“I absolutely will.”

  “What if I wanted to stop and talk to somebody on my way?”

  “That’s nice. I’ll stop with you.”

  Since obviously nothing else in his demeanor was interested in being anything but agreeable, she started packing up her stuff. He watched as she locked her desk and filing cabinet and shut off her computer.

  “Do you log off?”

  She sighed. “Since I’ve come back, yes. I didn’t use to.”

  “Are your computer files encrypted?”

  “I’ve always kept my files encrypted, yes,” she replied, taking her time to answer this one. “I don’t know that anybody ever found them.”

  “Were they here when you got back?”

  She nodded. “They were, and it didn’t appear that anybody had been here. But I did wonder if that’s why people would be putting listening devices in my office—except for the part about it being in that room.”

  He nodded. “I didn’t find another device here in the office, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t one installed after the sweep.”

  She winced at that. “Great, I was hoping that would mean I was free and clear in here.”

  “No, but remember. I have cameras now.” And then he repeated where they both were.

  “So, not only is there a bug in my most private space, now you can actually see when I log in?” she asked in horror.

  He frowned. “You do know that’s got nothing to do with why I’m here, right?”

  “I don’t care,” she declared, sitting back down again, looking at her computer and then up at him. “That is a huge invasion of privacy and security.”

  “I don’t think I can see your keystrokes,” he told her. “Go ahead and try it now, and I’ll bring it up on my phone.” He quickly brought up the cameras on his phone and watched as she inputted various codes into her computer, and he shook his head. “If you’re sitting like that, no chance it gets out.” He came around and showed her. Then he watched as she sagged visibly with relief.

  “That makes me feel better,” she muttered. “I really can’t have you getting into my files.”

  Such an uneasiness filled her tone that he wanted to reassure her, but what he’d set up was pretty basic, pretty simple, and a lot of other people could easily set up something like this as well. “I’m not trying to freak you out, but you do know this isn’t a difficult thing to acquire or to set up, right?”

  “So what are my options to keep this clear?” she murmured.

  He hesitated. “I can set up a different kind of security, but then nobody else in the department would see your work either.”

  “Good,” she muttered. “Until I know who’s actually on my side, I would just as soon keep it that way.”

  “Do you really think people are going against you?”

  “It’s not so much going against me. I think they just got comfortable. I was gone. They got comfortable taking an easier path. And, as I told you earlier, their jobs are easier if the patients are sedated, and I don’t know whether it’s everybody or if it’s just a couple.”

  “But even if it’s just a couple—”

  “It’s too many,” she replied instantly. “I need to know that everything I put in this computer is safe, until we sort this all out.”

  “Patient files?”

  She nodded and then added, “Research as well.”

  “Your own kind?”

  And again she nodded.

  “So that could very well be something that would cause you a lot of trouble if it were found out?”

  She winced. “Only in the sense that people would have more of an idea of what I do and how I do it. That, of course, would be difficult in itself. No way that people would comprehend this.”

  Chapter 10

  Cressy woke in the middle of the night to a buzz. She reached for her phone—1:45 a.m. The phone call was for her, at least presumably, as her phone ringing. She answered it in a sleepy voice, only to hear panic on the other end.

  “Doctor, it’s Andrea on the night shift. The boy, Adam, he’s awake and screaming. He won’t stop.”

  She bolted upright. “What is he screaming? Can you make out the words?”

  “Something about They’re coming for me. They’re coming for me.”

  “So, a nightmare maybe?” she asked cautiously, even as she hopped out of bed, throwing on clothes.

  “It’s possible, but it’s nothing normal sounding,” Andrea added. “We’ve given him something to try and calm him down, but we’ve given him as much as we can for his size, and it’s not working. He’s starting to convulse and change all kinds of colors,” she told Cressy. “The other doctor told us to knock him out, but I don’t know. I’m really uncertain about what to do.”

  “I’m on my way,” Cressy stated. “Does it help to have anybody in there with him?”

  “I don’t think anything’s helping. The screams? God, they’re like from another world.”

  “I’m dressed, grabbing my keys and my purse,” she muttered, and she was. She headed to the front door, locked up, and raced down to her car. She was at the center twelve minutes later.

  As she rushed inside, Andrea looked at her and cried out, “Oh, thank God. He’s calmed down a little bit but not much.”

  She nodded, and, with Andrea leading the way, they raced to Adam’s room. As soon as she got into the same hallway, she heard him.

  The screams were interjected with major sobs. Andrea quickly unlocked the door, and two orderlies stood to the side, as Cressy raced in. As soon as the boy saw her, his screams stopped, and the tears started. He opened his arms, and she dropped beside him and just hugged him close.

  “Easy,” she muttered, “take it easy.” She looked over at Andrea and motioned for her to leave.

  Andrea asked, “Are you sure?”

  Cressy nodded. “I’ll call for help if I need anything.” With one orderly standing guard outside the room, she just sat here and held the boy.

  When his sobs slowly calmed, she noted his complete exhaustion had just wasted him away. His color was pale to the point of white. His eyes, when he opened them, were almost blank and staring at nothing.

