Sawyer was lying on his bed, trying to get some sleep. He glanced at his watch for the tenth time. The sun was streaming through the windows. Seemed like no one had thought of blackout blinds for this place.
He picked up his phone and pressed in Violet’s number. His guilt was starting to kick in now. He should have phoned her earlier. His excuses were weak—even he knew that.
She picked up straight away and let out a big sigh. “Perfect timing, bruv.”
He sat up in bed. The chance of sleep was long gone. “What’s up?”
He heard her slow intake of breath. “I’ve got Evan Hunter breathing down my neck. He wanted me to check up on you—find out what you’ve been doing these last few years.”
“Well, I’ll make it easy for you. I don’t want you to be next on Evan Hunter’s hit list. Check out Borneo, Alaska and Connecticut.”
“What?” He could almost hear the wheels spinning in her brain at the eclectic mix of places he’d been in the last six years.
“There’s nothing sinister to find, Violet. You know that.”
Her answer was instant. “I know that, Matt.”
“What’s Evan’s problem? No—scratch that. I know what his problem is—me. But what exactly does he think he’s going to find?”
Violet sounded annoyed. “I have no idea. He threatened to report me to the director if I didn’t get back to him with a report in two hours.”
“What? He asked you do to a report in the middle of the night?”
“Well, not exactly. He first asked me to do it five days ago. Then he gave me the two-hour time limit three days ago.”
“And you still haven’t done it?”
He could hear the casualness in her voice. “Yeah, well, I didn’t really think he’d complain about me to the director. He was just growling at me. Trying to show me who’s boss. Now you’ve given me the heads up I’ll at least go and give him that to chew over. It should be enough to finally satisfy him you’re not involved in this.” He could hear the hesitation in her voice. “How are you, Sawyer? Is everything okay? Any other symptoms?”
“Not yet. We had a little scare earlier but it’s fine. I’m fine.” He paused. “Well, actually, I’m not fine.”
There was a long significant pause at the end of the phone and he knew why. He’d never discussed anything with his sister before. He avoided personal issues at all costs.
“What’s wrong?” Her voice was quiet, almost afraid to ask the question.
“It’s Callie.”
“Is something wrong with Callie? Does she have symptoms?” It was only natural for her to jump to the most obvious conclusion.
“No. It’s not that. I kissed her.”
“You did what?”
Well, that had got her attention. Other than their last conversation, he couldn’t remember the last time Violet had ever shouted at him. But, then again, she was also defying Evan Hunter left, right and center, which was also unheard of. It seemed his sister had turned into a whole new person over the last six years. All while he’d been hiding in the outer parts of the planet.
“I kissed her.” He flopped back down on the bed. The words seemed so much worse now he’d finally said them.
But they felt so much better. It was nice to finally offload.
“Why on earth did you kiss Callie Turner?” her voice hissed down the phone. She was obviously trying to keep anyone from hearing.
Sawyer felt like a teenager. Why did any guy kiss a pretty girl? “Because I wanted to. And I think she wanted me to.”
“You mean she didn’t slap your face?”
“Not quite.”
Violet was obviously a bit stunned. “So, what’s the problem?” She hesitated a second. “I mean, this isn’t the first time you’ve kissed someone since Helen, is it?”
He let out a snort of laughter. “I think I can safely say no to that. But this is different.”
“Different how?”
She’d put him on the spot now and he didn’t quite know how to answer. “Different because I don’t want to hurt her. But there’s a definite attraction between us. And I know she feels it too.”
“Has an alien inhabited your body?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that for the first time in years you’re talking to me about your feelings. Since when have you done that?”
He couldn’t answer.
“Okay, brother, I’m only going to say one thing. I like Callie. I mean, I really like her.”
“Well, I think I like her too.” There. He’d admitted it. To someone other than himself.
“Then don’t mess this up. Don’t hurt her.” The words were blunt and straight to the point. Violet had never been one to mess around with how she felt.
“Can’t you give me something else? Can’t you tell me to handle this? You know her better than I do.” He was beginning to sound desperate, but right now he didn’t care.
“Really? Well, here’s the clincher—I haven’t been in a lip-lock with her, Matt. And I’m sorry but you don’t reach the grand old age of thirty-six and ask your sister for dating advice. That ship sailed a long time ago, buddy. Probably around the time you told everyone about my high-school crush.”
He cringed but it brought a smile to his face. He’d made a poster and stuck it up outside the school. Violet had locked herself in her room and hadn’t spoken to him for days. She still hadn’t got over it.
“So, no advice, then?”
“Absolutely not. Not on your love life anyway. Just stay safe, brother. And phone me if there’s any problem. Any work-related problem.”
“What about Evan?”
Her voice had a hard edge to it now. “Leave me to worry about him. I’m hoping I’ll be out of his hair soon enough.” She hung up before Sawyer had a chance to ask her what she meant.
He stared at the ceiling. Potential smallpox day five. Great.
CHAPTER TEN
“WAKE UP, SAWYER.”
One of the nurses stood above him. Liz? Julie? He really couldn’t remember. He sat bolt upright in the bed, not even thinking about hiding himself.
She turned sideways. “Cover yourself up, boy. And get dressed. Some guy from the DPA wants to talk to either you or Callie, and I can’t find her.”
Sawyer pulled the sheet half across his body, lifting a crumpled pair of scrubs from the floor and tugging them on. He smirked as the nurse rolled her eyes and handed him the
matching top.
He let out a laugh as she walked to the door then stopped and threw him a can of deodorant. Then something registered with him. “What do you mean, you can’t find Callie? Where can she be?”
The nurse shrugged. “I just know the guy said he had to speak to either one of you. He’s been holding for a few minutes because I tried to find Callie first. When I couldn’t, he said to wake you.”
“Where’s the phone?”
“At the nurses’ station.”
He jogged along the corridor. His brain was in overdrive. It was day seven. This had to be a diagnosis. But where on earth was Callie?
He picked up the phone. “Frank?”
“Finally. Sleeping beauty wakes up.”
“Have you got something?”
“Is this Frank? Is this the man who is supposed to be in Hawaii with his devoted and gorgeous wife, who’d bought eight different bikinis for our long-awaited vacation?”
Seven days. He’d waited seven days for this. “Frank?” He couldn’t hide the impatient tone in his voice.
“It’s monkeypox.”
“What?” Sawyer was stunned. He’d never seen monkeypox before. It had never really been on his radar.
Frank seemed to know exactly what to say. “You’ll need to examine the boys again for bites, scratches and abrasions. Monkeypox usually only occurs in Western or Central Africa but strangely enough the last known case was in the U.S. in 2003, caused by prairie dogs.”
“What?” Nothing about this made sense. His brain couldn’t process what he was hearing.
“Monkeypox can be spread by squirrels, dogs, rats, mice and rabbits. That’s why your boy had swollen glands. It’s one of main differences in symptoms between smallpox and monkeypox.”
Sawyer ran his hand through his hair. Where was Callie? He had to talk to her about this straight away. Things were starting to register in his brain. Should he have guessed this? He hadn’t given too much thought to the swollen lymph glands—even though they were unusual in smallpox. He’d just assumed it was a viral response.
“What are our options?”
Frank cleared his throat. “None, really. No known treatment. It’s less severe than smallpox and the smallpox vaccine can lessen the symptoms. But it can still be fatal—monkeypox can have a one to ten percent mortality rate. All the smallpox infection controls should remain in place.”