A Book of Spirits and Thieves (Spirits and Thieves #1)(90)

Luckily, the nurse believed her.

She slowly pushed open the door to find a beaten, bloody man lying in a hospital bed, his eyelids swollen and open only a fraction, but enough to know he was awake.

“Miss Hatcher,” he managed to say, his voice hoarse and raw. “I’m so sorry about all this.”

“Sorry?” She was at his side in a second, wincing at the sight of the tubes attached to his arms and nose. “For what?”

“I’m such a fool, such a weak, pathetic fool. They’ve been watching me, all this time. I’ve prided myself on my paranoia, feeling it’s kept me safe all this time. But they were waiting. Until I had what they needed. I’ve betrayed you. And I’ve betrayed your aunt. I only wish I could have been stronger.”

“The Hawkspear Society. They did this, didn’t they?”

He nodded, then grimaced as if the small movement had caused him great pain. “I tried not to tell them anything beyond what I already revealed in my paper, but they applied some duress, as you can see.”

Her stomach lurched. “What did you tell them?”

“The Codex . . . you told me you’d seen it. . . .”

Crys went cold inside. She’d told Markus that she didn’t know where it was. “What else?”

“That your sister touched it, and that it sent her into a mysterious coma.”

“Damn it.” Markus now had all the information he needed to get the book and severely hurt her family in the process.

“I should have let them kill me.”

“No,” she said fiercely. “Don’t say that. You did what you did because they gave you no other choice. Jackie will understand.”

“She’ll never speak to me again.” His eyes filled with tears. “All our work, the amount she’s struggled these last several years, all for nothing.”

“It’s not for nothing. When did this happen?”

“I was on my lunch break. Open-faced roast beef sandwich, gravy, salad. Tea with lemon.” He exhaled shakily. “I hadn’t taken even my first bite when they arrived.”

Part of her wanted to be angry with him, but looking at him now, so baffled and helpless, she wasn’t. Markus’s minions had tortured the information out of him.

“For your sister to have this reaction to the Codex,” he managed, “it means that she must be very important and very special.”

“You’re right. She definitely is.”

After a solemn goodbye, Crys left his room, promising to come back and check on him later.

She went to Becca’s floor, her steps quickening as she approached the room and pushed open the door.

Becca’s bed was empty.

She turned and grabbed the first nurse who passed by. “Where’s my sister? Where’s Becca Hatcher?”

The nurse frowned, then grabbed the clipboard on the door, scanning it. “It doesn’t say she was moved. . . .”

“She’s not here, so she must have been moved somewhere. Where was she moved?”

Confusion crossed the nurse’s expression. “I . . . don’t know. There must have been a mistake somewhere. I’ll look into it immediately.”

Crys’s phone began to ring. She pulled it out of her bag and looked down at the screen.

DAD

“Crys.” He cut her off when she answered. “I know you’re at the hospital.”

Her legs weakened, and she went to sit down on a nearby chair. “What’s going on?”

“Markus was ready to be exceedingly patient with you. . . .”

“Dad—”

“But he knows you lied to him. You’ve seen the Codex, haven’t you?”

There was no point in denying it now. “Okay, yeah. I have. But I didn’t lie to him. I really don’t know where it is.”

“I’ve been asked to tell you to go get it and return to the bookshop. Someone will pick you up there in an hour.”

“Dad, aren’t you listening to me? I don’t know where it is.”

“Yes, I am listening. And now you will listen to me.” There was no emotion in her father’s cold voice, which had turned her blood to ice. “You brought this on yourself. I don’t know what your mother has told you, but she’s a liar. She’s manipulating you.”

“Where is Becca?” she bit out, then raised her voice. “Where is she?”

“She’s with us.”

Crys went utterly still. “With you? You mean, with you and Markus? What the hell, Dad? Why are you being like this? Is . . . is she okay?”

“She’s fine.”

“I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted the best for me and for Becca.” Her voice broke.

“I do. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” He paused, but only for one tense moment before he spoke again. “An hour. Be ready, have the Codex in hand, and all this will turn out perfectly fine.”

Before she could remind him, yet again, that she truly had no idea where it was, he hung up.

Crys stared at her phone, then yelled an obscenity at it so loudly that the nurses and patients in the hallway looked at her with alarm.

Hands shaking, she scrolled through her contacts and called her mother as she headed out of the hospital.