Page 66 of Intangible
“Thayer!” Knox barked, bringing her eyes up to his. “Are you hurt?” When she shook her head, he pulled her to her feet. Taking Memphis’ arm, Knox pulled him onto his shoulder in a fireman's hold and turned toward the door. Blood seemed to seep out of everywhere.
“Go,” is all he said to Thayer, motioning to the door with his head. With Murphy in the lead, he followed her down the stairs, arriving at the front door at the same time Randall did.
“Let me have him,” Randall said, taking Memphis off of Knox’s shoulder. He handed him off to Jay and Ben.
“Take him a couple of blocks over so this looks like he was jumped, but not too close to here. I’m going to have enough questions to answer as it is. We need to make this look like an unrelated incident.
“And Ben, make sure he doesn’t bleed out before the EMTs can get there.” Turning to Shaun, he ordered him to get Thayer back to the loft and keep her there until he returned.
“What are you doing?” Knox roared as he watched Memphis being carried toward a waiting SUV with Murphy close at their heels. Thayer was screaming at him as Shaun held her to him in a bear hug, walking her to his waiting car.
“I assume the person or persons that orchestrated this is dead somewhere in the house?” Knox nodded once. “Do you want any of this mess to blow back on the senator? This type of scandal could still sink the election. The press will hound Thayer relentlessly until she can’t breathe when this is leaked out. And how do you think Memphis will fair under FBI questioning?” Randall asked Knox, shoving him in the chest back toward the house.
“How is it not going to blow all over them? The guy that’s been after Thayer is dead upstairs. He had a knife run through his chest from behind and I know Thayer didn’t do that. Memphis’ blood is everywhere. How do you think he’s going to escape being questioned?”
Suddenly, he realized what dragging Memphis into the news would do to the man.
“Fuck, the military could make Memphis disappear just to make sure no one else finds out what he’s capable of,” he said quietly as Randall nodded slowly.
“Or he could spend the rest of his life under the FBI’s thumb. We need to make all of this disappear for everyone’s sake. The senator does good work in Washington, he doesn’t need this scandal. Neither does Thayer. I promise Memphis will get help and we’ll keep Thayer safe.
“But this needs to be covered up. We’ll still find everyone involved in this and destroy them.” Knox stood still, looking at Randall for a moment, trying to digest his words. Maybe he was right, but he could hear sirens in the distance already and soon it wouldn’t matter. They would all be embroiled in a mess.
“What do you suggest we do?” he simply asked Randall.
“You burn this fucker to the ground. Now, Knox. I’ll pull whatever strings I need to make it look like a drug deal gone wrong or a bum who lit a fire in the house. You deal with this, I’ve got the rest.”
With a nod, Knox trotted to the back of the house, rubbing his hands together. With a roar, he threw his first fireball through the bedroom window at the back of the house.
Crashing through the glass, he heard a whoosh as the old house caught fire. He threw four more fireballs, completely engulfing the house before Randall pulled him back to the front of the house.
They quickly moved across the street, watching as fire trucks pulled up in front of the house. Somehow, Ben appeared near one of the trucks, announcing that the house would just have to be a complete loss. He managed to convince the chief it was too risky to search the old, abandoned house for anyone inside.
Knox had worried about putting any of the firemen’s lives at risk when he was told to burn it. He was grateful that Ben was watching the situation carefully.
“Jay had the ambulance on its way before we even had Memphis out of the car,” Ben said quietly as he joined them across the street.
“We didn’t have to go that far to find somewhere the cops would believe he got mugged. Jay got some of the bleeding stopped on the way there. His pulse was faint, but he still had one when I left. Jay stayed to watch from the shadows, just to make sure. They’ll take him to Memphis Memorial.”
“Have you heard if Shaun and Thayer are on the way back to the loft?” Randall asked Ben, checking his phone.
“Yeah, Shaun just texted that they were headed to the hospital to wait for Memphis.” Ben just grinned when Knox scowled at him. “He said one punch to the balls trying to wrestle her into his car was enough to convince him she’d be fine there.” Randall shook his head as he patted Knox on the shoulder.
“Let’s go. Ben will see to this.” Turning to Ben, Randall added, “They’ll find at least one body in the rubble from the second floor.” Ben nodded once before turning back to the fire. He rejoined the men fighting the blaze as Randall and Knox drove away from the curb down the street.
On the ride to the hospital, Knox called the senator, explaining just enough to fill him in on what had happened and assure him that Thayer was safe. Knox agreed with him that he would do everything within his power to return her to Connecticut as soon as possible but that it had been a long night, so he felt she needed to rest for a couple of days.
After calling the pilot to inform him that he could shut down the plane for the night, Knox sat back with a sigh.
“What’s the plan this time? You hauling her back to her daddy? Seems to me you might have a hell of a fight on your hands.” Randall asked.
“You know, I think I’ll let her decide what she wants to do. I’m too tired to fight anymore.”
Randall grinned, looking out the windshield. “You might not be so bad after all,” he said, receiving a snort from Knox in response.
Walking through the curtain in the emergency room at Memphis Memorial, Knox stopped short when he saw Memphis lying in the bed covered in a network of black stitches. There was an intern bent over him hard at work, like he was sewing a patchwork quilt.
“He looks like Frankenstein’s monster,” he said to no one in particular.
