by Victoria Sue
They all filed outside, and at the last second, Gray put a finger to his lips, remembering the surveillance system recorded sound, and they quickly got into the car.
“You have an idea,” Rawlings said. It wasn’t a question.
Gray rattled off some directions to Mac, who was driving. “I can’t see how they would risk a regular hospital. This isn’t exactly something they want advertised, and Seb’s mark is very obvious.” He quickly told them about the state-of-the art clinic he had accompanied Seb to and the equipment he had seen. Everything in him shouted that’s where they had gone.
“But you would know where that is,” Ringo argued. “Surely that’s a risk?”
“A calculated one. Don’t forget, it’s Carter they’re currently avoiding, not us. McKay thinks they have us backed into a corner. Fuck, I’m not even sure he thinks I’m a threat at all.”
“It would also be nearly impossible to set up last-minute somewhere else,” Mac reasoned. “It’s not like he could just turn up at any hospital and—”
Rawlings picked up his phone. “Danny, does McKay have surgical privileges anywhere?” He waited a few seconds while Mac continued to speed across town. “Understood.” He rang off. “The only other place McKay can operate is Betherston Pediatrics. That’s an hour in the other direction and is very busy. I can’t see him taking Seb there for one minute.”
“Okay, good,” Ringo said. “So, what’s the plan?”
SEB HEARD the voices as if they were coming from another room, but the hand positioning his body was right next to him. Wait—he heard the voices? Reality returned shockingly quickly, and he just had the presence of mind to stay still and not open his eyes.
“Why is he wearing the headphones?” His dad? Was he still at home?
“Because in a few seconds….” The screech in both ears seemed to nearly rip his head in two with the pain, and the flinch was impossible to hide.
He heard the hollow laugh as the headphones were being removed, and he opened his eyes to see McKay giving him a knowing look.
“Sebastian?” his dad said the wonder written all over his face, and Seb breathed out a shaky breath. At least his dad hadn’t known.
“Your son has been fooling everyone for months, possibly years. I waited like you asked, but I knew if his reactions were compromised, he couldn’t fool us.”
“He can hear?” His dad was looking between them both in shock.
Seb tried to sit up, but his arms seemed immovable. He glanced at the two leather straps and thought quickly. “I feel sick,” he moaned. His father rushed forward and undid the straps, then helped him to sit up. Not that even free he could do anything. His arms felt like spaghetti, and he doubted he could even hold a glass of water at the moment. But he needed to get through to his dad. It was his last hope.
“Why can he hear with the headphones on?” Quinn asked McKay.
“Bone conduction technology. You gave your son headphones simply to plug into the jack to muffle the sound in the rest of the house, I believe?”
“Yes,” his dad said. “But we tried bone conduction hearing aids, and because his inner ear damage is too severe, and because he has bilateral deafness, the ones currently on the market won’t work.”
Seb knew. He had been through all this before.
“But because you make these, or perhaps because you have no concept of restraint, you gave a deaf boy the most expensive pair you could, when in fact you could have bought a cheap pair at any corner store. I didn’t realize what you had done, or the significance of it, until Smith told me.”
His dad looked at the headphones as if he didn’t understand. “Smith? Arron Smith? Why—”
McKay sighed. “Bone conduction technology has been available for a very long time. It was actually invented by Beethoven, who used to bite a rod connected to his piano so he could hear through vibrations.”
“No, I know that,” his dad said impatiently. “I meant why did Smith tell you and not me?”
“Because I was blackmailing him.” McKay said it with such a look of boredom on his face that Seb gasped. “He was drowning in debt because of the divorce. It was very easy to offer him hard cash in return for keeping an eye on my investment. Once he accepted it the first time, I had him on the hook, so to speak. He would lose his job and certainly face prosecution. His ex-wife was looking for anything to bar him access to his kids. It was exactly the leverage I needed.” McKay smirked. “Your son isn’t exactly hard on the eyes. I doubt if Arron found it a hardship to become close.”