  “You want to tell me what just happened?”

  He looked up at her and slowly shook his head.

  She wasn’t sure if the drugs were kicking in or something else. “Nightmares?”

  He paused and then slowly nodded.

  “And you’ve had them before, right?” she guessed.

  He nodded again.

  “Are they always the same?”

  He looked at her and started to shake.

  “Okay. Not always the same, and this time was worse, right?”

  At that, he started to cry again, but he was nodding his head and clutching at her.

  “It’s okay. I’m here. It’s all right now.”

  He whispered, “They’ll get me.”

  “They?”

  He paused and then nodded. “They. They. I think there were … two of them.”

  “Were they chasing you down the hallway?” she asked.

  He looked up at her and then nodded.

  “Got it. You’re afraid they’ll find you here, aren’t you, Adam?”

  “They will find me,” he declared, his voice serious. “It’s only a matter of time.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” she noted in a calm voice.

  “They shouldn’t have found me here,” he said pointedly, “but they did.” He looked over at the door, shuddered, and buried his face against her hair.

  She held him close, most of his body in her lap, as she just sat here, rocking back and forth. When she heard the door open, she turned to frown at Andrea, only to see Gray standing there, looking disheveled and worried. She smiled up at Gray. “Adam just had a nightmare.”

  Gray looked at her steadily, but she saw the disbelief in his eyes. She shrugged. “No need to worry. It was just a bad one.”

  “I’ll get coffee.” And, with that, he disappeared out the door.

  Adam looked up at her and asked, “Who is he?”

  “He’s one of the good guys,” she murmured.

  “He didn’t look like he believed you.”

  She smiled. “Just like I’m a guardian angel, so is he.”

  At that, Adam relaxed ever so slightly. “If you’re a guardian angel, you needed to get here earlier.”

  She winced at that. “You could be right about that, but I still don’t think they’ll find you here.”

  “Not that they will, but they have,” he stated quite clearly.

  “Can you describe them?”

  He looked at her, unwavering, his eyes turning almost black. “Hard, … hard to say. They’re in doctor’s scrubs.”

  “Both of them?”

  “Yes, but one”—he frowned—“one is paler, harder to see.”

  “Okay, and what about the other one?”

  “White, dark hair.” And then he shrugged. “Adult.”

  She nodded because how did a twelve-year-old give her any specifics, when to him they were just an adult male with dark hair? “That’s fine,” she said.

  He sighed and yawned, and she slowly laid him back down again on the bed. He reached up and clutched at her again. “That’s all right. I’ll just sit here beside you.”

  “Promise?” he asked, his voice thick.

  “Promise,” she murmured.

  She knew he was heading into a drugged state from the thickness of his tone and his tongue. By the time he took several deep breaths and drifted off again, she straightened and rose and wandered around his room, trying to sort out what just happened. When the door opened again, Gray walked in, with two mugs of coffee. She walked over and appreciatively accepted one.

  “How is he?” Gray whispered.

  “He’s asleep now, but that is due to drugs. They sedated him before they called, and the dosage is finally kicking in. Unfortunately they didn’t contact me in time to stop the administration of the drugs. And I think they gave him an extra heavy dose. I’ll have to check his file to see what they did.”

  “Why was it given? Do you know what set him off?”

  “According to Adam, the bad guys found him in this place and chased him down the hallway to his room.”

  Gray stepped back out, looked down the hallway, and stepped back in again. “This hallway?” he whispered harshly.

  Her face sobered, as she nodded. “Yes, which means a certain amount of clarity as to his location, his room, which is home base, and then he gave me a fair description but not much detail.”

  “Such as?” he demanded.

  “Adult male, white, dark hair, but in doctor’s scrubs.”

  At that, Gray groaned. “You know that could be 50 percent of the population here, right?”

  “It’s probably closer to about 65 percent,” she corrected absent-mindedly, as her mind drifted through all the adult males that she knew. “It could even be a patient.”

  “Aren’t they locked up at night?”

  “Not all are locked up, no,” she replied. “The main doors in and out of the areas are locked, but not all of the patients’ rooms are locked.”

  “But Adam said they and only described one?” Gray asked cautiously.

  “He told me that the second one was paler and faint.”

  At that, Gray nodded. “Probably farther behind.”

  She didn’t say anything to that but turned to look back at Adam. “He’s asleep now, and, from the depth of that breathing, I would say it’s more drugs than natural.” Walking out of Adam’s room, she smiled at the orderly and whispered, “He’s calm and should be good for the night now.”

  She closed the door and locked it, so that Adam couldn’t go down the hallway on her, and so nobody else could go in.

  As Cressy and Gray went to her office, she asked him, “Who called you?”

  He hesitated, then said, “You.”

  “No.” She frowned, turning to look at him. “I didn’t call you. I didn’t have a chance to call you.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I know. I don’t really have much of an explanation for it, but I woke up out of a deep sleep, with you screaming in my head.”

  She stood still, stared at him, took a sip of coffee as she contemplated that, then slowly carried on to her office. “For one, I don’t scream often. Two, I wasn’t screaming tonight. And, three, even if I was, you shouldn’t have been able to hear me.”

