Page 73 of Mongrels United
The medical orderly she was following turned into a small room. Nash sat on the edge of one of the six beds crammed into the room. He wore no shirt. There were gro-patches on his stomach and his arm.
He grimaced when he saw her.
Grady moved closer and felt the muffled prickle of a privacy cone barrier as she moved through it.
She rested her hand on Nash’s chest. Felt hot flesh and the beat of his heart, beneath. Smelled his unique scent. All were infinitely reassuring, but her heart still jumped around with skittery beats. Her hand shook as she lifted it from Nash’s chest. “What happened?”
“Just what I thought would happen. They came at me. Two of them. One with a knife.” Nash paused. “They weren’t even going to warn me to stop, Grady. They came from behind.”
Grady wrapped her arms around her middle. “Oh, Nash…! This is…it’s too dangerous.”
Nash shook his head. “We’re getting close. We can’t stop now.”
“But we haven’t doneanything! We’ve talked to a few people who said nothing! How can we be getting close?”
“There’s no other explanation for their attack. They feel threatened, therefore, we’re getting close,” Nash said calmly.
“You haven’t even left the house for five days,” Grady replied. “This doesn’t make sense.” Her gaze kept returning to the gro-patch on his belly. “What happened to the two who did this?”
His smile was short and hard. “I called Westcott first. I hope you don’t mind. She and her crew came and picked them up. Then they brought all three of us here.” Nash’s grin widened. “They’re in worse shape than me.”
Grady pressed her lips together. She didn’t know whether she should laugh or cry. “Did you know this was going to happen, Nash?”
“I figured if we kept poking, someone would hit back.”
“I mean, specifically, over the last few days. You’ve been…withdrawn.”
Nash sighed. He patted the bed beside him with his good arm. “Sit a moment. The medic has gone to print me a shirt and a painkiller and get Westcott’s okay for me to leave. Westcott is standing over the two who attacked me, down the hall.”
Grady sat on the edge of the bed next to him. Nash was warm against her side, which told her how chilled she was. She looked up at him as he dropped his arm around her.
“I’m sorry about the last few days,” Nash said, his voice low. “I learned something about Nason that…well, I still don’t know what to think of it. The man was a riddle inside a puzzle, inside a mystery. Every time I think I’m starting to figure him out, he shifts on me.”
“What did you learn?” Grady liked having his arm around her. Even if they were in front of an open doorway where anyone passing could see them.
“Nason used to go to the Palatine every single morning, and walk around in the forest,” Nash said. “For two hours, every day. Everysingleday.” He paused. “He did that for eighteen years.”
“Eighteen years…” It was such a long time to do the same thing every single day, day in and day out. Her father often spoke and wrote about the virtues of habit and routines, but foreighteenyears? Why, eighteen years ago, she was—
Grady gasped. “Oh sweet stars…Nash! Eighteen years!” She turned to face him properly, which regrettably meant dislodging his arm from around her. “Eighteen years ago—that was when the Leroux Raid happened.”
Nash’s gaze moved over her face. He was trying to figure out the rest of it.
Grady took his arm with both hands. “The supply of Bellish was ended after the Leroux Raid. Or we thought it had been shut down. But immediately afterwards, your father began to walk through the forest in the Palatine every single day, and we know he got the Bellish from somewhere. Therehasto be a connection.”
Nash groaned and closed his eyes.
“What is it?” Grady asked, alarmed. “Are you hurting? Should I get the medic?” She got to her feet, her heart spiking painfully.
“No, no.” He reached out and gripped her hand. “I’m okay. I’m just feeling really stupid, right now.”
Her relief was great enough that she was happy to sink back onto the bed beside him. “Why?”
“Because two days after I learned about Nason walking the forest every day, I went to the redwood entrance he always used. I just stood there, looking at it. I didn’t go in. I was trying to figure out why, for the sake of theEndurance,my father would find walking among old trees soothing enough to keep it up for eighteen years. It just didn’t make sense.”
Grady could feel retroactive fear building in her. “You scared them, just by being there.” Her voice was rough, thick with her fear. “That’s why they came after you.”
Nash nodded. “I see that now. Damn, Grady. That’s where he got his supply. In the forest, somewhere.”
