Icer turns his attention to me and nods his head. “I’ll send it to you as soon as we wrap up church.” I mimic his head nod to let him know I appreciate it and then tune back in to pres to see where he takes things from here.
“Tell us what you learned from Jennings’ campsite,” Riptide orders.
“Not much, we know he’s a fan of beef jerky, and apparently, he’s a diabetic,” Shade advises.
“Did you find insulin there?” I ask, jotting this information down in my notepad. “It hasn’t been reported in any of his medical documents that he is, so what I’m asking is if the prescription was in his name.”
“We did find insulin, but here’s the kicker, it wasn’t in his name. We think he has an alias he’s using for medical reasons. The vial has the doctor’s name on it too, so maybe you can have Booker break into his database and pull up his record,” Icer suggests.
“If he’s using an assumed name for that, he may be using it for other things, like booking a room with a credit card,” I surmise. “I’ll be needing that name as well.”
“Clayton Finnegan,” Shade says. “That’s the name on the bottle. The doctor he’s seeing is Dr. Rufus Sullivan out of Midlothian.”
“He’s driving over an hour to see this doctor. It’s a good way to hide his tracks and not draw attention to himself in his hometown,” I murmur, voicing my thoughts out loud. “What else is he doing under that alias?”
“Good question, I think that’s something we need to look into,” Riptide declares. “Keep us informed, Icer and Shade. If you find anything else, such as where bodies are buried, don’t do anything until we can get on the scene. I’ll send in a clean up crew to make sure you two didn’t leave anything behind then we’ll alert the authorities via an anonymous tip. For now, that’ll end church, but you all have shit to do, such as follow up what we’ve learned. Dismissed.”
We don’t have to be told what roles we’ll be playing or who’s digging into what, we all have our specialties and will do our jobs accordingly. As I disconnect from the conference call, I head out to check on Freyja. I’m sure I’ll be the least liked person in this house by the time Splicer finishes doing his doctor thing.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
FREYJA
It’s been two weeks since I was used as a human pincushion. I’ve never been poked by a needle before and I was traumatized by the time Splicer left. Today, we expect to get the results and I’m not going to lie, even to myself, that I’m nervous to hear what was found. I’m not the healthiest person, even I know that, but I never believed there was cause for concern until Nova forced me to let him suck my blood into those tubes.
I know that my internal dialogue is a little on the dramatic side, but I’ve found something else I’m not a fan of—bloodwork. At least Splicer is willing to treat me at the house so I don’t have to venture out and get back into that death machine on four wheels. That would be a travesty and I firmly believe I’d be a candidate for a heart attack if I had to get back inside the cab. It’s not natural, we have two feet for a reason.
Sitting across from Splicer with Nova and Chaney at my side, I can’t stop fidgeting. My nerves are a wreck. What if he found something that’s incurable? I’ve googled my symptoms and after convincing myself I had something as severe as cancer, my internet privilege was taken away from me by both Nova and my sister. According to Nova, self-diagnosis isn’t in my best interest,he says I’ll drive myself insane and it’s not always accurate. I guess we’ll find out if my fears are right as soon as Splicer stops stalling and reading reports that I’m sure he’s already read through before arriving.
“Splicer,” Nova growls. “You’re making everyone nervous. Why are you taking so long to tell us what’s going on?”
“I wanted to go through the lab results one more time so I could make sure I didn’t miss anything,” Splicer excuses. “Which I didn’t. It’s as expected. Malnutrition is the leading cause for a lot of Freyja’s issues. She’s deficient in nearly every vitamin and her bone density is extremely low. You’re going to need to follow a strict diet, Freyja, and eat more, smaller meals throughout the day than what you already consume. A little sunlight wouldn’t hurt either since your Vitamin D is basically non-existent.”
“So I’m not dying?” I ask, relieved that the cure is simple.
“No, you’re not dying, Freyja,” Splicer chuckles, shaking his head. “But you are going to be put on a regimen of over the counter vitamins. The multi ones aren’t going to work, at least, not for you. Once we have your panels evened out, you can start taking those daily. You also need to drink milk, at least twelve ounces a day.”
“Whole milk?” Nova asks, typing something into his phone.
“Yes, it’s better for her. For both of them. Chaney, I’d also like to run a panel on you. A lot of these issues stem from y’all’s childhood. You didn’t get the nutrients you needed and it’s stunted both of your growth. We need to get you caught up with the rest of your age group, I don’t want y’all falling any further behind on the charts than you already are,” Splicer determines.
Chaney holds out her arm when he pulls the needle and elastic arm band out of his bag, wincing before he ever touches her. He’s quick and efficient as he pulls his sample from her and when he puts the bandaid over the pebble of blood on the crook of her elbow, she releases her breath that she’d been holding.
Splicer gives us examples of food he wants us to eat, hands Nova a slip of paper with all the pills he needs to get us from the store, and walks out with reassurances that by this time next month, we’ll be feeling like new people.
“I guess we’re both getting meds,” Chaney grumpily says. “Even if he doesn’t know if I need them or not.”
“Better safe than sorry,” Nova chides as he steadily texts someone. “Everything will be here in the next hour, I want to start this today.”
“It’s already after noon, didn’t he say to take most of those pills in the morning with breakfast?” I inquire, not sure if Nova was paying as close attention to Splicer’s directives as I was.
“Yeah, he did. But when I walked him out, he said that for today, we need to start it now and disregard the time. He doesn’t want to put this off because your cell counts are dangerously low. It was either that, or y’all get a couple of shots until we can start tomorrow. Which would you prefer?”
“I’m good with the pills,” I say, hanging my head so he doesn’t see the war on my face. Even now that I know there’s only a slight pinch with the needle when it pierces the skin, I don’t want it anywhere near me. I’m a coward but that’s okay because I’m sick and tired of pretending to be strong. It’s exhausting.
“Y’all aren’t going to be happy about what I have to say next, but you will be getting booster shots in the next couple of days,”Nova says. When I go to protest, he mimics zipping his lips so I clamp my mouth shut as tight as possible. “You haven’t had any vaccines, ladies. You’re in danger of catching numerous diseases as well as other shit since you aren’t medically protected. I know you don’t like it, nobody does, but suck it up because it’s happening.”