  “I’ll say that something very weird is going on, and I don’t like it.”

  She snorted at that. “Welcome to my world.”

  “Yeah, but it sucks. All this shit that goes on, and you don’t have any rhyme or reason for it?”

  “Nope, and sometimes we never get any rhyme or reason for it.”

  “How did you know to come?” he asked her.

  “Andrea from the night shift phoned me to say that Adam was out of control.”

  “Even though a doctor was on hand?”

  “Yes, she knew I didn’t want Adam overly doped up, and, of course, the other doctor on call was all for knocking Adam out for the night.”

  “Ouch,” Gray muttered.

  “Yeah, there’s knocking him out for the night, and then there’s knocking him out until he’s, you know, well past the night’s milestone,” Cressy said sadly. “And we’re back to that. Some people would like to see more medication and less actual improvements.”

  “You’ll have fun here, won’t you?”

  “No, I can’t say I will,” she muttered. “It feels very much as if I’m going against this whole establishment again, and it’s not a very comfortable feeling.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Gray said gently.

  She unlocked her office, walked in, dropped her purse on her desk, carefully set down her coffee, and then slumped into her big leather chair.

  He sat down in the visitor’s chair.

  “What time is it?” she asked him.

  “Probably about four o’clock in the morning,” he guessed, with a note of humor. “Isn’t that the time we all love to be out?”

  She shook her head. “The trouble is, it’s not likely we’ll get back to sleep now.”

  “No, God no,” he agreed, with a groan. “That’s really not one of the options, is it? Will you sleep here?”

  “If I have to, yes,” she murmured. “I can sleep here, providing I can actually get the chance.”

  His lips quirked. “Is that a hint for me to leave?”

  “No,” she stated. “I appreciate the fact that you came. I’m not sure why you came or how you got the message, but you did. So I guess I will attempt to avoid that next time—or maybe even use it.”

  “Great.” Frowning, he asked. “When you say use it, meaning what?”

  “Meaning that, if I ever need you, I can call you that way.”

  “What? By screaming in my head?” he asked, with a shake of his head. “I haven’t even heard Grant mention things like that before, but I would prefer a phone call than this.”

  “Well, Dr. Maddy’s husband Drew has heard things like that before. He’s very attuned to Dr. Maddy, and, when Dr. Maddy is distressed, he gets all kinds of messages. She sends out a network distress call, if she can’t get a hold of Stefan very clearly.”

  “Get hold of Stefan very clearly?”

  She shrugged. “If Dr. Maddy’s in trouble, and she needs somebody, she will reach out to whoever she needs. Stefan comes first because that’s the work he does, and then comes Drew, as he is her partner. I know for a fact that he has had her reach out and shake him by the throat to get his attention.”

  At that, Gray’s eyes widened, and she gave him a lazy smile. “Yeah, it’s not all fun and games.”

  “I don’t think any of this is fun and games,” he declared, staring at her. “It all sounds very improbable and quite horrific in many ways.”

  “In many ways, it is,” she agreed. “Yet we’re doing an awful lot of good, when we get a chance to.” She gave him an eye roll. “It doesn’t always work out that way.”

  “No, it appears that you’re up against a lot of politics here.”

  “Too much of it.” Cressy frowned. “It’s one of the things I dislike the most about this type of a thing. Working for a board of directors really sucks.”

  “It would be the same thing though if you went to work for Dr. Maddy, wouldn’t it?”

  “Possibly, I don’t know. That would be one of the things I would discuss with her, before I ever came on board.”

  “Would you seriously do it?”

  “I don’t know, but, when shit like this happens, it makes me all the more inclined to do so.”

  “Inclined, yes,” he replied gently, “but you do have a fair bit of autonomy here.”

  “I did,” she clarified, with an eye roll. “However, my sabbatical apparently changed all that. A lot of power plays happened while I was gone. Changes were implemented, and a lot of staff are just fine with the new way and don’t see why I would be rocking the boat.”

  “Ah.” Gray nodded. “That’s another trick, isn’t it? Change out all the staff, so nobody knows what it was like before, so nobody can complain, so it looks like you’re the one who’s off your rocker.”

  “And, in this case, that’s a little too close to the truth.”

  He winced at that. “Sorry, I didn’t really mean it that way.”

  “No, but you know, when you’re the one making a fuss over nothing, in many ways it means that they’ve won.”

  “So … No, that would be crazy, I guess.”

  “What’s crazy?”

  “Setting up your own institute.”

  “Now you sound like Stefan. I certainly could, but it would also take a tremendous amount of money, time, and energy that I don’t have.”

  “So you partner with somebody who does.”

  “Yes, and that is actually something I’m contemplating, but it’s still a huge commitment on my part, and I’m not sure I’m up for it. You know there’s a reason I went and took this sabbatical, and it’s not a reason I need to take lightly at this point.”

  “No, of course not,” he muttered. “Would they all really be happy to see you leave?”

  “A lot of them would be happy to see me leave, and a lot of them probably wouldn’t really notice either way. And those who supposedly say they’re really happy that I’m back” I don’t know if I trust them.”