"Tired of being in bed."
Seth scowled. "Too bad—doctors’ orders."
Cordelia Snow placed her hands on the bed rail. "We will discuss what you want to do about the malicious prosecution when you are fully recovered.
"Thank you. The only thing I want right now is out of here." Martin bent his left knee.
"I spoke with the state’s attorney; he will be by around noon tomorrow to take your complete statement. Your physician has not granted permission for you to speak yet," she said.
Terrence moved toward the door. "I'm going to leave you in my sister's capable hands. Mr. Wentworth, if you ever tire of working for Mr. Chase, I'd love to hire you."
"Not before I hire him." Cordelia smiled for the first time.
Ian raised his brow. "Neither of you are getting him."
"I'll visit you tomorrow, Martin. Rest," Cordelia said.
“Until tomorrow," Newsome said, and the attorneys left.
Martin coughed, guarding his gut. "Jenner hustled me out of the jail after Lampton warned him my lawyer had a tape showing the Moody triplets killing Hal and Talbot. Who told him?"
"Lampton is dead. I will try to track it down," Zach said.
Ian focused on Martin. "You okay?"
"Better now." Martin took a shallow breath. "Thanks, Zach. I'm putting this out for everyone: kick me in the ass if I complain about administrative work again." Martin laughed and groaned in pain.
Zach's eyes crinkled, and he hugged his friend. "I'll look into how Lampton knew."
Ian narrowed his gaze. "What's the plan, Seth?"
"At noon, we can sit him up a bit and see how he tolerates things. If all goes well, we’ll move on. Martin, you had an aneurysm deep in your liver; if it blew, you would be dead. No one except Elizabeth believed that aneurysm existed. She pushed herself until she found it. Don't screw this up."
Elizabeth, Patrick, and Eric went over Troy's latest test results. His fever still hovered around 103. "What are we missing?"
Patrick sighed. "We need to give the new meds some time. The steroids are wreaking havoc with his immune system, but he needs them for the cord problems and the swelling in his chest and abdomen."
Eric explained his plan, "We’ll bathe him and re-culture everything. He appears less yellow to me, and his pupils are sluggish but responsive."
She worried, "When will his family be here?"
"Kyle is picking them up any minute. Troy's dad passed away two years ago. His mom and his two sisters and their spouses are coming in from South Carolina. I spoke to his mom last night—she thought the worry was over," Patrick said.
Elizabeth wiped her face with her hands. "I don't think you ever stop worrying about the people you love. Call me right away if anything changes." She held Troy's hand and closed her eyes.
Kieran walked into Martin's room where Ian and Kip were working while Martin appeared to be asleep. "How's he doing?"
"We sat him up, and he lasted about ten minutes. He managed to obtain quite a bit of information out of his captors, but nothing on the Post-its," Ian said.
"I checked in on Troy. His mom and sisters are with him. There had to be a different way…” Kieran blew out a hard breath.
"This is my fault." Martin opened his bruised eyes and propped himself up on his elbows.
"Enough, stop blaming yourselves. I'll be back later." Ian headed out, and Martin drifted off again.
Kieran and Kip were reading when Martin woke again, raising his head as much as he was allowed. "Don't ask; I feel like shit. Where are we at?"
"Lamb, Choudhury, and Krump are still outstanding. You were right about the murder video. Kyle’s gut was right too. We traced the leak to Cleo Nolan—she was seeing Lampton and got the notification while they were having lunch. She was careless. As she was leaving, Lampton made a call to Jensen. A call from Jensen went to Brynn. Seems Brynn was involved with him as well. Zach and Wes traced the calls to a burner phone found on Brynn’s body.”
