Chapter Fourteen
~ Jackson ~
"Where is he?"
Jake cocked an eyebrow before standing back and pulling the door open just enough for me to walk into the condo and then he gestured to the door just down the hallway.
I'd been anxious when I arrived home, but that had instantly exploded into rage when I realized the penthouse was totally empty. Daniel was gone. Even Austin was gone. There wasn't a single living soul in the place.
I'd dropped my suitcase next to the door and then walked to the penthouse next to mine, knocking rapidly on the door. I'd almost punched Jake the moment he opened the door. The only reason I hadn't was because he had information I needed.
I walked over to the door, drew in a deep calming breath, and then opened it up and stepped inside. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust since there were no lights on and it was dark outside.
Once I could see, I scanned the room. I was instantly drawn to the small figure curled up in a chair by the window. I flipped on the light before walking across the room and squatting down in front of Daniel.
I winced when I got my first sight of his pale face. It was a lot thinner than the last time I saw him. His cheekbones were more prominent and his sky blue eyes dominated his face, even if they had turned pale and lifeless.
I used the quietest voice I could as I said, "Daniel."
I got no response.
"Daniel," I said a little louder.
Nothing.
I reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Daniel, won't you look at me?"
Daniel slowly turned his head until his eyes met mine and then his eyebrows snapped together as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. "M—Master?"
I sent him a small smile I wasn't really feeling. "Hey, Daniel."
"Master!" Daniel launched himself out of the chair, falling at my feet. He wrapped his arms around my legs and started sobbing. "Master, please, Master. I'll be good. I swear I will. Please, don't leave me!"
Holy crap!
"Daniel." I grabbed Daniel's arms and tried to lift him up, but he only tightened his arms around me. "Daniel."
When I lost my balance and fell back, Daniel lowered himself, pressing his head against the floor. "Please, Master, I'll be good. I won't be bad anymore."
"Enough!" I couldn't take his pleading anymore.
Daniel slumped. When his shoulders started to move, I thought he was going to get up. Instead, the rest of him began to shake as well.
That wasn't right.
"Daniel?" I quickly reached for him, pulling him into my arms. The moment I saw that his eyes had rolled back into his head and he continued to shake in my arms, I panicked. "Jake!"
The door slammed open and Jake came running in followed closely by Miles and Patty. They all ran over to us, Patty dropping down next to us and reaching for Daniel.
"Lay him down flat," Patty ordered. "He's having a seizure."
I quickly—yet gently—laid Daniel flat on the floor before cradling his head with my hands. With the way it was jerking, I was afraid he'd crack it open on the hardwood floor.
It seemed to take forever for Daniel to stop shaking, but I knew it had only been a few minutes. When he finally slumped, his eyes were closed and it felt as if he was barely breathing.
Patty pulled a pen light out of his pocket and flashed it in Daniel's eyes.
"How is he?"
"He's unconscious at the moment." Patty glanced up. "Jake, call an ambulance. This is beyond what we can treat here."
My heart lurched.
Patty looked at me with a no-nonsense glint in his eyes. "Tell me what happened."
I briefly ran down everything that had happened after I walked into the room...which was like five minutes ago. It seemed like ages ago.
"Is he going to be okay?" I'd never seen anyone have a seizure before. I never wanted to see it again.
"He should be fine," Patty replied, "but I want to run some tests and I don't have the equipment here to do that."
I got up and grabbed a blanket off the end of the bed and spread it over Daniel. "Can I pick him up now?"
Patty nodded.
I carefully lifted Daniel into my arms. Something felt very right about having him there, but very wrong for the reason I was holding him.
"How did this happen?" I asked quietly. "Why did he have a seizure?"
"I won't know until I run a few tests, but I suspect he overloaded until his body simply rebelled."
"Is there a possibility that this will happen again?"
"Yes."
I hated the honesty I heard in Patty's voice.
I sat down in the chair Daniel had been occupying and cradled him in my arms. I lifted one hand and gently stroked it over the side of his thin face. "Oh, baby, what have I done to you?"
"This may not be all due to you, Jack," Jake said. "Remember what I told you. You just lit the fire. Daniel has years of abuse to deal with. It just came to a head when you talked to him."
That didn't make me feel any better.
When Jai came in a few minutes later with the paramedics, I had to give up the man in my arms. I hated it. I stayed as close as I could without getting in their way.
"Jake, can you send Austin to the hospital?" I asked as I followed the gurney they'd laid Daniel down on. "I want him around to keep an eye on Daniel."
Jake crossed his arms and leveled his intense gaze at me. "Are you planning on leaving again?"
"No," I answered without hesitation. "I won't be leaving Daniel again. I just want him protected." I couldn't get the image of Daniel begging out of my mind. He'd sounded so desperate.
He should never sound like that.
I was Daniel's husband so there were no arguments when I went to ride in the ambulance with him. I did have to ride up front though. Patty was in the back with the paramedic.
We arrived at the hospital fairly quickly. I climbed out of the ambulance and hurried around to the back where they were unloading Daniel. Once again, I tried my best to stay with Daniel, but stay out of the way of the medical personnel. I wanted to know what was going on with Daniel as much as they did.
Daniel was wheeled in through the emergency room doors, but I was stopped by a nurse, who led me over to one of the nurses' stations and handed me Daniel's check-in form.
I stared at it, realizing with a sinking heart just how little I knew about the man. I'd seen his medical records, but I'd been so horrified by what I was seeing that I hadn't taken into account the rest of his medical information.
I pulled out my new cell phone and dialed Jake. "Hey, I need you to bring that disc with Daniel's medical information on it to the hospital."
"Patty has all that," Jake replied.
