Stolen Innocence

by Beverly L Anderson

  When Devan turned around, he saw Varick clutch Kieran to his chest a little tighter. He suddenly recalled what Varick said in the car about an older doctor. So, this was the stupid motherfucker who thought revealing someone was related to a mob boss was a good idea. A low growled issued from him because he wasn’t about to hand Kieran over to anyone else, not even the hospital staff. By the look on Varick’s face, he was sure the other man was in agreement with his thought. Besides, Devan didn’t know who Callaghan owned; for all he knew, the man could own everybody in this place.

  “Son!” the elder Sung shouted as he ran up to them. “Are you hurt, of course you’re hurt, they said they hurt you... Where... Where have... We paid but they didn’t bring you back to me...”

  Kieran flinched and turned toward his father. Devan was focused on the other two as they walked up behind the older Sung. He understood that Kieran’s father needed answer, but now was not the time, and here was not the place to discuss it. When Kieran couldn’t say anything, Devan reached out and grabbed Dr. Sung by the arm. “Not fuckin’ here, are you stupid?” he sneered at him.

  Dr. Sung looked at Devan blankly for a second, blinking in confusion. It appeared to click, because Devan saw him nod. Devan figured this guy wasn’t clueless, he’d married a mobster’s daughter after all. And lived. Dr. Sung nodded and ushered them all to the elevator.

  “We... We should take him to an empty exam room on seven. It’s the neurosurgery floor, and there isn’t a lot of foot traffic,” Dr. Sung commented after they all piled into the elevator.

  As they rode the rest of the way in silence, Devan noticed Kieran’s father had a somewhat blank expression. He was obviously in shock about the whole situation, not that Devan could blame him. He could feel the older doctor staring at him from behind, and it made his skin crawl. When the elevator came to a stop, Devan exited first and then let Dr. Sung take the lead. Varick was right behind them, while Carmine ended up tailing the FBI agent and the older doctor. They went down a side corridor to a room at the end of the short hall. Dr. Sung opened the door to let Varick go in with Kieran.

  Devan grabbed the elder Sung by the arm gently tugged him to the side of the door. The older doctor and Carmine passed them to enter room, but the woman in the pantsuit stopped as well. She held the door open, glancing inside and back to Devan.

  “I know you have questions, and you’ll get all the answers you want and more, but first, you need a rape kit.” Devan saw the man’s skin drain of color. If there was a gentler way to explain it, Devan didn’t have time for it. There was no place to dance around the topic.

  “What? No...”

  Crossing his arms over his chest, Devan nodded. “It’s been several hours, so you need to do it quickly, or you aren’t going to nail the motherfucker.”

  “Who?” the agent asked.

  “Rian Callaghan.” Devan didn’t wait for an answer before went around the FBI Agent into the room.

  Devan’s eyes moved toward the basic exam table where Kieran was sitting and for a few minutes; he wasn’t sure whether or not he should step in for Kieran. Dr. McKellar was attempting to lean closer as he talked to Kieran, and Kieran kept pushing him away. The younger doctor had pulled the jacket tighter around his shoulders by clutching the lapels to keep closed around him. His other hand was tangled in the blanket at his waist.

  Kieran did not want Thomas near him, and he could not articulate why. He understood the reason he was feeling this irritation; he just could not express it. It was because he now knew Thomas had revealed his connection to his grandfather. He was so upset his executive functions were slipping. His impulse and emotional control were fraying quickly. All these years of trying to control his reactions, and it was falling apart.

  He went over the all-important “list” which had been drilled into his head. Impulse control. Emotional control. Flexible thinking. Working memory. Self-monitoring. Planning and prioritizing. Task initiation. Organization. Normal people could handle things with all of those things functioning. All of them. Not just part of them. He was quickly losing hold of several of them at once. He was so focused on thinking about the things he was losing control over that the rest of the world seemed to dim in comparison.

  He vaguely registered Varick was standing nearby with Carmine. Devan was walking toward him now. No, he was not going to let Thomas take this away from him. Thomas was not in control, he was.

  “Kieran, let me have this...” Thomas growled and tried to tug the pink blanket off him.

