Page 40 of Hacker Unknown

“I don’t even want to be scanned,” I pointed out.

Sawyer’s lips ticked up. “I will confirm that he said he agrees.”

“I could sue all of you.”

“Except I can hold up any litigation you bring against me in court for at least a year. Do you think, if you keep denying help, you will even see that happen?” Sawyer said.

A gasp came from the phone. I closed my eyes and wished everything could go back to a few hours ago. When I opened them, everyone was still in the room, staring. Sonali had turned the phone so I could see both of my boss’ heated stares. Kat was now sitting on Antonio’s lap, her smile gone. Nothing felt worse than upsetting Kat.

“Fine, run the scan. I can sue your ass when everything comes back normal.”

The doc flipped the switch on the machine, and a soft thudding sound came from the device. He grabbed the wand. “I’m going to start with your head to see if you have any internal bleeding. The scan will show right here on the screen, and I will be able to zoom in where I need to.”

A bright light flickered from the wand as he brought it over my face. He scanned both sides of my skull and asked Sawyer to lift my head, so he could check the back as well. When he finishedscanning my head, he tapped the screen a few times and spun an image of what looked like my skull back and forth.

“I don’t see any internal bleeding. But there was a slight crack on the back of your skull. It was healed, so it must have happened before.”

The skull crack was from a bar fight when I’d gotten hit on the back of the head with a baseball bat.

“Does he have a brain?” Antonio asked. “If he is sick and lied to me about it being nothing, the only explanation I can come up with is there’s nothing there.”

“I can confirm he does have a brain, but this scan does not measure someone’s IQ.” The doctor picked up the wand again. “Now, Sonali mentioned you were diagnosed with the possibility of lung cancer. Did your doctor state the level or what treatment you were on?”

Before I could answer, Antonio’s voice boomed through the phone. “Lung cancer? If you don’t die from the cancer, it might happen once I get my hands on you. Effective immediately, I am implementing a new rule in this office. All medical records must be shared with me.”

There was no point in telling him on how many levels he couldn’t do that. I ignored Antonio’s outburst and spoke to the doctor. “He took a blood sample. From there, he wanted to run more tests to see what and where the cancer actually was, but he figured since I smoke a pack a day and was coughing up blood, it was lung cancer. After this mission, I planned to go back in for a few tests.”

I lied, but with Antonio and Kat in the room, it had to sound a little plausible.

“Lie,” Sawyer coughed out.

“Let’s start the scan of your lungs.” The machine thudded as he ran the wand over my chest, and the image of them appeared on the screen. “You have smoked for a long time. Look right here.” His finger trailed along the screen. “You have enlarged air spaces within the lungs, indicating emphysema, along with thickened airway walls. But this spot right here is what concerns me more. This is a very large mass and, along with what you told me about the coughing up blood, could very likely be cancerous. What you need next is a biopsy.”

Sonali’s sniffle pulled my attention from the screen. Her cheeks were wet with tears. I wanted to reach out and tell her everything would be fine, but I would only be lying to her and to myself. The short week we spent together was the best I’d had in my life. At least I would know what happiness felt like before I died.

“Unlock the cuffs, Sawyer,” I said.

He didn’t argue. He grabbed the key from his pocket and unlocked the cuff, then reached over and clicked the safety button on the pink one. When I was free, I reached out, grabbed Sonali, and pulled her close. “Don’t be sad for me.”

“You’re going to die,” she stated the obvious.

“We’re all going to die one day.”

Antonio’s voice came through the speaker of the phone. “The fuck.” I snatched it from her hand and ended the call. Immediately, my phone buzzed, and when I didn’t answer, Sawyer’s rang. I shook my head slightly, and he let it go to voicemail.

“I want to check one more thing, and then I can send these scans to your doctor.” Sonali tried to step away, but I gripped her wrist and kept her close. The wand scanned more of my chest area.

The doctor went back to the screen and zoomed in and out. His eyebrows furrowed as he kept clicking. At times, he would change the contrast. “Paolo, you need to seek treatment fast. Right here if you look closely, your ribcage bone is ragged, and I see holes. This is a sign of bone cancer, which means you could be looking at metastatic cancer.”

“Fuck,” Sawyer growled. “You either get on my jet immediately and I’ll take you to my medical facility in Fort Lauderdale, or I will find a sleeping aid and knock you out to get you there.”

“I’m not letting you use Sonali to cure me,” I snapped and glared at him.

“My clinic runs many different drug trials. Before Mom left, she ran the facility, and we have many experimental treatments.”

Sonali smiled for the first time since we’d been in the room. “You have something for cancer?”

Sawyer tilted his head to the side. “We have different treatments, but none have been tested on stage four cancer.”

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