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"THERE&039;S nowhere to hide the car"
"Don&039;t hide it Pull into the parking lot, and park"
"It&039;s after one," Henry pointed out as he passed the sign for Project Hope, turned between the gateposts, and started up the long drive "While nor with your expertise in skulking about, don&039;t you think we&039;ll be noticed? There&039;ll be a night nurse on at the very least"
"So?"
"So, you&039;re going to walk in and ask her if they&039;ve got Detective Celluci strapped to a bed in one of the rooms?"
"Why not?" Her voice had very little of the police officer, of the private investigator, or the ht to suppress his reaction as she continued "It&039;s not like I&039; to be lied to Be?sides, if he&039;s in there, I&039;ll know"
"And if he isn&039;t?"
The ivory gleauy with cow eyes and ask hies sharply enough denned to draw blood, Henry could hear the purging violence surging back and forth She sounded close to letting go Hardly surprising given the proxi the clinic-the tension between them sat like a third presence in the car He could feel his own barriers weakening and trying to convince himself that this was a continuation of the year they spent in a parent/child, teacher/student rela?tionship helped not at all If the anticipated mayhem didn&039;t materialize inside Project Hope, they&039;d be at each other&039;s throats before he got the keys back into the ignition
Vicki leaped froful of air untainted by another&039;s breathing If it ca up onto her shoulder, she&039;d walk back to the condo before she let Henry drive her anywhere, ever again He slowed for yellow lights He didn&039;t pass when he could He took corners too slowly It had been thefifty minutes she&039;d ever spent Only iron control had kept her fro over her-self I have got to get ain Lips pressed into a thin line, she strode toward the build?ing "Re noticed is infi?nitely better than having to correct a dangerous i Fu episode"
He locked the car and hurried to catch up "I&039; from experience"
"I know, I know, over four hundred and fifty years No wonder you drive like an old woman," she added under her breath as she yanked open the clinic&039;s cedar slab door
Half a dozen battling scents allass vase, a chened to mimic the ocean breezes kept out by herh it all, the eau d&039; disinfectant worn by every medical establishment in the world
She could sense perhaps a dozen lives, the delinea?tions between the-induced, Vicki hadn&039;t the experience to tell the difference Soht she felt the unmistakable flavor of Celluci&039;s life But why can&039;t I tell for sure? She&039;d been so certain she&039;d know if he was in the clinic that this sudden a Do I just think he&039;s here because I want him to be here so badly? Would I have known for certain before last night&039;s horizontal dance down memory lane with Henry? A heartbeat later, she found an answer she could live with Christ, Vicki, don&039;t be such a god?da despair-despair with very little hope in it, she noted, in spite of the naet a clear fix on anyone&039;s life Since that also included Henry&039;s life, she supposed she just had to take the bad with the good
The only nonsleeper glared a question at thelass walls of the nurse&039;s station
"I was right," Henry murmured "We&039;ve been noticed"
"Good," Vicki declared a little too emphatically Unable to blush, she winced Ever since she could remember, women in nurses&039; uniforms had made her feel inadequate Maybe because they seemed so com?petent Maybe it was all that white She had no idea Feeling less like an all-powerful creature of the night and more like she was soe and stepped into the dih, the nurse&039;s tone clearly indicated that the only help she intended to give the for a friend"
"This is a private treatency ward You won&039;t find your friend here"
"He would have been admitted this afternoon"
"There was no one admitted this afternoon"
"Would you like me to do this?" Henry asked qui?etly, not entirely able to keep the amusement from his voice He&039;d seen Vicki face demons, olves, mummies, and a rowled a wordless reply, caught the night nurse&039;s gaze, and held it, overco for pride&039;s sake "Are you alone here?"
Dilated pupils reflecting a faint silver gleam below an annoyed frown, the other woman shook her head "There&039;s an orderly"
"Where is he?"
"Asleep on a cot in the staff room"
"Why is he here?"
"He stays sometimes, in case there&039;s trouble"
"Trouble hat?" Vicki rested her hands on the desk and leaned forward "Trouble with the donors of purchased body parts?"
The night nurse stood, still held in the silvered depths of Vicki&039;s eyes, and mirrored her movement She was almost as tall "I don&039;t knohat the hell you&039;re talking about"
This was not the usual response Somewhat taken aback, Vicki allowed a little more of the Hunter off the leash, dropped a little e "You&039;ve never noticed anything strange going on? Patients who don&039;t quiteheavily, the nurse shook her head "Whatever you are, you don&039;t scare e kids and a husband who&039;s been out of work for sixthis job, that scares "
"If you&039;re dead," Vicki snarled, patience exhausted, "you won&039;t be working"
"You ht be death for so her voice in her throat She sed hard and continued
"see that, but whatever you are, you aren&039;t death for ht," Henry said softly, ith of will that refused to be blinded by terror "She knows you won&039;t kill her without reason She&039;s called your bluff"
Reaction split equally between irritation and embar?rassment, Vicki held her position at the desk "This does notinto fists
Amused, but careful not to let it show, he moved a little closer "I meant it as a compliment to her, not an insult to you Perhaps you&039;d best let me "
"No!" This mortal was hers Whether or not Henry could convince her to speak was irrelevant Eyes nar?rowed, Vicki ood job"
"It isood nore things that don&039;t quite fit, too"
"Hey, I take care of the patients, and I do what I do very well" She straighted and folded her aroes on in the back is none of et you ever saw us"
Lips pressed into a thin, disapproving line "You got that right"
"Mike&039;s in here"
A sign on the door said Electrical Roo in the depths of her shoulderbag for her lock picks
"I can feel a number of lives, Vicki; up, down, all around us Most of theed, all of them have been blended by their condition into one as to Michael Celluci?"