  “No! Leave!” Kieran snapped at Thomas, glaring at him. “I...want you to leave, I do not want you here!”

  “Why not?” Thomas looked shocked at what Kieran was saying. “Look, I am your doctor Kieran, and we need to see how badly you’re hurt, so let me have this ratty blanket...”

  Kieran shook his head, already feeling the buzzing in his ears. He cupped his hands over them, beginning to rock a little in an attempt to calm himself. Kieran looked up in time to see Thomas grab for the blanket where it was starting to come loose around his legs. Before he could touch it, Varick had reached out and clamped a hand around Thomas’s wrist.

  “He said he wanted you to leave,” Varick stated evenly. “He doesn’t want you to take the blanket off. He wants you to leave. So, do what he says.”

  Thomas frowned and looked at the man who held his wrist in a grip Kieran could see was tight. He pulled his hand back, and Varick let go of him.

  “I am his doctor and friend. If anyone should leave, it is the bunch of you. You have nothing to do with him, and who leaves is my call to make.” Thomas narrowed his gaze at Varick.

  “No, they are not going anywhere, you are, Thomas,” Kieran informed Thomas flatly. He reached over and put Varick’s hand over his ear right ear. There was too much auditory stimulation coming in, and he need to filter it. Varick smiled, moving to cover Kieran’s left ear with his other hand. Kieran reached down and pulled the blanket up to his chest over the jacket. “I want you to leave, but I need them to s-stay.”

  “Kieran, you’re being unreasonable. And stop rocking, you need to get yourself under control!” he snapped, reaching over again to put his hand on Kieran’s shoulder. This time, though, a darker hand shot out and stopped him. Carmine looked at Thomas as sternly as Varick had. “He said he wanted ya to leave, I don’t care who the fuck ya are, but you’re gonna do what he says. Or I guarantee ya’ll leave this room in a way you don’t like. You’re agitatin’ him, and I don’t know a lot about him yet, but I know when someone is upset.”

  Thomas’s face scrunched. “Kieran does not need the likes of any of you around him. He doesn’t need some motorcycle fanatic, some hoodlum gangster, and whatever the hell you are,” he commented while throwing a glance toward Devan. Devan had moved to stand next to the exam table close to Carmine. “He needs none of you here. He needs me, his father, and his friends, and you are not those things, so I am going to call security if you don’t leave immediately.” Kieran saw him reaching in the pocket of his doctor’s coat. He knew immediately that he was grabbing the walkie talkie he kept handy for calling security.

  To Thomas’s surprise, it was Kieran who reached out and snatched the device out of his hand as soon as it was free of his coat pocket. Kieran glared at him, then looked at the walkie.

  “I said leave!” he practically screamed and launched it across the room. It slammed into the wall beside the door and exploded into several pieces. Kieran stared the impact point for a second, shocked he had been able to throw something that hard. Then he looked back at Thomas with narrowed eyes, his voice dropping lower than before. “I said to leave, nuh gaesaekki ah,” he growled at him.

  The door shut suddenly, and Kieran glanced over to see his father and the woman who had rode with them in the elevator. They were staring at him. Kieran turned back to see Thomas still had not moved. “I said leave, ee ssibalnom! Leave!”

  Immediately, Jae came over and grabbed Thomas by the shoulders. “Go, I have this.” He
quickly pushing Thomas toward the door. Kieran watched them go, panting for breath and extremely glad Varick’s hands were still over his ears. There was too much information coming into his brain right now, and he needed the filter now more than ever.

  “You need to send out those men, they’re no good for Kieran...” Thomas was trying to say as Jae yanked open the door and shoved him into the hallway.

  Jae slammed the door shut, then turned back toward Kieran. Jae came back to Kieran who was clutching his knees while rocking and muttering under his breath. His rocking did not force Varick to move his hands away from his ears. Kieran could not voice it, but he was grateful the others seemed to be able to easily read what he needed. It was nice to have someone else besides Artemis help him like this. Varick had not once said something negative about the ways he was coping. Without Thomas around, he felt like he could engage in his verbal tic to relieve the anxiety the older doctor had triggered.

  “Ssibalnomsaekki...ssibalsaekki...ssibal...ssibalsaekki...” he muttered, looking between his father and his own hands where they were clutched in the blanket on his lap.

