“This is insanity,” Amy argues.
“And I like it,” Tellar adds.
“It’s not ideal,” Liam replies, “but I don’t have a better idea on such short notice. Derek Ethridge, a close friend of mine, is picking up Dr. Murphy. His real-estate holding company has properties in the Hamptons that are vacant in the off-season. We can use one of those. We need to decide who goes with Chad and who goes with Tellar.”
Though it kills me to think about Gia being on her own with strangers, I know it’s the right choice. “Everyone has to go with me or it’ll look suspicious. Even Tellar. He puts her in the car with Dr. Murphy and Derek and then joins us at the front of the building.”
“You don’t have a decoy,” Amy points out.
Tellar grins. “I know a girl named Coco. Don’t let the name fool you; she’s ex-Special Forces, and she’ll do anything just to prove she can do it.”
“Okay then,” I say. “Try to reach her.”
He powers up his phone and punches in a number. “Hey, Coco. I have a dare for you, but you have to be at Mount Sinai Hospital in thirty minutes.” He pauses a minute and says, “Wear that under your coat and plan to leave everything behind. We’ll make it worth your while. Great. Yes. See ya, honey.” He ends the call. “Coco is in, and she has her own hospital gown. There’s a story behind it that I’ll tell everyone over tequila when we get to the safe house.”
“Safe would be telling me those calls are not traceable.”
“I’m a sniper, not a Sunday school teacher.”
“Killing people and knowing how to stay alive yourself are two different things.”
“Things which, I suspect, we both do well.”
“Not well enough, or Sheridan and his cronies would be dead already,” I reply. “How do you know Dr. Murphy’s phone isn’t monitored, considering her connection to Sheridan?”
“She has a disposable,” Liam replies. “And so does Derek. Anyone Amy might need on an emergency basis has one.”
Amy hugs herself and grimaces. “There’s nothing about this plan that feels safe.”
“There’s nothing about leaving Gia here that’s safe,” I assure her.
“We need an exit plan,” Tellar says. “I’ll scout the building.”
“Get me a computer,” I say, “and I can hack the hospital floor plan and Gia’s test results and treatment plan.”
Liam glances around and then walks over to a man on a MacBook, speaks to him for a moment, and then hands him a wad of cash. He returns and hands me the computer. “Hack away.”
Power. Money. Liam Stone has them. People who have them, like Sheridan, usually want more. Tuning out Tellar and Amy, I close one of the two steps between myself and Liam and stand toe-to-toe with him. “Circumstances dictate that I trust you. My sister’s love for you dictates I trust you. But hear this, Liam Stone: Don’t hurt my sister—or I will choke the life out of you and burn your body to ashes, like I did the hired hand who set our house on fire.”
I turn and walk away, cranking up the computer and getting busy.
Liam, Amy, and Tellar are quick to join me, without comment about my confrontation with Liam. In all of three minutes I have hacked the hospital’s computer system, and my first order of business is to pull Gia’s file and download her test results, which I text to Liam to pass on to Dr. Murphy.
The reply is almost instant. “The arsenic levels are low,” he reports, “but there’s a second drug in Gia’s system, a sedative used before surgery that frequently causes people to lose pieces of time.”
I glance up from the computer, where I’ve just pulled up the ER floor plan. “That explains why she doesn’t remember what happened to her.”
“The good news is it doesn’t impact the toxicity of the arsenic, and there is a plan for treatment. We just need to get Gia out safely.”
That’s something I’m ready to have happen now, not later, and I start the conversation about how to execute a plan with that result. Ten minutes later, we have plotted our exit strategy. Twenty minutes later, Derek and Dr. Murphy are at the side door by the ER. Liam and Amy are in the SUV that is pulled around to the front, and Coco has arrived. Petite, brunette, and proper-looking, she is nothing like what her name and her ownership of a hospital gown suggest. Hugging her black trench coat around her, she waits for her moment and follows another visitor through the ER door.
