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“I know she’s been sleeping for a long time,” Victor said, still focused on the keyboard. “But it’ll be good for her. Since the JH stuff is out of her system now...”
“She’s not going to be fully out of this for a while,” Nathan said. “Especially with how hard she got hit with it. North said it’s going to affect her mood. I don’t know how.” Nathan trusted Dr. Green, but when it came to Sang, he wanted to be extra careful. If she didn’t wake up by this afternoon, he would drive her over to a hospital. It would be too long for her to be asleep like that.
“Go easy on her, Nate,” Victor said. “That’s all we can do.”
Nathan put his elbows on his thighs and hunched over to stare at the tiles. “I can’t believe Jade did this.”
“I believe it,” Victor said. He sat back and rubbed his face. “I’d rarely crossed paths with her before, but Silas asked some of the football team about her. Seems half of them slept with her or they wish they had. But not one of them said they liked her. Full of piss and venom. They say she’s bi-polar.”
“Still no excuse,” Nathan said. “She molested Sang. She needs to be locked up.”
“We’re lucky it didn’t cost us any favors to get her put away,” Victor said. “She was caught with a stash of that JH. She’d been poisoning people she didn’t like with it. John and that Arthur kid are going to testify. There will be a hearing soon. She’s in trouble with the police now.”
At least Sang would stay out of it. To Nathan, it was bullshit since Sang got it worst of all from that girl and her voice would go unheard. But if Jade got put away, that was all they could hope for. At least she wouldn’t be at school any more. Mr. Blackbourne was going to see to Jade’s expulsion. He’d expedited the paperwork.
Victor breathed out slowly, and tilted his head back with his eyes closed.
“You tired?” Nathan asked. They’d all been working longer hours lately.
Victor shrugged. “Hoping this doesn’t escalate in a bad way.”
“It’ll be over soon,” Nathan said. They had to face off with the new manager for Erica’s sake. If it went bad, they’d have to submit a few favors to the Academy for help.
They needed to save the favors they could right now. They were running low.
As if reading their minds that they wanted to get this over with, a large woman appeared from the elevator with dark eyes and a scowl. She ignored Nathan and Victor and marched to the nurse’s station. Tweed skirt, muted toned blouse and pinned up hair. She looked like management.
The woman walked behind the desk and her critical eyes shot a look at the nurse. “Where’s Lee?”
“Erica’s at home,” the nurse said in a monotone.
“And what are you doing here?”
“I’m on the schedule.”
“What? That’s impossible.”
The nurse shrugged, although she didn’t seem displeased. “Sorry. I just do what I’m told.”
Nathan smiled and he caught Victor doing the same. So far, so good.
The manager bent over a computer, typed in some things, and used the mouse to navigate. Her mouth went small as she sucked in her cheeks, deepening her scowl.
Then she blinked and stood up sharply.
Victor leaned over to whisper. “Must suck to have your schedule completely redone by someone in upper management.”
“Now,” Nathan said, with an almost smirk on his face, because he always liked predicting behaviors. He understood why Mr. Blackbourne taught them so much about it. The social engineering usually always paid off. “Here’s the question: Does she confront upper management? Because she’s new, she doesn’t want to cross her bosses. Or does she dare try to change it all back and risk defying them that way?”
“But,” Victor returned to his keyboard, hitting enter, “wait, there’s an email from another section of the hospital.”
A moment later, the manager reacted oddly and clicked at the computer. The email must have just come in.
“What’s this?” Victor asked and chuckled. “Oh wow, a new job opening up in upper management with a cooler sounding title. And it’s perfect for her. No human interaction. Accounts and files only, and a ten percent wage increase from a floor manager. Too good to be true.”
The manager’s face altered, snide. She was considering.
“And the job’s been open for two months,” Nathan said. “Which means no one has applied, which means she could get it easily.”
“Well,” Victor said, “technically the job didn’t exist an hour ago. So really no one has filled the position for years and years and years.”
“And that file room is a mess,” Nathan said.
“Files are messy,” Victor replied. “Someone has got to look out for those poor little files.”
They watched the manager for a while as it seemed she was lost in thought. That’s why they were there. They were going to make sure she filled in her application. If she didn’t, they’d have to make some sort of scene to push her over the edge, which was always risky.
They also had to make sure she didn’t verbally attack any other nurses due to the schedule change. Erica and the others had been through enough.
It didn’t take long, though. Nathan knew this part too well. Offer someone more money for a position that was prestigious and suited their nature, and they’ll take it, whatever and wherever it was. His father was the same, always took a higher paycheck. It was human nature to be greedy. Higher pay and an easier job with little to no supervision was always a winner.
He couldn’t wait to hear his own father would be onboard a flight to Singapore soon. He might finally rest easier.
Sang was moving in with him. That was something he’d been waiting for. It wasn’t like he planned, but at least they didn’t have to worry about an income for now. His father always took care of the house and left him a checkbook so he could draw out cash when he needed and to pay the bills.
The manager left the nurse’s station to head to a more private office. Victor was able to monitor her logging into her accounts, watching virtually as she was tweaking her resume.
“Guess our job is done,” Victor said.
“So we can leave?”
Victor checked the time on the laptop. “Let’s give it an hour. Hopefully it’ll be a quiet day on this floor, and she can stay in her office conspiring about this new job.”
“When is she going to get a call back?”
“Probably by five today,” Victor said. “She’ll be in a great mood after that. Her resume and this position are going near the top of the HR pile. Good thing HR does what they’re told and fills positions that are on their lists without question. They get so many, they aren’t going to notice.”
“Won’t they do something about the manager position she’s leaving open?”
Victor shrugged. “Hopefully they’ll pick someone with a little more experience and nothing more to prove to anyone.”
“Can’t you give Erica a pay raise while you’re at it?”
“We just gave her one a month ago.”
Nathan grunted but accepted the answer. Can’t do too much. It becomes noticeable. Erica had been a mom to him since he was small, so he wanted to make sure her life was easier any chance he got.
Victor shoved the laptop onto the coffee table in front of them and sat back, closing his eyes. “We’re going to skip school again, right? We’re not going back for afternoon classes?”
“This flu is pretty bad,” Nathan said.
“Why don’t we just take her out?” Victor asked. He turned his intense eyes to Nathan. “I can’t focus when she’s there.”
“I can’t focus when she’s not,” Nathan said. “If she’s not nearby where I can see her, I’m paranoid she’s in trouble.”
“Maybe we can send her to one of the better prep schools. She’d be safer there. At least until we’re done with Ashley Waters.”
“We can’t. They’ll want an ID. Her dad would find out. I don’t want he
r in another school. I’m not leaving her,” Nathan said. That certainly wasn’t going to happen. He’d left her alone enough and look what happened.
“You’re not leaving her,” Victor said, his voice deepening. “See, this is our problem.”
“It’s not a problem.”
“We know it’s a bad school and we’re letting her stay because we don’t know what her dad will do if we pull her out. But what’s the greater risk here? Is what her dad could do as bad as what she’s going through at school?”
