Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Eliana looked around the waiting area of the hospital floor where Luci had been taken. The room was almost empty, though a staff member sat behind the desk in the corner by the door to the floor. Someone paged Doctor Jimenez to radiology over the hospital intercom.
Tony tapped the screen of his phone. “Sylvia is on her way here.” He looked at Carlos. “Director Caughton.”
Carlos looked back at him like he didn’t care in the least who she was.
Eliana shifted her weight from one sneaker to the other, wanting to do something, but realizing that thing was probably going to be keeping the peace.
“Thanks.” To Carlos she said, “We could sit?” Given his expression, he clearly didn’t want to.
But Eliana knew that if he could get a minute to sit, he needed to take it.
Carlos slumped into the chair, and she took the seat beside him, reaching over to hold his hand. Tony sat in the seat across from them.
“Just say it.” Tony opened his hands for a second, then laced his fingers on his lap. “We all missed it. No one knew she was in that closet.”
Carlos just stared at him, his body tense.
“How did she get in there?” Eliana asked. “Did she hide in there, or did someone put her in there while she was unconscious?”
Tony shrugged. “We might never know. But it’s hard to believe she managed to get upstairs and into that closet without help, given the head injury she sustained.”
“There probably would’ve been blood on the walls and the edges of the closet.” Carlos reached up with his free hand and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “It was too clean for someone to have stumbled in there to hide.”
Eliana glanced between Carlos and Tony. “Does it make sense that they left her for dead and split?”
“Why don’t you guys ask your friends at the FBI?” Tony’s expression hardened. “They’re the ones who had the place under surveillance.”
Carlos and Eliana had been so focused on getting Luci to the hospital by ambulance that neither of them had a chance to call Special Agents Fox and Glor—not that Eliana had their numbers.
Carlos would probably brief them when he got a chance, but the doctor was supposed to come out any minute now with an update on Luci’s condition.
Eliana squeezed her eyes shut and tried to pray for her friend. But all she could think was how Luci had been tucked in that closet for over a day, bleeding and unconscious. What kind of monster could have hit her and then hidden her?
She would’ve thought Sarah capable of something like that, but she was dead. Maybe it was the work of the two men who had escaped the apartment. Or anyone else in the Reverence Sisters group.
Tony lifted his chin, his attention over Eliana’s shoulder. “The doctor is here.”
Eliana twisted around in her seat and saw the older man with white hair and a square jaw, wearing scrubs under a lab coat, approach them.
“You’re the family of Luci Ryson?” He came to stand near them.
Carlos twisted in his seat, angling his body to face the doctor. He didn’t let go of her hand. “Yes. She’s my sister.”
The doctor’s expression softened with compassion. “Luci has suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. There was significant blood loss, and the impact caused swelling and bleeding in her brain. The next forty-eight hours will be critical. If she wakes up—”
“If?” Carlos sat up straighter.
“You need to be prepared for this to go a number of ways,” the doctor said. “If she wakes up, she may not be the person you knew.”
Eliana’s fingers tightened.
“Injuries like this can affect memory, personality, speech—even Luci’s ability to walk and take care of herself. But the reality is, we simply won’t know until the swelling goes down.”
Carlos sat in silence, so Eliana said, “Thank you, Doctor.”
He nodded and returned to the desk, where he spoke with the staff member.
Eliana turned back to Carlos.
Before she could say anything, he stood. “I’m going to get coffee.” He looked at her, then turned to Tony.
“I’ve got this.” Tony nodded.
Eliana wanted to object to the fact that they both seemed to think she needed to be protected.
But reality held her tongue. The truth was, she did seem to keep getting into life-threatening situations.
Considering that one of those situations involved Tony, even if it was against his will, she wasn’t sure he was exactly the right fit for a bodyguard position.
But if he really did feel bad about it and wanted to protect her, that worked for her.
Not that she thought anything was going to happen in the hospital.
Eliana got up and wandered to the fish tank in the corner, and her phone started to vibrate in her pocket.
She drew it out and saw it was her mom calling.
She almost slumped into the nearest chair in relief.
Eliana slid her thumb across the screen, wishing the Shrine had bought her the kind of phone she was used to.
She put it to her ear. “Hey.” She drew out the word, tears filling her eyes.
“You’re on speaker, honey. You’ve got both of us.”
She faced the tank, but closed her eyes rather than looking at the colorful fish doing circles around one another. “I’m glad you called.”
“How is Luci?” her mom asked.
Eliana sniffed, explaining what the doctor had just told them. “Carlos went to get coffee.”
“He just left you there alone?” her dad said, sounding gruff and worried.
She shook her head, even though they couldn’t see her. “I’m not by myself.”
“There’s someone there protecting you?” her mom asked.
“Yes. Hang on.” She found the camera and twisted around, snapping a quick image of Tony. “It’s sending now.”
She wasn’t going to worry about the fact that the Shrine had probably given her a phone outfitted with security features—ones that probably gave them full access to everything on her device. They would know she had taken a picture of Tony and sent it to her parents, but right now she didn’t care.
Even if the Shrine thought that what Tony showed them at the house before they found Luci was proof that the FBI had been lying to them, or at least withholding information, that didn’t mean Eliana was prepared to jump in with both feet and join their team.
She had a family, and it wasn’t a defunct organization who thought they still had power.
The Board of Governors might have located Luci—inadvertently—but Eliana hadn’t even asked them to do that. And didn’t need their help. Unless they had technology at their disposal that could heal Luci’s traumatic brain injury.
“Who is that?” her dad asked.
“Is that the person protecting you?”
Hearing her parents worry about her was both reassuring and frustrating. She didn’t want them to worry, but she also didn’t want to live a life where nothing ever happened to her.