Tellar and I are on her heels, following her down a corridor and slipping behind a curtain. Gia is lying in a bed, her lashes dark half-circles on her pale cheeks, unaware there are three people standing in her room. As Coco shrugs out of her coat and removes her shoes, I go to Gia. Tellar turns off the heart monitor so it won’t buzz when I pull the leads off.
“Gia,” I whisper softly.
Her lashes lift, eyes glassy. “Chad? You came.”
It kills me to think she believed I’d leave her. “I never left. I found you. I brought you here, and now I’m going to take you someplace safe.”
“And leave me?”
“No, but you’re going to go with Tellar, the friend who helped save you, and he’s going to get you to a doctor. I’ll be there soon.”
She glances at Tellar, who’s leaning over the bed now, and then back at me. “Promise?”
“Yes, sweetheart, I promise. It’s going to get scary, though.”
She tries to smile. “You need me to make a bomb?”
“Yeah,” I say, smiling back at her as I pull out her connections to the machine. “Yeah. To blow up Sheridan’s house.”
“That would be . . . fun.”
How she manages that word despite the kind of pain I see etched in her face, I don’t know, but my admiration for her grows every second I’m with her. “We need to take your medication with us,” I explain as Tellar hands me two IV bags and I lay them on top of her. “You need to hold onto these tightly. No matter what, hold onto them.”
“Yes. Okay. I don’t . . . remember what happened.”
“Remember me. And us.” I lean down and whisper in Gia’s ear. “Alone isn’t better. You were right.” I stand then and look at Tellar. “Let’s do this.”
He nods, scooping up Gia, and I turn and do the same with Coco, who pulls her coat over her head to hide her identity. I inhale and I exit the room in a rush, and a nurse comes after me. “What are you doing? She’s not discharged.”
“She is now,” I say, pushing through the double doors and entering the lobby. It kills me to know I’m leaving Gia behind.
SEVENTEEN
I EXIT THE HOSPITAL to find the open door of the SUV waiting for me, and I huddle down to allow Coco to climb inside. She quickly scoots across the seat and gushes, “That was a rush,” pulling her coat around to put it on, perhaps the only one of us enjoying this.
Joining her inside, I slam the door shut and shout, “Go, Liam!”
He accelerates and calls over his shoulder, “Any trouble?”
“Not on our end.”
“Is she out?” Amy asks, twisting around in the seat. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” I say, already punching in Tellar’s number. “Coco and I were the distraction. We couldn’t tell what was happening with Tellar and Gia.”
Coco pulls some flat shoes out of her coat pocket. “The staff was disorganized,” she observes, “and Tellar’s good at what he does. I have no doubt they got out. The real question is if they got away from whoever they’re trying to escape.”
“Voice mail,” I announce at the sound of the beep I don’t want to hear, already hitting Redial.
“He won’t answer when he’s on the alert,” Coco says. “That’s how he’s trained.”
“How did Gia seem?” Amy asks. “Could she talk?”
“She was weak,” I say, “but more coherent than the last time I saw her.” I punch Redial again.
Coco covers my hand. “You don’t want him to answer to comfort you when he should be focused on protecting your woman.”
My woman. I barely
have time to process the rightness of those words, when my phone rings and I answer with, “Tell me she’s okay.”
“We forgot to warn her that the doc isn’t working for Sheridan.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah. She freaked out, and proved she has a whole lot of fight in her, but it took a lot out of her. She’s hurting. Badly.”
Pain. That’s what being ‘my woman’ does for her. “Can the doctor give her something to help?”
“She has, and we’re waiting for it to kick in.”
“You have a black sedan in your lefthand mirror,” Coco warns Liam softly. “I assume that’s what you want—to be followed so the others aren’t.”
“I heard that,” Tellar says over the phone, “and while that was the idea, it’s become a problem.”
“Why?”
