Why hadn’t I thought of it before?
“Do you want to rest?” Laurel asked.
Instead of answering, I asked, “Was I...raped?”
Oh God.
Was that why Reid didn’t want to have sex?
Were there diseases?
Taking a few steps toward their dining room, I had to keep moving. My words came quicker, in time with my steps along the shiny wood floor. “I need to know. I need to know if I was assaulted...sexually.”
“We should contact Reid.”
“Why? No.” My volume rose. “It isn’t his decision.” I reached for my phone in my back pocket. “I’ll call Renita. It might be too late to test.” Reid and I had just... My hand with the phone fell to my side. “Shit. It probably is too late.”
“If she’s at the hospital, you can leave a message.”
“No,” I corrected. “I mean too late as in...too much time since I was found.”
“It isn’t.”
“This morning...Reid and I...”
Laurel smiled. “I’m so glad.”
Her response made me grin. “What? Why do you care?”
“Because, psychologically, the fact that you’re ready to be intimate is a good sign. It’s a very good sign.”
“But because we had sex, they can’t test.” I let out a breath and sat again. “Why didn’t I think of this before?”
Laurel sat beside me, placed her hand over mine, and squeezed. “We don’t need Reid present. That is your choice. You have every right, legal and otherwise, to learn this information on your own. I simply believe that it’s good to have support when faced with difficult situations.”
“Difficult...” My pulse kicked up, adding to my throbbing temples. “Do you believe I was?”
“Assumptions aren’t necessary.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “How long does it take to get results?”
“You’ve already been tested.”
I sat taller. “When? How?”
“You were unconscious. As your husband, Reid had the right to authorize medical procedures. Some couldn’t wait, like the plastic surgery.”
“And a rape kit?”
Laurel nodded.
I fell back against the soft sofa. Reid thought I’d been raped. “Wait, has he seen the results?”
“No. He specifically said no one could see them until the time came, if it ever did, when you asked. He said it didn’t matter to him.”
“Didn’t matter?” My lip slid between my upper and lower teeth as I gave that some more thought.
“Lorna, it matters. He made it clear that he wouldn’t love you any less or think differently. The only thing he was told about the kit was that you tested negative for STDs.”
I let out a long breath. That was good. “I’ll call him and let him know that I want to know.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
As I reached for my phone, I confessed, “Laurel, I feel like there are so many things I should know and remember, and they’re right there. I can’t let something this large be within my reach without getting an answer. I’m sinking and now I have one thing I can control. Whether Reid can be here or not, I need to know.”
“I understand.”
I activated the screen of my phone and entered the pass code. “I’ll call Renita first and find out when she can be here and then let Reid know. Either way, I’ll have at least one answer today.”
Reid
After Mason left and I was alone on 2, I forced myself to stay focused. It was too easy to slide into my thoughts of how I would avenge Lorna. Yes, Araneae was part of the equation. I wasn’t minimizing her kidnapping or anything that happened to her.
When it came to our women, the four of us weren’t teenage boys in a locker room. There was no boasting of conquests or discussions of what occurred in the privacy of our marriage vows. That wasn’t necessarily because we were upstanding individuals. The truth was we all had done things in our lives we would rather not bring up at the dinner table. It was that within this strange family we’d begun in this tower, our wives weren’t simply present for fucking. They were not and never were considered less because of their gender. They were a part of the greater us.
Lorna shared with me how Sparrow had said something to her not long after our wedding. It was when he talked to her about her role in our lives. I supposed that talk should have come from me, but when it came to the group as a whole, it was Sparrow’s show. I had made it clear that Lorna wasn’t leaving. I did all I could to show her she was loved and wanted. He took it a step further, imploring her to be a part of not only my life but everyone’s.
For six years, we were married before any of the other women joined this castle in the sky. It would have been shitty of me to bask in an active sex life while the others were most hopelessly devoted to their hands and cold showers.
No, they didn’t say that.
While Mason was a mystery until he returned with Laurel, I knew of times Sparrow and Patrick had gone off the grid without explanation. It wasn’t often—but it happened. I’m a man and knew that they were calmer upon their return. It was usually after a big event in our world.
Our wives weren’t stress relievers, though Lorna’s and my morning hit that mark.
My point was that Sparrow hasn’t shared personal knowledge of how Araneae was dealing with what happened. I knew facts. Her pregnancy was progressing. She had the same compound in her system as Lorna and had no memories since before the women were taken to the ranch.
Did she wake crying?
Did she startle at normal noises?
I didn’t have those answers. I knew my wife and saw the unjust fear in her eyes when a tea kettle began to whistle. I found her crying in our shower and saw the effects of her captivity on her skin.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want retaliation for what had been done to Araneae. It was that I needed it for my wife.
As the morning turned to afternoon, I fulfilled my checklist.
Utilizing travel records in and out of Dulles International and Ronald Reagan Washington National, I successfully tracked the comings and goings of senators who worked with or near Edison Walters. Over the years, he’d worked as a senior legislative aide for many senators in all parties. It was his knowledge and dedication that they wanted, not an affiliation to party. Whatever the newest hot-button issue was, Edison Walters and his staff were the go-to aides. Their experience with compiling bills and wording and presenting them in committee made them highly sought after.
While the bipartisanship of yesteryears was in a wane cycle, with people like Edison Walters, he’d been around long enough to believe the wax cycle would return. He’d personally walked the halls of various buildings within the Capitol complex during the administration of the last seven presidents.
It would be wrong to assume that Edison Walters had simultaneously held the position of Top during all of over forty years. If that were true he’d reached pinnacle status in his twenties. Of course, there was no way to research the history of the top administrator of a governmental agency that didn’t formally exist.
If I wanted to take the time, I could verify the money trails and determine that additional funding was allocated before Edison Walters entered the congressional chambers. The congressional summer recess was about to conclude.