She dropped to her knees and inserted her two heaviest picks "I&039;m a lot closer to his life than you are"
"And you want to find hi you of this, but we don&039;t know for certain he caoes on in the back"
"And on&039;t find out unless we take a look" The door opened onto another short hall One door led to the electrical room
The other led to a room like most other hospital roohVicki stood in the doorway, staring at the body on the bed, feeling curiously light-headed as all the pieces of her world clicked back into place
His face was bruised Blood had dried in the corner of his ht hand His heart beat to a rhyths and there were leather restraints holding hiather him into her arms, and carry hier so, for his sake, she&039;d find out what they&039;d done to him first Slowly, deliberately, she crossed to the bed and unbuckled the restrains Later, she&039;d give in to the violence Later, someone would pay
"Mike?"
A quick inspection, hands stroking patterns on flesh as fa obvious had been removed
"Mike, co She traced the line of his jaw, her finger rasping against dark stubble
Henry watched fro at how much it hurt Terri?torial ied civil?ity, barelyher At the moment he hated Mi?chael Celluci more than he&039;d ever hated anyone in his life
But the moment passed
Celluci would never have the ultimate intimacy that he and Vicki had shared-her life recreated in his ar after that
He s of traditions he&039;d held unbreakable, a slaughter-induced passion, a blood-soaked truce, and so a reclaimed friendship in spite of the odds
He couldn&039;t hate Celluci when he&039;d gotten back more of Vicki than should have been possible
"It smells like a sedative Try and wake hi to put herself between the threat and the body on the bed It took her a moment to realize it was Henry who&039;d spoken and a moment after that to remember, in this instant at least, he was no threat "A sedative? How can you tell?"
"Experience"
"I really don&039;t want to kno you got that expe?rience, Henry" She turned back to Celluci, tugged off one running shoe, grabbed the softer flesh in the arch of his foot between thu twitched
"What are you doing?"
"It&039;s an acupressure technique I&039; a pres?sure point in his foot that&039;ll help his"
"How ?"
"I don&039;t kno!" she snapped "An old staff sergeant showed it to me We used to use it on barbituate ODs; if it didn&039;t work, they were probably dead Coain
This tirunted and tried to yank his foot away By the time his eyes fluttered open, Vicki had both hands clasped around his face He blinked blearily up at her, then the lids began to sink and the irises to roll up
"Michael Frances Celluci, don&039;t you dare close your eyes while I&039; to you"
"Christ, Vicki you sound likerandmother"
"Do I?" His lips were dry, so shethe blood froe," he pointed out when she pulled away His gaze flicked past her "Where am oh, shit"
"I wanted to make sure there were no broken bones before we moved you"
"Considerate" Then he frowned "We?" He turned his head until he could see Henry, still in the doorway "What is this truce?"
The two men locked eyes for an instant, then Henry said softly, "The van disappeared with you Someone had to drive"
"You could&039;ve let her borrow your car"
"I don&039;t think so The last tiot broadsided by a truck"
"Yeah but the as driving"
"Enough with the ently pulled Mike&039;s jaw around until he faced her again "And since the nice people who cut out kidneys are sure to coht? Can we move you?"
"No"
"No? No, what?"
"No, you can&039;t ? What have they done?" Her voice promised an eye for an eye at the very least
"So far, only kidnapping" His thoughts were clearing, but his body rey to protest when Vicki lifted him, tucked a&039;pilloeen his shoulders and the wall, and lowered hiot to leave led to find the words that would convince Vicki to do as he said-never an easy proposition even at full th "You taketo find out what&039;s going on"
"Hey, we knohat&039;s going on"
"We don&039;t know squat except that some people overreact when they&039;re followed by people who turn out to be the police" He kept his explanation of ex?actly what had happened short and to the point- things got out of control only momentarily when Vicki realized he had no idea of where her van was "Look, can orry about the van later, e&039;ve got a little more time?"
Vicki&039;s eyes narrowed "We&039;d have plenty of tiheaded "
"Think of it as going undercover"
She s under the knife"
"Vicki, these ht be soot is kidnapping and unlawful con?fineertips to the bruise on his cheek, she added, "And assault"
"I think he could claiinally for the same reason we did; Ronald Swanson&039;s name cropped up one too many times to be coincidence First we find out he&039;s behind a private clinic that specializes in kid?ney transplant patients and then we find you strapped to a bed That&039;s enough for me"
He closed his hand around her wrist as her eyes silvered "Stop reacting and start thinking Suppose you break into Swanson&039;s house and force a full con?fession, what then? You&039;ve got nothing that&039;ll stand up in court If ant to find out what&039;s actually going on, there has to be an investigation"
"What aht?"
Eleven dead in a Rich ai thisto take re?sources we don&039;t have"
"If I get a full confession, I have resources enough to deal with Ronald Swanson"
"No"
There was such finality in that single word that the silver fled from Vicki&039;s eyes "What do you mean, no?"
"If Swanson dies, if you kill hinore"
She pulled her hand free and rubbed the band of warnore Those were the sort of words that caripped her shoulder, shaking her, willing her to listen "This is where I draw my line in the sand"
One heartbeat Two
"I&039;m not really happy about ultimatums, Mike"
"And I&039;m not really happy about pre rhetoric or the heat of the Hunt, neither was she She supposed One corner of her mouth twisted up in a wry s lock of hair up off his face "I guess every relationship means com?promises" A little surprised by the relief that softened his expression-What had he expected?-she laid her hand flat against his chest, reassured in turn by the steady beat of his heart "Now that&039;s settled, what do you want et it"