  “Kieran, son,” Jae whispered. Kieran knew his father knew his words were not for him.

  At least his father’s presence was not agitating. He was calming, as always. But then again, he was a pediatrician. “I think you know what we have to do, and we have to do it soon, who...who do you want to do this exam?”

  The question stopped Kieran’s litany of muttered profanity. He paused in thought before he decided who he wanted. There was only one person he thought he could tolerate for this. “S-Serenity...” he mumbled. “Sh-she should be on call for the ER tonight.”

  Jae smiled and nodded. Kieran knew his father would get the doctor he requested without question. He needed someone like Dr. Serenity Brown. “Alright, try to keep calm, son. I know it’s hard, but we’re going to figure this out.”

  Kieran nodded, reaching up and pulling Varick’s hands off his ears. The sensory input had reduced, and now everyone’s voices were becoming too quiet. When Varick went to pull his hands away, Kieran clutched both in his own hands, letting out a long sigh.

  The woman hadn’t moved from beside the door. She stopped Jae as he left, and Kieran found he could hear his conversation. Thomas was acting weird. Now, would his father?

  “What was he saying, anyway?” the woman asked.

  “He’s cursing in Korean. He always does when he gets really upset. Basically, ssibal means fuck.”

  “What did he call Dr. McKellar that shocked you so much?” The woman glanced over at the table and Kieran made no attempt to hide the fact he was listening to what they were saying.

  “Ah, that’s...something not very nice; he normally wouldn’t ever say to him,” his father answered and disappeared through the door.

  Would he ever say something like that to Thomas? He rarely called people names, and he would not call Thomas a son of a bitch without provocation, or anything else he had said. Not without being this upset. But maybe his words came from a deeper place of frustration. There was something building in his mind, and it came from the fact that these near strangers, treated him with more respect than his long-time mentor.

  AS SPECIAL AGENT LAUREN Richmond strode purposefully down the hallway, she contemplated how to address the seriousness of Devan Sullivan’s situation. She couldn’t decide how to approach it because it was obvious he wasn’t a bad kid. He was in a lot of trouble just by being connected to Rian Callaghan and Liam O’Brien and the Families they headed. She had been about to talk to him when her com had buzzed in her ear.

  “Agent Richmond,” she had answered.

  “We have a lawyer downstairs who wants to see the lead FBI investigator on the Sung case,” came the reply from her man downstairs at the main nurses’ station.

  “Inform this lawyer that they must go through proper channels.”

  “Um, Ma’am, I did, but she... It’s... It’s Carol Matherson,” he had informed her.

  Lauren sighed. “Alright, I’ll be down.” She chewed her inner cheek for a bit until she tasted blood. Terrible habit, she knew, but somehow, she couldn’t stop herself from doing it. It felt relieving to do this, the pain soothed her.

  Carol Matherson was the head lawyer for Liam O’Brien. The fact O’Brien sent her down meant he intended to fully defend Devan Sullivan. Unlike some agents, though, Lauren saw this as a good thing. Matherson was known for being the one to make the deals. She carried the patriarch’s full sway in meetings, and had free reign to make choices for him.

  Lauren stepped out of the elevator and recognized her right away. Carol was tall, almost six-feet, and wore heels on top of that. She was square jawed, and Lauren had realized not long after meeting her, she had a pronounced Adam’s apple. Of course, this often got bantered around the field office, how she was “really a man” but Lauren had put a stop to that shit quickly. She did not, under any circumstances, abide by any such statements by her people.

  Carol had a bright set of lovely gray eyes, and her hair looked superb pinned up on the top of her head in a perfect bun of golden strands. She’d always thought she was such a gorgeous and elegant woman. Lauren shook her head, not knowing how the woman got ready so quickly at this time of the morning, and how the hell O’Brien had found out already. As usual, Carol was wearing a perfectly pressed smart skirt and jacket set. Her makeup was also done as though she had just gotten ready for a full day of work instead of having rolled out of bed at around five am. There was gold toned cross hung around her neck, resting between her collarbones in a gentle accent. Lauren knew the cross held significance even though Carol had told her she was not religious. Part of her wanted to know more about Carol, and what the cross stood for. She realized she was staring and felt a slight heat creep up her cheeks. Glancing away from her toward a nearby door, Lauren gestured toward it.

