Chapter 7 - The Man Rook Hated
By midnight, Rook had been moved.
Not to Dominic's estate.
Not to another rehabilitation center.
To Dr. Sato's private veterinary hospital outside Bedford, where the entire rear wing was closed and every speaker had been physically disconnected from the walls.
Lena went with him.
Nobody asked whether she planned to.
Rook made the decision.
When Lakewood staff prepared the transport crate, he refused to move.
Walt tried.
Dr. Sato tried.
Dominic called softly from several feet away.
Nothing.
Then Lena climbed into the transport van and sat on the floor.
Rook walked in.
That simple.
He followed her breathing.
By 1:20 a.m., imaging confirmed what Dr. Sato feared.
A small stimulation electrode had been implanted beneath the skin behind Rook's ear.
A second lead ran beneath the muscle near his neck.
The device could produce painful electrical pulses triggered by a nearby radio transmitter.
“Not enough to kill him,” Dr. Sato explained.
Dominic stood on the other side of the observation glass.
“Just enough to make him believe the world was attacking.”
“Yes.”
Lena hated how clinical the sentence sounded.
“What about removing it?”
“Surgery.”
“Tonight?”
“His electrolytes are bad. He's dehydrated. Stress markers are extreme. I want him stabilized first.”
“How long?”
“Twelve hours if we're lucky.”
Dominic looked through the glass.
Rook lay beside Lena's jacket again.
“Do it.”
Dr. Sato nodded.
She left to prepare fluids.
Lena sat in a chair near the kennel.
Dominic remained standing.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I don't sleep much.”
“Neither do poor people.”
He looked at her.
“That was a joke.”
“I know.”
“You didn't laugh.”
“I rarely get told I'm poor to my face.”
Lena looked down at herself.
“Dominic, I have forty-three dollars until payday from a job I apparently don't have anymore.”
“Forty-three?”
“Forty-seven if I don't pay my laundry card.”
He stared at her.
She shrugged.
“I'm not embarrassed.”
“I didn't say you should be.”
“Good.”
A silence passed.
Then Dominic said, “Work for me.”
She laughed.
“No.”
“You don't know the job.”
“Does it involve mysterious warehouses, kidnappings, tortured dogs, or men with guns?”
“Potentially.”
“No.”
His mouth twitched.
“Fair.”
Lena checked her mother's video for the hundredth time.
The file contained no metadata.
No location.
No date.
Nothing.
Dominic's technical people were trying to trace the sender.
So far, nothing.
“What did she mean by what Rook heard?”
Dominic leaned against the wall.
“I've been asking myself the same question.”
“Could Rook have been wearing a recorder?”
“No.”
“You sound sure.”
“I check his harness.”
“Every day?”
“Usually.”
“Usually isn't always.”
He looked at her.
“I suppose you learned that from delivering dog food?”
“No. From being lied to.”
That landed.
Before he could answer, the hospital's exterior alarm chirped.
Not overhead.
A silent light near the security desk.
One of Dominic's men entered immediately.
“Visitor.”
“At one-thirty in the morning?”
“He says you called him.”
“Name?”
The man hesitated.
“Elias Kane.”
Lena stood.
Dominic became perfectly still.
“Where?”
“Front vestibule.”
“Alone?”
“Appears so.”
Lena's heart started pounding.
“Why would he come here?”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“To control the story.”
He instructed his men to let Elias into the conference room.
“No weapons.”
“You think he'll agree?”
“He wants to talk.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if he wanted to run, he'd already be gone.”
Lena glanced toward Rook.
“Don't bring him near the dog.”
“I won't.”
Five minutes later, Elias Kane sat across a polished table from Dominic.
Lena watched through one-way glass.
She had expected someone frightening.
Instead Elias looked almost ordinary.
Fifty-two.
Athletic.
Dark hair going silver.
Expensive navy coat.
Calm face.
On his right hand sat a black signet ring.
The same ring from the warehouse footage.
Dominic entered alone.
Elias smiled.
“Long day.”
Dominic did not sit.
“Why did you take my dog?”
Elias sighed.
“Straight to it.”
“Yes.”
“I didn't.”
“We have video.”
“Then you have doctored video.”
“The ring.”
“Half your senior staff have one.”
“Not with your initials.”
Elias looked down.
The black stone carried an engraved K.
Not V.
Lena frowned.
In the rain-blurred thumbnail, they'd assumed the mark was a V.
Could it have been a K?
Elias leaned back.
“Someone wants you to think it's me.”
“Who?”
“Mara Vance.”
Dominic's expression didn't change.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to consider why the woman who controls the warehouse appeared on the footage too.”
“She appeared beside you.”
“Did she?”
Elias smiled faintly.
“Your young clerk recovered thumbnails, not continuous video.”
Dominic said nothing.
“Eleven missing minutes,” Elias continued. “Images could be from different times.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
“What about Fletcher?”
“I've never met him.”
“His daughter?”
“No.”
“Transmitter?”
“No.”
“Sarah Mercer?”
That changed him.
Tiny.
But Lena saw it.
Elias's left thumb moved once against the table.
“You've told her.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“You knew Lena was at Lakewood.”
“Of course.”
“How?”
“Mara called me.”