Seb wasn’t sure whether to be disgusted that Arron had been told to initiate an intimate relationship in the first place, or vindicated that Seb had known something wasn’t right with it and ended it. “I can only hear with the headphones on, Dad,” Seb said to try to distract his dad. “It’s not bone conduction whatever; it’s my ability, and you aren’t going to suddenly make me hear.” It was on the tip of his tongue to say what else he could do just to prove his point, but thankfully before he had the chance, his dad turned to him.
“But why didn’t you tell me?” Armitage asked, bewilderment and hurt in his expression.
“Because you were totally convinced the operations should happen, and I have no say in anything until I’m twenty-one.” Seb saw the knowledge flash through his dad’s eyes and knew he was getting through to him.
McKay scowled. “The implants are working. They just need further adjustment.”
Quinn glanced at McKay in confusion. “But he doesn’t have any implants. You removed them because they made him so sick.”
McKay laughed. “Did you really think I was going to trash something that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce?”
“But—”
McKay took a threatening step toward his dad. “I don’t care what you told me to do. I put my house and every cent I own into this. You really think I was going to remove it just because your spoiled kid got a few dizzy spells?”
Seb closed his eyes for a second in remembered horror. The hours he had spent lying on the floor simply wishing he could die. The time he had swallowed nearly every pill he had and tried to make it happen. It made utter and complete sense. Enhanced were always ridiculously healthy. He wasn’t an anomaly. A defective enhanced, if there was such a thing. His body was fighting something inside him that didn’t belong. It was a reaction, not a sickness.
He took a steadying breath and looked at his dad. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s get out of here.” He felt a little strength returning to his legs, and his arms weren’t as shaky. The relief was enormous. He could be healthy, finally. Get the damn things taken out. Start his life. He knew his dad would let him get his own place, he—
The slight movement from the corner made his words dry up. He stared in confusion, not completely sure what he was looking at. The guard who had threatened Gray stood holding a gun on them both.
“Stand down,” his dad ordered. The guard’s eyes flickered toward McKay, but he didn’t lower the weapon.
McKay sneered. “He doesn’t answer to you. I employed protection a long time ago. A sound decision as it turns out seeing as Seb’s new bodyguard was a completely different prospect to that idiot Derwent, or even Smith,” he added as an afterthought and then bent to the small fridge in the corner and started pulling out supplies. “Now, Armitage, I suggest you wait in reception and pretend to be a concerned father. I have surgery to do, and my nurse will be here shortly.”
His dad took an outraged step forward and came face-to-face with the guard’s weapon. “This is ridiculous,” he protested. “You can’t do this.”
McKay stood up with a covered tray. “I am doing this. We have gone too far to have any other option. Don’t forget, Armitage. It is you who has the guardianship role. I was simply carrying out your orders.”
Seb watched as his dad blanched. “I didn’t tell you to make my son sick. I believed you when you said it would help him.”
“And the millions of dollars we could
earn has never been a factor, hmm?” McKay seemed so reasonable. “I can’t suddenly make people hear, and I never thought I could. I’m sure that will be possible in a few short years, but no one can duplicate an enhanced ability.”
“Then why?” his dad said with such a bewildered look on his face, Seb cringed.
“Tinnitus,” McKay replied promptly.
“What?” his dad repeated. Seb wasn’t completely sure he’d read the word properly.
“A problem that affects thousands and is incurable. A few manageable alternatives have been produced, but no cure. I am convinced the way your son processes vibrations will give me the answer.”
“You are going through with all this because of people who have ringing in their ears?” his dad asked, his expression completely aghast.
“Ringing in their ears?” McKay curled his lip. “It’s a hundred times worse than that, a thousand. People are bedridden, housebound. Suicidal. I am on the cusp of a cure that will potentially benefit millions.”
