“Now that’s not true,” the doctor argued in a jovial manner. “Many of us have been working with you.”

  “And none of you are doing anything effective,” Rodney snapped.

  At that, the doctor stared at him.

  Realizing his mistake, Rodney sighed. “I’m sorry. I was just so excited that she was back. So hearing your news is quite upsetting.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, but we can’t necessarily control all the patient-doctor interactions we have here. Just because you might want somebody in your corner, that doesn’t mean we can make it happen.”

  Rodney stared at the doctor, hating that this man was trying to control what Cressy could do and could see and could be, when Rodney knew that she needed to be here with him. But absolutely nothing in the doctor’s expression indicated that he would give in any way, and that just made Rodney all the angrier. He sat back in his hospital bed, then looked over at the doctor and said, “I’m awfully tired.”

  “Understood,” the doctor noted, maintaining a bright smile. “We’ll go over a few things first.”

  He glared at him. “I’m tired now.”

  The doctor hesitated, then wrote something down on his notes.

  On a whim, Rodney reached over with his mind, grabbed ahold of the doctor, and helped him to write Call Cressy, bring her back in.

  At that, the doctor got up slowly and announced, “I think I’ll go make some phone calls.” Then he quickly escaped.

  Rodney didn’t know if his mental nudge had done any good, but the fact that he even had the ability to do that much again had cheered him up immensely. He could start messing around with people here, although he didn’t want to do too much in case they found out what he was up to. Not until he had Cressy. She was his answer for getting out of here. She was his answer for unlocking so much more power, for giving him the ability to do so much more. All he had to do was get her here.

  Chapter 18

  Cressy opened her eyes and stared around at the hotel room, trying to sort out where she was and why. When she heard voices off to the side, she turned her head to see Gray on the phone. As soon as he saw that she was awake, he disconnected the call, walked over, and sat down beside her on the couch.

  “Hey. How are you doing?” he asked, picking up her hand.

  She squeezed his fingers gently. “Better I think. I didn’t realize I fell asleep.”

  He nodded. “Stressful days.”

  “Yeah, you’re not kidding.”

  “I wasn’t sure if I should just let you sleep here or get you into the bed.”

  “I won’t be awake for too much longer. I’m pretty tired still.”

  “Yeah, but food first, then you can rest on your bed.”

  “If you say so,” she murmured. She studied his face and then frowned. “What did you find out?”

  He hesitated for a moment. “We found out some things. Did you know that Rodney’s aunt is on the board of directors now?”

  “Yes. I knew her from before. She was actually one of my biggest supporters.”

  “Any chance she’s not a supporter anymore?”

  She stared at him, then shrugged. “I mean, everything’s all new now, so anything is possible. Still, I wouldn’t have thought so. At the time, she was very understanding of the trouble Rodney was in, wanting to make sure I had the ability to go in and to get the information needed to help with the other cases.”

  He nodded. “I haven’t talked to her.”

  “I haven’t either. This is embarrassing, but I’d kind of blanked her out of my mind. I didn’t see anything of her while I was back there.”

  “You didn’t see her at all?”

  She shook her head.

  “Apparently she spends a good deal of time there. In addition to her duties on the board, she sees her nephew quite a bit.”

  “I’m sure she does,” Cressy agreed, with a smile. “She’s a very caring woman.”

  “That’s good to know. I don’t know if you realize it, but …”

  Cressy closed her eyes and nodded, knowing what was coming. “I should have gotten it when you told me how she went in to see him all the time. He’s there, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he’s in the maximum-security wing, but she’s been trying to get him moved out in the general residences.”

  She winced at that. “That would be terribly dangerous.”

  “Right, but apparently nobody believes he’s dangerous now.”

  “Of course not,” she murmured. “People only want to see what’s in front of them.”

  “Is that even fair?” he asked, looking at her gently. “Does anybody even know or understand what he can do?”

  She closed her eyes, not even wanting to think about it, as it all flooded through her head, crowding out all rational thought. When she finally calmed down enough, she went through a systematic review of her few days at the center. The one thing that came to mind was a worrisome question. Why had she not known he was there? The answer was actually easier than ever to sort out—because she had kept her guard up.

  She hadn’t actually let herself open up to everybody. She had only opened up to the few people she’d seen and had worked with before, prior to this attack. Before things had blown up last year, she had been open, happy, and carefree at the center. She was certain that everything was under control and that no boogeymen were in her world. Finding out that she’d been so terribly wrong had been a horrible change, a horrible loss of innocence for her. So, when she’d returned to the center, all these months later, she’d been very locked down, very careful that she wasn’t too open and that no predators were out there that she needed to be wary of.

  It was a sad irony about the state of affairs in her world, yet something she felt she needed to do. And, with that, she had proceeded cautiously, not even aware that the very same monster who had attacked her before was actually on the premises. She had gone through some of the patient lists but hadn’t gotten all the way through, and there hadn’t been any alert for her either. Why was that? She pondered that for a long time. “Why would they not have told me that Rodney was there?” she asked Gray.

