by Shea Balik
“Do you want me to stop and pick up dinner so you can eat and go back to bed?” Soren offered.
But Cillian didn’t have the energy. “Don’t we have those extra subs we ate the other day?”
Soren nodded. “Yeah, there are three of them left.”
As usual, Soren always bought way too much food. He was still learning what Cillian liked and didn’t like, so he’d order several different meals when he picked them up. He should be appalled because they ended up throwing out a lot of food, but at times like this, when he was too tired to think, a simple sandwich sounded perfect.
“Did you find out who killed Judy?” Cillian asked.
That had Soren scowling, which meant no.
“I wish. But again, there doesn’t seem to be evidence left behind.” It was a sore subject with Soren, but since Cillian was involved because the stalker targeted him, he was going to bring it up anyway.
“How many people know how to leave nothing behind?” He couldn’t imagine there were too many people. Maybe those in forensics might know what to do, but otherwise, he wasn’t sure the average person would be able to accomplish it.
“Not many,” Soren admitted. “And Jamal had his security team watch the hospital feeds from when the flowers were delivered and again, someone had tampered with them.”
Not real clear on what it took to hack into the cameras, Cillian lay his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. The flowers and note flashed in his mind, followed with meeting Dr. Mitchel, and finding Judy dead.
The moment that door had opened, the stench of her decaying body had hit him like a punch to the gut. He’d run as fast as he could to a bathroom he’d seen as they’d made their way to Judy’s room. He had only been two doors down and could still hear most of what was going on in the room as Soren ordered Marley down to the front room to wait for him.
Frowning, Cillian tried to remember what, if anything, Dr. Mitchel had said about finding his ex-wife dead. “Why did Marley Mitchel want to show you the saferoom today?”
A loud, annoyed sound from Soren had Cillian opening his eyes. He knew it wasn’t him, but that ass Marley that caused the disgruntled sound. “He said he found out he was named as beneficiary of her estate and wanted to find her so he could deal with the attorneys or something.”
“Doesn’t that seem strange?” Cillian asked. “I mean first, how did he know he was the beneficiary? I wouldn’t think that was something the lawyers would talk about unless they knew she was dead.”
“According to Marley, she hadn’t been paying bills, so maybe the creditors came after him.” But even Soren didn’t sound convinced of that.
“Okay, but did you notice him react to finding Judy’s body? Admittedly, I was busy throwing up, so I might have missed his reaction, but he didn’t seem the least bit upset.” Not that Cillian had seen much of the man once he’d run from the room, but he had noticed Marley had been texting on his phone when he passed Cillian in the bathroom, and he would swear there had been a smug smile on his face.
“What are the odds that he would just happen to lead you to Judy’s body when he needed to find her?” Maybe it was his dislike for the man, but Cillian was sure there was something up with the whole setup.
Soren hit the button on his steering wheel to activate his phone. “Call Jamal.”
A moment later the speakers were ringing.
“You do know I don’t technically work for you, right?” Jamal said as he picked up the phone.
“Would you rather I call Gal?” Soren asked.
There was a long sigh before Jamal reluctantly said, “No.”
Levan had been in a medically induced coma for the past three weeks to give his body time to heal. The pain had caused him to flatline three times even after surgery. Gal had taken it hard when he realized just how much Levan was hurting and refused to leave Levan’s side. He’d even gone so far as to take a leave of absence from the force.
“I need you to find out everything you can on Marley Mitchel,” Soren told Jamal.
“But on at least four of the flower deliveries, we were able to place him with a patient. He couldn’t be the stalker,” Jamal argued.
Cillian had been told the police felt the stalker was a woman. He didn’t deny it could be, but that didn’t mean the stalker didn’t have more than one accomplice. Or that Marley had been the stalker and used Mika to divert attention away from him.
“I know, but don’t you find it a little too coincidental that Marley happened to lead us to her body?” Soren’s words bolstered Cillian’s ego. Maybe he wasn’t as bad at this detective work as he thought.
