“We have bigger problems.”
They sure did. He took her arm and they went in through the swinging doors. This was the first time he’d seen his father since he’d come to the hospital. Kemble had given his turns to the others to sit with their mother and father.
The nurse inside directed them to bed number twelve on the other side of the room. The beds were arranged in a giant circle around a central bay where nurses bustled and technicians peered at monitors. Most of the people in the beds were very old. The yellowish-gray cast to their skin said many wouldn’t make it out of this room still attached to their mortal coil. There was the kid who’d had the motorcycle accident in bed number eight.
Kemble almost didn’t recognize Senior. His head was bandaged, of course. A sort of a device was strapped over his mouth, with a valve on two big hoses that connected to a square machine with a monitor on a cart next to the bed. A ventilator. His father’s chest rose and fell, but that was the only sign of life. His eyes were closed, his features remote. On the other side was the usual monitor that showed heart activity and respiration and blood pressure. Kemble and Jane stood at the foot of the bed. An IV was connected to one of his father’s arms and something was moving periodically beneath the covers. He must be lying on one of those inflatable mattresses that were supposed to prevent bedsores. That meant they were bracing for a long haul where Senior couldn’t move on his own.
Jane clutched Kemble’s arm. It was the first time she’d seen his father like this too.
It was very clear that Michael was right. Panic seized Kemble. The Senior he knew, the one who was always in charge, always knew what to do, who kept the family safe and ran Tremaine Enterprises, and could do anything just by looking at a book or hearing how it was done—that Senior was gone.
Leaving whom to take the reins? Tristram didn’t know what to do. Michael didn’t. His mother was inconsolable. His sisters were looking for someone to give them comfort. Devin and Lanyon were hardly more than boys.
He wanted to scream. It couldn’t be him. It didn’t matter that his jerk-off brothers had always called him the Prince of Wales. He was the last person to try to take his father’s place. He’d never been good enough at anything, let alone everything. How many times had he disappointed his father? A thousand? A million?
“Look at me.”
What?
Jane. He took a breath and looked down to where she was clutching his arm. He couldn’t help the convulsive blinking.
Jane smiled. She was pale, but she smiled. “You can do this because you have to and we all do what we have to do.”
“I don’t know how.” His voice was raw.
“This from a guy who bought a house overnight?”
“Some skill that is,” he grumped and turned his head away.
“But it is,” she insisted. “You knew what you wanted, and you figured out how to get it, and you didn’t let anything stand in your way.”
“Right.” The pain that stabbed into his chest got sharper again. He turned back to her. “I bought you a house you hate and didn’t even consult you. Big success there.”
She didn’t try to deny that. “All I’m saying is that you know how to get things done.”
“If I knew what to do. . . .” He just trailed off.
“So what’s the crying need here, in your mind? We can’t fix your father right now. And the priority isn’t getting the Talisman back.”
“No, of course not.” He took a breath. “I’ve got to think of some way to keep the family safe. As long as Senior is in here, they’re going to be traipsing back and forth. . . .”
He stopped. Looked around at the machines humming and pinging, the nurses bustling between beds. His brain started clicking over. Why not?
“I need a doctor.” That sounded crazy. Was he?
“Yes, you do,” Jane said firmly, as though she could read his mind. “I’ll have them page Dr. Belvedere. He must be in the hospital somewhere.”
“I’ll start with nursing services . . . no, with equipment rentals.”
“Can we get it together before morning?”
“That would be safest.” His mind was going a mile a minute. They’d need a backup generator. Tristram could handle that. “Dr. Belvedere might say it can’t be done,” he warned her.
“But he might say yes with the proper arrangements.” She pivoted to the nurse’s station. “Excuse me. I wonder if you could page Dr. Belvedere. Tell him it’s urgent.”
“These are for you,” a nurse said, handing her a pair of sunglasses.
*****
“They looked pretty crushed,” Jason reported.
