Thicker than Blood - Book One (5 page)

I had made up my mind to
report this officer when I saw Andrea come from behind the
curtains. She looked as if nothing was out of place.

“So, weird, huh?” I asked
as she sat down.

“What?”

“That cop.”

She shook her head and
looked around. “What cop?”

I laughed. “Whatever. You
didn't find that conversation the least bit... strange?”

Andrea's brow furrowed.
“Seriously, what the hell are you talking about?”

What the fuck?!
“Seriously, are you really going to follow his
'forget about this' command? What's he going to do.”

Andrea looked around, her
face screwing-up in the process. “Kenna... are you okay? I haven't
seen a cop in here since last week. You're starting to scare
me.”

I stared dumbly at her.
Scare
HER
?? Did...
she just really forget about the cop? Did he command the memory out
of her? I scratched my head. “Uh, yeah. I – I didn't get much sleep
last night.”

Relief washed over Andrea's
expression. “Okay then. You need to go right to bed when you get
home. You were really starting to freak me out.” She rose, patted
my hand and left.

There was one person I was
dying to speak with... Dr. Amante. He had tried the same 'forget
about this' shit as the cop. If it was indeed mind control, why
didn't it work on me? It now made sense that Dr. Amante was
confused when he failed at his attempt. And what did Garlique have
to do with it? Could it possibly block the mind control? If so,
why?

The clock hanging above the
door told me it was 0418. I put my face in my hands. So many
questions and no way to contact Amante. I gasped when I remembered
there
WAS
a way
for me to reach him.

“I'm going to the cardiac
floor for a moment,” I called over my shoulder to the male nurse
playing on his phone. I flew up the stairs to my unit, walking
briskly to the nurses' station.

“Hey! How's the err?”
Marie, the normal weekend unit clerk, asked me. We often referred
to the ER as the err, for what ever reason.

I faked a laugh. “It's the
err. Could you do me a favor and page Dr. Amante for me
please?”

The cute Hispanic girl eyed
me for a moment, I was sure she wondered why I didn't have him
paged from the ER. “Okay...” She picked up the phone and dialed a
number.

“Hi, this is Marie Delgato
from Cardiac. I need to have Dr. Amante paged. Five five five, two
one seven, eight five three four. Thank
you.”

“Thanks, Marie. I owe
you.”

She smiled at me as the
patient call light started beeping.

I laughed. Glad those calls
weren't for me tonight. I watched the rhythms on the monitors as
Marie answered.

“Yes?”

“My coffee is cold! Send my
nurse!”

Marie sighed. “Yes ma'am.”
Just as she hung up the patient call, the desk phone rang. “Cardiac
Care Unit, this is Marie.”

“Hellooo there. I'll get
the nurse,” she purred into the phone.
Had
to be Amante.

“It's Dr. A,” Marie said as
she turned to me. “You mind watching the rhythms for a sec while I
take Mrs. Belcher some hot coffee? I don't want to take Kim away
from a patient that needs her for
this
errand.”

“Sure, no problem.” I
smiled. Marie was a fantastic unit clerk. If at all possible, she
tried to handle the ridiculous calls from patients, allowing us to
focus on care-related issues.

I sat down in Marie's
chair, and waited until she was a ways down the hall before picking
up the phone. “You
owe me
some answers.” I could get into so much trouble
for what I was doing, but knew I wouldn't.

Silence and then a sigh.
“Kenna.” I could hear people talking in the background where ever
he was. “I don't have time to talk.”

“No, you owe me. You can't
just keep doing what you're doing. I need to know what's going on,
why you're acting so... bi-polar.”

More silence. “I need to
go... we will talk later.” The phone clicked.

I took a deep breath to
refrain from slamming the phone down onto the receiver. I wasn't a
violent person, but I swore the next time I saw the good doctor, I
was going to punch him in the face! This was getting
ridiculous!

The rest of the night was
slow – boring. I found that the entirety of the ER believed Mr.
Fargo died from a self-inflicted GSW and that I was imagining
things with the cop story... I was the only one who thought –
no,
knew
—differently. I got more than one strange look when I
questioned my co-workers, so I gave up on them. I knew the truth
and I was going to find out why I was the only one to
remember.

If Mr. Fargo was bitten and
killed... murdered... by a person, why did the cop want it covered
up?

Before I left the hospital
for home, I dialed Matt's number again. He didn't
answer.

“
Hey, this is Matt. Leave me a message.”

“
Hey, please give me a call. Some weird shit happened in the
ER tonight that I'm still trying to wrap my brain around.” I wasn't
sure what else to say. “And it didn't involve Amante, for your
information. Please just call me when you have a sec.” I ended the
call and stared at the pic of Matt on my contact list. Where was
he? Was he simply avoiding my calls? That meant he was mad at me,
but why?

“
You headed over to Matt's?” Marie asked as she passed me on
the sidewalk.

I looked up from my phone.
“No... why would I?”

“
Oh yeah... you guys are on the down-low,” she laughed. “It's
okay, I can tell by the way he looks at you that he's in love.
Don't worry, your secret is safe with me.”

I laughed. Marie thought
Matt was in love with me. “
Wait, how does
he look at me?”

“
Like a man in love,” she called, further down the sidewalk
now. “See ya girl!”

He doesn't love me... he's
mad at me. Mad at me for kissing Dr. Amante.
Wait...
Why would he be mad at me
for that unless... he was jealous. Matt was jealous. Could Marie be
right? Could Matt be in love with me?

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