The Syndicate’s Bride

Chapter 7

Vanessa



“I want an investigation on Ryan.”

She clicked some keys on her computer. “Is there anything in particular you’d have me find out?”

Anything? More like everything. Still, I gave her question some thought. What was the most pressing discovery at this point? His flickering blue eyes? The racetrack incident? The dinner incident? Everything about Ryan leading up to this point had been, dare I say, extraordinary, and I just couldn’t focus on only one detail.

But for whatever reason, the one thing that kept nagging at me was the amount of blood that kept streaming down his arm from the wound.

“His blood,” I slipped out.

“His blood?” Alice repeated, unsure.

I ran a hand through my hair. “His wound just wouldn’t stop bleeding, Alice. It was unlike anything I had seen before.”

When I noticed the bleeding, I had been outwardly calm compared to the panic I was having within. Never in my twenty-four years had I witnessed such a sight.

She typed. “Perhaps his artery was hit?” she suggested.

I shook my head. “I’ve had my artery hit in an accident before, Alice. This wasn’t just some normal cut in his artery.”

She hummed and typed on her computer for a few seconds. I knew I sounded dramatic but the bleeding had been dramatic. It was a sight I never wished to see again.

“Noted, ma’am. Anything else?”

At her question, I remembered doctor Miller.

“Have you heard from the doctor?”

“Yes,” she said, expressing confusion. “He told me you paid him generously and sent him back. Shouldn’t you know this?”

What? I breathed out the anxiety building in my chest. “I never even met the doctor, Alice.”

Silence. “What?”

Something creepy was going on and I didn’t like it one bit.

“Ryan’s caregiver said a doctor named Brown took care of him. I think he refused Miller, maybe he has some secret illness that he doesn’t want anyone knowing about?” Even as I voiced out my reasoning, I felt unsure. “Can you search for any underlying illness too?”

“Noted, ma’am,” Alice replied smoothly. Anything else?”

I scanned my head to find any other suspicious act of Ryan’s but the only other thing that cane to mind was our engagement.

The only reason I agreed to the engagement was because father commanded me to see it through. While I knew the engagement was a business arrangement between our fathers, Ryan never once mentioned why he agreed to the engagement.

And it never crossed my mind to ask.

“Find out the reason he agreed to the engagement and his intentions towards me.”

“Noted. Would that be all?”

Satisfied for now, I reply, “Yes. Thank you Alice.”

“Always.”

I ended the call with a sigh of exhaustion. There was a feeling of eagerness building within me at the thought of the mysteries I could be exposing in the cause of this investigation, but at the same time a nagging feeling in my mind told me this investigation was a start of things I might regret getting myself into.

***

After making necessary preparations, the hospital was nice enough to give me a room to shower and change out of the overalls I had been wearing since the previous night.

Since the guards were watching over Ryan in my absence, I took my time washing off filth and dried blood from my body.

By the time I was fully dressed, I left my room and headed for Ryan’s to check in on him but was stopped in the hallway by one of the guards.

He dipped a bit to my height, an indication that whatever he had to tell me was confidential. “We caught the nurse.”

I stared at him in shock. “Good job,” I started walking ahead of him. “Take me to her.”

“She’s dead.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned to him. “What? How?”

“She refused to speak when asked, so we eliminated her.”

Eliminated her? Don’t make me laugh. “You killed her.” I corrected. “On whose f*****g orders?”

The one thing I despised the most was indiscriminate killing, an act Mr. Logan was proud off. Growing up, I had witnessed men die by his hands for grave sins or even in less serious circumstances when he had a bad day and someone so much as breathed on him the wrong way. Only the rich and powerful could commit senseless crimes like that and get away with it.

That was why I despised the rich and powerful.

Coldly, I looked him in the eye. “Moving forward, unless I tell you to move, you will not move. Unless I tell you to sleep, you will not sleep. Unless I tell you to f*****g kill, which I will never, you do not f*****g kill. Do you hear me?”

He looked away from my gaze probably out of discomfort. “Those orders were given by your father, Miss. We are under instruction to eliminate whoever threatens your safety.”

“I don’t f*****g care!” I screamed. “My father this, my father that, my father isn’t f*****g here so until I give you an order, you do nothing.”

Without waiting for a reply, I turned away. “Take me to the body.”

The fake nurse’s body was laid in an autopsy room in the hospital. Surprised at how they managed to keep her there without getting caught, I asked the guard how he did it. When he mentioned my father’s involvement, I immediately understood.

Like I said, only the rich and powerful get away with such things.

The guard slightly peeled open the black sheet used to cover the body, making me gag at the stench. She was laid on her stomach, her back only in view.

“Why is she placed this way?” I asked.

He looked uncomfortable as he answered. “We shot her in the head. We figured you wouldn’t want to see that.”

