XXXVIII
Tori
Underneath the bright white bandage, the cut on my hand throbs painfully. The paramedic said it was going to need looking at again in the ER because it looked like it needed stitches, but I’ll pass. I don’t have insurance, and neither does my mom. I have no idea how we’re going to afford the medical bills that will come from this.
Of all the things to be thinking about right now, I know it’s not the most important.
But if I let my mind think about anything else, I start worrying about what’s wrong with my mom. A dozen scenarios run rampant in my mind, each becoming darker and more sinister as they go.
I should never have left her alone.
She was drunk.
I knew she was drunk, but I left her there.
If I’d have stayed home and asked Payne to come to my place, then I would have been able to get my mom out—
“Tori?”
Pulled from my thoughts, I look over at Payne. We’re finally back in his car as he drives us to the hospital. “Huh?”
“I said you should have something to drink. The water.” Without taking his eyes off the road, he picks up the bottle of water that has been sitting in the drink holder between us and hands it over.
I’m not thirsty, but I take the bottle anyway. Instead, I turn my focus to his profile, studying his face. There are traces of soot on his skin.
Soot he got from running into a burning building to save my mom.
“Thank you.”
Payne glances at me briefly before he returns his attention to the road in front of him. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay ,” I tell him. “You ran into a burning building to save my mom. You shouldn’t have needed to do that.”
“I’m sure if I stuck around long enough, the firemen would have torn me a new one about how dumb that was, but the other options were either letting you go in by yourself or leaving your mom in there. Seeing as neither are acceptable alternatives, it’s a moot point.”
Biting my lip, I drop my attention to the bottle of water in my hands. “I shouldn’t have left her. I knew she was drunk.”
“You couldn’t have known that someone was going to set the store on fire.”
“I came back home this morning and found the place full of empty bottles. And before you say anything, I knew she had a problem before I went to JKU. I left her anyway,” I admit, quietly.
Payne sucks in a deep breath. Then his hand is interrupting my view of the bottle as he takes my hand in his. “Don’t do that. Don’t play the blame game with yourself. The important thing is that we’re all safe.”
Much as I know he means well, I also know I could have done more—I should have done more.
We arrive at the hospital, and Payne ignores my suggestion that he can drop me off, instead, driving his car into the multistory parking lot to park. I’m grateful though.
Before I can open the door, Payne reaches over and stops me. “Just a minute.” He leans into the back. When he returns, he passes me something. “Put this on.”
Frowning, I stare at the black woolen beanie. “We’re going inside.”
“Your hair is going to draw attention to you. The last thing you want is someone recognizing and harassing you.”
When Cole was arrested, and for a while after he was sent to prison, we were bombarded with hate. Most of it died down after we were forced to move out, but the place we moved before this one was doxed, and it started up again. That was a while ago, and even if Cole still hasn’t been released, I’m sure no one is going to care—especially not in a hospital in Jersey.
“Think of it as a precaution,” Payne adds. “It will probably be fine, but if someone does recognize you, it’s going to cause you, your mom, and the hospital problems.”
I grab my hair, twisting it up onto the top of my head, and then I pull the beanie down over the top of it. “Thank you.”
We get out of the car and head over to the entrance. After navigating through the hospital, we arrive at the ER reception desk. “I’m looking for my mom. Vivian Anderson. She was brought in from a fire.”
The woman types on her keyboard so slowly, I have to fight the urge to grab it from her, but she eventually looks up. “Her condition is stable. They’re seeing her now. Please take a seat and someone will be out to see you soon.”
“I can’t go see her?” I ask.
The woman’s eyes narrow. “No. Take a seat, and someone will be out to see you soon.”
“Thank you.” Payne steps between me and the desk before ushering me away. The waiting area is full, but he leads us to two spare seats. He waits for me to sit before he sits down beside them. “I know you’re worried, but these places are smaller and busier than they seem on TV. They need the room to do what they need to do.”
As I sit in the waiting room, time feels like it’s stopped. The receptionist clearly understated the amount of time I’d be waiting.
Every time I get ready to go and ask the receptionist for more information, Payne gets up first, tells me to protect his seat, and then goes himself. And every time he comes back, he tells me soon.
Finally, after a couple of hours, he comes back from checking and nods his chin up. “This way.”
I jump to my feet, following Payne to the elevator, away from the ER. “Where are we going? The sign says the ER is on the ground floor,” I point out.
“She’s in a room,” he replies, pressing the button.
There are a few people who get on the elevator with us, but we’re the only ones who get off on our floor. Dazed, I follow after him, grateful he’s here with me. Hearing she’s in a room also makes me feel a little bit better, because at least she’s being looked after now.
The area of the hospital that Payne leads me to is strangely quiet. “Are we going the right way?”
Payne pauses in front of a door. “Just a minute.”
“Payne, what’s going on?” I ask, feeling more anxious than I think I should be. “Why are you acting weird?”
After a moment of ignoring me, Payne turns to me. “This way.”
He leads me into the next corridor without answering my question, taking us straight to a nurse sitting at a desk.
She looks up at us, cocking her head. “Can I help you?”
“We’re looking for Vivian Anderson,” I quickly tell her, glancing around. There’s a strange vibe that I can’t put my finger one.
