorities. If the press knows I’m here…” Then the bad guys knew I was here. The cops wouldn’t need to get close, but they could stay back and keep watch over me if it was going to take too long.

“That may be the wisest choice.” Dr. Walker slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, staring at the reporters who were barely being kept at bay at the end of the hallway. “If anyone came looking for you right now that shouldn’t be…” He trailed off with the phone paused halfway to his ear, muttering, “My God.” His expression went from calm to scared shitless in a heartbeat, which had to be hard to accomplish since he was so stone-faced.

Instant. “What?”

The truck driver backed away a few steps, whispering, “He’s here.”

My breath caught as I heard…Daniil…shouting, “Get the fuck out of my way!”

My head snapped toward the reporters. Two of them flew up into the air, one’s head and the other’s back hitting the drop ceiling before they fell back to the ground.

“My God,” Dr. Walker whispered again, also stepping back from me.

I squinted with my working eye and gazed out from under the blanket.

Grigori and Roman were first, slipping through the sides, hugging the wall as Daniil charged through everyone, going straight through them. The security guards had their hands on their guns, but Dr. Walker was with it enough to shout, “Let them through!”

It didn’t matter since Daniil, dressed in a black shirt and dark jeans, sans his normal suit, plowed through them anyway. His hair was tied back, and his expression was so damn fierce that even though I couldn’t see completely down the hallway, I could still make out his sharp features—they were set so hard. Artur and Eva followed behind him as Grigori jerked Ember’s hand, pulling her out of the fray.

Zane, Stash, Brent, and Cole pushed the huge crowd of reporters back as Daniil—and family—stalked toward me. And stalk they did.

I felt that emotion again. Terror.