Slowly Devour
“Oh, so you’ve already thought this through?” Bruce seemed somewhat relieved to hear that from
Charlotte. “Okay. I understand now.”
“Right now, he’s playing Mr. Nacht. The rest of you just need to stay focused on your own
responsibilities,” said Charlotte, cryptically. “I’ll cue you in when the time is right.”
“Understood!” Bruce replied. “But do call on us anytime should things get too hot.”
“Got it. I’ll let you go,” replied Charlotte before she hung up. Then, she turned to regard Raina. “Did you
get all that?”
“Yeah…” Raina nodded. “The hospital’s mine, so they’ll take good care of Ben and Alpha even if I’m no
longer there. I’m just worried that…”
Whatever she wanted to say next need not be explicitly articulated. It was apparent to Charlotte that
the medical staff would defer to representatives from the Nacht family if any of them came by.
“Hard to say for certain.” Charlotte was in the opinion that there was nothing Chris and Jesse wouldn’t
do. “Do you have any other facilities to recommend?”
“H City’s top three hospitals are Kindness Hospital, Serene Hospital, and the other one belonging to the
Gold family,” Raina said. “I can’t guarantee whether the doctors will be able to treat Alpha, but Ben’s
condition will require Dr. Wright’s personal attention…”
“What shall we do then?” That got Lupine quite worked up.
After some thought, Raina said, “Just leave him over here. I’ll try to stall things for a couple of days to
give Alpha time to stabilize post-surgery. Then we’ll see how to take it from there. Though I may be
from the Nacht family, my hospital isn’t under their purview as there are other shareholders and
government officials that we would need to answer to. In view of that, the Nacht family won’t likely
attempt anything too crazy.”
“Good.” Charlotte nodded. “Stall a couple of days for Alpha’s condition to stabilize, and then have her
sent home to recuperate. Hayley and Sam will still be around anyway.”
“That’ll work.” Raina nodded profusely. “They are safe with me. At the very least, they haven’t proven
themselves to be that brazen, to date. If nothing else, Alpha is Mr. Lindberg’s kid, after all.”
“True that.” Charlotte sighed. “But we should still leave a few people here to keep watch.”
Then, she patted Raina on the shoulder. “I’ll see to these arrangements myself. You should get back to
it.”
“Okay.” Raina removed her mask and gloves. “As Bruce put it, Ms. Lindberg, the two of us have
absolute faith in you. Whenever you are in need, just say the word!”
“Thank you!” That made Charlotte feel warm and fuzzy inside. “Now hurry along.”
Raina went off quickly.
While Lupine watched her leave, she could not help but ask, “I’m worried, Ms. Lindberg. Even though
they won’t dare to lay a finger on Alpha, Ben’s from the Nacht family. Wouldn’t it make things too easy
for that imposter if he wants to get rid of him?”
“When the time comes, we’ll take Ben with us to Northridge.” Charlotte was absolutely decisive. “Ben’s
currently in a coma and isn’t going to be a problem for them, so I expect that they aren’t going to bother
with him since they presently have more important things to worry about. Besides, we still have Bruce
and Gordon we can count on.”
“You’re right about that…” Lupine let out a brief sigh of relief. “I also saw a few of Bruce’s guys with Ben
just now, and they’re all people who Bruce trusts.”
“Yes.” Charlotte nodded. “But still, we should station some of our own at the hospital, just in case.
Gordon’s got two, but we ought to add a couple more. Go look into it.”
“Understood.”
Lupine and Charlotte set off for Northridge once everything was settled.
En route, the manpower issue got Lupine quite concerned. “Bruce and Raina are currently unavailable
to us. Out of those eighteen people we have, four will be posted at the hospital. Another four will be out
looking for Mr. Nacht with Gordon, and the remaining eight are back home with Morgan. Should
anything else happen, we’ll find ourselves short-handed.”
“This is exactly what wily old fox had in mind when he got Chris to send Bruce and Raina away. By
preventing them from helping me, he intends to leave me helpless to react, and facilitate his own efforts
to slowly devour the Nacht family’s wealth…” Charlotte seethed between gnashed teeth.
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