  “Carol,” Lauren acknowledged as she approached, heels clicking on the floor. “Conference room?”

  “Please.” Carol nodded in response as she turned to follow when Lauren passed her.

  Lauren led her to the nearby conference room and sat down, pulling out her recorder. “Official, first meeting, Carol Matherson, representing Devan Sullivan.”

  “Lauren, good to see you,” Carol commented as she pulled a file out of her attaché case. “Unfortunate that we’re meeting like this again.”

  “Well, you do work for one of the major crime bosses in St. Louis, Carol,” Lauren remarked. Before Carol could respond, Lauren continued. “However, at this point, we’re looking to deal as well. The lesser evil, as they say. Unless I’ve missed something, the O’Briens don’t usually kidnap and rape people,” Lauren said, pulling out a file of her own from her own bag.

  Carol shook her head. “You know as well as I do that Rian Callaghan is the only reason Mr. O’Brien is still in business. He does run legitimate businesses, after all. Any connections to crime have yet to be proven.”

  “Of course.” Lauren smiled at the other woman. This a familiar song and dance for them. Always when Lauren brought up the possible illegal activities, Carol would remind her she could never make any charges stick. It was incredibly frustrating, but Lauren had to admit she enjoyed the game. “We know how this goes, so let’s cut to the chase, shall we? We want Rian Callaghan himself; this event is only one of many. We have enough against this Devan Sullivan just as an accessory alone to put him away a long time.” Carol’s eyes didn’t leave Lauren’s face as she spoke. Lauren admired her ability to keep a poker face no matter what. “So, what’s the offer you’re putting on the table?”

  Carol smiled. “I already know what ‘event’ you speak of. I’m sure you’ve already gotten a rape kit done on Mr. O’Brien’s grandson, the young Dr. Sung.” Lauren had a hard time hiding her surprise that Carol knew this already. No information had been released, and this was the first time she’d ever heard one of the O’Brien’s camp acknowledge the Sungs as related to them. “You know as well as I do,
those charges won’t stick to Callaghan. He’ll manage to convince everyone the act was consensual, no matter what evidence you have to the contrary. It is in my client’s, Mr. O’Brien that is, best interest as the victim’s grandfather, to see Callaghan brought to justice for this act of violence.” Carol pushed over the file to Lauren.

  Opening the folder Carol handed her, Lauren tapped her pen on the papers inside as she glanced over them. After a few minutes, she looked up. Shaking her head, Lauren reached over and turned off the recorder, looking across the table to meet Carol’s gray eyes. “Carol, we’ve been doing this dance for a while, ten years now. Give it to me, off the record, I’m too damn tired to read between the lines and figure this out. How long before the O’Briens move against the Callaghans over this?”

  Carol looked at the recorder, seeing it was indeed off. “You don’t have much time. He’s already called a meeting for in the morning with his Captains. I’d suspect by the end of the week, there will be bodies showing up on both sides, hopefully with no collateral damage.”

  Lauren sighed. “And these boys?”

  “Callaghan has his entire place under surveillance. I don’t know for sure, but I am going to say Callaghan knows who they are, and will go after them soon,” Carol stated. “Liam doesn’t think Rian will go for their families, but considering he didn’t think he would do this again, he can’t be sure of that. I have no confirmation, but I would guess by tomorrow night there will be a contract out on Devan at the very least.”

  Lauren nodded, clicking the recorder back on. “The offer?”

  “We’re offering, in exchange for full amnesty for Devan Sullivan, as well as the other two men who helped him, Varick Jaeger and Carmine Deangelo, everything we have on Rian Callaghan and the Callaghan Family organization. Liam O’Brien is also offering himself in exchange for those in his employ who have not broken any laws. This includes videotaped conferences with both men in attendance to negotiate borders and settle disputes, contracts, evidence of money laundering, identity theft, illegal gambling, sex trafficking, and illegal drug trafficking. This evidence will also incriminate alliances made to with other crime syndicates.”