Lena felt cold.
“What did she say?” Dominic asked.
“That a delivery driver had become involved with Rook.”
“When?”
“Before you arrived.”
“Why would Mara know?”
“Because Apex tracks vehicles.”
Lena looked at her phone.
Her delivery truck had GPS.
Of course.
Elias continued.
“She said Lena's route had stopped at Lakewood longer than scheduled. She was worried.”
“Worried enough to call you?”
“She knows Rook is yours.”
“How?”
“Everyone knows.”
Dominic finally sat.
Elias leaned forward.
“You're looking at the wrong betrayal.”
Dominic's eyes stayed on him.
“Prove it.”
“I can.”
“How?”
“Bring Rook.”
Dominic's chair moved back instantly.
“No.”
Elias raised his hands.
“You think I hurt him. Fine. Let the dog tell you.”
“He's blind.”
“Exactly.”
Lena's heartbeat changed.
Elias smiled.
“Rook knows me better than most people do. Smell. Voice. Movement. If I tortured him for nine days, do you honestly believe he'd forget?”
Dominic said nothing.
Elias continued.
“Put me on the other side of a door.”
“No contact.”
“Fine.”
“You make no sudden movements.”
“Agreed.”
Dominic stood.
“I decide when it ends.”
“Of course.”
Lena entered the room before Dominic could leave.
Elias turned toward her.
His eyes lingered.
“Lena Mercer.”
She didn't like the way he said it.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“No.”
“Did you try?”
“No.”
“Did you steal Rook?”
“No.”
“Did you put the implant in him?”
“No.”
He answered too smoothly.
Lena stepped closer.
“What perfume does Mara wear?”
That surprised him.
“What?”
“Her perfume.”
“I have no idea.”
“Cologne, then. Soap. Anything.”
Elias frowned.
“What does that have to do with—”
“Rook knows smells.”
Dominic watched her.
Lena walked around Elias.
Cedar.
Very faint.
The same sweetness she'd smelled on Fletcher.
The same note inside the kennel.
She stopped.
“You smell like Warehouse Seventeen.”
Elias smiled.
“So do you.”
She looked down.
Her Apex jacket wasn't with her.
It was in Rook's room.
She was wearing a hospital sweatshirt Dr. Sato had given her.
Elias noticed the mistake instantly.
His smile disappeared.
Lena's pulse accelerated.
“I haven't been wearing that jacket for hours.”
Nobody moved.
Dominic understood.
Elias stood.
Dominic's men entered instantly.
“Sit down,” Dominic said.
Elias looked at him.
“You're making a mistake.”
“Sit.”
Elias slowly lowered himself.
Lena stayed near the doorway.
The cedar smell was stronger near his coat collar.
Not warehouse residue.
Something he wore.
“Bring him near Rook,” Lena said.
Dominic turned.
“You just told me not to.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Lena.”
“Not inside.”
She explained.
Five minutes later, Elias stood in a sealed examination hallway.
Rook was inside a treatment room thirty feet away.
Two closed doors separated them.
No direct contact.
Lena sat beside Rook.
Dominic stood near the wall.
Elias was instructed to say nothing.
He took three steps into the hall.
Rook's head rose.
Lena felt it immediately.
The dog's entire body changed.
Not rage.
Terror.
His nostrils flared.
He scrambled backward.
Pressed himself against the wall.
Lena hummed.
Two short.
One long.
Rook shook.
Elias remained silent outside.
Lena whispered, “You're okay.”
Rook's lips pulled back.
A growl formed.
But he wasn't trying to reach the door.
He was trying to escape it.
Lena looked at Dominic.
“This isn't recognition of someone he likes.”
Dominic's face became stone.
Outside, Elias spoke.
“Rook.”
The dog screamed.
Not barked.
Screamed.
He launched himself backward so violently his hip struck the wall.
Lena wrapped her arms around his neck without thinking.
Rook did not bite her.
He pressed his enormous body against her.
Hiding.
A 140-pound mastiff trying to disappear behind a woman half his size.
Dominic saw it.
Something inside him broke.
He opened the door to the hallway.
Elias was already moving.
One of the guards shouted.
Elias struck him hard enough to send him into the wall.
Then ran.
“Stop!”
He hit the emergency release.
A side exit opened.
Cold air rushed through.
Dominic's men pursued him.
Lena stayed with Rook.
“Don't leave him!” she shouted.
Dominic stopped.
Everything in him wanted to chase Elias.
She could see it.
Then he looked at Rook trembling beneath her hands.
He stayed.
Sirens rose outside.
A vehicle engine roared.
Tires screamed.
Elias escaped the parking lot before police blocked the road.
Dominic stood motionless in the treatment room.
Rook's shaking slowly eased.
Lena looked at him.
“Your dog just answered your question.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Her phone buzzed.
Another message.
This time it came from Mara Vance's number.
You need to leave the hospital. Now.
A second message.
Elias knows your mother is alive.
Third.
And he knows where she is.
Then a photo loaded.
Sarah Mercer.
Standing beside a small white house.
Today's newspaper visible in her hand.
Alive.
And behind her, barely visible through the trees, was a lake Lena recognized.
Lake Champlain.
May you like
Vermont.
Home.
