Chapter 34
They drugged me so I wouldn’t move around in the helicopter. I protested, saying I wanted to be able to see what a cool trip in a flight ambulance was, but the Doctor told me I wouldn’t have been able to sit up anyway, it would separate the bones in my spine and pelvis if I moved the wrong way. So I woke up only when I was ensconced in my new room. When I was aware enough to really see, it was a girl’s room with pretty blue flowers, frilly curtains, posters of current heartthrobs. Felice’s room. Her bed was pushed over to make room for mine and my hospital equipment.
She was sitting in a rocker, her legs tucked under her bottom and reading on her Kindle.
“Lisi,” I said wearily. She unfolded, put down her Kindle and came over to me smiling.
“Welcome to the White House, Danny boy. How are you feeling?”
“Okay. Tired. Where is everyone?”
“Checking up on things. Are you hungry? The chef is making your favorite things. Or at least, what I remember of your favorites.”
“Is it breakfast time?”
“Almost dinner.”
“Any chocolate around here?” I couldn’t see the corners of the room, just directly in front of me, wherever my eyes could see without turning my head. “Are you going to take care of me, Felice?”
“Some of it, Danny. Most the nurses will do. Your dad hired them from the hospital so they vetted clean.”
“He escaped. He’s after me, Felice,” I said softly. She took my hand and held it to her lips.
“Danny, he has to go through the entire Secret Service to get to you. And me, he has to get through me, Danny.”
I remembered how well she could shoot. “Danny, can you… do that thing again? In my head?”
I smiled. “Maybe later, Felice. I’m tired now. Think I’ll sleep. Eat, later.”
I dreamed. Wandered in my dreams looking for Daniel but he was gone. Dreamed of my Mom and Uncle Townsley, he came with her and told me they loved me. He told me he was sorry for what happened to me, that it wasn’t what they’d seen was my destiny. I asked if he thought my legs would come back, that I could still feel what it was like to run on two strong legs. Mom cradled me in her arms and rocked me like she’d done when I was little.
“You have a great girl, Danny,” she kissed me. “Let her take care of you.”
“I know, Mom. Dad, too. He still loves you, Mom.”
“I watch over you two always, Danny.”
“Are you the light I saw when I was in the vault, Mom?” I asked snuggling against her chest.
“The light is always in you, Danny. You’re a child of light. Now, Felice is waiting for you. Make her happy. Wake up, Danny. Be happy. I watch over you always and forever.”
Soft kisses woke me and a warm body was lying next to me in my bed. I reached out with my hand and stroked her from her chin to as far as my hand could stretch, felt soft T-shirt and silky pants, her softly rounded belly and hard hip bones. She let me explore and I chuckled, remembering back when my hand cupped a soft breast and been punched for it. Not so now. Her breath quickened and her hands moved, but I couldn’t feel where.
“On your penis,” she murmured, and we were there. Inside her glorious mind and then my own where I could feel her hand on me, stroking, widening as I grew under her touch.
She kissed me. In my head, and for real. Tingles fluttered in my belly and I could feel her own tidal surge of desire, her nipples hardened, her pulse racing as the wave crescendoed and spilled over, taking me with it. A slow, lingering flush of pleasure that started at the back of my head, and to my toes.
She kissed me on the corner of my eyes and whispered. “Danny, that was intense. I never imagined it could be like that.” She smiled. “Again?” We spent the whole evening lost in pleasure until she cried hunger, slipping out of bed to dress in sweats, promising to return with a feast for a king. She came back with the chef himself pushing a trolley loaded with covered dishes from which enticing smells emanated.
“Hello, young man,” he grinned. “I’ve made you all your favorites. Lasagna, garlic bread, French fries. Black forest cake. Crab cakes, sourdough bread and pound cake.”
My mouth watered and Felice carefully raised the bed up enough so I could eat, but not enough to put any strain on my back. She fed me, little bites in between her own and made a game out of it with the chef egging her on, and before I knew it, I had cleaned my plate.
Thanked the chef with a full belly and asked his name. “Chef Marcel Proust at your service, sir,” he smiled. “For breakfast tomorrow – crepe Suzette’s?”
“Those little pancakes stuffed with goodies?” I asked and he grinned.
“Let me guess, you like chocolate, oui?”
I answered him in French and astonished, he rattled off a whole line of pleased conversation to which I actually responded. “He speaks French! And with a pure Parisian accent!”
“Danny, when did you learn French?” Felice questioned. I shrugged.
“Dunno. I think Daniel spoke French. Rohan spoke Arabic and Farsi.”
“Rohan?”
“Rohan de Chevalier. He was the dude that the Colonel sent to Dubai,” I told them.
“Why?”
I looked at Chef Proust and he smiled, bowed and excused himself, taking the empties with him, but leaving the pound cake.
“Danny, the nurse will be in later to check your incision and toilet you. And then, the therapist will be in to do your exercises. Now, tell me about Rohan.”
“I think Doctor Andrews invented him. He was French from Paris, one of the lesser noble families because the Saudi I was sent to bribe wouldn’t even grant an interview unless one was of the same social status. Rohan brought him a tiercel.”
“A tiercel?”
“A female Peregrine falcon. He was into falconry. The bird was worth fifty K and only a special few with the right permits and clout could purchase one.”
“Why, Danny? Why did the Colonel send you, send this Rohan?”
I hesitated, said slowly, “Felice, that thing we do, where you go into my mind, I can do that to almost anyone. And anything.”
“God, I hope not,” she laughed. “That’s kinky.”
Felice, I said into her mind. I can read your thoughts. No, you’re not crazy, and I’m not talking out loud.
“Danny.” Her mouth hung open.
I can go into Dusty’s mind, or a bird, a cat, even mice. The only thing I haven’t been able to ‘read’ were bugs.
“Fish?” She asked out loud.
“Well, no. Not fish.” Her face darkened as she thought back to all those times when Dusty was with her in the bathroom and her bedroom.
No, Felice, I told her. I never peeped on you when you were…private.
“Can you do lottery numbers, too?”
I laughed. “No, Felice,” I said, switching it off. “All you have to do is hang up a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign in your head, and I won’t go in.”
“Like this?” It was as if she slammed the door in my nose.
I winced. “Yeah.”
“Don’t go in there unless I ask,” she threatened. I nodded, crossed my fingers and swore. She kissed me and let the nurse in who did all those things I couldn’t. She put me to bed and I fell asleep before Felice came back.