“Apparently Gia’s nervous system is reacting to the arsenic at a higher level than expected from her test. Dr. Murphy recommends the blood transfusion she was hoping wasn’t necessary, and she wants to do it now, not later at the safe house. Any of us here would do it, but she’s A positive and hard to match. Liam’s O negative, the universal donor.”
I lower the phone. “Gia needs a blood transfusion.”
“I’ll do it,” Liam says, before I can even ask.
“I heard again,” Tellar says. “The van we’re in is large enough to do it on the road, but that means we need you here with us.”
I curse, and think a moment, then lean forward between the seats to tell Liam, “We’re going in the front door of the JW Marriott Essex House near Central Park and out the back, but try to lose the tail before we do.”
“Got it,” he says, cutting hard to the right, forcing Amy and me to hold on to steady ourselves.
“That’s five blocks from us,” Tellar says, still listening in. “We’re dropping Derek at the corner to grab a cab and get out of this, and then we’ll head straight there. I’ll text when we arrive.”
He ends the call and Liam continues a wicked cycle of lane changes, dodging pedestrians and turns, that has Coco laughing with approval. “A few more radical moves like that one and no one will keep up.”
Digging my phone out of my pocket, I offer it to Coco. “I believe they’re using this to track us. When we get to the hotel, I’ll carry you in to keep up the show that you’re Gia. Once we’re inside, you need to get a nice room. Order food and a movie, whatever floats your boat.” I pull cash from my pocket and hand it to her. “That should allow you to go shopping afterwards.”
She grins. “I do enjoy it when Tellar calls. What do you want me to do if the phone rings?”
“Ignore it.”
“And when I leave?”
“Destroy it. They’ll call Liam if they want me.”
The phone buzzes with a text and she glances down at it. “Tellar’s at the hotel.”
“And so are we in about sixty seconds,” Liam calls out, turning onto the street. “I’m going around to get Amy. Make sure Tellar knows Coco’s the first one exiting on the other side.”
As Liam stops at the hotel door two doormen greet us almost instantly, and I murmur an explanation about my sick wife who I need to carry inside, drawing out the conversation long enough to let Liam get to Amy. The instant he has her out of the vehicle, I scoop up Coco and dash for the door another attendant holds open for me.
“We owe you, Coco,” I say, setting her down. Then I’m on the heels of Liam and Amy, traveling the long expanse of the hotel past shops and elevators, my hand under my jacket, resting on my weapon. Tellar appears in the exit doorway and Liam hands Amy off to him, quickly following behind them. At the exit I hesitate an instant, scanning for trouble I don’t see, and then in several long strides I enter the silver van behind Tellar.
Tellar dashes for the driver’s seat and Liam, who’s sitting in the front row seat with Amy, motions me forward. “I have the door,” Liam says as the van launches into motion. “You go to Gia.”
Quickly moving past the empty second row, I find Dr. Murphy squatting beside Gia, who lies across the long back seat with blankets piled on top of her, trembling, her eyes closed. “How is she?” I whisper, kneeling beside her.
“The arsenic continues to attack her nervous system. She’s fine for a while, and then in pain.”
“And you think the blood transfusion will solve that?”
“It’s going to help push the toxins out of her body.”
“Won’t it push the medication out of her system, too?”
“Yes, but Tellar grabbed another bag of meds before he left. Don’t ask me how he managed it. I’m just glad he did.”
“Why is she shivering?”
“Nerves, shock, and the IV fluids can do that to some people.” She turns on her heels. “I’m going to get Liam’s part of this done. Shout if she needs me.”
“Thank you, doc, for everything—for taking care of Gia, and for what you’ve done for Amy.”
She squeezes my arm and moves away, while I move closer to Gia, caressing her cold cheek. Her lashes flutter, then lift, and seeing the awareness in those blue eyes is heaven. “Hey,” I say softly, covering her hand with mine.
“Hey.”
“How are you?”
She wets her dry lips. “Cold.”
“I know, sweetheart,” I say, stroking her hair. “Liam’s giving blood for you now. The transfusion will help you feel better, and by the time it’s over we’ll be in the Hamptons, where you’ll be able to rest more comfortably.”