“And earn you millions,” Seb said with sickening finality. It had all been about that. Gray had been right.
“And to get to the answer, I need to examine his inner ear.”
“What do you mean?”
“There has to be a reason that bone conduction technology is working with him when the rest of the population with his hearing loss can’t benefit,” McKay continued. “I think you have been so caught up in your son being deaf because he has never exhibited any abilities most of the time, you forget he is enhanced. Apart from the obvious benefits, that very conveniently means you can keep him a prisoner and spend his money.”
His dad turned gray, but McKay continued, “Well, I didn’t forget. I have read every research article I could access legally—and a few others that took a certain financial effort—that discuss the correlation between natural human evolution and the enhanced’s abilities.”
“But you can’t just go on some sort of surgical fact-finding mission.” His dad looked horrified. “I mean—”
“Use him as a guinea pig, so to speak?” McKay asked. “Isn’t that exactly what you have been doing for over six years?”
Yes, thought Seb. It was. “Monsieur Dubois?” Seb suddenly said. “That was you?”
McKay shrugged. “It was supposed to frighten you into staying at home.” He glanced at Seb’s dad and frowned. “But—”
The guard snapped his head up and looked at the door a fraction of a second before it crashed back on its hinges and sent the guard stumbling into McKay. The gun slid from his fingers, and in complete horror, Seb watched as his dad—the nearest—bent to snatch it up and whirl around just as people started piling into the room.
Gray fired a shot from his own gun before Seb could shriek the warning.
There was a second, an incredibly long second where his dad looked down in confusion at the blood blooming rapidly across his chest. Then the gun toppled from his useless fingers, and his dad seemed to fold into himself before hitting the floor.
“Seb—”
“What did you do?” Seb cried, cutting off Gray’s words and scrambling to the floor. Rawlings was faster and grabbed the cloth covering the instruments and pressed it over his dad’s chest.
“No.” Gray grabbed Seb, turning him to face him, trying to keep him still. “He was going for the gun. I—”
“Get off me,” Seb screamed, and Gray let go as if he’d burned his hand. Seb clutched at his father as Carter appeared and then paramedics from somewhere. Seb felt a hand on his arm. The same gesture from Gray that he had done what seemed hundreds of times. Seb knew he wanted him to look up, and he did. “It was McKay.” Seb yanked his arm away and let the other paramedic help him to his feet. His father was quickly put on a gurney, lifted, and rushed outside to an ambulance.
“Do you want to go with him?” It was the ambulance driver. Seb simply nodded and stepped in.
“HE DIDN’T mean it,” Rawlings said gently. Gray stood with Mac and Ringo as the cops shut down the scene. They’d hauled McKay and the guard away what seemed like hours ago. Armitage was out of surgery and going to be all right. Gray didn’t get the chance to reply to Rawlings, even if he’d known what to say, because Carter walked back to them after speaking to some other suits.
“Apparently Samuels—McKay’s guard—is hanging him out to dry. McKay arranged for the graffiti and the attack on Monsieur Dubois and the blackmail letters, hoping he could persuade Seb to become even more of a recluse. Samuels doesn’t know about the porn, but Smith was taking money from McKay to get close to Seb. McKay wanted to know if Seb was lying. McKay already admitted Smith told him something about Seb hearing vibrations from a phone?” Carter shrugged. “I’m not clear on the details, but Smith told McKay the boy ended their relationship, so he couldn’t find out any more.”
Gray’s head shot up. “He ended it?” Then cursed his own reaction. Fuck. Carter looked sympathetic. “We’re going to reexamine the case to see if Smith did kill himself or if that was also ordered by McKay. If Smith really was suicidal, then he wouldn’t have had any reason to keep McKay’s secrets anymore, so it’s suspicious. If McKay was willing to go to these lengths, murder isn’t much further.”
Gray agreed.
“I’m going to the hospital,” Carter said. “Can I give you a ride?”