“Tony is my supervisor,” Eliana explained. “He’s head of security at the Shrine, and they’ve been making sure that I stay safe.”
He would overhear everything she said, so Eliana didn’t explain about how Tony had told her they had history. Or about the bear tattoo on the inside of his forearm—something that might be a distinguishing physical characteristic that meant they could identify him.
“Just as long as you’re safe,” her dad said. “We just passed through Edmonton in Alberta. We have another twenty-seven hours to drive, but we’re making good time.”
Most likely, they would switch off so they didn’t have to pull over for hours and get some rest. But she was also aware that her parents were not as young as they used to be. Maybe years ago, they could power through, but these days they didn’t do that as much.
“What happened with your case?” Eliana asked. “I read something in the news about you guys getting captured?”
Her mom made a pfft sound. “Don’t worry about us. We got through it just fine.”
“I’m pretty sure that is what will make me worry. Maybe you should find some time later, after we figure all this out, and you can tell me what happened.”
“I doubt you want to hear all the gory details.”
Eliana rolled her eyes at the fish. “And yet you expect me to tell you everything that happened to me.”
“That’s how it works, honey.”
“Well, maybe that is something that should change.” She didn’t like the frustration that echoed in her voice, but figured that honesty was better than pretending everything was okay.
“You guys risk your lives to hunt down dangerous criminals. But when I leave town, you arrange for me to be protected.”
“You wanted to know about Dominatus,” her mom said.
“We realized the time had come for you to step out a little and learn some things about our history. But did you really think we were going to do that without ensuring they would do everything they could to protect you? You’ve learned the hard way that Chicago is a dangerous place.
People there don’t care who you are. They see others as people they can take advantage of.
Or they don’t see them as people at all. ”
And here Eliana had been thinking that it was Carlos they had sent to protect her, at least on top of finding Luci and doing his job. He had told her he promised them he would look out for her.
“If they were supposed to have been protecting me, then they’ve done a bad job of it.
” She gripped the phone, the device warm against her ear.
“They haven’t protected me at all—at least not until it was too late.
I still have no idea who stuck me with a needle, or why.
No one knows who killed Doctor Splitfield and my neighbor.
And the FBI hasn’t identified the Mother.
Don’t even get me started on Lydia Rosenberg.
The Shrine seems to be more interested in covering their own butts and subverting the law. ”
Tony moved beside her. “Give me the phone.”
Eliana flinched, glaring at him. “I’m not giving you my phone. It’s my phone.” She took a step back.
Her mom said, “I know that voice. Put him on.”
Tony stared at her.
“I’m not putting him on the phone so you guys can decide for me what happens next. This is my life.” Eliana lowered the phone and hung up.
“Your mother?”
“Both my parents. Which is nothing to do with you.” She stomped back over to the chairs and sat down, trying to figure out why having them manage her life caused such a reaction in her.
No one wanted other people to dictate their entire existence.
But keeping her safe, when they were experts and she wasn’t, might not be a bad thing.
So why did it make her want to tell them all to leave her alone?
She wanted to be treated like an adult—because she was one.
She didn’t want the fear of being exposed and in danger, and they could help with that.
Eliana was still wrestling with this. Maybe she would wrestle with it for the rest of her life, and there was nothing she could do about that.
She closed her eyes.
Lord, am I going to be coming up against this wall for the rest of my life?
She didn’t want every move she made to be a battle of wills with people who loved her but didn’t need to manage her life for her or tell her what to do all the time.
Maybe it was the simple fact that she hadn’t yet figured out the path she was supposed to be on, or her calling.
But did anyone really have that figured out at twenty-five?
“We all care about you.”
Eliana opened her eyes and looked at Tony. “I’m not interested in old grudges or what you owe them. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. I’m trying to live my life, not get swept up in everyone else’s business.”
“Maybe you don’t have a choice. It’s already far too tangled for you to pull away now.”
“I came here for answers, thinking the Shrine could give that to me.” Eliana blew out a breath. “I had no idea that Luci was missing, or that the group she joined would decide they should kill me. I still don’t know why they wanted to end my life.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Tony nodded. “This is more than just answers. It’s a whole life that you could take hold of if you wanted.
Sylvia isn’t going to run the Shrine forever.
Someone will have to carry on after she retires, and what better person to do that than someone who understands what Dominatus is to the level that you will? ”
They actually thought she would agree to be the director of the Shrine? As if somehow that was the whole reason she’d come? Eliana shook her head. “Why do I get the feeling everyone has a path in mind for me, but no one has actually shared with me what that path is?”
“Until now.” Tony shrugged. “What does it matter who came up with the idea? It’s a perfect fit for you.”
“You telling me that is part of the problem. No one is letting me figure it out for myself.”
And that was the crux of the issue. It seemed far too much like the job offer had come at the perfect time.
Eliana’s parents hadn’t objected, or really even seemed surprised.
She hadn’t had to fight against them for their support in coming here, so she hadn’t worried about why they didn’t disagree with her.
She had just done what she wanted to do and moved, as if coming to Chicago would solve all her problems.
Instead, it seemed as if she had opened a can of worms she never expected and put herself in the crosshairs of people who thought that her life was intertwined with their plans.
The Reverence Sisters and their “Mother.”
Lydia Rosenberg.
Eliana didn’t understand half of what was going on, but until she knew Carolena was no longer missing, how could she walk away?
“There are extenuating circumstances at work here,” Tony said. “But there always were going to be, no matter when you would’ve decided to finally embrace who you are. It’s never a perfect time to take hold of your destiny. Somehow, it always wants to take hold of you.”