“I want them crushed.” Morgan hissed. She’d sent him into the hospital, Cloaked, so he couldn’t be seen. She glanced to the mirror over the sofa in the suite. God, but it was good to feel this young. She’d been getting younger for two days now. She looked maybe forty-five this morning, and frankly she could hardly remember when she’d felt more vital, more powerful. Who knew what would happen when she acquired the last Talisman? “I want them to suffer, right up to the second we take them out. Tell me more.”
Hardwick brought her some tea and set it down on the small table next to the chair she was lounging in.
“The mother is a basket case. Her failure to Heal her husband pretty much devastated her. The oldest girl, the one who can see the future? They got her a prescription for Valium.”
“Excellent,” Morgan said slowly, savoring. “And. . . .”
“They can’t figure out why we haven’t attacked them, or what to do next. The oldest son actually tried to get the Finder to take the father’s place as head of the family. Apparently the son doesn’t feel up to the task.”
“Lovely. It must grind his soul to dust that he doesn’t have magic.” Morgan heaved in a breath. It was so good to see breasts unshriveled by age in the shower, and know that she was getting everything she wanted, even as she took away everything the Tremaines held dear.
“They’re battened down for the night. The eldest and some girl are at the hospital.”
“What girl?” She didn’t want the oldest son getting any girl-type ideas and suddenly bursting out with a power. She wanted him mentally beaten down, not feeling flush with magic.
“According to our source, she’s not significant. The oldest son realized he was never going to get magic, and married his sister’s friend. I’ll pick up surveillance again in the morning. The second brother and his wife are going to relieve them then.” Jason paused, thinking. “Want to start picking them off two at a time? That would scare them to death.”
Attractive. But no. “I told you, this is the time to root them out of their stronghold and destroy it forever. They are vulnerable, once our contact lets us in.”
Jason shut down. Morgan knew he would never challenge her. “Direct frontal on the estate it is. If any of them are at the hospital during the assault, we can pick them off later.”
“I want to wait another day or two, just to make sure they realize just how screwed they are.” She had a thought. “But let’s lock down our contact’s motivation to let us in. Cue Phil to pick up the asset. And let our source know we have it.”
*****
Jane led the technicians to Devin’s old room in the Bay of Pigs. It was the first one in the wing, so it was close to the living area, but isolated enough so they wouldn’t disturb Brian. That’s why she’d chosen it. Plus it had a great view of the Santa Monica Bay during daylight hours. That made it cheery. Just the place for an invalid to recover, assuming he got that opportunity. The boys had moved the furniture out to make room for the hospital bed and the necessary machines. All by two a.m., when the equipment started arriving.
“Just in here,” she said, opening the door.
The two men walked in and looked at the bare room. “Where di’ya want all this stuff?”
“Well, the hospital bed here,” she said, pointing to a place where Brian would be able to see out the windows. “Then you
know how to set up the equipment around it, I’m sure.”
“Why we’re setting up in the middle of the night, I have no idea,” the workman grumbled.
“I expect it’s because we’re paying four times your usual rate,” Jane said. That was rude. But she had no time for chitchat. Kemble, Brian, and Dr. Belvedere would be here in three hours. “Now, if we could hurry?”
“In a private house, too,” the other technician said. “We ever done that before?” he asked his companion.
“Just make sure you get the calibration on those instruments right,” Tristram growled, stalking in from the garages.
A guy in a green shirt with his name embroidered over the pocket rolled a machine in through the door. Tristram jumped aside to move out of the way.
“Are we set?” Jane asked.
“Backup generator is checked and rechecked,” Tristram confirmed. He really did look tired. They probably all did. “This place’ll be lit up like a Christmas tree even if power is off all over the Peninsula.”
“Thank you,” Jane said. “I trust that statement coming from you.”
Tristram’s glance darted around the room as another machine was wheeled in. “Kemble better be right about this.”
Would he have questioned their plan if Brian had approved it? “We can’t keep shuttling back and forth to the hospital,” Jane reminded him.