Not that Cillian wanted to change careers, but he would do whatever it took to find this stalker before he or she came after him. If Cillian was killed, his baby died. No way would Cillian allow anyone to hurt his child. Ever.
There was silence for several minutes. Then he heard Jamal tell someone something, but he couldn’t quite make out the words. “Okay, I’ve put Jonah, who is a tech guru, on discovering everything he can find on Dr. Mitchel.”
“Thank Jonah for me and tell him to call me as soon as he finds something.” Then Soren hung up and reached over to hold Cillian’s hand as he drove them the rest of the way home.
It was comfortable and yet intimate all at the same time. Three weeks ago, if anyone had told him he would be pregnant and in love, Cillian would have laughed in their face. Who would have thought the joke would be on him?
***
After sleeping another five hours after eating, Cillian felt marginally better. He still could have slept for a few more hours, but he wasn’t about to call in sick just because he was a little tired.
“I need to go check in at the station.” It was obvious by the cautious way Soren was saying the words, he didn’t really want to go. “But I’ll be back to check on you later, okay?”
Since the stalker had left the flowers and threatening notes right under his nose, Cillian wasn’t ready to tell Soren that wasn’t necessary. “I’ll be fine until you get back.”
He was trying to be supportive and understanding, but Cillian had to admit, now that they were in the emergency room again, he wasn’t so sure he wanted Soren to leave, either. Being the Chief of Police, Soren didn’t have much choice, especially with his station in a mess because of all the people that had been fired for their bigotry recently.
Giving his lover a kiss, a huge part of Cillian wanted to beg Soren not to leave him. But once he watched the man walk out, he pushed all thoughts of the stalker to the back of his mind as he went to work.
“Hart’s be advised we have a dozen or more injured being sent your way.”
Cillian, as with just about every doctor and nurse working in the ER, froze. The only difference was Cillian felt true fear this time. “Tris, ask if it’s just Omegas.”
He had a bad feeling about this.
But Tris, being used to dealing with catastrophes, ignored Cillian. “What are their conditions?” she asked instead.
Most are critical with everything from stab wounds, broken bones, and even a few gunshot wounds. Several are DOA, we’re splitting all patients between you and Mercy.
Only his training had propelled Cillian to get ready for the influx of wounded. Pulling on his gloves, Cillian heard the first of the sirens headed their way. Steeling himself for what he knew would be another Omega influx, Cillian prayed he was wrong.
The note he’d gotten at the end of his last shift hadn’t just indicated he would be burned, but that the stalker planned on hurting more Omegas. He wasn’t sure if that meant the stalker had something to do with the police cadet attack, but he really hoped not.
As he was ordered to take the fifth patient, Cillian knew the worst had come true. So far, every patient had been Omega. How the stalker had managed to make that happen, he wasn’t sure, but he had to tell someone because there was no way he wasn’t going to save as many lives as he could and that was going to piss off the stalker.
&n
bsp; Then again, the shape most of the victims were in, there was a good chance Cillian wouldn’t succeed. Rosalind and Marco were by his side as they worked for an hour doing everything they could to stabilize their patient. It wasn’t easy and several times the man flat lined. But their hard work and refusal to give up had worked and they sent him to the OR pretty confident he would survive.
He made his way to another patient who wasn’t injured as badly as the others and was waiting for someone to free up to help him. “Hi. My name is Cillian Driscoll. I’m a physician’s assistant and I’ll be helping you today. Can you tell me your name and date of birth?”
As if on automatic pilot, the wide-eyed man said, “Sanjay Kumar. May 4, 1995.” He looked around at the chaos and asked, “Is everyone else okay? They are all my friends, and I can wait if someone else needs your help.”
“They all have doctors working on them. Now, can you tell me what hurts the most?” Cillian had noticed several defensive cuts to the man’s arms, as well as a stab wound in his leg. It was shallow and not near any major arteries or veins.
