The Awakening: Liam (Entangled Covet) (9 page)

dark wood paneling, lush cream carpet, and leather furniture.

The contrast from the white padded wall of her prison was calming. The panic slowly eased out of her

body. They helped people here, not tortured them.

A man in a white lab jacket walked in, flipping through a chart. When he glanced up, he smiled. “Ah.

You’re awake.”

Though he didn’t hold a candle to Liam, the doctor
was
handsome. Late thirties, maybe, with thick,

wavy, brown hair and light blue eyes. “Wh—” She licked her parched lips. “Who are you?”

He offered his hand. “Dr. Miles Bradley. Val brought you in a little over an hour ago.”

“Val?”

“The detective.”

That’s right. The woman with Britton. “Where am I?”

“The Bradley Clinic.”

He said that like it was supposed to make complete sense to her. As Dr. Bradley walked over to the bed

and checked the bag hanging from an IV pole, he said, “You were suffering from dehydration. We’ve given

you saline, but we can take out the IV now that you are awake.”

“My head hurts.”

“That’s not surprising considering the beating you must have taken. No concussion though, so that’s

good, but you might have a headache for a while. Most of your injuries are superficial, but you did sprain

your ankle pretty badly. It’ll be a little hard to get around for a couple of days.” He studied her for a

moment. “We also just received your blood work back. Are you on any anti-arrhythmic medication?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. We found trace amounts of disopyramide in your system as well as etomidate.

“And what is etomidate?”

“An anesthetic agent. It’s used to sedate patients for short procedures.” He stepped toward her. “Do you

know how many times he injected you with it?”

“I can’t be certain. I was conscious for at least two.” She swallowed. “Was it the drugs that made me die

to Liam?’

The doctor stiffened. “What are you talking about?”

“Liam said he felt me die twice when I didn’t.”

“That’s not possible.”

“I’m telling you it is. One of the times, our captor had just given me an injection.”

The doctor rubbed his mouth with his hand and gazed at the opposite wall. “That’s interesting.”

She didn’t find anything remotely interesting about it.

“The etomidate would’ve put you in an almost vegetative state. The combination of the anti-arrhythmic

and anesthetic agent must have messed with the
Fewshon
,” he murmured, more to himself than her. He

finally glanced down at her. “Your blood pressure and liver counts are normal, so I don’t think he gave you

enough to cause any long term damage, but just to be cautious, I’d like to order an EKG and cardiac MRI.”

This crazy person had messed with her heart? Why did that even surprise her? Her health hadn’t been a

huge worry for him.

The detective walked into the room. “I’m glad to see you awake,” she said. “I didn’t get a chance to

introduce myself. I’m Detective Calhoun. I’ve been working on Liam’s case.”

Liam’s case?
“What happened? I don’t remember coming here.”

Dr. Bradley removed the IV from her hand, then stepped back. “I’m going to order those tests.”

The detective waited until the door closed before she spoke. “You passed out on me. Freaked me out,

so I hot-wired Britton’s Jeep and drove you here.” The amused twist of her lips gave Ava the impression

she got some pleasure from doing that.

“Why didn’t you call an ambulance?”

“We can’t risk any more human involvement. It was safer to just bring you here.”

Human?
“And where is here exactly?”

“The Bradley Clinic.”

She gave a growl of frustration.. “And that is?”

“I keep forgetting that even though you’re marked, you don’t know the ins and outs of our community.

Dr. Bradley is a shifter physician. Though we rarely get sick, wounds need to be treated on occasion. If the

wound is bad enough, it takes longer to heal and we do risk infection. It’s safer going to one of our own.”

“Which means, you’re—”

“I’m a half-shifter. I moonlight as a homicide detective for Carnal Ridge PD, but my official position is

the head detective for SPAC. ”

“You have your own police force?”

“We have our own everything, Miss Michaels. Doctors, therapists, police force, even our own

government. My job is to keep shifter crime from the human eye.”

How could this entire separate world exist without anyone aware of it? “What does SPAC mean?”

“Shifter Protection and Concealment. And I have a lot I need to conceal. So now that you’re awake, I

need to ask you a few questions.”

“Have you talked to Liam?”

“He isn’t here.”

“Wait. Where is he?”

“Like I said, I had to leave to get you help.”

“
You
left him in a
cage
?”

“Don’t worry,” Detective Calhoun quickly said. “Britton is with him and is looking for the key while

they wait for one of my team to pick them up. They’ll be here soon.”

“My sister?”

“She’s at a friend’s house.” She glanced at the notepad. “Jessica Perkins?”

Relief surged over Ava, one more knot of tension dissolving.
Jessica
. Emma was still with Jessica.
Safe
.

Probably scared to death wondering what had happened to Ava, but safe. “That’s her best friend.”

“We haven’t made contact yet. Unfortunately, your sister and your employees have filed a missing

person’s report, so we’ll need to get our stories straight before we move you to the Carnal Ridge Hospital.”

“Stories?”

The detective gave her a patient smile. “This incident is shifter related. But since you are human, and

missing person’s reports have been filed, the regular cops are involved. This isn’t good for us. We need

them to close their case so we can continue our investigation without worry of their interference.”

Good God, the entire species was about keeping secrets. “And what kind of story am I supposed to

tell?”

“You’d had a bad morning. Nothing was going right. You burned your hand making coffee, dropped

your breakfast on the floor before you were able to eat it, stubbed your toe on the end of the couch.

