“Didn’t overdose.” Ranger tried to sit up in the bed, but the doctor laid his hand on his shoulder. The doctor appeared to be in his mid-thirties and strong enough to keep him on the bed. Not that it took much, since a toddler would probably have more strength than Ranger had at the moment.
“There was a cocktail of drugs in your system. A less healthy man probably wouldn’t have made it.”
“I didn’t take drugs. Iwasdrugged. Given spiked tea.” Ranger managed to shake off the doctor’s hand and sit up. “I need a phone.”
“What you need is to calm down. You had a massive amount of drugs in your system, as I stated. If you didn’t take them, then we need to contact the police, because you nearly died. We almost lost you twice.”
“Dr. Kirk was it? Look, I’m a professional bodyguard. Apparently I was roofied and my client is missing. I need to make a call, let the appropriate people know what’s going on. Now, please either give me a phone, or let me out of here.”
He watched Dr. Kirk digest his words before pulling out his cellphone. “Here, use mine.”
A wave of dizziness washed over Ranger, and he closed his eyes, breathing through his mouth until the feeling passed. Quickly inputting Bas’ number, he dialed, putting the phone on speaker, since he couldn’t quite hold it up to his ear. Man, he hated feeling this weak.
“Hello?”
“Bas, it’s Ranger.”
“Bro, thank goodness! Where are you? What happened?” Before Ranger could answer, Bas kept going. “We showed up at Blackthorn’s house and there’s nobody there. You were gone, Suzanna’s missing. Elizabeth Blackthorn’s gone too. And Dallas Police have a BOLO out for Donald Blackthorn.”
“Slow down. I haven’t seen Donald, but Elizabeth was there when we arrived at the house. She played the polite hostess and gave us some iced tea. And like a stupid rookie, I drank it. That’s the last thing I remember until waking up here in the emergency room.”
“Son of a—” Bas broke off his curse, and talked to somebody Ranger couldn’t quite hear. He had the feeling it was Gage. “Look, Gage got the evidence to clear Suzanna’s name of her husband’s murder. Blackthorn did it. Hired somebody to take out Steven Dawkins. He’s just been waiting for the will to finish probate, and then he was going to take out Suzanna too, giving him sole control of Dawkins, Inc. He sabotaged the microchips, delaying their launch. Steven found out about the sabotage, that’s why good old Donald had to have him killed. Well, that and once he launches the new technology, with full ownership of the company he stands to make billions of dollars.”
Ranger held his head with one hand, while holding the phone with the other. “Bro, slow down. We can talk about all that later. First, though, we need to find Suzanna. Think. If Elizabeth Blackthorn drugged us, she has to be in on everything with her husband.”
“Dang. You’re right. Gage, you heard that? It’s both Blackthorns.”
“I heard. I’ll call Jansen. Find out if the hospital is keeping Ranger, or do we need to arrange for somebody to pick him up.”
Ranger glanced up, noticing that Dr. Kirk not only hadn’t left the room, but he was listening intently to the conversation. He shook his head vehemently.
“You’re not going anywhere. We need to make sure all the drugs are out of your system, Mr. Boudreau. I told you, you’re lucky to be alive. There was enough ketamine and cocaine in your body to take down a rhino. Physically, I doubt you could stand up unassisted, much less leave the hospital.”
“That answers my question. You’re staying there. What hospital are you in?”
“Parkland,” Dr. Kirk answered. “He’ll be admitted overnight and we’ll monitor him, see how he does. With this high anamount in his body, there may be unexpected complications, which is why we need to monitor him.”
“Bro, do you want me to—”
“No, don’t you dare call Sarah. Or Carpenter. I’ll fill them in later, once I’ve wrapped my head around how I screwed up.”
“Not your fault. None of use suspected Elizabeth of being involved.”
“Stop wasting time with me. Go find Suzanna.”
“Will do. Ranger…” Bas’ voice dipped low. “Don’t scare me like this again. I don’t want to be the one to explain to Dad I let you get hurt on my watch.”
“Don’t tell him either. Better yet, don’t tell anybody in New Orleans anything, you hear me? I’m going to be fine, I got help in time.”
“Okay, gotta go. I’ll let you know when we find Suzanna.”
“Good.”
Disconnecting the call, Ranger handed the phone back to Dr. Kirk, who slid it into his white medical coat pocket.
“Thanks.”
“Sounds like there’s some excitement going on. That was your brother, I take it?”