Well, at least one of us knew what was going on. I, apparently, was clueless. I needed to fix that. I needed to know everything I possibly could to keep Daniel healthy and safe. I'd been doing a piss poor job up till now.
That was going to change.
"You going to be okay, Jack?"
"Eventually." It wasn't something that was going to happen right away. "Look, I need to go. I need to fill this paperwork out and then go back and see Daniel."
"Call me later and let me know how Daniel is doing."
"I will, but it might be awhile. They are still working on him."
"Call me if you need anything."
I hung up with Jake and then filled out as much paperwork as I could without Daniel's full medical file. I'm sure Patty could fill in the rest since he had it and had been treating Daniel for awhile.
And then I waited...and waited...and waited some more. By the time I glanced at the clock on the wall, I realized that I had been waiting for nearly four hours.
Did a medical examination take that long?
Had something happened?
Did Daniel have another seizure?
What was going on?
I got up from my chair and walked over to the nurses' station. "I'd like to go back and see my husband. He was brought in four hours ago and no one has been out to tell me how he is doing."
"His doctor should have been out to talk to you."
"His doctor is Patrick Scotton. Maybe you can call him?"
The nurse picked up the phone in front of her and dialed a number. She spoke for a few minutes and then hung up. "Dr. Scotton will be out to talk to you in a few minutes."
Fantastic.
More waiting.
I was starting to get a little aggravated. I'd been so concerned with how Daniel was doing when we first arrived that I hadn't realized so much time had passed by. Now, I was pissed.
Why had no one come to talk to me?
"Jack, what are you doing here?" Patty asked as he walked through the emergency doors. "Why aren't you with Daniel?"
I stilled, even my heart freezing in place. "Where's Daniel?"
"He should be in his room upstairs." Patty frowned. "Didn't the nurse come out and get you?"
"No one has come out to get me," I snapped. "No one has come out to tell me if my husband is alive or dead. No one has come out to tell me anything. And no one has come out to get me."
Patty ran over to the nurses' station and picked up the phone. He started ranting out orders and questions in equal measure. When he slammed the phone down, I expected him to say something to me. I didn't expect him to march over to the security guard at the door and demand for the guy to lock down the hospital and call his supervisor.
When he turned to look at me with a pensive look on his face, I started shaking my head. I didn't want to hear what he had to say. I just wanted to know where Daniel was.
"Patty—"
"Daniel was examined and then taken to his room over an hour ago, Jack. He should be upstairs in room three twenty." Patty's lips thinned for a moment. "He never made it to his room."
Not possible.
I grabbed Patty by the lapels of his doctor's jacket and yanked him closer. "Where is my husband, Patty?"
Patty grabbed my hands and tried to push them off, but I only tightened my hold. "We'll find him, Jack. I promise."
"This is a fucking hospital. He should have been safe here. Where is he?"
"It could be a simple clerical error, Jack. He could have been moved to the wrong room or something."
"Or something?" I snapped. "What something?"
Patty's eyes narrowed. "Do you want to sit here and cast blame or do you want to find Daniel?"
I let Patty go—reluctantly—and then pulled my cell phone out to call Jake. "Daniel is missing."
"What do you mean missing?" Jake asked.
"I mean he's fucking missing. Patty examined him and then sent him to a room upstairs, but he never made it. The hospital is on lockdown right now and they are searching for him."
"Is there any way he could have run again like he did back at the estate?"
I wanted to say no, but I couldn't.
"If he ran, fine, but I still want to know where he is."
"I'm going to make a couple of phones calls and then I'll come down to help search."
"Alejandro?"
Jake let out a small chuckle. "Surprisingly, no, but I'll be calling his Italian counterpart in Manhattan."
I had to wonder how Jake knew all of these people.
"Jack," Patty called out. When I glanced at him, he made a gesture for me to join him. "We're going to go look at video surveillance. Do you want to be there?"
Hell yes.
"I need to go, Jake. We're going to go look at video surveillance and see if we can track him."
"Fuck me!" Jake exclaimed. "Daniel has one of my trackers. How did I forget that?"
Shit! I'd forgotten about that, too.
"I don't have the program on my current phone, Jake." I needed to fix that. "Can you do it?"
"Way ahead of you, my man."
When Patty called out to me again, I waved him over. "Daniel has one of Jake's trackers. Jake is looking for him now."
"Okay," Jake said, "the program is coming up now."
I held my breath.
"It looks like he is still at the hospital."
I blew out the breath I'd been holding. Daniel hadn't run. He was still here somewhere.
"Can you pinpoint where in the hospital he is?" Patty asked.
I didn't realize he could hear Jake until that moment. I reached up and hit the speaker button and then held the phone between us.
"If this is right, Daniel is on the roof."
That couldn't be right.
"The roof?" I asked, needing to make sure.
"Yeah, Stella brought up the 3D map and it says Daniel is on the roof of the hospital." There was silence for a moment as we all tried to take that in, and then Jake asked, "You don't think he's going to jump, do you?"
Something deadly cold took a hold of me.
I shot Patty a hard glare, daring him to deny me. "How do I get to the roof?"
"Follow me," Patty said as he turned and started for the emergency room doors. "Jake, call Vinnie and have him get some of his men down here to surround the hospital. I don't want an ant getting out."
"I'm on it," Jake said before hanging up.
"What's going on, Patty?" I asked as we rushed down the corridor and into an elevator.
Patty hit the tenth floor button as soon as we were inside. "Daniel is a lot of things, Jack, but he isn't a jumper."
I prayed that he was right.
"He woke up while I was examining him and told me that he dreamed that he saw you. When I told him that he had, that you had come back and that you were just waiting to see him, he seemed overjoyed. That is not someone that is contemplating ending their life."
"He wants to see me?"
"He's desperate to see you."
Oddly enough, that made me smile.