Chapter 101: VANESSA’S VISIT
KEISHA’S POV
Becca sent food to me.
Of course she did.
A whole container of it was brought by one of the junior kitchen staff who handed it over with the expression of someone who had been told by Becca to make sure I actually ate it and not just accepted it and set it aside.
I ate it in the clinic room with Nadia watching me with the attention of someone supervising a very important task. Callum and Dane were sitting on the two chairs near the window talking in low voices about something that stopped being low when I caught the words Rhett and collapse and unconscious.
I lowered my fork. "What happened to Rhett? Everyone heard he was arrested."
They both looked at me.
"He’s here." Dane said after a moment. "In the clinic."
"Here?" I said. "In this clinic. Where?"
"Down the corridor." He nodded down.
I put the fork down properly. "What happened to him?"
"He collapsed in the cell." Callum said. "We don’t know yet if it was self administered or—"
"Self administered? Like poison?" I said. "He did it to himself to get in here?"
They were both quiet.
"So that whoever is behind him can reach him here." I muttered. "Because a clinic is easier to access than a dungeon."
Dane looked at Callum and Callum looked at me.
"Don’t." He sighed.
"I’m just saying—"
"I know what you’re saying." He said. "And I’m saying don’t."
I picked up my fork again.
The food was good. I ate all of it and Nadia took the empty container while Callum talked to Dane about the guard rotation at Rhett’s door.
I sat in my clinic bed, listened and said nothing but I was frustrated about being in the middle of something and being told to rest instead.
Eventually Dane left to handle border things. Nadia went back to the office because Mr Hale was not Callum and did not grant two days off based on personal relationships with the patient’s guardian.
Callum stayed.
He sat in the chair, read something on his phone while I sat in the bed and looked at the ceiling and we didn’t talk but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence.
After a while he said— "You need to eat more."
"I eat, you know." I rolled my eyes.
"Adequately." He said. "Not just when it’s convenient."
"I eat adequately." I muttered.
A lie.
He looked at me but I looked at the ceiling.
"I know." He whispered quietly. "That it’s not just the blood pressure."
My chest did something and I struggled to keep my expression neutral.
"Look—"
"I’m not pushing." He quickly said. "I’m just—" He stopped. "Thursday." He said.
I turned to look at him.
He was looking at his phone. Not at me. "I heard you." He said. "The other night. You said Thursday." He looked up. "I’m just reminding you."
I stared at him.
He had heard me say it to myself in my bedroom.
Of course he had. The bond. His senses. Of course.
I opened my mouth.
He stood up. "I have things to deal with." He said. "I’m leaving two guards outside Rhett’s door. If anything feels wrong—"
"I’ll call." I nodded.
He looked at me for a moment. Then he left.
I sat in the clinic room alone and looked at the wall.
After a while I got up, stretched and walked to the door and looked down the corridor.
It was quiet. A guard outside the room at the far end. Nurses moving between stations. The ordinary sounds of a clinic afternoon.
I went back to my bed, lay down and looked at the ceiling when I heard footsteps in the corridor.
I turned my head.
Vanessa.
She came through the door with a smile already in place, her coat on and her hands folded in front of her and she looked at me in the clinic bed with a lot of concern.
"I heard what happened." She gushed. "I wanted to come and check on you."
I looked at her. "That’s kind." I muttered.
"Of course." She said as she sat down in the chair Callum had been in and folded her hands on her knee. "How are you feeling?"
"Better." I said. "Thank you."
"You work so hard." She said. "You all do. I think sometimes people in this pack forget to take care of themselves." She tilted her head. "Do you have someone? To look after you?"
"Nadia." I said.
"Of course." She said warmly. "She’s wonderful." A pause. "And Callum seems very—" She stopped. "Concerned."
I said nothing.
She looked at me with those eyes that were very busy performing warmth.
"I should go." She said, standing. "I just wanted to check on you." She smiled. "Rest well."
She left and I watched her go through the glass panel of the door.
She walked down the corridor. Turned left instead of right.
Left was away from the exit. Left was toward Rhett’s room.
I sat up, waited, got up and went to the door and opened it quietly and looked down the corridor.
The guard outside Rhett’s room was there. Vanessa was talking to him, that same damn smile on her face, and the guard was shaking his head. She said something else and the guard shook his head again and she tilted her head but I couldn’t hear what was being said.
Then she moved slightly and her angle changed and she was closer to the door and the guard was looking at something she was showing him— her phone, a document, something— and while he looked at it she turned her head and looked directly at the small gap in the door where Rhett was and her lips moved. Like she was saying something.
Fast.
Then she was stepping back, smiling at the guard and walking back up the corridor toward me.
I moved back from the door, got into the bed and pulled the sheet up and looked at the ceiling until I heard her footsteps pass my door without stopping.
Then they were gone.
I lay there and thought about what she had done.
She had said something to Rhett while the guard was distracted.
And she had gotten her message to him.
I got up and picked up my phone and called Dane.
He answered immediately. "What’s wrong?"
"Nothing’s wrong." I said. "But Vanessa just visited Rhett’s room."
Silence followed.
"The guard didn’t let her in." I said. "But she got close enough. She said something through the door while he was looking at something she showed him." I paused. "I don’t know what she said. But she said something."
Dane remained silent for a bit.
"How do you know this?" He finally asked.
"I watched from my door." I said.
A sound that was almost a sigh. "Keisha—"
"I know." I cut him off. "But you needed to know. Forget that."
"You needed to rest." He said.
"I did rest." I said. "And then Vanessa came to visit me and then visited Rhett while the guard was distracted." I paused. "You can be annoyed at me later."
He was quiet for a moment. "I’m not annoyed." He said. "I’m—" He stopped. "I’ll deal with it."
"Dane." I said before he could hang up.
"What." He said.
"Eliora." I said. "You were looking into her resume."
"Still working on it." He said.
"Don’t rush." I said. "I’ve been watching her and she’s been working hard. Really hard. I might have been wrong about her."
He was quiet for a second. "I’ll let you know what I find." He simply replied.
He ended the call before I could respond.