Page 10 of One Cry Too Loud
“I am okay. I promise,” I said. “I want you to come to the hospital. Hell, I wouldn’t mind if you came everywhere with me, but-”
“But you can’t.” She finished my sentence.
“The mission,” I said in a way of explanation.
“A mission?” Kat balked. “There’s a full blown mission now?” The anger in her voice rose closer to the surface. “I know Nate wanted to talk to you, and I figured it was about work, but I didn’t think he’d actually enlist you for a mission without looping me in.”
“I didn’t either,” I said, looking across the waiting area of the hospital and seeing Holly sitting there. We had all been clearedto leave, but the three of us were still sitting here. We needed just a few minutes. Besides, here were things to say. “It’s more complicated than that, though. I wish I could tell you right now. I hope, when the time comes, you’ll understand why I can’t.”
“I’m sure I will,” she answered, sighing. “As long as you’re okay, I’m sure I will.”
“I’m fine. I’ll continue to be fine,” I answered. “We’ve still got that drink to get, after all.”
“Don’t worry about that right now,” she replied. “Get home, get some rest, and deal with whatever you need to deal with.” She stopped talking for just a moment, though there was weight in the air that sat around the silence. It was enough to let me know that whatever she was about to say was going to be important. “You need to know this, though. The CCU is very important to me, extremely important. It’s more than a job. It’s more than a mission. I firmly believe it’s what I’m supposed to be doing. I believe it’s the greatest work of my life.”
“Kat, I would never do anything to-”
“It’s not the most important thing to me,” she answered. “It’s not as important as the people in my life. It’s not as important as you. I trust Nate. Honest to God, I do, but he’s a money man, at the end of the day. He’s not us. It’s not his neck on the chopping block. It’s not him who is in the line of fire everyday.” She sighed. “I trust you when you say there’s a good reason to keep me in the dark about this, but I need you to hear me. If there is even a second when you feel like this is going sideways, if there’s an instant when you think that you’re in over your head and need a helping hand, you grab mine. Damn the CCU. Damn whatever Nate wants, and damn the reason you feel like I can’t know right now. None of that matters as much as you. So you understand?”
I looked back at Holly again. She had her secrets, and she wanted to keep them. I understood that. I understood that she believed keeping that secret kept everyone safe, but I alsounderstood what Kat just said, and I wasn’t going to let her believe I didn’t.
“Of course,” I replied.
“Good,” she said. “I’m here if you need me. Always.”
“I know that,” I replied.
“Great. Now get your ass home and get some rest before someone tries to hit you with a cement truck or something.”
“I can do that,” I chuckled. “We’ll talk soon.”
“Sounds good,” she said, and then disconnected the call.
I pushed myself up from the chair and walked over toward the others. Nate was on his phone, as usual, scrolling across his screen with his thumb, probably checking things out with one of the many businesses he owned. Holly looked over at me anxiously. She was biting her lower lip. Her glasses had worked their way halfway down the bridge of her nose.
“Was that Kat again?” She asked, but I could tell she already knew the answer. “I can’t imagine she was happy.”
“She was most certainly not happy,” I replied. “She’s worried about me, about Nat.” I motioned to Holly. “She’d be worried about you too, if she knew you were here.”
“She can’t know that,” Holly said, shaking her head so hard that I feared her brain would bounce around in her skull like a pinball. “You saw what happened. He took control of a car and drove it into the building where we were standing. He’s dangerous.”
“Oh, I know he’s dangerous,” I said. “I also know he’s smart, and he knows enough about you to know who I am and to know that we’re coming after him. That’s why I think Katshouldknow. She should have the opportunity to protect herself.”
“Joe’s not going to hurt Kat,” Holly said as though the idea was ridiculous.
“First off, we don’t know that it’s Joe. I know you have your suspicions, and you might be right, but we don’t know yet,” Isaid. “Secondly, whoever this is just hijacked a teenage girl’s car and used it as a missile with her inside of it. So, if it is Joe, I think the idea that he wouldn’t hurt someone is pretty inaccurate.”
“Is she hurt?” Holly asked. “The girl. Is she-”
“She has a broken nose and a concussion. She’ll be fine,” I said. “But that’s not the point. She just as easily could have been killed. Whoever this is, if it’s Joe-”
“ItisJoe!” She replied.
“Fine. he doesn’t have any respect for human life,” I said. “He’s not going to spare Kat, or Kyle, or Sarah Jane, or anyone else out of a need to preserve life.”
“You’re not understanding,” Holly said. “I don’t mean that Joe wouldn’t hurt Kat because he won’t hurt people. I’m saying that he won’t hurt her because he wouldn’t hurt anyone who is important to me.”
My mouth fell open. “Are you serious right now? Forget about people you care about. Two hours ago, he tried to kill you personally.”
