Chapter 3 - The Rehabilitation Room
Marcus killed the speaker immediately and looked at me.
“I'm moving you.”
“No.”
“Vincent—”
“I'm done being moved around my own house.”
I handed Lily to Nora. “Take her to the library. Lock the inside door. Stay with her.”
Nora hesitated. “What about you?”
“I have two good arms, one good leg, and Marcus.”
Marcus gave me a look that said this was not funny.
I wasn't joking.
We crossed the hall slowly. I refused the wheelchair and used the cane, dragging the braced leg in the stiff, ugly movement Keller had trained into me. Every step hurt, but anger was an excellent anesthetic.
The rehabilitation room door was half open.
Lauren stood at the treatment table in a cream dress, her blonde hair perfect, one hand buried inside a drawer. Dr. Keller was beside her.
Both froze when they saw me.
Lauren recovered first. “Vincent. You should be resting.”
I looked at the drawer.
“What are you looking for?”
“Your medication schedule.”
“At the bottom of a locked equipment drawer?”
Keller stepped in. “This is unnecessary. Your blood pressure—”
“My blood pressure is about to become your least important problem.”
Marcus entered behind me and closed the door.
Lauren's expression hardened. “What happened?”
I tapped the side of my brace.
The color left Keller's face.
There it was.
Not guilt. Recognition.
I had spent twenty years buying companies by watching what people did before they spoke. Fear came first. Lies came second.
“The release opened,” I said.
Keller swallowed. “That's impossible.”
“Lily pressed it.”
Lauren's eyes flashed. “She touched it?”
Not Are you okay?
Not Was she hurt?
She touched it?
Marcus noticed too.
I stepped closer. “Tell me why that matters.”
Keller looked at Lauren.
Lauren looked at the door.
Then Marcus opened the drawer she had been searching.
Inside was a padded envelope.
My name was written across it.
May you like
Under my name were three words in black marker:
IF HE WALKS.
