CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Camden refused any painkillers that weren’t topical and was making everyone’s life miserable.
Beth could go to hell.
The doctors weren’t signing off on his release.
Camden wasn’t getting answers.
The hospital administration was apparently scared of releasing him until Titan Group’s designated physician signed off on his treatment plan, and that asshole hadn’t shown up yet.
The private hospital room closed in on him.
The monitoring equipment beeped and reported that he needed to settle down and relax.
That wasn’t going to happen.
Not for the first time, Camden removed the monitors and paced the room, ready to walk out the door as soon as he knew leaving wouldn’t get him fired.
He probably needed street clothes too.
Someone had confiscated them under the guise of having medical staff check him out, and they wouldn’t give them back.
Flapping around in his hospital gown wouldn’t help him if he escaped.
A nurse inched into his room and eyed the monitoring equipment that he’d removed.
Nothing was wrong with his heart, and the beeping was pushing him to the point of madness.
She didn’t let go of the door but held out a cell phone.
“You have a phone call.”
Camden snatched the device.
“Hello?”
“I hear you are causing the staff a lot of heartburn,” Jared groused.
“Would you sit your ass down so they can do what they’re supposed to do?”
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah. Sure you are. That’s how people blasted with that much voltage are after a half a day. Look, man.” Jared let out a deep breath.
“If there was something to tell you, I’d have told you. If anyone had a lead, you’d know about it. We’re doing our best. But if you don’t take care of yourself now , you won’t be worth a shit when I need you.” He cleared his throat.
“When she needs you. Do you get me?”
Camden’s molars gnashed.
“There has to be—”
“I’m tell you there’s not and that I’m wasting my time making sure you listen to doctor’s orders when I could be doing more important things—things you want me doing, brother. You hear me?”
Camden grumbled.
“That nurse still standing in the room?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t fuck with her.”
“I’m not—”
“Jesus shit, do you think I would be on the phone with you right fuckin’ now if multiple folks with medical degrees think you need to sit down and take your medicine or whatever?”
He glanced at the nurse, who probably could hear every word Boss Man was bellowing.
“All right. I read you.”
“Loud and clear, asshole?”
“That’s affirmative. Loud and clear.” Camden handed the cell phone to the nurse.
“I’m going to sit down.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
“On the bed. You do whatever you have to do.”
She pocketed the phone.
“I wasn’t the one who tattled on you.” She gingerly pulled the gown apart and, careful of his bandages, put the stethoscope in her ears then to his chest.
He tried not to grumble.
“My boss has eyes and ears everywhere.”
She moved the cold metal over his skin.
“That’s what I hear.”
“Drop the gown back.” She pressed the stethoscope below his shoulder blades and listened to his lungs.
She pulled the fabric back into place.
“You’re not dying.”
“That’s what I keep saying. Can I get out of here?”
“Any reaction from the antibiotics?”
“You mean that big, fat needle someone drilled into me? No.”
She checked his chart.
“It’ll go a lot faster if you’re hooked back up.” She nudged her head to the monitoring equipment.
“At least until a doctor says you’re good to go.”
He frowned at it.
The idea of tiny wires keeping him in place made his skin crawl.
“Anyone have a ball around here that I can borrow?”
The nurse paused what she was doing.
“Like a stress ball?”
“Like a football. Baseball. Hell, I’d take a basketball. I can’t sit still and think with empty hands.”
“I don’t know how much you have to think, but I’ll call over to peds and see what they have.”
“I could walk there myself if you point me the right way.”
She laughed.
“Well, you’d have to get by the armed guards at your door to do that.”
Camden really didn’t like being in this room.
“Wire me up again.”
The nurse quickly attached the blood pressure cuffs and wires to his chest and left with a promise to find him a ball.
As soon as the door shut, it opened again.
Beth wasn’t who Camden wanted to see.
His never-ending headache throbbed again.
“What do you want?”
“I don’t know why I always get hospital duty. My bedside manner isn’t great.” Her high heels clicked toward him.
“Esme and I have been over everything a dozen times. The names on Titan’s list weren’t in Hailey or Jonathan’s orbit.”
“Someone’s working with bad information.”
“Or not enough intel,” she countered.
“They crossed a lot of names off the list based on car registrations.” She sat primly on the lone visitor chair.
“Anyone give you an update on the mercenaries you dropped?”
He shook his head.
“Probably because there was none. We didn’t get anything off them.”
“Nothing?”
She shook her head.
“No IDs. No matches to databases. Nothing.”
“Great.”
“But I do have good news, though.”
Amelia was gone, and they didn’t have any leads.
The only thing that would help was if Beth helped him escape.
“You know who my doctor is, and I’m leaving any minute?”
Beth rolled her eyes.
“Why are you tough guys such pains in the ass? No.”
“Then what?”
“I know what Hailey’s handler was working on.”
That had his full attention.
Information like that would help find Amelia.
“That’s almost better than discharge paperwork. Spit it out.”
“Russia has been placing mistresses on the arms of some of the most influential men you can think of.”
“Like honeypot sleeper agents?”
She nodded.
“Yup. We don’t know if any are active and trying to influence or just waiting for their marching orders.”
Despite his headache, possibilities ran through his mind.
“The Russians got the NOC list and learned about Hailey and Jonathan’s involvement with Esme.”
“That’s a working theory.”
“Who knows about this?” he asked.
“Titan and my section chief. Beyond that?” She shrugged.
“No idea.”
“Esme?” he asked, even though Beth would have mentioned if Esme had been told.
What if Esme was one of the sleeper agents?
What if she’d known her tight-knit network had been infiltrated by the CIA?
Hailey and Jonathan would have been easy enough to take care of.
Camden’s thoughts returned to Amelia.
Why did they take her?
What did they want? “Do they think the CIA has other agents embedded in Esme’s network?”
“No idea.”
The blood pressure machine beeped, and a mechanical voice spoke.
“Relax your arm for a reading.” It beeped twice more and repeated the message.
“This is fucking ridiculous,” Camden said.
“You’ve got to get me out of here.”
The cuff contracted on his arm.
“Reading in progress. Remain still.”
He huffed.
“What are we waiting on?”
“Jared has a doctor he wants you to see.”
Beth’s phone vibrated, and she answered and turned away to listen before ending the call.
She didn’t act as though new information had been shared.
“Stay put. I’ll see what I can do.”
Her high heels clacked on the floor.
The heavy door shut with a resounding click.
His blood pressure reading announced itself as abnormal and asked him to sit still next time.
Camden was going to lose his mind.