you’re doing this because of my father’s decisions in Afghanistan,” she said, “the joke’s on you. He couldn’t care less about me. He never wanted me, and if you kill me, it will probably be some weird relief for him. In fact, he’s already disinherited me, you know. Wrote me right out of the will. Why? Because I joined the Army and he didn’t want me to.” She really needed to shut up, but chattering seemed to help. Help her anyway.
“I don’t need the sad details of your relationship with the man,” he said in her ear. “Just shut up and keep going. Down to the parking garage.”
Goose bumps pebbled her skin and she shuddered. Paused.
He gave her a harder shove. “Go.”
Most of the people who were being evacuated from the hospital were directed out of the stairwell at the street level. It looked like Gavin was right. They were evacuating the entire building. Helicopters thumped overhead, probably waiting to take surgical patients to a nearby hospital to finish the surgery.
If she continued down, no one would even notice. She obeyed and took the next flight of stairs down. “What is this all about?”
“We’re going to go to your place and get the package your brother mailed to you.”
“The package? What package?”
He hesitated a fraction. “The one your brother mailed to you.”
“I never got a package.”
“Right.”
He didn’t believe her. “It will turn up eventually.” Dr. Kilgore knew Dustin had sent her a package. Was he the one behind all the attacks against her? But how would he even know what Dustin had mailed? Unless Dustin had said something to McCandless and she had passed the word on to Kilgore?
The list of people she could trust kept getting shorter and shorter. And the parking garage door loomed closer and closer.
Time was running out and she needed to do something fast. Defense moves flipped through her mind and she picked a series she hoped—prayed—would work.
Sarah pushed through the door and chose the moment the pressure of the weapon disconnected from the base of her spine. Still gripping the bar of the door, she twisted and swung her leg in a round kick. Her heel landed on his forearm and her would-be kidnapper cried out, losing his grip on the weapon. It clattered to the concrete floor.
Sarah spun and palm-heeled the guy’s chin. His head snapped back and he stumbled sideways, landing on the bottom step in the stairwell. He recovered and dove for the weapon at the same time she snagged it and scrambled back. “Stop! Don’t move or I’ll shoot you!”
He froze. Then laughed. “You? Shoot me?”
Terror raced through her and she said the first thing that came to mind. “I’ve killed one man, what’s another?”
The deadly chill in her voice stilled him and his eyes narrowed. Slowly he raised his hands while he worked his jaw. “So, what now? This stairwell isn’t going to stay empty for long.”
True enough, but she needed answers. “You tell me what this is all about. Did you set the fire?”
He shrugged.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“It’s not so much a fire as a distraction. They won’t even shut down the whole hospital, just a couple of floors.”
In order to allow him to keep access to the parking garage for his escape. With her in tow. “Did you shoot up the truck? Because if you wanted me alive, that wasn’t exactly a brilliant plan.”
He scowled. “That didn’t exactly go as we’d hoped.” He dropped his hands. “You’re going to take me to the package, Sarah, and we’re going to go now or someone’s going to get hurt.”
She really didn’t like him using her name like he knew her.
Footsteps clattered on the stairs. “And that’s my cue,” he said. He bolted toward her. Sarah pulled the trigger. He screamed and grabbed his shoulder even while he stumbled for the door.
“Sarah!”
“Gavin!” Gun still gripped in her hand, she spun to go after the man. “He’s getting away!”
Gavin raced down the stairs and hit the door, pushed through and into the parking garage. Security was right behind him. If it hadn’t been for the guy on his heels and his lightning-fast action with the security cameras, Gavin never would have located Sarah and the imposter who called himself Jonathan.
Sarah’s footsteps pounded across the concrete parking garage in pursuit of the man who’d attempted to kidnap her. Heart in his throat, Gavin raced after them, noticed the blood trailing, saw Jonathan stagger, then fall to his knees.