Chapter 15 Fifteen
THANE
I stood by the massive glass window in my office, watching the New York skyline stretched out in front of me. The sky was thick with heavy clouds. It looked exactly how my chest felt.
Cold. Dense. Ready to break open.
My secure cell phone vibrated heavily against the dark mahogany wood of my desk. I did not wait for the second ring. I snatched it up and pressed it to my ear.
"Tell me you have a name," I said. My voice was a low, demanding gravel.
"She is a ghost, Thane," Jaxson Sterling replied. His voice was sharp, but I could hear the deep frustration clipping his words. "I put my best people on this. I pulled records from the medical board. I pulled international tax filings. Dr. Lia Solene did not exist before five years ago."
My jaw locked. The muscles in my face pulled tight. "Explain that."
"She has European medical certifications. They are legitimate. She has a massive bank account in Zurich. It is heavily protected,"
Jaxson listed off the facts like a machine. "But before that? Nothing. She has no birth certificate in the United States. She has no family records. No high school transcripts. I ran the birth records for the twins. Leo and Mia. The father’s name is completely blank. The section is literally crossed out."
I stared at the gray buildings outside my window, my blood having run completely cold. Then, it boiled. I gripped the heavy phone so tightly the plastic casing creaked under my fingers.
I needed to know who she was sleeping with when she had those children. I needed to know what man touched her. The thought made my jaw ache from clenching it so hard. I felt a violent, possessive rage clawing at the inside of my ribs. I felt like I was chasing a shadow, but the shadow possessed the exact face of the woman I thought was dead.
"I do not care about blank lines, Jaxson," I growled into the receiver. "Dig deeper. Pay off the European registrars. Hack the medical servers. I want a name. I want a location. Dig until your hands bleed, even if you have to break the law to do it."
I hung up the phone before he could answer and then tossed the device onto the desk. It hit the wood with a loud, sharp crack.
Just then, the heavy doors to my office swung open and Camilla walked in. She was putting on a tailored crimson dress that clung tightly to her waist, coupled with expensive diamonds around her neck and wrists. She looked perfect. She looked ready for a magazine cover. But as she walked across the plush carpet, I felt absolutely nothing.
"Thane?" Camilla asked. Her voice was thin. She stopped a few feet away from me. Her hands fidgeted with the small clutch purse she carried. "Are you okay? You left the apartment so early. You did not even drink your coffee."
The scent of her perfume hit my nose. It was sweet. It was heavy with floral notes and artificial sugar. It invaded my space, and it made my stomach turn. I wanted the cold smell of rain and silk.
I craved the sharp, intimidating scent of the woman who had kicked me out of the hospital room.
"It is just work," I answered. I gave her a short, manly answer. I did not offer a smile. I did not move toward her.
Camilla looked at my face. She searched my eyes for a single drop of affection but all she found was a brick wall. Because of it, a strange, heavy guilt settled in my chest for a fraction of a second. I was looking at my fiancée, but my body was completely rejecting her. It seemed as if everything I'd felt for her before now was slowly evaporating and was being replaced by a dark, physical craving for a woman who despised me.
"I have meetings," I said, dismissing her with a flat tone. I grabbed my suit jacket from the back of the leather chair. "Do not wait up."
I walked right past her, not touching her arm. I walked out of the office and headed straight for the private elevator.
The ride to the hospital was tense. I sat in the back of the black Maybach, the heavy leather seat felt smooth and cold under my hands. I gripped the armrest tightly while watching the city blur past the tinted windows.
I needed answers. If Jaxson could not find them, I would pull them into the light myself.
The hospital lobby was crowded, but the security guards immediately parted the crowd when I walked through the sliding glass doors.
The air inside smelled like bleach and sickness. I ignored the staff and made my way directly to the administrative wing.
Arthur Pendergast sat behind a massive desk in the Director of Operations office. Arthur was an older man who liked to play by the rules. He liked to pretend the hospital was a place of ethics, not a business run by money.
He stood up quickly when I kicked his door shut.
"Mr. Devereux," Arthur stammered. He wiped his sweaty palms on his slacks. "I was not expecting you today."
"Sit down, Arthur," I commanded. I walked up to his desk. I did not sit. I stood over him, using my massive height and broad shoulders to physically box him in. "Open your computer. I want to see the private employment records for Dr. Lia Solene."
Arthur swallowed hard. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his wrinkled throat. He shook his head.
"I cannot do that, Thane," Arthur said. He tried to keep his voice steady, but it shook. "It is against the law. Those are strictly confidential files. Dr. Solene has a very specific privacy clause in her contract. I could lose my license."
The dialogue was no longer a conversation. It was a battle. And I never lost.
And that wasn't about to change.
I leaned over his desk and placed both of my large hands flat on the polished wood. I brought my face down until I was inches away from him.
I didn't have time to argue.
"You don't seem to understand do you?Arthur, I am not here to argue with you," I said. My voice was a heavy, terrifying whisper. "The Devereux Wing of this hospital only exists because I write the checks. The machines in your ICU run on my money. I will pull every single cent of my funding by five o'clock today. I will move my mother to a private facility. Do you want to see your hospital go bankrupt by Friday?"
Arthur stared at me for a second, probably seeing the absolute truth. I was not making a threat. I was stating a fact.
Arthur cracked. He let out a defeated breath, his shaking hands reached for the computer mouse.
That's what I thought.
He clicked the screen. He turned the heavy monitor around to face me.
I stared at the blue light of the computer screen. My eyes burned, but I did not blink. I read the lines of text. Jaxson was right. The file was mostly a massive void. But I kept scrolling. I looked past the European degrees. I looked past the surgical statistics.
Then, I saw it.
At the very bottom of the file, buried in the emergency contact section, was a scanned document. It was an old, handwritten intake form from a small clinic. The handwriting was sharp. It listed a secondary routing number for a local bank branch.
I recognized the name of the town. It was a small, poor town upstate.
A dark, heavy thrill shot straight down my spine. The blood roared in my ears. She made a mistake. She left a single footprint in the snow.
I pulled my phone from my pocket. I snapped a clear photo of the screen. I sent the image directly to Jaxson.
I looked at the blue screen one last time. My chest rose and fell with a heavy, predatory breath before I turned around and walked out of the office.
Lia, I am coming for you.