I blinked at him. I wasn’t sure if I should be grateful so I ignored his reply. “Did you at least notice anything?”

He nodded and wordlessly peeled the sheet further until it rested on the lower point of her back.

I saw the writing right away.

In red colour, on her lower back, were the letters AR. I looked at the guard. “Do you know what it means?”

He shook his head and I exhaled in frustration. More dead ends.

I tried to rack my brain for any possible explanation. What exactly could AR stand for? Was it a name? A sign? A warning? A threat even? It was a puzzle I just couldn’t solve.

Defeated, I left the guard to take care of the body and returned to my room.

The lack of leads was beginning to frustrate me to no end and Alice hadn’t gotten back to me yet which only made me restless.

I thought back to Ryan and his icy blue eyes, super human speed and mysterious persona. Why did nothing about him add up? He was strange and strange things always happened when he was around.

He’d been called many things: cold-blooded, deadly, dangerous. Added to the list now was his abnormal bleeding and his refusal to see the doctor I sent to treat him. His action wasn’t something you could simply understand.

He definitely had otherworldly features, something akin to a super hero, characters that could only be built with magic – which was far from the point – or technology.

Technology.

I sat up in my bed. Technology. That seemed to be the only logical option – Artificial intelligence created by his father. I thought back to the fake nurse and my eyes widened at a new thought. Maybe the A from the AR meant ‘Artificial’.

I didn’t really understand my thought process but it was the most logical conclusion I had come to for the first time since the beginning of all the incidents so it seemed worth investigating.

If I wanted to confirm the possibility of Ryan being an AI creation, all I needed to do was check, and what better time to do so than now?

With that resolution, I made my way to his room.

Entering his ward, Ryan laid as peaceful as I had last seen him, although now he wasn’t as pale which was a good sign. Still I did a double check to make sure he was still unconscious for what I wanted to do. I couldn’t risk getting caught no matter what because what explanation would I give to exonerate myself?

Oh sorry, I was just checking to see if you’re a robot designed by your father.

Absolutely not.

What characters did robots in a sci-fi movie have? I asked myself as i gently raised his head, examining the back of his head closely. I once read on a website that those AI robots, with the right technology, could seem human-like, and in such circumstances, it was almost impossible to differentiate them from real human beings.

If Ryan did turn out to be a robot, that analysis would be true.

But one thing all robots did have in common was a chip or a power switch. All I had to do was find that.

Unsuccessful with that search, I gently lowered his head and moved to his neck, nerves and excitement dancing in my chest at the thought of Ryan as a robot. Excited because it was a rare phenomenon to witness, and nervous because I already couldn’t keep up with the man so if Ryan did check out as a robot, things were bound to be even more uncomfortable than it already was.

After unsuccessfully searching the common places where chips were usually found in robots, I began to suspect that maybe, Ryan was an even higher classed robot that I had imagined and his chip was located in a totally different area.

So I changed my search location, running my hands down his chest to his abdomen., taking my time exploring the muscle and enjoying this soft yet muscular part of his body.

Absent-mindedly, I traced the muscle line of his abdomen, enjoying the feel of the bumps formed by his muscles and wondering what face he’d make if he woke up to me drawing shapes on his stomach.

He’d probably be livid, I thought. I imagined that cold expression of his marred across his attractive features and chuckled. His voice would probably drop an octave or two like it did when he was pissed and he’d probably say something along the lines of ‘what the f**k are you doing’ or,

“Have you had enough?”

I yelped at the voice and jumped a good distance away from him. Ryan looked at me with a blank expression, seemingly uninterested at my actions.

Why now, of all times, did he have to wake up?

My cheeks burnt and my heart pounded rapidly against my ribcage. Why the hell did you let him catch you, you fool.

I cleared my throat awkwardly and straightened out my clothes like that would somehow restore my shame. “I’ll get the doctor.” With that, I breezed out the room.

I came in later, trailing behind a doctor I had ran into in the hallway. I subtly hid behind him, hoping that at some point the earth would open and swallow me, but as he spoke to Ryan who listened to him attentively, it never did.

I blocked out their conversation, wondering how on earth I was going to explain myself to Ryan. But at the doctor’s next words, my ears perked at their conversation.

“You can be discharged to go home, just make sure to keep your wound dry and handle it with care.”

I looked at Ryan who merely nodded and continued the conversation with the doctor, asking questions he deemed important. I, on the other hand, was left puzzled.

Just the night before, Ryan had been at death’s door yet, he was being discharged the very next day. Did he somehow grow even more mysterious by the day? What could I make of this? A miracle? It just didn’t make sense.

Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket so I fetched it out and answered the call. Looking at the caller Id, my ears perked in anticipation.

“Alice.” I said smoothly

“I found some things you might want to know about Mr. Winchester.”

My heart pounded in both fear and anticipation. Was this information going to make or break me?