Page 37 of No Asylum Here

I swallowed. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Besides spy on me during an intimate moment? Or breaking into my private office and rifling through files you don’t have clearance to?”

“You were busy.”

“You should have made yourself known. I would have invited you to join us.”

He’d positioned himself in the doorway, blocking my only exit. I peered around him, looking into the hallway, but there was no one. Even if there was, I doubt they’d help.

Rook seemed to be the one be-all authority here. Defying him could be a lethal decision.

“I have work to do, sir,” I hedged, doing my best to keep my shit together. “You brought me here to help run your hospital. So, please. Allow me to do so.”

“You’re here because I want you here. You do what I say. Keep me happy, and you’ll have nothing to fear, understand?”

I gulped down the bile sizzling in my throat. “I understand, Dr. Rook.”

“I don’t think you do. The outside world barely knows this hospital exists. You have something to report, you report it to me. If I don’t care, I urge you to shut up and do as you're told, or make me care. Understand now?”

Sure. Either I have to be your simpering servant like Fredrick downstairs, or allow you to bend me over my desk to persuade you into allowing me to do my fucking job.

A shot of pain split my skull as my teeth scraped together to keep my response to myself. I’d make him regret being a misogynistic, power-hungry creep who deserved to have his license revoked.

And I had a feeling there was so much more he was hiding. I held onto the hope that Seventeen was pointing me to a trail that would lead me to all the evidence I’d need on Rook and his hospital.

“Oh, I read you loud and clear, Doctor.” I flashed him a smile that didn’t reach my eyes.

“Good.” He extended his hand, holding it out expectantly. “Now hand over the file. I won’t ask again.”

I paused, then handed him the file. What were my other choices? Either taking his tiny dick over his desk or his knife in the surgery ward. Neither were options.

He snatched the file from me and thumbed through it with a furrowed brow. “What do you know about Patient Forty-Two?”

“Nothing, that’s why I’m looking into her file.”

“Who told you about her?” he barked, the edge in his demand making me flinch. Reading me like a book, he scoffed and flung the file down on his desk, papers flying loose in every direction. “I should have known not to assign Patient Seventeen to you. He’ll use you. Manipulate you and weave you into his agenda.”

“And what is his agenda?”

For a tense beat, it seemed like he was going to snap at me again, but the mask he’d been wearing until today slipped back into place. Now, I was beginning to see the cracks in his facade, to the vile creature beneath. “Doesn’t matter. He’s a schizophrenic madman. And he’s not a doctor here anymore. He doesn’t have clearance to our patient files, not even his own.”

I froze. “He… He used to be a doctor here?”

“Yes. One of our best. Until he wasn’t.”

“So he killed his father while he was employed here? He was your subordinate when it happened? Why didn’t you say anything? And why is half the information missing from his patient records?”

“A regular little Sherlock, aren’t you? I found it cute at first, but it’s starting to annoy me.”

My eyes narrowed as I brindled what I really wanted to tell this noseless ghoul. “You could have at least mentioned that he was a neurologist.”

Rook’s brows kicked up. “Didn’t I?”

“No.”

“Well, what does it matter? Study him all you want. But don’t fool yourself into thinking you're helping him. That’s not your job.”

I blinked. “I’m a doctor who works at a mental health hospital. I’m supposed to help people.”