Left to Kill (Adele Sharp #4) - Blake Pierce Page 0,61

shook his head. “I send it to the agents in charge. Anyone else, they can send it to. I have patients to take care of.”

“Yeah? Well, that girl has been imprisoned for five months against her will. Tortured. Maybe having that goon smother her isn’t the best idea. Think of that?”

She turned before the doctor could reply and stomped away. She spotted two other BKA agents at the top of the stairs, looking down the hall.

The blond agent by the door was gesturing at these new arrivals. Backup. The one who John had knocked down was on his feet, glaring, his hand on his belt.

“I need you to stay there,” he said, frowning at Adele.

John pointed a finger at him, interpreting the man’s posture, and in French snapped, “If you want some more, I can give you some more!”

Adele held out a hand. “Fine. It’s fine,” she said. She glared at the four BKA agents now closing in like wolves. “We’re leaving,” she said.

“You can’t let them leave,” said the agent John had knocked down. He was looking at the woman also standing by the door.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed agent frowned. She stared at Adele, then glanced through the door at Amanda. She cleared her throat. “You’re leaving?”

Adele held up her hands. “We’re out of here.”

“Let them go,” said the blue-eyed agent.

Adele couldn’t quite feel gratitude, but she did feel a sense of relief.

With John in tow, still shooting glances and growling toward the agent he’d knocked down, they moved back toward the elevator. The two other agents who’d arrived parted, allowing them through. Adele and John stepped onto the elevator, and Adele hit the bottom floor.

In the quiet of the cabin, as they descended, Adele could hear John breathing. A heavy, rustling sound. The breath of a man with adrenaline pulsing through him. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“He shouldn’t have touched you,” said John.

Adele wasn’t sure what to make of this. So she simply said, “Thank you,” again.

John squared his shoulders and brushed his hair back. He normally used gel, and a couple of strands were now dangling in front of his face, out of place. He smoothed them back and looked at her, his straight nose and strong jaw casting shadows across the rest of his face in the dim elevator lights.

“Anything? She looked in a bad way.”

Adele nodded. “Kept going on about a garden. How they weren’t allowed to break the plants, or they would break their bones. Not sure. But remember the forest edge against the highway? How Amanda avoided the small saplings?”

John nodded.

“My guess is it was a learned behavior. Something about this garden. She was very careful about small plants. She wouldn’t step on them.”

“You really think their bones were broken?”

“They have definitely been tortured. In the cases of some of those bodies that were found five years ago, four years ago, there were broken bones. Amanda’s arm had a badly set break.”

John shook his head in disgust. He scratched at the scar beneath his chin, and the elevator door dinged open.

The two of them moved through the lobby. Adele spotted hospital security standing at the counter, talking to one of the nurses. The nurse waved a hand in their direction, and the security looked up.

“We were just leaving,” Adele called out.

They moved through the hospital doors. John retrieved his keys from the nurse who was still drinking from his thermos. He frowned at John, but Agent Renee said, “Thank you, buddy.”

The nurse just watched, sipping soup, as John and Adele returned to their vehicle.

They got in the car without a word. There was the zipping sound of seatbelts and then a click. Adele leaned back as John gunned the engine and began moving away. “Where to?” he said.

Adele sighed heavily. “Amanda was barely coherent,” she murmured. “But she was saying something. Kept going on about number seven. But also… also,” Adele frowned, staring through the window, “she kept saying something else…”

“Saying what?”

Adele turned to John. “They.”

John glanced at her, and Adele quickly said, “Eyes on the road.”

He swerved sharply, avoiding a car that was merging from the hospital. Once they settled again, John said, “They? What do you mean?”

“She kept saying that. They. They let us in the garden. They break bones.”

“The other victims?”

“No, it sounded like she was talking about the perpetrators.”

“All right… And?”

“And,” Adele said, quietly, “I think there’s more than one attacker. I don’t think our killer works alone.”

As she spoke these words, they rang true in her ear. The two of