  “I don’t know. That’s just another question to ask. Are you sure he’s burned out?”

  “There are abilities out there that we just don’t understand and don’t know everything about. Yet I would have bet my life that he couldn’t have come back from that.” Then she stopped and added, “Not if he was alone, at least.”

  “Uh-oh, I’m not liking that last bit at all. How could somebody possibly help him?”

  She smiled. “I don’t know. You’re asking me questions that I can’t give you an answer to, and I certainly can’t give you the answers you want because I know nothing definitive on him. All I know is that he was absolutely burned out back then. Last I knew, he was comatose in a secure locked-down facility. He’s clearly not in that facility anymore, if he’s in ours, but, as long as he stays in maximum security, then, in theory, the rest of the place is secure as well.”

  “Would you ever treat him again?”

  “Nope, not unless I had to,” she replied cheerfully. “And, no, I don’t feel guilty about it.”

  “I would hope not,” Gray muttered.

  “A lot of people think that we should be treating people like him, and I get that,” she shared, “but it’ll take somebody other than me. There’s definitely trouble between us, so I can’t take him on as another patient for myself.”

  “Are you telling me everything about that visit?”

  “I don’t know what you know and what you don’t know,” she said, looking over at him. “Was it fun? No. I think perhaps he saw me as an ally and was thrilled and excited to know that he could talk to me the way he could to everybody else in a normal way. Nobody else really understood what he was doing or understood what I was struggling to get away from, outside of Dr. Maddy and Stefan of course.” She gave a wave of her hand. “Since then, many of us have come to understand what was going on, but, at the time, it happened so fast that I didn’t really have any protection. And, if I go back in again, I still won’t really have any protection because he’s already got my number.”

  “So, you burned out over all this, and, if he burned out as well, would that have made him weaker?”

  “No, absolutely not,” she stated. “He could have gotten stronger, if he survived.”

  “Yeah, but you see? The lack of definitive details on so many points makes me very nervous.”

  “I get it, and don’t worry. It doesn’t make me feel much better either,” she murmured.

  “No, of course not. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t keep bringing it up.”

  “If you don’t, who will?” she asked. “So, you’re sure he’s there?”

  He nodded. “Yes, I’m sure he’s there.”

  “Great, so I’ll have to go see him.” He bolted to his feet, as she held up her hand. “There’s no other way,” she declared. “I still don’t know if he’s behind these current attacks, but I didn’t think it was possible for Rodney to do this. So, if it’s not possible, then we need to see if somebody else at that hospital is doing it. I don’t know what to say, but I know it would be a lot easier to sort out if I were there on the spot.”

  “I would just as soon not have you anywhere close to that hospital.”

  “Right, but apparently other people don’t want me there either,” she murmured, “and I’m not even sure what to say to that.”

  Just then his phone rang. “Hey, Grant. What’s up? Dr. Mendelsohn?” He looked over at her and nodded. “I don’t know how she feels about that. She’s not exactly a fan of the center at the moment.” He explained a little bit about what she’d just shared, listening to Grant’s feedback.

  When Gray hung up the phone, she asked, “What about Dr. Mendelsohn?”

  “He had a heart attack. He’s alive, but he’s in Emergency.”

  She stared at him. “That’s not good. He’s still a young man.”

  “But heart attacks do happen in young men too, right?”

  “Yes, of course,” she murmured. “Damn, that’ll be a shock to the center.”

  “In what way?”

  “He was one of the driving forces of change, like I was.”

  Then Gray asked, “So, any chance that somebody might have wanted him out of the way or even tried to kill him?”

  “I don’t like the way you think,” she announced.

  His lips twitched. “Yeah, well, if the world were different, I wouldn’t have to think this way.”

  She sagged back onto the couch, frowning. “That’s true enough,” she muttered. “I would hate to think that whatever happened was brought on by something going on at the center, but I know there’s been so much upset that maybe a heart attack isn’t that far out of the equation. Did he put that much heart into the place? Absolutely,” she declared. “He was like me, in that the place has been a very important part of his life.”

  “Yet you’re using past tense.”

  “Do I have a job?” she asked, with a wry look.

  “Don’t they have to give you the job back?”

  “Given the way they were trying to move me out of the place, I highly doubt it.”

  “I’m pretty sure the lawyers would have a heyday with that.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe, but I would have to give a damn in order to let the lawyers go at it.”

  “Would you not fight it? It is your career.”

  “I know, but, as you said, if I fight it, then chances are very good they’ll make my life hell in other ways too.”

  “You think they would destroy your reputation because of that?”

  “They would sure try. They said as much already,” she noted. “The question is, who is doing this and how much do they even care? And why would they do it when there are other ways to accomplish the same thing.”

  “Like?”

  “I could be bought off, and they haven’t even tried that.”

  “But would you take it?”

  “I don’t know. Believe me. I had to psych myself up to the fact that I was going back to that center, but I had stayed in touch with several of the doctors over the last six months.”

  “Was Dr. Mendelsohn one of them?”

