Page 14 of Sins of the Fathers
“Sometimes a pizza is just a pizza,” Dawson said wryly as he set the box and his gun on the kitchen table. “Let’s eat and leave the conspiracy theories for tomorrow.”
Grady grabbed a couple of sodas from the fridge while Dawson got plates and napkins. They settled in to enjoy deep dish cheese and pepperoni. Grady hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he smelled the food, and his stomach growled.
They’d made it halfway through dinner when Grady’s phone sounded with Colt’s ringtone.
“Is he awake?” Grady asked, feeling a surge of hope as he put the call on speaker.
Colt’s pause turned Grady’s hope to alarm in a single breath. “Colt?” Grady asked, fighting a lump in his throat.
“You’d better come to the hospital,” Colt said in a somber tone that sent a chill down Grady’s spine. “There was a problem with Knox’s medication. Still not sure what happened—but someone fucked up and Knox…” Colt’s voice broke. “He’s fighting, but it’s going to be close. Just—get here.”
Dawson was already shoving the pizza box into the fridge and grabbing his keys before Grady ended the call.
“Come on,” Dawson said. “I’ll drive.”
3
DAWSON
Dawson pushed the speed limit.He made the normally fifteen-minute drive to the Kingston hospital in under ten. Grady hadn’t said a word during the drive, tension clear in every line of his profile, gripping the armrest like a drowning man with a life preserver.
“Knox is tough. He’s going to fight,” Dawson said as he whipped the Mustang into a parking space.
“I should have stayed with him,” Grady said, miserable with worry.
“Are you a pharmacist? A doctor? Would you have second-guessed and double-checked every nurse?” Dawson countered. “That’s not your job. We expect them to get it right—and most of the time, they do. But sometimes, they don’t. It happens more than you’d like to think—even to people who don’t hunt monsters. Take this one moment at a time.”
He walked beside Grady with a hand on the small of his back to ground him. Dawson had always hated the smells and sounds of hospitals, even before his parents’ death. Hunting meant injuries, no matter how careful hunters tried to be. Thanks to the King legacy and the family’s influence in Kingston, their hospital understood the reality of the supernatural and specialized in areas far outside the skills of most health facilities.
Colt and Denny were waiting outside the ICU. Dawson found himself holding his breath as Grady rushed up to them.
“How’s Knox?”
“He’s alive,” Denny said, and Grady visibly relaxed, although Dawson knew they both understood that was only the beginning.
“They think a nurse read the chart wrong and gave him a medication that has a similar name but does something completely different,” Colt added. “We made it very clear that we expect a full investigation—not that it helps Knox at the moment.”
“They realized the problem when his blood pressure dropped too low and all the monitors alarmed,” Denny picked up the story. “Then there was a swarm of doctors and nurses, Colt got pushed out of the room, and they whisked Knox away.”
“Someone gave him the wrong medicine, and I sat right there and didn’t stop them,” Colt said, guilt thick in his voice.
“Not your fault,” Denny said, his tone softening as he spoke to the distraught young man. “There are supposed to be all kinds of systems in place to keep this from happening. Obviously, none of them worked—but that’s not on you.”
“He seemed to be doing better, right before,” Colt went on as if he hadn’t heard Denny. “His color was good, and his vitals were stronger. The doctor said they expected him to wake up later today. And now…”
Dawson clapped a hand on Colt’s shoulder in support and got a watery smile in return. “Knox is a stubborn bastard. He likes a good fight. He’ll get through this. Just wait and see.”
“Tell me one thing,” Grady begged. “Do you believe it was an accident?”
Denny glanced one way and then another. “I don’t think we should be having this conversation in the hallway.” He shared a knowing glance and motioned for them to follow him into the empty chapel, thoroughly checking to make sure they were alone.
“If we are working on the assumption that Knox was roofied for reasons other than sex, then someone had a reason to drug him. Maybe he knew something or saw something—even if Knox didn’t realize the importance—and whoever did it wanted to make sure Knox couldn’t tell anyone,” Denny said.
“So him getting better put a wrinkle in the plan,” Dawson guessed. “And they had a person on the inside try to finish the job.”
“Do you know how insane that sounds?” Colt questioned. “Even for us.”
“Insane is kinda how we roll,” Denny muttered. “What else is new?”
