Chapter 13 - THE EVACUATION
Emergency lights flooded the corridor in red.
Smoke poured from the far stairwell.
Nurses moved patients toward the opposite exit while alarms pulsed through the floor.
Claire pushed Lily’s bassinet.
Detective Grant took the front.
I swung my legs off the bed.
Pain ripped through my abdomen.
“You need a wheelchair,” Claire said.
“There isn’t time.”
Samuel lifted me before I could protest.
My body went rigid.
“Put me down.”
“You’ll tear the repair.”
“You don’t get to carry me after using me as bait.”
His face tightened, but he did not release me.
“I will answer every question if we survive this floor.”
The phrase stopped my argument.
If.
Smoke thickened behind us.
Daniel’s conference-room door stood open.
He was gone.
The officer assigned to him lay unconscious near the wall, breathing but bleeding from the forehead.
Detective Grant checked his pulse.
“Someone released Hale.”
Claire looked toward the service corridor. “Vivian?”
“Or Rachel.”
“Or Samuel’s compromised guard,” I said.
Samuel’s arms tightened around me.
The stairwell ahead was packed with patients and staff.
A nurse directed us toward the east elevators, but the emergency system had disabled them.
Lily began crying.
The sound cut through every other noise.
I reached toward her from Samuel’s arms.
“Give her to me.”
Claire lifted Lily carefully and placed her against my chest while we moved.
The moment she felt me, her cry softened.
I pressed my cheek to her head.
“I’m here,” I whispered. “I’m here.”
A hospital aide opened a maintenance passage leading to an exterior ramp.
We entered in a line.
Halfway down the narrow corridor, the fire door slammed shut behind us.
The lights died.
Someone had overridden the emergency magnets.
Detective Grant pulled out a flashlight.
“There should be another exit ahead.”
The beam swept across concrete walls and utility pipes.
Then it landed on Daniel.
He stood twenty feet away beside an open service door.
His navy suit was smeared with soot.
A handgun hung at his side.
Claire stopped pushing the bassinet.
Samuel lowered me gently to my feet and moved in front of us.
Daniel raised the weapon.
“Don’t.”
Detective Grant drew hers. “Put it down.”
“You first.”
“You are pointing a firearm at a police detective in a hospital.”
“I’m pointing it at him.”
His eyes fixed on Samuel.
“This was never supposed to involve Emma.”
I laughed bitterly. “You married me for fifty million dollars.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I married you because I was told you were the beneficiary.”
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
For the first time, his answer held something close to shame.
It did not matter.
He had still watched Vivian kick filthy water into my wound.
He had still stood on the mop cloth.
He had still forged my signature.
“Who hired you?” I asked.
Daniel glanced toward the door behind him.
“I don’t know his real name.”
“Then give me the name you used.”
“Mr. Grey.”
Samuel’s expression changed.
“You know it,” I said.
“He was Thomas Hale’s attorney,” Samuel replied.
“Was?”
“He disappeared after Thomas died.”
Daniel tightened his grip on the gun. “He didn’t disappear.”
A noise came from the service door behind him.
Someone approaching.
Daniel looked back for half a second.
Detective Grant lunged.
The gun fired.
The shot struck a pipe overhead.
Steam exploded into the corridor.
Samuel pulled me down and shielded Lily with his body.
Claire dragged the bassinet behind a concrete pillar.
Through the white cloud, bodies struggled.
A second gunshot sounded.
Then silence.
The steam thinned.
Detective Grant stood against the wall, weapon raised.
Daniel was on the floor.
Blood spread across his shoulder, but he was conscious.
The service door remained open.
A figure had disappeared through it.
“Who was that?” I asked.
Daniel gripped his wound.
“Vivian.”
Detective Grant kicked his gun away.
“Where is she going?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“The maternity loading bay.”
“Why?”
“She has the original custody documents in the ambulance.”
Claire went pale. “What ambulance?”
“A private one. Same company that was supposed to take Lily.”
We moved again.
Samuel helped me into a wheelchair abandoned near the ramp.
Detective Grant handcuffed Daniel to a railing, called his location over the radio, and followed us toward the loading bay.
Smoke rolled across the ceiling.
Outside, sirens converged from every direction.
We reached the exit.
The loading dock doors stood open.
A white ambulance waited with its engine running.
Vivian sat in the passenger seat.
Rachel stood beside the rear doors holding a gun.
The wounded security guard lay inside the ambulance.
Alive.
Bound.
Rachel saw us and raised the weapon.
Not toward me.
Toward Vivian.
“Get out of the vehicle,” Rachel said.
Vivian smiled through the windshield.
“You were always weak.”
“You were always greedy.”
“You sold Emma first.”
“To keep Samuel from finding her.”
Samuel stepped beside me.
Rachel’s face changed when she saw him.
“You,” she whispered.
Vivian started the ambulance forward.
Rachel fired at the front tire.
The vehicle swerved and struck the loading dock barrier.
The rear doors flew open.
A metal case slid out and crashed onto the pavement.
It burst apart.
Documents scattered across the wet concrete.
One page stopped beneath my wheelchair.
At the top was a photograph of a newborn boy.
Beneath it:
SECOND REED BENEFICIARY—CURRENT IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
May you like
The current name had been typed in bold.
DANIEL HALE.