He was pressing on the man’s ribs, when the patient sucked in air and tried to move away from him. Persistent, yet being as gentle as possible, Cillian was fairly sure he only had a bruised rib or two but would send him for an x-ray just to be sure nothing was broken.
“I was throwing a bachelor party for my best friend. He’s getting married in two weeks. I had hired a bartender and a caterer so none of us would be too stressed out about making enough food for forty people.”
Cillian ordered a CT scan for Sanjay, which would be awhile, since he wasn’t critical. Then he went to work stitching up the wounds.
“I don’t know what happened, but one minute we were saying cheers and having our first toast to Harris and the next minute the waiters and bartender started to attack.” Tears fell from Sanjay’s eyes as Cillian finished the worst of the wounds, which had been his leg.
Taking his arm, Cillian said, “It looks like you put up a fight.”
Sanjay nodded slowly. “Most of us have been taking martial arts for years. It was the only reason they didn’t manage to kill everyone.” He sniffed. “I just don’t get it. Why would anyone want to hurt us?”
That was a good question. But not one that Cillian could answer. He just hoped if the stalker was involved in this, it would help to find her, although Cillian still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t a ‘him’.
Either way, he would now have to watch his surroundings more closely, because there was no doubt in his mind that the stalker would come after him.
CHAPTER 12
“Okay, this is what we know so far,” Jamal said as all the victims of the stalker, their husbands, as well as Gal, who rushed down after Jamal broke the news that it was possible the stalker was somehow behind the attack on Levan and the other Omegas.
Soren hated that Cillian was as shaken as he was. He’d been the one to piece together what the stalker had meant the previous morning in the note that had been left. Admittedly, Soren had worried that had been the stalker’s intention, but without any way to find out who the next target would be, there hadn’t been much he could do.
Keeping a hand linked with Cillian’s as they sat next to each other around a conference table on the executive floor, he wished like hell he could shield Cillian from all of this. Not that his lover would appreciate that since he was too damn independent to want to be hidden from the world. Soren would feel better if Cillian would allow him to do just that.
“Jonah,” Jamal indicated a fresh-faced young Omega, who blushed when he was pointed out. “Will you show everyone what you’ve learned about Dr. Marley Mitchel?”
The redness in Jonah’s cheeks increased a bit, but he cleared his throat and pointed to the white screen that was hanging down from the wall. His computer screen was suddenly up on the wall screen for them all to see. “As you can see, when Dr. Mitchel was fifteen, he’d gotten into a bit of trouble with the FBI for hacking into a government server.”
The screen changed to show a page from the FBI’s report on Marley Mitchel and the warning that had been given to him. “Oddly, the grades during Dr. Mitchel’s freshman and sophomore years, which were mostly B’s and C’s, suddenly became all A’s in his junior and senior years.”
“Do you think he hacked the school’s computers and changed his grades?” Soren asked. It wasn’t uncommon for high school students to try. Not too many were successful, but he was sure it did happen.
The screen changed again and a typed letter to the principal of the high school Marley had attended showed up on the screen. “According to his history teacher in his senior year, the grade that was printed on Marley’s report card was not the grade he should have received. But because the teacher only caught it a day before graduation, the school just let Marley graduate without even talking to him about it.”
“Dayum,” Shale said with a slow clap. “I always heard there were people who could do that sort of thing, but I’ve never actually known anyone who did it. It sure would have made school a lot easier for me if I had.”
Ronan let out a snort. “What are you talking about, sweetness? You had straight A’s in high school and college.”
Shale looked at his husband as if the man were slow. “Yeah, but if I could have cheated, I would have been able to party a lot more than I did. Talk about a waste.”
If there was one thing that Soren had learned since he’d become involved in the stalker case, Shale was one of the most prepared people he’d ever known. He may act like he was a few crayons shy of a full box, but it was only an act. He knew just about everything that went on in the hospital at any given moment. There were many times that Soren had been in awe of how aware Shale was of everything around him.
