Page 60 of Once a Hero

With the cabin destroyed, Beatrice had no hope of going back there to sift through what might be potentially Dad’s belongings and keepsakes.

Oh well. She’d sort all that out later.

For now, she had to attend to the well-being of her two loyal employees, and pay for their hospital bills. She also wanted to drop in to see how Jake was doing, but there would be no time to wait for him if the doctors decided he had to stay overnight at the hospital.

They had to return to San Francisco as soon as possible to fly out. She might have to drop off Raynelle and Kenichi in Charleston to rest and recuperate.

Benjamin could send some of his people to Eureka to inventory the cabin.

Hmm… Benjamin.

Perhaps she could persuade Benjamin to leave his Charleston mansion and help her finish the project. She texted him as she walked down the hallway.

Benjamin: Nope. You come home right now and we’ll discuss what’s next.

Beatrice: Come on, Ben. No time to lose.

Benjamin: Do you have the map?

Beatrice: No. Missing one brooch.

Benjamin: I’ve already lost a father. I don’t want to lose my sister too. Come home.

He could not be persuaded. Benjamin went on to say that all his resources would be hers when they made their next move.

Sigh.

She must have walked down the wrong section of the hospital. She could not find Kenichi or Raynelle. Where were they?

She texted both of them.

Kenichi told her where to go. All the way to the other end of the small hospital.

When she arrived, Beatrice could hear Kenichi laughing. When she entered the room, all three of them were there, including Jake sitting up in bed in a hospital gown. He seemed to be in the middle of telling a story, something about his Quantico training days.

Beatrice could not see his thigh where the stab wounds were. His forehead and lips also had stitches on them.

Would be hard to kiss…

Beatrice caught herself. She cleared her throat.

“Hey.” Jake extended his arm.

Instinctively, Beatrice went to him, but did not touch his hand. “You cleaned up nicely.”

Jake dropped his arm back on the bed. “I check out at four.”

“So quickly?”

“No broken bones. Not too much. They cleaned my wounds and sewed them up. I’ll have scars on both thighs forever, but nothing too serious—unless my future girlfriend has an issue with it. My tetanus shot is up to date, so no worries there.”

Beatrice nodded. “Thank God.”

“Yeah. Thank God indeed. I’ll just need to pick up some antibiotics and Tylenol from the pharmacy and I’m out of here. As long as I don’t develop a fever next week or something.”

“Good.”

He turned pensive. “If you hadn’t talked to John Doe back at the cabin, stopped him from doing more damage, I might have lost a leg. Thank you.”

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