Page 45 of Wraith

Chapter Forty-Three

Present

The pressure pressing down on me rivals that of a hundred elephants. Every breath I take makes my chest feels as if it will rip apart. The whirling beep of machines fills my ears along with voices. They are muffled so I can’t make out any words but as my eyes start to crack open I find blurred objects moving around me. “Ms. Baker, can you hear me?” The first voice to breaks through the fuzz that is my brain, looms over me speaking a name I haven’t heard in years. “Ms. Baker?” My vision slowly comes into focus on a man towering over me. He has on a rumpled suit, his tie undone enough to give his neck a break with his top two buttons undone. Why I’m focused on those buttons, I don’tknow.

“Wr…Steven?” The name scratches from my parched throat causing me tocough.

“Take it easy, Miss.” I want so much to get off the bed I find myself laying in. Its only when I try to sit up that I realize I’m in a hospital bed. The IV that sticks its way into my arm tugs when I move to touch my chest where I remember the bullet hitting me. How am I even still alive? “He had one favor and he used it on you,” the man says, crossing his hands over his chest. “Must mean a great deal to him. The bastard I knew didn’t give a shit about a thing except for himself.” He is talking about Wraith. It’s when I take him in further that I catch sight of the badge that hangs from his belt. FBI. He must see my wandering eyes because he nods down toward the belt. “I’m only here to take your statement, not to arrest. It will be a shit load of paperwork but I think it will make me and himeven.”

“Even?” I ask, my voice coming back in small doses. “Withwho?”

“I think you know who. He helped me out so this is me returning the favor. Through I wasn’t expecting this one being the favor he asked for. So, tell me, what happened up on that mountain?” he asks and with a glass of water I tell him the story. Wellastory.

“You were a stranded snowmobiler who just so happened to end up at a cabin where some guys showed up and started shooting at the both of you?” Officer Kinkaid, as he introduced himself, asks me. Obviously not believing a single line of bullshit I have fed him. I only nod. “Well then…” He takes the notepad he was jotting down my story on and tucks it into his shirt pocket. “Suppose that will do. You get well Ms. Baker, and try to stay out of trouble,” he tells me with a wink and walks out the door leaving me to wonder what Steven did to get mehere.

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