“Do you still hate him?”
“He’s not making that easy. He keeps helping and doing all the right things.”
“Such an asshole,” she murmurs weakly.
“Exactly,” I say, wondering how she can possibly joke in this condition. “Do you remember anything about what happened?”
“You. Saving me. Jared? He’s missing?”
“Yes. He left me a message and said you were with him in the subway, running from someone.”
Her lashes lower and she shakes her head. “No . . . that doesn’t feel right.”
She stirs something that’s been bugging me for a while now. How did Gia get from a subway back to that coffee shop? I frown, thinking about the SUV. Where was Jared’s laptop? I could have missed it in the chaos, but it had been in the front seat.
“Why are you making that face?” she asks.
I blink and refocus on Gia. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“You,” she repeats. “Just you.” She squeezes her eyes shut and I watch the pain flicker over her delicate features, wishing I could make it end. “Hurts. It hurts.”
“What hurts?”
“Everything.”
I start to move, to get help and she says, “No. Don’t go.”
“Dr. Murphy—”
“Can’t help. Just . . . need to close my eyes.”
I ease back down, stroking her hair, caressing her shoulders until she relaxes into steady breathing. Sleeping, I think, until I lower my head to the seat beside her, and somehow, as weak as she is, she manages to rest her hand on my head. Like she needs to know I’m here. I am here, in every sense of the word, in a way I haven’t been in a very long time.
I’m not sure how long we stay like that before Dr. Murphy breaks us up, claiming my spot beside Gia to start the transfusion. Gia’s alert, watching the blood flowing into her arm, as she murmurs, “Maybe this will make me a brilliant architect.”
Liam’s low rumble of laughter reaches us, mingling with Amy’s, while Dr. Murphy gives a conspiratorial whisper of, “Let’s hope it doesn’t make you as arrogant.”
“I heard that,” Liam calls out.
Amy laughs and joins us, introducing herself to Gia, and I leave the women to chat, going to the front of the van to conference with Tellar. “Any word from Coco?” I ask.
“Apparently the hotel makes killer chocolate chip cookies. Other than that, nothing.”
“Killer cookies. She’s a piece of work, that one.
“
“We have enough history for me to assure you that is true.”
“I won’t ask,” I laugh, noting the dimming horizon. “How much longer?”
“A little under an hour.”
I nod and turn to find Liam sitting forward, elbows on his knees, and I join him. “The famous Liam Stone in a simple van, no jacket, sleeves rolled up. Who’d have thunk it?”
“I’m much more of a simple man than you might think.”
“Prodigy. Protégé. Billionaire. You are not a simple man.”
“Humble beginnings,” Liam states, “and a father in jail for drunk driving. Simpler than you think.”
“I read that about you. I have to admit I didn’t expect you to share it quite so easily.”
“We are the sum of everything we’ve been and will be,” he says.
“Life as a math equation. Spoken like a true architect.”
“Spoken like a man who’s watched the woman he loves coming apart at the seams, after years of suppressing her past to survive it.”
“I know she’s hurt. I hurt for her, and now Gia’s become part of the same circle of lies. Thank you for what you did for her today.”
“I don’t need your thanks,” Liam says. “I need your trust.”
“Trust,” I repeat, the word playing on my tongue, unfamiliar but getting more familiar by the minute, it seems. “Amy told you about the cylinder?”
“Yes. And I told Tellar. I trust him.”
There is that word again.
“I know you spent time in Egypt, studying the pyramids.”
“Yes,” he confirms. “I did.”
“Did you know some believe the secrets of the Great City of Atlantis are buried somewhere beneath one of those pyramids?”
“I do, actually.”
“And do you know why? It’s said that they could harness the power of the universe, and such power corrupted those who used it and they self-destructed. The secrets to that power are said to be protected so that it can’t happen again. The moral of the story being that power corrupts. I believe you are honorable right now. I can’t know that won’t change.”