“I told you before, I am more than happy to also be of assistance.”
“Ha! I believe the assistance you offered was promising to get us whatever answers we wanted if we gave you five minutes alone with her.”
“I still don’t know why she did it,” Harper tells him, the not knowing obviously still eating away at her. Anders sighs, probably debating if any words of encouragement will help relieve her stress in the situation.
“From what she’s mentioned and what we found at her apartment, her desire to take over the club stemmed from a desire, to put it frankly, to be you.”
“What do you mean?”
“She had been keeping tabs on you from the minute youopened the door toCirque, long before she acquired a job here. She had articles about you and Sadie, photos of you that were clearly taken without the subject knowing. Our profilers have deduced that what started out as an obsession with you seemed to shift into wanting to be you. And apparently the only way she thought she could do that was to take overCirque, resorting to methods that you wouldn’t consider so she would feel superior and above you. Like she was winning.”
“So, basically what you’re telling me is she thought she could be an improved version of me?” Harper scoffs.
I want to scoff along with her, but for some reason no sound is coming out.
“In her own words, she believed that she would be more evolved than you bygiving the people what they wanted.” He laughs, a low chuckle as if he can’t believe how it all panned out. “How is our boy doing?”
“This is the second time he’s gotten hurt because of me.”
“No, this is the second time he’s gotten hurt because of Tessa,” Anders answers.
“So the break in was part of Tessa’s plan? Do you know who it was?”
“Apparently there had been an upgrade to something that required a password change, and since you had left them out before?—”
“She thought she could just steal them again and it wouldn’t interrupt her access. But unlucky for her I hadn’t left a convenient sticky note like the first time, so she needed to look a little harder. Or I guess in this instance, send someone else to look.”
Anders clears his throat before he asks again, “Any update on how he’s doing?”
Perfect. My girl is here. I’m perfect.
“He’s recovering. The scans came back clear, but it was apretty nasty head wound. He lost a lot of blood and a pretty severe concussion.”
“You seem awfully worried about your employee, Ms. Mathers.”
Because she’s my Sunshine.
“As do you, Anders.”
Aw, look at them being friends and shit…
The fucking beeping is back.I roll my head towards the sound, trying and failing to open my eyes. It feels like trying to open a jar when the lid is on too tight. Is the effort to open my eyes really worth all this? When they clearly want to stay shut.
Maybe it should be like pulling off a Band-Aid, all at once, to get it over with. I muster all my strength and open my eyes wide. Light pours through, the brightness burning as they shut tight again.
Okay, so, bad plan.
This time when I try to open them, I go slowly, letting a sliver of light in at a time, until the details of the room are no longer lost to the bright whiteness of a burning cornea.
I look around the room slowly, taking in first the machine on my left, the fucking thing beeping as a slow drip falls from an IV bag down into a thin tube. I follow the tube down the metal pole it’s attached to, all the way down to where it flows into the needle sticking out of my arm.
I lean my head forward to see the thin plastic band attached to my wrist, adorned with my name and birthdate.
I scan to the center of the room, where my feet stick out at the end of the blanket, clad in bright blue grippy socks with little paws on them. If the socks and I.V. weren’t giveaways enough that I’m in the hospital, there is a whiteboard hanging next to my bed that lists out the doctor assigned to me and thenurse currently on duty. I start to lift my arms when something smooth and soft slides over my right arm. I turn my face towards the unexplored side of my room, and my breathing stops.
Harper is sitting in a chair, leaned over the side of my bed, hand under her head while she sleeps with her hair fanned out around her.
I lean back as I watch her and get a painful reminder why I am, in fact, in the hospital.