Tristram sighed. “I know. And how do you make an ICU secure? And we can’t leave the house unprotected either. I just wish…”
He just wished what they all wished: that Brian wasn’t lying in a coma at the hospital.
Jane reached out and touched the big man’s shoulder. Had she ever touched him before? “Tristram. . . .” She hesitated. “May I call you Tris?”
He grunted assent. “Nobody but the Prince of Wales and the Parents call me Tristram. And you’re my sister, now. Always were, really.”
She was touched. “Well, Tris, then. We can’t think about the whole future. That never does any good. We’ve just got to take this one step at a time.”
He nodded. They moved into the corner as the crew collapsed the hospital bed so it could be turned to slide in through the doorway. “How’s Mother?”
“Dead to the world.” Jane saw his alarm and hastened to add, “Just asleep. Dr. Belvedere gave her something. She needs the rest. Keelan . . . Kee is up there with her now.”
“I had a helluva time making Maggie lay down. Luckily, Jesse wouldn’t go to sleep without her in his bed. When I left they were both out like lights.”
“Congratulations, by the way. Kemble told me.”
“Not a great time to be bringing a new life into the world,” Tris muttered.
“There are no bad times for new life. . . .”
Looking around at the medical trappings they were installing to keep Brian breathing, Jane couldn’t help but think about Drew’s vision of a funeral. The Tremaines might need all the evidence they could get that the circle of life still existed.
*****
“Have you been in to see your father yet?” Jane asked Lanyon. He was buttering toast to add to his heaping plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. His handsome young face was creased in frowns unusual for someone of such a normally sunny disposition.
“They haven’t thought I might want to see him in the last three days. Why should they bother now?”
Oh, dear. “The restriction on visitors is very hard. People aren’t meaning to shut you out. These are just difficult times, Lanyon.”
“Not for you. He’s not your father. What do you care?” His voice was deceptively calm, but Jane could hear the anger simmering underneath.
“You’re right. He’s not. But I never knew my own father, so he’s the nearest thing I’ve got. I . . . know this must all seem unfair.” This was a young man’s first brush with tragedy. How could it not shake him up?
“They’re just going to pick us off, one by one, you know.” He took his plate and stalked over to the breakfast table.
“Not if we can help it,” Jane said quietly. She worked on preparing a plate to take in to Kemble. Where was Mr. Nakamura this morning? She hadn’t seen him at all.
“Who’s going to stop them? Kemble? He doesn’t even have any magic.” He stuffed his mouth with eggs but continued talking. “I always thought it was hilarious that the others call him the Prince of Wales. Like he could ever take over for Father.”
Jane pressed down the anger that threatened to close her throat. She would not yell at a boy whose father was lying in a coma not a hundred feet from here. After a big breath, she managed to speak in a normal tone. “No, it will take the whole family working together to shoulder the responsibility your father carried so naturally, at least until he recovers.”
Lanyon made a scoffing noise and swallowed. “He’s a corpse already. It just hasn’t actually come to pass.”
She was shocked, but she didn’t dare let him know that. She had a feeling he wanted to shock her. “If you’re talking about Drew’s vision, you know as well as I do that it can have multiple interpretations.”
“I think it’s pretty clear. I better try on my dark suit and make sure there’s enough room for a bulletproof vest underneath. Tammy’ll have to find one that fits under her black dress.”
That one image was a startling view of what he thought their world would be like from now on. No wonder he was devastated.
“Oh, Lanyon. . . .”
“You can’t make this right, Jane, so just stop trying and let me eat my breakfast in peace.”
She stood for a moment in the archway to the breakfast room, feeling helpless. But the doorbell rang, and since Mr. Nakamura was nowhere to be seen, she headed for the front door.
When she opened it, a young blond woman in her early thirties was standing there, along with Mr. Edwards. It was Mr. Edwards who spoke.
