Thicker than Blood - Book One

by Olivia Leighton

  Andrea looked around, her face screwing-up in the process. “Kenna... are you okay? I haven't seen a cop in here since last week. You're starting to scare me.”

  I stared dumbly at her. Scare HER?? Did... she just really forget about the cop? Did he command the memory out of her? I scratched my head. “Uh, yeah. I – I didn't get much sleep last night.”

  Relief washed over Andrea's expression. “Okay then. You need to go right to bed when you get home. You were really starting to freak me out.” She rose, patted my hand and left.

  There was one person I was dying to speak with... Dr. Amante. He had tried the same 'forget about this' shit as the cop. If it was indeed mind control, why didn't it work on me? It now made sense that Dr. Amante was confused when he failed at his attempt. And what did Garlique have to do with it? Could it possibly block the mind control? If so, why?

  The clock hanging above the door told me it was 0418. I put my face in my hands. So many questions and no way to contact Amante. I gasped when I remembered there WAS a way for me to reach him.

  “I'm going to the cardiac floor for a moment,” I called over my shoulder to the male nurse playing on his phone. I flew up the stairs to my unit, walking briskly to the nurses' station.

  “Hey! How's the err?” Marie, the normal weekend unit clerk, asked me. We often referred to the ER as the err, for what ever reason.

  I faked a laugh. “It's the err. Could you do me a favor and page Dr. Amante for me please?”

  The cute Hispanic girl eyed me for a moment, I was sure she wondered why I didn't have him paged from the ER. “Okay...” She picked up the phone and dialed a number.

  “Hi, this is Marie Delgato from Cardiac. I need to have Dr. Amante paged. Five five five, two one seven, eight five three four. Thank you.”

  “Thanks, Marie. I owe you.”

  She smiled at me as the patient call light started beeping.

  I laughed. Glad those calls weren't for me tonight. I watched the rhythms on the monitors as Marie answered.

  “Yes?”

  “My coffee is cold! Send my nurse!”

  Marie sighed. “Yes ma'am.” Just as she hung up the patient call, the desk phone rang. “Cardiac Care Unit, this is Marie.”

  “Hellooo there. I'll get the nurse,” she purred into the phone. Had to be Amante.

  “It's Dr. A,” Marie said as she turned to me. “You mind watching the rhythms for a sec while I take Mrs. Belcher some hot coffee? I don't want to take Kim away from a patient that needs her for this errand.”

  “Sure, no problem.” I smiled. Marie was a fantastic unit clerk. If at all possible, she tried to handle the ridiculous calls from patients, allowing us to focus on care-related issues.

  I sat down in Marie's chair, and waited until she was a ways down the hall before picking up the phone. “You owe me some answers.” I could get into so much trouble for what I was doing, but knew I wouldn't.

  Silence and then a sigh. “Kenna.” I could hear people talking in the background where ever he was. “I don't have time to talk.”

  “No, you owe me. You can't just keep doing what you're doing. I need to know what's going on, why you're acting so... bi-polar.”

  More silence. “I need to go... we will talk later.” The phone clicked.

  I took a deep breath to refrain from slamming the phone down onto the receiver. I wasn't a violent person, but I swore the next time I saw the good doctor, I was going to punch him in the face! This was getting ridiculous!

  The rest of the night was slow – boring. I found that the entirety of the ER believed Mr. Fargo died from a self-inflicted GSW and that I was imagining things with the cop story... I was the only one who thought – no, knew—differently. I got more than one strange look when I questioned my co-workers, so I gave up on them. I knew the truth and I was going to find out why I was the only one to remember.

  If Mr. Fargo was bitten and killed... murdered... by a person, why did the cop want it covered up?

  Before I left the hospital for home, I dialed Matt's number again. He didn't answer.

  “Hey, this is Matt. Leave me a message.”

  “Hey, please give me a call. Some weird shit happened in the ER tonight that I'm still trying to wrap my brain around.” I wasn't sure what else to say. “And it didn't involve Amante, for your information. Please just call me when you have a sec.” I ended the call and stared at the pic of Matt on my contact list. Where was he? Was he simply avoiding my calls? That meant he was mad at me, but why?

  “You headed over to Matt's?” Marie asked as she passed me on the sidewalk.

  I looked up from my phone. “No... why would I?”

  “Oh yeah... you guys are on the down-low,” she laughed. “It's okay, I can tell by the way he looks at you that he's in love. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me.”

  I laughed. Marie thought Matt was in love with me. “Wait, how does he look at me?”

  “Like a man in love,” she called, further down the sidewalk now. “See ya girl!”

  He doesn't love me... he's mad at me. Mad at me for kissing Dr. Amante. Wait... Why would he be mad at me for that unless... he was jealous. Matt was jealous. Could Marie be right? Could Matt be in love with me?

  Thank you for reading book one of Thicker than Blood! If you liked the story, please leave me feedback here!

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