Page 83 of Provoke You

She squinted at me, her face red. “Ela escaped.”

Escaped? Why would Ela have the need to escape? She was here to get better after almost dying of alcohol poisoning. If she was ready to go, why wouldn’t they release her? Ela could be impulsive, but she wasn’t reckless. If she needed to stay and recover, she would have.

“When did she leave?” I helped the nurse sit up against the bed. This room was way smaller than the one Ela was in before I left.

“I don’t know.” Her voice was hoarse. She winced as if it hurt to speak. “She attacked me and took off. I tried to stop her, but she was stronger than she let on.”

I sat on my haunches next to her and picked up a glass vile and a syringe off the floor. “Were you giving this to her?”

“No. She used that on me.”

“But were you planning on using it on her?”

She pursed her lips and sat up straighter. “She’s very difficult to manage. You saw her. After she tried to escape last night, I couldn’t trust her.”

There was that word again. She was keeping Ela here against her will. Ela was gone, and I had no idea where to begin looking for her. Would she reach out to one of her friends? Her dad? “Did Mr. Benoit hire you to keep Ela here?”

“I’m only doing my job. I’m helping that poor child find her way. She’s wasting her life away.” She spat the words. The contempt she held for Ela made no sense. Did Andre Benoit put her up to this?

I fisted my hand and tapped my forehead. Ela had tried to tell me she hadn’t gone out to drink herself senseless after I left the restaurant. Her dad had been so quick to call her a junkie and point out I should stay away if I didn’t want to be dragged down with her.

After a few breaths, the anger I felt toward this stranger came down some, but not enough. She must have read it all on my face because she recoiled from me when I opened my mouth to speak.

“Listen carefully. You will not get another chance to make this right.” I locked the door behind me and made her stand before I pushed her down on the bed. “Tell me what Andre Benoit asked you to do.”

“He explained the issue with his daughter. She’s a junkie, reckless. He came to me a few days ago because he was afraid she might end up in the hospital again. His intuition was right. She landed in the ER just like he said she would.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“What did he ask you to do?”

“To keep her here for as long as I could. He thought she needed several months to truly kick the habit.”

If Andre had wanted to help Ela stop drinking, he could’ve left her hotel alone. But it seemed all he did was find ways to push her buttons and make her lash out. Bullshit. He didn’t care about Ela. This was about something else. Did he find out Ela was working with Ben to get her fortune back? Was that what this was about? Money?

I had to get back to the safe house and tell Kitt not to let Ben go. If my gut was right about this, Andre would go after Ben next. I opened the door and headed for the elevator. On the way there, one of the nurses bumped against my shoulder.

“Excuse me,” he said, and all the blood rushed to my toes. I would recognize that voice anywhere. That was the asshole that almost killed Ela at the lake.

The coincidences and maybes were piling up. I couldn’t afford not to trust my gut on this one. I swung around and punched the guy on his side, then his thigh. The asshole doubled over and then came at me. He aimed for my bruised ribs. Exactly how many people knew about my hurt ribs?

“Why are you here?” I shoved him off me, and he shuffled back. His gaze darted from the empty hallway to me before he made a run for it. I followed him into the stairwell and jumped him when we reached the first landing. How many times did I have to fight this guy? How much money was he getting paid to do this? Gripping his T-shirt, I slammed his body against the wall and punched him square in the face. “Why are you here?”

Fuck. A hospital was the worst place to run into this guy. Anyone could walk in on us and call the cops. The late hour was on my side, but sooner or later, someone was bound to run into us. Would my car-service driver mind if I showed up with a hostage? I glared at him, memorizing his features, the stringy blond hair and creepy blue eyes. He was young, younger than me, younger than Ela.

Ela still had nightmares because of him. This asshole didn’t care about that. I pummeled into him, hitting his liver over and over until he fell to the floor, spewing blood. My knuckles throbbed in pain, but I couldn’t stop. I needed answers.

“Who are you doing this for? Ela would’ve doubled their offer. You didn’t have to hurt her.”

He sneered. “She’s a spoiled brat who’s finally getting what she deserves.”

Not money? This wasn’t for money? “What’s your problem with her? I know it was you at the lake.”

He swallowed as his faced drained of color. “You can’t prove that.”

“The housekeeper saw you. She can identify you.” I picked him off the floor. “You came back to finish the job?”

“I came to relieve the nurse. She has to go home after her shift.” He had zero remorse for anything he’d done to Ela. As if he hadn’t almost killed her a few days ago, he simply showed up at the hospital to keep watch on her.

Andre Benoit paid off the nurse to keep Ela here indefinitely. Now this asshole was here to take the next shift? For Ela’s sake, I’d tried to give her dad the benefit of the doubt, but I couldn’t do that anymore. Did he even have zealous investors? Or was it just him all along?

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