  “Yes, absolutely,” she replied. “He’s one of the few there who wanted patient care to be a priority, more than filling shareholder’s pockets, although he tried to bridge the gap and keep everyone happy. I used to get frustrated with him when he sounded so wishy-washy, but his heart was definitely on the side of patient care.”

  “Of course, and, because of that, it made his life difficult too. Particularly with whatever happened in the meantime.”

  “I don’t even know all that’s happened. I heard some rumors but wasn’t getting very far for answers, as if I were being deliberately kept out of the loop. Considering the kind of trouble I’d caused them, it kind of made sense.”

  “I don’t know about sense in any of this, but it is kind of horrifying to hear just how much is going on in the background.”

  She shrugged. “It’s politics, but every center fights it to a certain degree, I’m sure.”

  He shook his head. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like that at Dr. Maddy’s place.”

  “But that’s because she gets to control it,” Cressy pointed out, with a wry look. “Remember that part. It might be a nice idea, but not sure I’m up for the work.”

  “Sure, and you know you also have to take a look at whether staying here is what’s really good for your soul.”

  “Apparently it isn’t.” She stood and wandered around. “Is Dr. Mendelsohn at General Hospital?”

  “He is. Do you want to go see him?”

  She turned and nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  “Okay, let’s go. We’ll pick up a bite to eat afterward, then bring it back to eat here, and hopefully you can get some sleep.”

  “That would be good. I’m still not quite up to snuff apparently.”

  “No, and I don’t want you going back to the center, not until we have some kind of security in place.”

  “Security to stop Rodney? You do know better, right?”

  “I do know better,” he admitted. “But humor me, okay? It’s what I can do, so it’s what I will do.”

  “Even though you know that there’s absolutely no hope of stopping this man if he’s half the person he was back then?”

  “Maybe so, but I’m really hoping that among you, Stefan, and Dr. Maddy, there will be something completely different going on, and it won’t be the same scenario as last time. And, as you keep telling me, you think he’s completely burned out.”

  “I do think he’s completely burned out, yes. The man I saw, the man I was monitoring all these months—because believe me, I kept an eye on him—showed very little movement, very little cognitive activity of any kind. But anything is possible,” she added.

  “Right, hospital first then.”

  He got up, handed her a sweater, and shared, “It’s starting to rain outside.”

  She put on the sweater, and together they walked out to his vehicle. When they got in the car, she looked around and said, “It’s been kind of handy having you around to drive me here and there.”

  He laughed. “Happy to be of service.”

  “I mean it though,” she said. “You’ve been looking after me very well, and I appreciate it.”

  “That’s great, but gratitude is really not something I’m after.”

  “Doesn’t matter whether you’re after it or not,” she replied, with spirit. “It’s still better than the opposite.”

  At that, he burst out laughing. “Very true.”

  The trip to the hospital took a little longer, with the wet roads slowing traffic, plus the weird light of dusk obstructing drivers too.

  Cressy chuckled. “I always think of this as the witching hour. Most people think of midnight, but this half-light is definitely the spooky time for me.”

  “Yeah, we don’t need any witching hours or spooky times please,” he replied, glancing at her.

  “We may not need them,” she agreed, “but that doesn’t mean that you won’t get them.”

  He sighed. “Tell me something. Will you always have weird stuff popping up in your life?”

  “Probably. It’s what I do.” She looked at him apologetically. “It’s just part of the deal. After seeing you struggle with it, I get why some guys may not want to hang around.”

  “Your abilities aren’t really a problem for me at all. It’s the part about having crazy psychotic serial killers after you that is giving me trouble.”

  “That makes sense. Believe me. I had to reevaluate what I wanted to do. But, in the end, I realized that I provide a valuable service, and it’s something that not many people can do. So I just need a better way to screen those I can help from those I can’t.”

  “Yeah, I agree with that completely,” he stated. “I’m just not sure how one screens for crazy.”

  She smiled. “You know that we don’t like to talk about them like that, right?”

  “Sure, that’s you, not me. I call a spade a spade, and, in this case, crazy gets to be called crazy.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been working on some of that while I was on sabbatical, but I haven’t had a chance to actually put it into play yet.” He looked at her, frowning. She shrugged. “I mean, it was a sabbatical, but it wasn’t. It was really a case of getting back my nerve and healing on all levels because I burned out really badly.”

  “Your senses?”

  “Yes, my senses. It was quite an explosion and certainly devastating to my own abilities.”

  “Right,” he muttered, then pulled into the hospital parking lot. Hopping out, he said, “Okay, here we are.”

  “Yep, hopefully I’ll get in and see Dr. Mendelsohn.”

  “I often wonder if you can pull a trick like that, when you’ve got a badge or a medical license,” he shared.

  “If I had an operating license for this hospital, it would be a different story, but I don’t, so no luck there.”

  He just nodded and didn’t say anything. As they walked in, he identified himself and flashed his shield. The nurse nodded and noted that they were expected. Gray led the way, until they came to a private room. He pushed open the door, and she stepped inside.