There was silence on the other end and Maggie was biting her lip to keep from laughing. Sebastian cleared his throat several times before answering. “Just hurry up and get back.”
He hung up before I could respond and Maggie and I burst into laughter. “Oh my God, that was hilarious.”
We pulled up to the hospital in no time and made our way over to the hospital entrance. Maggie was all stealthy despite her large belly, whereas I was clomping all over the place and making a ton of noise. She spoke to someone at the front desk and then we slipped into the stairwell and headed to the fourth floor.
“Why did she let us up? Isn’t it too late for visitors?”
“She’s a friend. Don’t worry. We’re covered.”
Maggie peeked out the door and then let it fall closed. “Alright, I’m going to be the lookout for the guys while you go visit Jackson. I’ll come get you if I see someone coming.”
I nodded and headed down the hallway. There was someone outside his room, but the closer I got, the more confused I was. What the hell? I stopped just feet from him and stared. He was staring right back, looking pissed as hell.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“How come you’re not dead?”
We both glared at each other and then Jackson spoke. “What do you mean why am I not dead?”
“I overheard Becky on the phone and she said that you were in the hospital and you had collapsed and they didn’t know how long you were going to make it. I thought this was my last chance to see you.” I sighed. “Well, I guess this was a wasted trip.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
I peeked around him to see who was in the room and gasped when I saw Gabe sleeping in the bed. He looked so pale, but still just as strong even in his sleep. I shook my head in disbelief. I didn’t know these people well, but I felt like I was losing family at the same time.
I turned back to Jackson, but couldn’t speak. Down the hall, a man that I recognized all too well was walking toward me. He was speaking to someone on the phone and then was practically running.
“Jackson,” I whispered, taking a step back. My heart pounded in my chest as I took another step back. How had they found me? Were they looking for me or was this a coincidence? If I had led them here with my foolishness, other people could get hurt. What the hell had I been thinking? I spun around and ran down the hall, hoping like hell that I could make it out of here alive.
“Raegan!” Jackson shouted from behind me. He couldn’t leave his post and I wouldn’t stick around to bring hell down on him.
A man appeared at the end of the hall, dressed in black and holding a gun that could only be meant for me. So much for hospital policies about guns. I turned down another hallway, hoping to get to the other side of the hospital and a different elevator or stairwell. I followed the signs for the elevator, taking twists and turn, wondering why this hospital was such a maze. I was just about to the elevator when another man stepped out from a different hallway. I recognized him too. Spinning around, I made to run back the way I came, but there was another man rounding the corner at the other end of the hall. Maggie came out of nowhere, grabbing my hand and bursting through the door to the nearest stairwell. She was practically dragging me down the stairs, which was unbelievable.
“If only I was pregnant, I might be able to run as fast as you,” I panted with each step. Bullets started pinging off the railing and Maggie moved us toward the outside of the stairs, stopping on the third floor and pushing into the door to the third floor. We saw Cap in the distance, but there was also a man standing between him and us. Suddenly, a hard arm was wrapped around my throat and pulled me backward. I stumbled and Maggie heard me. She spun around and looked back and forth between the men closing in on us and her husband who was too far away. He couldn’t fire from this distance without risking hitting someone.
Maggie started slowly backing up and I wanted to yell at her to stop moving in that direction, but the arm around my neck was too tight. When Maggie bumped into the man behind her, a look of shock crossed her face and then she grinned. I almost didn’t see her flick open the knife or slam it back into the guy’s thigh. It must have been really good luck, because he immediately yelled and fell against the wall while blood poured down his leg. I was too stunned to do anything else, but the arm around my neck disappeared and I was being dragged off again. I barely registered that it was Jackson pulling me behind him, heading across the hospital to a different exit.
Glancing back, I could see members of Reed Security rushing around the men that had been dropped. We stopped just at the end of a hallway and Jackson pulled out a gun from the back of his pants.
“Do you know how to use this?”
“I wouldn’t be a very good gun moll if I didn’t.”
“Point and shoot,” he said firmly.
I rolled my eyes. I had just said that I knew how to use it. I held it up and checked it out, accidentally pulling the trigger when I was looking at it. The bullet pinged off the wall as Jackson threw me to the ground.
“I didn’t tell you to fucking shoot a wall!” he whisper-yelled at me.
“I didn’t think you would give me a gun that didn’t have a safety!”
“The trigger is the safety.”
“Maybe tell me that next time.”
“You just said you were a gun moll,” he shot back.
“Yeah, well, my training only goes as far as point and shoot.”
He swore and pulled me to my feet. “Just don’t point that anywhere near me. You only pull the trigger if I’m not in front of you.” He turned to go, but then stopped and looked back. “Don’t pull it if I’m in your peripheral either.” He slightly turned and then stared at me once more. “You know, you really don’t need that. How about I just take that back from you.”