“Anyway,” Jonah said as he flipped to another page on his computer. “As an undergrad, Marley maintained all A’s but when he started med school, some of those grades slipped a bit. Not to where he was failing, but if I had to guess, he hadn’t figured out how to hack into the school’s computers.”
“Or the teachers were old fashioned and kept records, making it impossible to change his grades,” Brace added. “I remember three of my med school teachers didn’t believe in using computers. They hand wrote all their grades, only putting them into the computer the night they were to be turned in.”
Huh. Soren hadn’t known there were teachers out there that still did that. Then again, in the justice field, computers had become essential and the teachers reflected that change in their classrooms.
“Does this mean we think Marley Mitchel is the stalker?” Oslo asked. He had been the stalker’s fourth victim. More importantly, Oslo was the first one the stalker had started to become physically violent with when he’d broken into Oslo’s apartment.
Everything Oslo had owned had pretty much been destroyed before the stalker had set fire to the place. Yet, despite what had happened, Soren’s police station had done nothing to help. Well, not everyone. Gal and Levan had done what they could but without the support of their coworkers, it had been nearly impossible to find the stalker.
Soren wished he’d had his head out of his ass at the time, because there was no way he would have allowed that to happen. He wished he could change what had happened, but all he could do now was to get rid of the bad cops and bring in people who would help everyone despite their status.
“No way,” Shale emphatically stated. “There have been multiple reports of two women.”
“That may be true,” Gal spoke up for the first time, the weariness mixed with anger in his voice evident. “But with what Jonah has discovered, Marley is most likely in on it. He would have had the technical ability to hack into the hospital’s security cameras to hide the movements of whoever is delivering the flowers.”
“I don’t get it,” Ronan said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Marley is an ass, but he has never shown he hates Omegas.”
“I agree,” Dr. Oliver Pierce spoke up. He was married
to Anson, the stalker’s sixth victim and the one who they believed the stalker had shot in retribution of Shale breaking the knee of the accomplice. “He had never been interested in joining with us on getting rid of Omegas from working at the hospital.”
Oliver had actively tried to have Omegas fired, but between Ronan refusing and Shale’s blackmailing the board, which Soren would deny knowing anything about if asked, he hadn’t succeeded. Then Oliver met Anson. Until Soren had met Cillian, he’d doubted that anyone could change that fast. But now that he’d experienced the power of love, he believed.
“I’m confused.” Tenzin, who was the stalker’s second victim and one of the only two victims the stalker had sent notes claiming they would no longer be stalked, leaned in close to his husband, Dr. Emmett Gates.
Not that Soren believed anyone was safe. The stalker was spiraling into more and more violence. As far as Soren was concerned, all Omegas were at risk, especially if the stalker managed to convince Alphas to attack groups of Omegas.
“Do we believe Marley is the stalker or not?” Tenzin asked.
Soren glanced around the room and saw that all the couples were huddling closer to their spouses. Even Cillian, as headstrong as he was, was gripping Soren’s hand as if his life depended on it. Scooting his chair a little closer, Soren put his arm around Cillian. A little thrill went through him when Cillian leaned in to get closer without any protest.
It was Jamal who answered from within the safety of his husband’s arms. “Actually, we believe Marley is another accomplice. Whoever the stalker is, has a deep hatred for Omegas. Marley just doesn’t fit that description.”
“Another accomplice?” Oslo’s husband, Bradford, asked. “Wasn’t one enough?”
Cillian shook slightly in Soren’s arms. “Are you kidding me?” The signs of unraveling were there in Cillian’s eyes. “If this stalker was responsible for what happened last night, there are a lot more than just one other accomplice.”
“He’s right.” Soren held Cillian tighter. He really wanted to get Cillian home and into their bed, where he could hold him for the rest of the day. But that wasn’t going to happen. They had a stalker to find and Soren was going to do whatever it took to find that person.
