Page 44 of Fortress
They’d built a safe base in Sahuarita: the people were friendly and no longer curious, Alex’s meals were better than most restaurants, and they had a good routine. But for all of that, Jake didn’t think either of them would be happy stuck there much longer. More than once, Toby had mentioned research he’d done at the library that could be useful on a future hunt or some information he wanted passed to Roger that could indicate a monster rather than a string of bad luck. Jake had been itching to get out of there, to throw their duffels in the trunk and ride out. He thought that Toby felt the same, especially since he’d gotten a clean bill of health from Dr. Nguyen.
Well, Jake had looked forward to the anonymity of the road, until he made the call back to Methodist Hospital.
“I’ve done my best, but I’m sure they took X-rays,” Dr. Nguyen told him. “Might’ve done blood work too. All of that’s important to make sure Tobias’s in the best shape he can be.”
The second after she said it, Jake remembered Dr. Kendra Turner. He could’ve kicked himself. Probably she’d meant for him to call after one week, not twelve, but he still found her card intact in the pocket of a pair of jeans that he luckily hadn’t washed yet.
Jake made the call in the library parking lot while Toby was finishing up his volunteer shift. He turned the crumpled card in his fingers, the phone ringing in his ear.
Just as he figured he’d try again later (or toss the card and not worry about it; Toby was doing fine), she picked up, sounding professionally brisk. “Dr. Turner speaking.”
“Uh—hey, this is Jake Hawthorne. You got a minute?”
“Ah,” she said, after a moment. “Jake. Yes, if you’ll hold on?” A pause, long enough to close a door or find a file, before she returned to the phone. “What can I do for you, Jake? How’s Tobias recovering?”
“Oh, awesome.” Jake glanced automatically back at the library. “He quit the sling a couple weeks ago, says he can sit up and lie down without it hurting. Much, anyway.” Jake still had some doubts about how Toby’s idea of “doesn’t hurt” compared to most people’s, especially since his breath still hitched when he got out of bed in the morning.
“Did you find a doctor for follow-ups?” she asked, her tone just as neutral, but he knew her opinion of him weighed on his answer.
He bit back a snappy retort. “Yeah. Found a good one. She gave Toby a look-over about a dozen times since you saw us. She used to work in Phoenix, you might know her—”
“No, don’t tell me,” she said quickly. “I might be asked again, and I’d rather not lie.”
“Who’d be asking?” Jake snapped—but he already knew.
Well, not precisely who, though the nameDixonwasn’t a surprise. He didn’t know a cousin Alice or how much of a cousin she was, but it was bad enough that they had shown up justhoursafter he and Toby had cleared out.
Jake moved back to the shadow of the library wall, scanning the streets, swearing silently at himself for leaving Toby alone—though a quick glance through the window showed Toby helping someone work the printer.
“What’d you tell her?” he said, a hint of growl in his voice.
“What we had on record. The injuries, the reported cause of those injuries, the fact that we could detect nothing supernatural in his physiology. She wanted to confiscate our blood work, but an unfortunate laboratory mishap contaminated the vials, and they had to be discarded. Embarrassing, really.” Dr. Turner’s voice was still impassively smooth, but Jake detected something underneath that would have made him grin under other circumstances, if he’d felt much beyond cold, escalating panic from the moment she saidDixon.
Hawthornes weren’t afraid of anything, not even what could kill them, not even what went bump in the dark—but as long as he could remember, he and his father had run from Dixons.
“Those, uh, vials.” Jake swallowed, mouth dry. “Any chance you... I don’t know, got anything from them before the accident?”
“I did. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing notable beyond mild anemia, as I recall. Tobias should get more iron in his diet. That can come from red meats, but those have other health disadvantages if they’re his exclusive nutrition source, so dark green salads like spinach are better in the long term.”
“He won’t mind that.” Jake had to get off the phone. He had to get to Toby, get them both out of the open, a million things he should have done weeks ago to put them further under the radar, but he hadn’t done any of them, andfuck, they could befucked. “Hey, I gotta go, but—thanks. Really.”
“Be safe.”
The ASC had been so close on their heels that the Hawthornes could have held the door for them on their way into the hospital, and what had Jake done? Strolled over to atown not three hours away and put his feet up for the next three months.
It took most of Jake’s self-control to keep cool in front of the civvies when he walked through the library and stopped at the end of the aisle where Toby was shelving. “You ready to head out?”
“It’s not six o’clock yet, and I’d like to—” The smile died on Toby’s face as he looked up and saw Jake’s expression. He put the book in his hands back down on the cart. “I’ll let Mandy know.”
The drive back to Alex’s was quiet, neither willing to break the silence over the radio.
“What’s up?” Toby asked when they had finally sat down in the apartment. He was tense, bracing himself, but his gaze was steady on Jake.
“So—” Even as he began, Jake knew this was probably the worst intro he could have managed, but ripping the Band-Aid off was the only way he knew to handle it. “Turns out the ASC showed up about three hours after we blew the joint.”
Toby blanched as Jake continued, trying to undo the worst of the scare. “They didn’t get anything useful. I think Dr. Turner had the lab smash your test tubes—”
“What test tubes?” Toby said, his voice utterly expressionless.