He took my gun, which kind of pissed me off, and started down the stairs of a different stairwell. I followed, irritated that he wasn’t letting me have a gun. I wouldn’t have put my finger anywhere near the trigger in the first place if he had just told me it didn’t have a safety. Jackson stopped outside the next door and pulled me to his side.
“Shit, we’ve got company. You know any of these guys?”
I looked through the small window and nodded. “Yeah, the one yelling at everyone. He’s one of the guys that used to work on transport with Xavier.”
“Looks like his loyalties have changed. How many guys did you see over the years?”
“Xavier met with a lot of people at the house. I don’t know all their names, but if I saw them, I could identify them.”
“Looks like you just became someone they don’t want around anymore.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Cap.
“Yeah, I’m boxed in. I’ve got Raegan with me and these assholes aren’t too happy she’s alive. She knows too much…Southeast stairwell…Yeah, I gotcha, Cap.”
He peered through the window again and then pulled me into the corner of the stairwell. “Here’s the plan. Cap’s making a diversion-”
He didn’t finish his thought. He spun me behind him, shoving me into the corner and firing at someone below us. Bullets pinged all around me and I screamed like a little girl. “Now would be a really good time to give me a gun!”
“Get up the stairs!”
I took off up the stairs as the large window in the stairwell exploded from gunfire. I yelled again, shielding my head from any stray bullets that could be flying around. Jackson grabbed my hand and pulled me with him as he jumped out the window that wasn’t completely broken and crashed through it, dragging me with him. I screamed, wide-eyed and terrified, as we plummeted from the second story window down to the grass below.
“Roll into it!”
We landed, me awkwardly on my feet and then flying forward to my hands and knees. Jackson landed on his feet and rolled over to stand.
“I told you to roll into it!”
“Yeah, as we w
ere jumping out the window! I don’t even know what that means,” I yelled. “That’s something you might have explained, oh, I don’t know, before you pulled me out a fucking window!”
Jackson fired up toward the window and then was pulling me along again. It was like I was a fucking dog on a leash. We ran through the bushes around the hospital and then streaked through the parking lot. Jackson paused at the sound of beeping and then took off in that direction. We were almost there when gunfire surrounded us. Jackson shoved me to the ground, shoving a gun into my hand.
He took off without saying anything. I stared at the gun, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do. Did he mean for me to follow him? Was I supposed to be his backup or something? If I was, I was doing a really shitty job. I sprang to my feet and ran in the same direction Jackson had gone and screamed when someone started shooting at me. I ducked behind another car and peeked under the car to see where shoes were. They were getting closer. I only had one option. I stood with my eyes closed and fired, screaming with every pull of the trigger.
I was still screaming when the sound of bullets leaving the chamber finished. I opened one eye and glanced around. There were men all over the ground, none of them moving. I took a hesitant step out and kicked the first guy I came to. He wasn’t moving. The second guy was still making some gurgling noises, but wasn’t making any attempts to move. The third guy sprang up just as I was getting closer and I fired, but there were no bullets left. He grinned at me and pulled his own weapon. Not knowing what else to do, I threw my gun at his head, hoping that I could knock him out or something, but he just blocked my throw and stood on wobbly feet.
I took a hesitant step back, my eyes darting around the parking lot, trying to find a way out. Where the hell was Jackson? An engine roared to the right of me and the lights practically blinded me. I stumbled back just as the truck revved and tore forward right at the man. He drew his weapon and fired at the windshield, but then was crushed between the truck and the car that was parked across from it. The man flopped backward against the car and his eyes slipped closed.
The door of the truck opened and Jackson stepped out, still limping. His eyes were burning with anger as he stepped toward me. I swallowed hard and moved away from him, but he kept coming after me.
“Do you want to tell me why you fucking shot me?”
“I didn’t…what? Where?”
He pulled the ripped fabric away from his thigh where blood trickled sluggishly.
“It doesn’t look that bad.”
“It’s not, but why the fuck were you shooting at me?”
“Because I was trying to kill the bad guys,” I shouted.
“Yeah, with your fucking eyes closed! Who does that?”
“I was scared!”
“So, you closed your eyes and hoped for the best?”
“It was a gut reaction. I didn’t mean to do it. It just happened!”
“And did you mean to follow me and join in the action? Because you were supposed to stay right where you fucking were while I took care of them.”
“You didn’t say that,” I shouted incredulously. “You shoved a gun in my hand and ran away. I thought I was supposed to be your backup or something. Next time say something.”
“There won’t be a next time. I’m not ever giving you a gun again!”
“I’ll do better next time!”
He scoffed. “Yeah, like you might keep your eyes open? Or you’ll try not to shoot me?”
I scowled at him and stomped around the back of the truck and over to the passenger side of the truck, opened the door and hopped in.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re leaving, aren’t we?”
“Not in that truck. There’s a man’s innards all over the front. That’s not exactly being discreet.”