Gray shook his head, and Carter stepped away as his phone rang. Seb had been definite Gray wasn’t welcome. Carter had taken Gray’s gun but been clear that unless of course Mr. Armitage wanted to make a complaint, the police wouldn’t be interested. He’d said he thought that unlikely, especially since Armitage would be too busy with being prosecuted for fraud and theft. McKay was going to be locked up for a long time.
Gray looked at Rawlings. “Find me work.”
Rawlings frowned. “I think—”
“Find me work or I resign.”
Rawlings heaved a sigh. “I have two contracts in Atlanta—”
“No,” Gray clipped out the word.
Rawlings studied him for what seemed a long time. “No. You’re not running from this one, Gray. Seb’s hurt and confused. He’s been manipulated into feeling guilty for ten years. He lost one parent when he was four, and he just saw the other shot.” His eyes glinted in determination. “If you don’t get yourself to that hospital, you won’t need to resign because I’ll fire you.”
Gray stood looking stunned for all of five seconds. Rawlings was right. If Seb wanted to push him away, it was completely his right to do so, but not manning up and giving him the choice was even worse.
“What if he hates me? I gunned down his father.”
“Seb doesn’t hate you,” Rawlings said incredulously. “But even if you thought that, I never took you for such a coward.”
Gray snapped to attention in indignation and anger. How could Rawlings ever—
He acknowledged the faint amusement coupled with a good dose of compassion in Rawlings’s eyes. “When did you get so clever?”
Rawlings smiled. “When I married your sister.”
GRAY HAD never questioned his courage because he’d always just called it damned stubbornness. In a way he almost wished it was Kandahar or anywhere he could stand behind a big-ass gun, because as he walked into the hospital he’d never been as fucking scared as he was now.
His normally silent boots seemed loud as he walked to the waiting area. He stepped into the room and saw Seb immediately. Seb looked small and scared, but as he lifted his gaze to meet Gray’s, the anger reflected in his eyes showed he was pissed.
Gray’s heart thudded. He took a step toward Seb but was met by a cop.
“Sir?” The cop put up his hand.
Gray scowled. “I’m no threat.” The brittle laugh from Seb shut him up. Gray stared at him. “I would never…,” he started. “I thought he was going to shoot you.”
Seb tilted his head to one side and swallowed. “I know. The nice policeman isn’t here because he thinks you are a threat to me. He’s here because he
thinks I’m a threat to everyone else.” Seb touched his mark lightly in explanation, and Gray gaped.
“But that’s ridiculous,” Gray fumed, noticing the way Seb’s eyes narrowed with annoyance, and he didn’t blame him. “I’m Seb’s bodyguard, and he is a threat to no one.” He glanced up as Carter and two colleagues came into the waiting room, followed by the doctor.
“Mr. Armitage?” the doctor addressed Seb. “Your father is conscious and is asking to see you.”
“Already?” Carter asked.
The doctor nodded. “The bullet was a through and through, and we were lucky to get him so quickly. He has been in recovery for an hour. I will allow one brief visit.”
Gray stepped up beside Seb, and Seb half smiled at the action. “I need Detective Carter to accompany us as well.”
The doctor agreed, and Gray tried not to take the request personally. There could be a million and one reasons Seb thought they needed Carter’s backup. He was just glad Seb hadn’t objected to him being there.
They were shown into a private room where Quinn Armitage lay on a bed, hooked up to all sorts of wires and tubes. He was conscious, and he focused eagerly on Seb. The reaction to seeing Gray wasn’t as welcoming. In fact Armitage scowled. “Detective, while I appreciate that you have had a busy few hours, I must insist that you arrest this man. I am told another two inches and I would have bled out on the clinic’s floor.” He turned to Seb. “I completely understand your wish to be protected and fully admit to making many mistakes.” He paused. “It’s just after losing your mother, I became obsessed with the idea of keeping you safe.”
