Chapter 10 #2
Shoot, he was right. What was she doing? It was just that her mother had taught her not to make a fuss, not to speak up. She was used to making herself small, to taking care of herself when she was injured or ill.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t feel so good. My head really, really hurts, and I just feel all agitated, and my stomach feels a bit ill.”
“You poor thing,” Michaela told her.
Surprise filled her. She guessed she was so used to her mother brushing everything off that getting sympathy from anyone was a surprise.
“You’d feel a lot better if I could give you some fluids," Michaela told her. “Would that be okay? And if I took some more blood from you?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t really like needles.”
“You don’t have to look,” Harvey reassured her as he climbed onto the bed next to her. “Just turn this way and look at me.”
That’s exactly what she did, because who wouldn’t want to look at Harvey? He was gorgeous with that dark hair and those hazel-green eyes. He had a five o’clock shadow that she thought suited him.
He was wearing a T-shirt and some sweatpants. He looked rumpled, and a bit tired, and she didn’t think he’d ever looked as gorgeous as he did right now.
She felt Michaela touching her hand and placing something cold on her inner elbow, but she ignored everything she was doing.
“You have lots of tattoos,” she told Harvey. They went up above his T-shirt to his neck as well as down over his hands. “Not sure I’ve ever met a lawyer with so many tattoos.”
Oops, was that a bit judgmental? But all he did was smile.
“Well, I only really work for my family, so no one really cares about my tattoos.”
“Oh, that must be nice,” she said. Had he taken time off work in order to kidnap her?
She guessed he hadn’t factored in that she might get sick and he’d have to take care of her.
There was a prick in her skin, and she winced. He cupped the side of her face with his hand to prevent her from turning her head to look.
“You’re doing so well,” he told her. “You’re being such a brave girl.”
She wasn’t really. Who was scared of needles at her age?
But she still lapped up the praise. She shouldn’t feel guilty that he was here taking care of her when he was probably meant to be working.
After all, he was the one who had kidnapped her.
But she also couldn’t believe how much he had done for her while she’d been ill.
Patches of memories came back to her of him wiping her face with a cloth, holding her tight when she was scared, feeding her little mouthfuls of soup.
How amazing was that? She couldn’t really believe it.
“There we go. All done,” Michaela said, and Lily turned her head to look down at her arm. She now had an IV line in her hand, but it had been covered up by a large white bandage, so she couldn’t see much.
A phone started ringing, and Harvey cursed as he looked at it. “I have to take this. I’ll be right back. Are you all right?”
“Of course,” she told him. “Go take it.”
“Michaela, stay with her,” he ordered.
"Sorry he’s so bossy," she said to Michaela as he left the room.
Michaela just smiled. “He pays me well, and he’s not a bad guy. He cares about you a lot.”
“You do know he kidnapped me, right?” she said. Shoot, should she have said that? Would he get angry at her for telling Michaela?
“Oh, I know,” Michaela said. “Like I said, he pays me well, and that includes my discretion. And I’ve seen the way Harvey looks after you.
He spent every moment of the last couple of days in this room, except for when he had to use the bathroom or was heating up some soup for you.
There aren’t many people that would take care of someone the way he’s looked after you. ”
She was right.
Lily couldn’t think of anyone else in her life who would’ve looked after her like Harvey had.
And she didn’t know quite what to think of that. He’d taken her from her house.
If she’d gotten this ill at her mother’s house, she’d have been left on her own to rot.
Well, maybe James might have bought her some things, but he wouldn’t have been able to do too much without her mother catching on.
“He wouldn’t even let me put in an IV line or take blood from you without your permission, because you got so upset last time when we did it. I don’t mind a man like that bossing me around.”
Harvey returned after that, but Michaela had given her a lot to think about.
Harvey glanced over as the bedroom door opened and Michaela stood there.
“Is she asleep?”
He nodded, and she gestured for him to come out into the hallway. He kept the door open and positioned himself so he could see Lily as he spoke to Michaela.
“What is it? Did you get the results from her tests?”
“Not from the blood sample I took, but from the drugs we were testing that she’d been taking.”
He straightened. “What about them?”
“Well, the main base was the sedative that was written on the front of the pill bottle,” she told him. “But they were also laced with something.”
“What?” he asked.
“Have you ever heard of scopolamine?”
Scopolamine? Otherwise known as Devil’s Breath. “Fuck, you’re kidding. Those pills were laced with Devil’s Breath?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Those motherfuckers,” he snarled.
“Yeah, I don’t know how long she’s been on them, but it explains why she’s malnourished. She would have had very little appetite. Given in higher doses, scopolamine can cause amnesia and make someone highly suggestible.”
“I’ve got Paddy looking into the doctor. He must have known, right?”
Michaela nodded. “Unless someone switched the pills without his knowledge. Which is possible. Do you know who would have done that? Who would want her compliant and zombielike?”
“My guess is her bitch of a mother.” He’d need to have a chat with her mother and the doctor. Maybe Rick too.
Although part of him thought that asshole was too fucking dumb to do something like this.
The question was, why? Why would her mother do this to her? To keep her compliant? It seemed extreme.
“It also explains why she’s so ill,” Michaela said. “She’s doing a lot better, but it could take her a few days to feel more like herself, and then she’ll need to build up her strength. I can admit her to a hospital if you can’t look after her that long.”
He shot Michaela a quelling look. “I’ll take care of her. No one else.”
The older woman smiled. “That’s what I thought you would say. I’ll stay another day to help, then, once she’s doing better I can take out the IV.”
The other woman left while he walked into the bedroom to stare down at Lily for a long moment.
What the hell had been going on in that house? And how long would she have survived? It seemed that no one had taken care of her.
He settled in to watch her.
Yes, there were important things he needed to do. Top of his list was finding out more about the doctor who wrote the prescription. And dealing with her mother.
But, above all, his priority was Lily.
It was always going to be Lily.