Frustrated, you went outside and started walking around. The crisp air felt good. The light breeze was

soothing, so you kept walking. You hadn’t intended to go into the woods, but you did. And then you

tripped over a root and rolled down into a ravine. The rocks jarred your body, and somehow in the fall you

twisted your ankle and knocked yourself unconscious. When you woke, it was hard to move. And the

ravine was steep. It took you two days to get out.” Detective Calhoun flipped the notepad closed. “They

won’t buy it, especially with the bruises around your neck, but as long as you stick to the story they will be

forced to close the case.”

Ava barely heard the last part. Two days. It had seemed like so much longer. Weeks. Months. But two

damn days was all that had passed.

“Now I need to know how you’re alive, Miss Michaels. Britton followed Liam to your place after he felt

you die, which was where he was taken. We’ve assumed this entire time we were only looking for him.

You came as somewhat of a shock.”

That was how Liam had been captured? Because he’d sought her out after feeling her death? What had

he found? Had she been in the room, lifeless? Covered in blood?

My team cleaned it up.
Detective Calhoun’s words came back to her, and she covered her mouth with

her hand. This entire time she’d been worried about Emma seeing all that blood. Never had she imagined

that Liam had been the one to see it.

“Miss Michaels, are you okay?”

Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up. “H-he saw the room.”

The detective’s brows knitted together as she studied Ava.

“Liam,” Ava added. “The blood.”

The expression softened as understanding lit the other woman’s eyes. “Yes. He did.”

“How bad?”

“You’re alive. That’s all that matters.”

She’d dodged the question which, in and of itself, gave Ava her answer, but she needed to know. “
How

bad?”

The other woman glanced away. “We thought you’d been drained. I’ve never seen that much blood.”

Ava stared straight ahead, stared at nothing. “Was I—”

Oh, God, she must have been. Blood had been all over Liam when she’d first seen him. Had he picked

up her body and held it?

“We don’t know for certain. But for him to be unaware that someone was in the room, he had to be

very distracted. So we are assuming that your body was, indeed, there.”

Oh, Liam.
What had he felt staring down at her bloodied body, believing she’d been murdered

ruthlessly? To live with that for hours before realizing she wasn’t dead, that some sicko had just wanted

him to think she was.

“Miss Michaels, how did your attacker make it seem like you died?”

“He injected me with something. Doctor Bradley said it was some sort of combination of an anti-

arrhythmic and anesthesia.”

The only reaction the detective gave was a furrowing of her brows as she reopened the notebook and

jotted down Ava’s comment. “Did you get a good look at him?” the other woman asked.

“No. He wore a werewolf mask.”

“Did you get a look at any distinctive features? Eye color? A tattoo?”

“He wore special contacts and was dressed head to toe in a black jumpsuit. I’m not even sure of the

color of his skin. He did have an accent, Cajun, I think.” She paused. “Where did he take us?”

“It was an abandoned mental hospital.”

How ironic. It was supposed to be a place to help the mentally unstable, not help bring on madness.

Would she and Liam ever recover mentally from what they’d experienced?

Detective Calhoun stepped forward. “As soon as we deal with the cops, we’ll move you and Liam to a

safe location. You two are going to need time to recover.”

“What about my sister?”

“What about her?”

“She’ll come with us to the safe house, won’t she?”

“No. I’m sorry, she is an unmarked human. She does not fall under the protection of SPAC.”

At a loss for words, the only way she could think to respond was, “You would leave a fifteen year old

child
unprotected?”

Color crept into the woman’s cheeks. “This isn’t a matter of leaving someone unprotected, Miss

Michaels. When a case involves shifters, my ultimate goal is to protect the existence of
our
kind. Placing

your human sister in a safe house poses too much of a risk to the shifter community. With her around

twenty-four-seven, the potential she will see or overhear something she shouldn’t is far too great. I’m sorry,

but these are the laws of our people. I cannot break them.”

“I’ll go home then”

“That’s not safe.”

“I really don’t care about that right now. I
care
about my sister. I’m not leaving her vulnerable just

because
your
kind refuses to protect her. If I go back to my house, her routine wouldn’t be disturbed.

She’d go to school and spend time at Jessica’s. It would be less likely that she would notice something.”

“And she can continue doing those things while
you
are in a safe house.”

“I’m not going anywhere without my sister.”

And she sure as hell wasn’t going to run off with Liam and leave Emma behind to face the

consequences alone.

Should she tell the detective about the threats to Emma?

Not a fat chance in hell was that going to happen. Not after being told her sister was considered a risk.

What if Ava told the detective everything and this guy turned out to be a shifter? What if their idea of

handling it meant taking out the human in the equation?

The idea terrified her.

She didn’t know this world she’d been thrust into, but she did understand a few things: they lied, kept

secrets, and used innocent people to torture each other. And most importantly they would leave a child

unprotected.

Better the devil you know…

At least she knew how to keep Emma safe from the other devil. Had successfully kept her safe the last

eight months. All Ava had to do was stay away from Liam. After everything they’d been through the last

two days, it killed her to push him away again, hurt him again, but Emma’s safety came first.

Detective Calhoun gave a long sigh. “All right fine, you can go home, but we’re going to keep a detail

on you until we catch this guy.”

This presented a perfect opportunity to give her sister some extra protection without confiding in this

woman about the threat. “I also want a detail on my sister 24/7.”

“Miss—”

Knowing the rejection was coming, Ava held out her hand. “No. This lunatic took me and I will
not

have his attention refocused on my sister because he can’t get to me. Do you understand? A detail. 24/7.

There has to be a way for you people to protect her without her knowledge.”

The other woman gazed at her for a moment, then nodded. “All right. I can compromise on that. But the