“Well, I didn’t know that,” I said, hopping out of the truck and stomping back around to his side. “You could have just said, ‘Hey, Raegan, we’re going to grab a different truck since I just splattered a man against this one. See how easy that is?”
“I would think the fact that there’s a dead man attached to the grill would have clued you in,” he scowled.
“I just thought you were going to get rid of him.”
“In a hospital parking lot? Where exactly would I get rid of him?”
“The morgue?”
“Sure. I’ll just walk through the hospital with a dead body and take him right down to the morgue.”
“Well, that’s where dead bodies go. It makes sense.”
Shouting drew our attention and then Jackson was grabbing me and shoving me into the truck I had just gotten out of. Then he was backing up and peeling out of the parking lot, running over the man that had fallen from the grill.
“I thought you said we weren’t taking this truck?”
“That was before more men came after us. We could have gotten a new truck if you hadn’t argued with me about the dead body for so fucking long.”
“Oh, so now this is my fault?”
He took a turn too fast and I was thrown across the truck into him.
“Well, let’s look at this rationally. You were supposed to stay in the panic room, but instead, you came here for God knows what reason. Then all these people started shooting at you because apparently, you know a bunch of shit that’s gonna get you killed. And let’s not forget that you fucking shot me when you were supposed to stay hidden, and now you just keep arguing with me instead of letting me do my fucking job.”
“I thought you were dead! That’s why I went to the hospital. And I didn’t know that people were going to show up at the hospital and try to kill me!”
“That’s why I told you to stay where you were. We didn’t know who would come after you.”
“See? I made your job easier. Now you know.”
“Yeah,” he sneered. “Now I know. The only problem is, they’re right on my fucking ass and I don’t have any backup.”
I had no idea where we were as I looked out the window. I had been too wrapped up in arguing with Jackson, but now I could see that we were going higher and higher on a large hill and the drop on my side was a little too steep for my liking.
“Can you slow down just a little? There’s no guardrail on this side.”
“That’s a good thing. Are you buckled in?”
“Why?” I asked in panic.
“Because, these assholes are getting too close and we can’t outrun them much longer.”
“So, what does that mean?”
“I’m gonna roll the truck and then set the truck on fire. They’ll think we’re dead and we’ll have enough time to get away or at least get in a defensive position.”
I nodded, trying to process what he had just said.
“Raegan, are you with me here?”
“Sure. Of course. This is totally normal for me. Why not fake my death by plummeting to the bottom of a hill?”
“Raegan, buckle your goddamn seat belt now. You have five seconds and then we’re going down.”
I scrambled to shove the belt into the buckle. The wheel jerked and suddenly, the world was tilting around me. We were spinning in circles, my body jarring with each impact of the truck against the hill. I lost count of how many times the world spun and then we rocked once more before coming to a stop upside down. The blood was rushing to my head, but I didn’t know how to get out of this situation.
“You okay?”
“Great. Ready for ice cream?” I asked.
“Stay where you are. I’m coming around to your side.” I watched as he fell to the top of the truck and then scrambled to my side. He held onto my body as he instructed me to undo the belt. He caught me as I fell and then I was shoved out the window, which I hadn’t realized was broken.
“Stay near me and don’t stand up.”
I watched as he ripped the lining out of the roof of the truck and rolled it into a tube. He went to the gas tank door and pried it open, shoving the tube of fabric inside.
> “Get ready to run,” he grinned right before he flicked a lighter and set the fabric on fire. He grabbed my hand and we bolted into the trees, only making it just inside the trees before the tank blew. The fire burned hot, but luckily, it had rained recently and the grass was still slick.
I stared at the fire burning, wondering what the hell we were supposed to do now. Jackson’s face was dirty and the light from the flames was dancing across his face. “Now what?”
CHAPTER TEN
Cap
“What the hell were you thinking?” I yelled at Freckles in the hallway of the ICU. We were outside of Gabe’s room as the doctors worked on him. They weren’t sure what happened, but he had gone into cardiac arrest and no one knew why. He’d had a concussion, but all his films came back normal.
“Sir, you’re going to have to lower your voice or I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” a nurse said in a stern voice. I nodded and she walked away, scowling.
“Raegan overheard Becky talking to someone. She said Jackson was dying and this would be her last chance to see him.”
“Becky wasn’t talking about Jackson,” I bit out. “She was talking about Ice.”
Freckles stood in shock, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. “I knew it was bad, but…Where’s Lindsey?”
“She’s with him now.”
Alarms sounded down the hall and I took off to see what was going on. Lindsey was crying and squeezing Ice’s hand as doctors rushed into the room.
“What’s going on?” she cried.
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“No! I’m not leaving!” I stepped into the room and quickly pulled her into my arms, doing my best to drag her out of the room with only one working arm. She struggled against me, yelling and crying that she couldn’t leave him. I felt her tears dripping down on my forearm and I wanted to tell her he would be fine, but I didn’t know that. He had taken a bullet to the heart. What were the chances that he would survive?
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