Page 12 of Revenant

If we aren’t working out our frustrations in the gym, we’re searching online, digging into our contacts, or hunting through the streets and alleys for any information. The strain of losing her is soul crushing. Our group is barely surviving without her, each of us drowning in guilt.

How could we have been so careless?

We looked away for a second, and we lost her.

We had one job—to protect her—and we failed.

It’s only by chance that we even discovered this hospital. We had been focused on the private sector, looking for a secure place where her father could stash her. It was only when we ran out of leads that we expanded our search.

We focused on investigating her father.

We have three different agencies tracking his every move, monitoring his calls and business deals. Ellis obsessively tracks every keystroke of his computers, but the slimy fucker has been dealing with shady people for a long time and knows how to escape detection.

Unfortunately for him, Ellis is relentless.

That’s how we discovered Rue basically ceased to exist two weeks ago.

It never dawned on us that her own father would lose track of her.

Though frantic at the news, paranoid that something might have happened to her, none of us believe for a second that she is dead.

A dead person doesn’t just vanish.

No, someone made her disappear.

Even her medical records have been erased from existence. Thankfully, we were able to save a copy, but what we found took our murderous rage to a whole other level. If I ever meet her father in person, I’m not sure I will be able to stop myself from beating the asshole until he is just a lumpy pile of bloody flesh and splintered bones.

Whoever took her had the money and power to make it happen. They succeeded so well that we’re sure it was a professional job. If her father didn’t do it, then who?

Nearly every hospital has government funding of some type, so it was like looking for a fucking unicorn. After a week of no leads, it was the twins who found a single clue that gave us the first ray of hope.

They’d hunted down the employees from her last known location. It took seven tries before they found anyone willing to talk. Oddly enough, almost every employee was more afraid of Rue than the twins, even when they threatened violence or offered a bribe.

The only person to break the silence was a former employee, who, ironically, is currently a patient at the very facility where he used to work. It took a few minutes to decipher his manic rantings, but apparently, the twins could speak crazy enough to understand. Rue was transferred to a private hospital. Though he couldn’t supply a name, he did remember the license plate of the vehicle that carted her off.

When the orderly gleefully recounted how they drugged her, Jameson lost his shit and pounded the fucker. Jaceson didn’t even try to pull him off, the vengeful asshole only stopping his brother when some dickhead hit the alarm.

It took Ellis three days to trace the vehicle through half a dozen shell companies. Hicks went through his military contacts until he found someone who could be bribed into giving us aninterview for a job at the facility where we suspect Rue is being held.

Even after paying a fortune for the information, only one of us could apply, or it would look too suspicious. While I’m not the most levelheaded of the bunch, I am the oldest at nineteen and the only one who could pass for a soldier, due to my height and build. Military training was the sole requirement. Documents were forged, and I was basically put through hell week to verify my eligibility. Knowing Rue was waiting for me, I didn’t hesitate to do whatever they wanted.

The first week on the job, I was assigned to the lower level of the hospital. Since I’m single, another thing in my favor, they gave me the option to live at the facility. I could leave when I wanted, but I was expected to be here for my shifts and available every other weekend.

Every spare chance I got, I searched for Rue…and found nothing.

I am starting to lose hope.

Rue has to be here, because if not, that means she is truly gone.

Though we will never stop searching, I can’t get over the feeling that it will be much too late.

While I launder sheets and clean up after the patients, I’ve learned some disturbing shit. This ward is special, created specifically for people like my Rue—people with unusual abilities. Seeing the patients’ battered appearances after their sessions with the doc, hearing screams at odd hours of the night, I’m beginning to hope that wearewrong.

If they get their hands on Rue, I very much fear what they will do to her.

It didn’t take much to discover Dr. Hershamn is a sadistic fuck. The psychopath has resumed his father’s work at St. Mary’s Hospital from over forty years ago. He’s experimenting on thepatients, and he either has government approval or enough clout from the rich who rule the country to get away with it.

I’ve scrubbed more than one room splattered with blood, seen the “tender care” in which they carted off their unconscious patients, and I want Rue nowhere near that shit. I reported my findings on the special phone Ellis built for the occasion, something I was able to smuggle inside without anyone giving it a second glance. No one is supposed to be able to detect it or access it or some technical bullshit. All that matters to me is that it works.

---