Page 45 of Drake Eternal

It was one of her favorite books of all time — Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

When we were finished, I turned off the light and switched on her starlight which shone stars all over the ceiling.

“Why didn’t Daddy call us?”

I sat on the bed beside her and stroked her hair. “He was so busy that he probably couldn’t. Maybe, he was so tired, he fell asleep with the phone in his hand. I’ve seen him do that before after a long day of surgery, and today will have been one of his longest because of the floods.”

“Is he in danger?”

I shook my head, although of course, he was.

“No, Daddy is safe.”

I kissed her and left, thinking as I did about her question. The flood was affecting the city itself. But Drake would be safe in the hospital. It was very well built as was the hotel where he was staying.

Still, it was really worrying that Drake still hadn’t called.

My watch read 8:30 PM which meant it was 3:30 AM back in Nairobi. Surely Drake was home from the hospital.

He must have fallen asleep…

I spent the rest of the evening watching television with my father and Elaine, but I kept my cell by my side and couldn’t help but watch coverage of the floods on YouTube. The situation was horrific.

I was starting to worry that something bad had happened to Drake.

I called his cell around nine thirty, when my father was making his way up the stairs to his bedroom.

His cell went right to messages, so I left one.

“Drake, it’s almost four thirty in the morning there and we still haven’t heard from you. Now I’m really worried. Please call as soon as you get this. I need to know you’re okay…”

I ended the call and sighed. With no word from him, I finished cleaning up the kitchen before standing on the patio to watch the night sky. Finally, at 10:00 PM, I went upstairs to my own bedroom, checking on Sophie on my way past. She was fast asleep on her side facing the door, her little hands folded beneath her cheek.

The sight of her sleeping so peacefully tugged at my heart. I hoped nothing bad had happened to Drake. She was too young to lose her father.

Then I kicked myself. There was no reason to believe anything bad happened to him. He told me he was going to be working late because of the floods. Maybe they got some patients in late who needed his particular skills. He’d stay to care for them, and probably sleep in the on-call room just to make sure they were fine.

Later, I sat at the kitchen island, checking my laptop for emails.

There was one from an address I didn’t recognize with no subject. I would usually expect it was spam and delete it right away, but instead, I opened it.

Inside was an image of a naked man lying on the bed, with a naked woman beside him. His head was turned away, but instantly, I knew it was Drake.

I knew his body so well.

My heart hammered in my chest as I stared at the image. The woman was on her side and had one hand on his chest. I noted that Drake was flaccid. His arms were at his side like he was unconscious or asleep.

There was a message above the image.

What an amazing lover - he really is Dr. Dangerous. Look at that cock - even soft it’s magnificent…

I couldn’t tell if the image was from Drake’s hotel room. It looked like it, but the camera was too zoomed in to see anything that would give the location away.

I clicked out of the email and started at my inbox, uncertain of what to think.

Was one of his coworkers at the hospital in Nairobi the woman in the photo? I couldn’t tell because her face was out of the frame, but she was shapely with nice pert breasts and fair hair.

Then, I thought about Sam.

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