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“You are supposed to be recovering and relaxing. Can you just let me deal with this for a bit, and I’ll tell you more when it’s time?” The look on her face tells me it’s not going to wash with her, but I had to try.
“Ghost.” Her voice is sterner this time, and she pats the bed for me to sit. She’s asking a lot when my body is humming with energy and adrenaline. My skin is prickly, and my legs need to move. But as per usual, I can’t say no to Cassie.
Sitting on the bed, I need to be touching her so it helps to still my body. “You have to promise me that you won’t freak out and trust me that we have this under control.”
The fight is in her eyes already. “Ghost, for fuck’s sake, just tell me,” she says, sitting up a straighter in the bed now.
“Umm, that’s not staying calm.”
“Ghost!” The pressure valve is about to pop. I think I have pushed my luck far enough.
“We have found evidence that they know we’re here.”
Her eyes turn black with fear. This is the first time I’ve seen them so dark.
“Who?”
“Whoever is connected with Jason and his syndicate.” I can’t tell her that the man has touched her and that we have no idea how he is connected to this whole mess. That part I’m keeping from her until I work it out. And I will work it out, if it’s the last thing I do. She needs to know the truth about her life.
“How? I know it was a risk, but after all these years… we were so careful.” All the fight in her voice is waning, and I can see tears just under the surface, but she isn’t letting them fall. She’s trying to stay strong.
Looking at her, it occurs to me that I’m attacking this all wrong.
Cassie is my weakness, but it’s only because I don’t allow her to be my strength. Keeping her in the dark on this could be the biggest mistake I make. Not knowing what is coming at her makes her vulnerable, and that in turn puts her in greater danger. If I tell her everything, then I can clear more space in my head to concentrate as this unfolds. We need to be a team. We started that way, and it’s time to finish it the same way. I just wish she was healthier, but we didn’t get to pick the timing of this.
“I don’t know the answer to that, but I’ll tell you what I do know, and we can figure the rest out. I just want you to understand that the whole team is working on this, and they have our backs. And especially Bull. The kids are safe in our home, we know that, and the next best thing to us being there is having Bull protecting them. And I mean that with everything I have.”
Just nodding her head at me, I continue and get ready to pick up the pieces when I get to the end of this.
“We discovered a breach into the recovery ward in the hospital. Not sure how yet, but we’re working on that. They manipulated the video feed that we were seeing, and we have only just discovered it now. There was a man who stood next to you and took your hand. He was talking to you while you were unconscious. Don’t worry, he didn’t touch you anywhere else, but that was enough. He should never have gotten that close to you.” I can feel my heart racing at the mere thought of another man touching my woman when she is unable to defend herself. I don’t give a fuck who he is.
Her hands are now over her mouth as she gasps. The shock of someone being that close to her is hitting hard.
“But he… why? He could have killed me then… I’m confused.”
I want to tell her she’s about to be a lot more confused, but I think the easiest way to explain it is to show her.
Reaching for my tablet on the side table, I log into the message that Ashton forwarded to me.
“You need to watch this, and remember, I’m here for you, always.” Her face drops, afraid of what I’m about to show her. But that way, she will feel better knowing what happened to her in that room. I can see the stress lines on her forehead, and I’m sure her mind is racing right now, wondering how bad the interaction was. The thoughts she will conjure up will be worse than what actually happened, but the image of the person is going to shake her to the core.
I turn so I’m sitting with my body beside her on the bed, one arm around her shoulders, and I press play with the other hand. There’s no sound, but the image starts as we see him enter the room. His head is down until he reaches her bed, waiting for the opportune moment when no other nurse is hovering over her. He is decked out in full hospital scrubs and can be mistaken for either a nurse or a doctor. The room is a busy place, and you need your security pass to access it, therefore no one questions anyone extra in the room.
Her breathing hitches as he reaches out and takes her hand, leaning down to talk quietly to her. He’s just talking and then another nurse walks past. He straightens a little, and that is when his face comes into full view of the camera. She sees it straight away. Her body goes stiff, and her breathing is quickening to a concerning speed.
She hits pause on the screen while she just stares.
“Breathe, baby, breathe for me. Slow it down… in and hold… out slowly… in and hold … breathe out slowly.”
“It can’t—” Her hand is hovering over the stilled picture.
“I think it is,” I reply, pulling her tighter into my side. As much as I want to say it’s not, she knew the instant his eyes were in the shot. Normally this would be one of the happiest days of her life, but instead, it’s the continuation of a nightmare.
“Dad… I wasn’t dreaming.” She chokes on her own words. She has no idea how to process what is happening.
“I wish you were.” I didn’t mean to say it, but the truth falls from my lips.
Her head spins to look at me. “But he’s alive…” She can’t seem to finish any sentence she starts, which I’m hoping is just from shock and not her brain struggling. “There must be a reason… maybe he’s hiding like me?” She is hoping for a miracle answer.