“Room 7-1. Just down the hall. The doctor is with her now.”
The last remaining shred of decorum leaves me, and I charge down the hall, my sneakers squeaking on the shiny tiled floor. The door to room 7-1 is closed, but I burst in without knocking.
There’s only one bed in the room, and my mom is lying in it. The machine beside her is beeping at a steady pace, with wires leading to my mom’s body. On the other side of the bed, a doctor is busy typing something into a tablet.
“Oh, god. Mom?” I run over to the bed. “Is she okay?”
The doctor nods. “Minor smoke inhalation. We’ll continue to monitor it as we move her.”
Move her? “Where is she going?”
“A facility to treat her addiction,” the doctor says, like that’s the most obvious place for her to go.
She came in drunk, so maybe it is, but everything I’ve ever seen or heard about hospitals is that everything takes forever. And Mom doesn’t have insurance.
“I don’t understand.” Understatement . “Which facility? How much is this going to cost? We don’t have insurance.”
“Everything has been taken care of. You don’t need to worry,” the doctor tells me. He gives me a smile, then he walks off.
Completely bewildered, I glance around the room. Nothing makes sense. Who’s taken care of things? Why is she in a private room instead of a regular one?
I sink into the chair beside the bed. Even the chair isn’t the standard, cheap plastic thing I’d expect. It’s a decent size, comfortable, and the faux leather doesn’t look like it’s been abused by a thousand visitors.
“Mom?” I ask softly, reaching for her hand.
She stirs but doesn’t wake.
Bowing my head, I rub at my temple. As I get closer, I catch the lingering smell of smoke and alcohol. “Rehab?” I mutter.
“Tori?” Payne says softly as he walks over to my side.
Feeling hopelessly confused, I look up at him and shake my head. “I have no idea what’s happening right now.”
“I can help with that,” he tells me.
He steps to the side. As he does, he reveals the person standing behind him.
Syn.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I blurt out before I can stop myself. I look back at Payne. “Did you call him?”
“Not quite.” Payne folds his arms and glowers at Syn.
Pieces quickly start to fall into place, and I stand, my hands on my hips. “Did you do this?”
Syn walks over, holding his hands up as though I’m pointing a gun at him. “Tori, I’m going to explain everything, but we need to leave. Now.”
I shake my head. “Not a chance. I don’t care if you go and cancel everything, you’re not buying me with private treatment for my mom. We’ll be fine.”
“Buying you…?” Syn winces. “It’s nothing like that.”
“Then what is it like?”
Syn’s expression starts to darken. “I told you, I will explain everything later—”
“No,” I say, firmly. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
With a sharp intake of breath, Syn pulls his phone out and glances at it briefly. “Fine. Lover boy here called me, and you should be glad he did,” he adds when my mouth falls open from the betrayal I feel. “He doesn’t think the fire was an accident, and neither do I.”
“You think someone set the building on fire intentionally?” Shock ripples through me. “You think someone tried to kill my mom? Me? Preston?”
Syn rubs a hand over his mouth before raising a single shoulder. “Not Preston. But I think it’s because of him. I had Gemini check the police databases, and he couldn’t find any evidence of his booking.”
I shake my head. “No. Your father was… your father?”
Syn’s face remains completely expressionless as he stares at me.
“You said we could trust him.”
“I thought we could.” Syn walks back to the door, opening it a fraction to peer through. Then he closes it, turning back to me. “Which is why we need to leave. You don’t understand how much danger you’re in right now. It won’t take long for them to realize that you survived, and then they’ll be coming here. They’re probably already here.”
My mouth suddenly feels like all the moisture has been sucked out of it, and I can hear my heart beating, like it’s being played through a speaker. I glance at my mom. “I can’t leave my mom.”
“Your mom will be safe. Gemini hacked the system, changed her name, and had her moved up here.” Syn presses his lips together as he looks at me.
Whatever he’s expecting me to say, I need him to let me know, because I don’t even know where to start.
Gemini knows how to hack into a hospital? Is that even possible?
“We saw the results of the blood alcohol test,” Syn continues. “We paid the nurse and doctor and told them we were having her moved to a private rehab facility. Instead, we’ve arranged for a private ambulance to move her to a different location, where there will be a private doctor to look after her.”
“She drinks. Wherever she goes, she’s going to want a drink,” I say quietly. Telling Syn this makes my cheeks burn, and I really don’t want him to know this fact, but if he doesn’t know, the person with her won’t. “I should go with her and look after her.”
“She’ll be safe where she’s going. The doctor will help her.”
Despite Syn’s confidence, I’m not so sure. My mom needs help, but sending her off to do this alone? And even if this is what she needs, what good is it if it’s against her will?
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Synclair is right.” Payne places his hands on my shoulders as he stands behind me.
“Tori, the longer we’re here, the more chance there is of us being spotted. Then it’s going to be even harder to disappear. We need to go. Now.”
Syn holds his hand out to me.
“Fine,” I say before I can change my mind. I grab Syn’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Syn doesn’t move, instead, waits until I’m looking at him. “I’m going to fix this, Tori. You have my word.”
If nothing else, he sounds like he believes what he’s saying.
All I can do is hope he’s not making promises he has no possible chance of keeping.
Right now, my life is literally in his hands.