Trapped by Them novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Sewing Box

I kept my hand in my coat pocket, flat over the recorder.

"Something of yours?" I said. "I don't think so."

Janelle's smile did not move.

"Tobias texted me a few minutes ago," she said. "He said he had my recorder, and that you were bringing it down."

"He didn't."

"Larissa." She came closer, still holding both coffees. "It fell off a shelf in the clinic. It's mine, and it has nothing to do with you."

"Then you won't mind me keeping it until Tuesday."

Something behind her kind eyes went flat.

She set the coffees on the nurses' station, one at a time.

The warmth went out of her voice.

"You think you're clever," she said softly.

"You're a girl who fixes old books, in a hospital where you don't belong."

It was Lachlan's coat. I had grabbed it from his hall.

"Give it to me," Janelle said, "or I walk to security right now."

She did not blink.

"I'll tell them you broke into a locked clinic and stole hospital property."

"Go ahead."

"I will."

"Then tell them what's on it."

She stopped.

A door opened behind her.

Tobias stepped out of the on-call room in his scrubs, a stethoscope around his neck.

He looked from her face to mine.

"Janelle," he said. "You're up late."

The sweetness came back over her face at once.

"Just bringing everyone coffee," she said brightly. "I'll see you Tuesday, Larissa. I've reserved a good seat."

She picked up one cup and walked away, and her heels clicked down the corridor, even and unhurried.

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