“This is Dr. Leri Tanet. Dr. Belvedere asked her to come.”
“Thank you, Mr. Edwards. Welcome, Dr. Tanet. I’m Jane Tremaine. Do come in.”
Mr. Edwards sketched a salute and disappeared.
“Are you here to help with my father-in-law’s care?” Jane asked as she led the doctor into the living room. The doctor was exceedingly beautiful, though she wore almost no makeup. Jane guessed that she felt downplaying her drop-dead good looks would make her be taken more seriously as a doctor.
“I’m a new partner in the practice, so my schedule has quite a bit more room in it than Dr. Belvedere’s,” she said, smiling. “But don’t worry, we’ll work together on Mr. Tremaine’s care.”
Tammy came stumbling out of Brian’s room, sobbing, followed by Maggie. “Honey, you don’t know the worst will happen,” Maggie said, putting her arm around Tammy’s shoulders.
“Why else would Kemble tell Miles to make sure Daddy’s will is in order?” Tammy sobbed.
“Because that’s what you do when people are sick,” Maggie soothed, rolling her eyes at Jane as they walked by. Jane had never been so grateful for Maggie.
“Sorry,” she breathed to Dr. Tanet. “This is hard on the family.”
The rest of said family wandered in from the kitchen and the deck.
“Of course,” Dr. Tanet replied. “How is the nursing service?”
“They’ve been great, so far. The nurse arrived at five a.m. promptly.”
Jane made introductions to Kee, and the Tremaine men, all of whom looked grim.
“I’m glad to meet you all,” Dr. Tanet said. Her voice had a ring of confidence that would be good for the family. “I’ll be assuming the majority of Mr. Tremaine’s care and communicating directly with Dr. Belvedere.” She shook hands with the men, who were standing. “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other, I’m afraid.”
Kemble stepped up and greeted her, murmuring thanks.
Jane then took Dr. Tanet back into the Bay of Pigs, Kemble trailing in their wake. Brian’s room now busily pinged from all the monitors and gasped with the flow of air that inflated his lungs. The nurse was putting d
rops in Brian’s eyes. Jane made introductions to Drew and Brina, who looked tattered. The family was a pretty sad lot right now, Jane thought. It seemed to take a lot of energy just to move through the pall that hung over the house.
“Unfortunately, right now I’ll have to ask you to leave while I examine Mr. Tremaine. Mrs. Tremaine, of course, should stay.” Drew nodded silently and slipped out.
“Is there anything I can get you?” Kemble asked.
“If you could call a courier to take the blood samples into the lab, that would be great,” she said in a low voice as the others made their way from the room.
“How about I get a lab set up in the office wing here?” Kemble asked.
Dr. Tanet looked surprised. “You’d need a technician, equipment. . . .”
“Make me a list and I’ll have it arranged within a couple of hours.” Kemble might look tired, but he also exuded determination. Jane was so proud of him at that moment.
As he closed the door on Dr. Tanet and Brian, Kemble drew her in against his side. The rest of the family was gathering in the living room. Kemble pushed her up against the wall where the family couldn’t see them. Nothing had ever felt so sustaining as his hard body against hers. She looked up at him, which was a good thing, because he was already descending for a kiss and he took her mouth with a need that wrenched something inside her. His tongue penetrated her mouth as if he was memorizing her from the inside out. She was drenched with longing. Running her arms up over his shoulders, she kissed him back, willing him to understand just how much she loved him, needed him, would be there for him in any circumstances, even though she’d never told him that.
“God, Jane. If I didn’t have Miles to see and a laboratory to set up on no notice, you would be in danger of a very demanding session of lovemaking.” His voice was a raw growl.
“I’m going to hold you to that promise, later,” she whispered to him.
With a wrench they broke away from each other. He was blinking rapidly. They were apparently both shell-shocked by the instant conflagration between them. Jane felt a little guilty. How could she be thinking about sex with Kemble when his father was so ill? A guilty look crossed his face as well.
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