The door bangs open, Alec and Jackson rushing in, guns drawn. “Let her go!” Alec orders, but a second later, two odd plinks sound, and a hint of the hot outside air blows in. The two guards go down, Alec clutching his chest, Jackson with a blackened, reddish hole where his left eye once was.
Faruk sent a sniper.
Ford. If he comes in here…
“Wait! I manage, struggling to my knees. The room spins around me, but I force myself to stagger to my feet, bracing myself against the bed for support. “I’ll go with you. Me and Mateen. I won’t fight or scream as long as you don’t hurt Lisette. No one else has to die. Let me unhook Mateen’s monitors and IV the right way. If I don’t, he’s not going to survive the journey back to Afghanistan.”
Zaman eyes me suspiciously, his fingers still tight around Lisette’s throat. She wheezes, tears streaming down her cheeks, and stares at me like I’ve just betrayed the most sacred of trusts. If only I could tell her I’m trying to keep all of us alive long enough to get help. At my feet, the doctor’s eyelids flutter, but Zaman doesn’t seem to notice, all his focus on the boy and the myriad of tubes and wires hooked up to him.
“Lisette, I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “But think of Noele. She’s just down the hall, remember? Visiting that man in two-four-seven? If she comes back in here…”
Understanding dawns in her eyes, and she sags against Zaman’s hold. With a jerk of his head towards Mateen, he growls, “Ready him. Now. You have one minute.” I glance down at the doctor’s crumpled form, and he meets my gaze for a brief second, before he closes his eyes again. I hope he’s smart enough to play possum until we’re out of the room and then go get Ford.
My hands shake as I clamp the IV, pull it from the boy’s arm, and then cup his cheek. “Don’t worry,” I mouth. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” Out loud, I tell him, “You have to be very quiet now, Mateen. We’re going for a ride. Do you understand?”
The boy’s wide eyes shift from me to his mother to Zaman, and tears glisten in the corners. “I want to stay here,” he whines.
“I know, baby. But trust Dr. Joey, okay?” Lisette says. Pressing buttons on two of the machines, I turn off their displays, unhook the oxygen sensor from his finger, and disconnect the heart rate monitor. Please let this work.
Scooping Mateen into my arms and then depositing him into the wheelchair in the corner of the room, I meet Zaman’s gaze. “The way the machines work, someone will notice he’s not hooked up to them soon. We have to leave right now.”
He shifts his hold on Lisette, taking her by the upper arm and pressing the gun to her side. “Anyone you ask for help will die,” he warns.
“I get it, asshole.” I’m so very scared, but also pissed off. I was about to get my happy ever after, and Faruk and his lackeys want to steal me away. Again. I have to find a way out of this. For all of us.
We don’t make it ten steps down the hall before a nurse stops us. “Where are you taking him?” she asks.
“The doctor,” I nod at Zaman, “wants him to have an MRI. We’re going to radiology. He didn’t want to go without us.” Offering the nurse a tight smile, I pray she believes me.
“But Dr. Joey—”
“Hush, Mateen. Remember what I said about these tests. They’re necessary. They won’t hurt a bit.” Returning my gaze to the nurse, I shrug. “Kids. It has to be so hard for them to have all these procedures one after another after another.”
“It is.” She kneels down next to Mateen and pats his knee. “When you’re done, I’ll bring you some sugar-free Jell-O, okay, kiddo?”
Mateen looks up at me, as if he doesn’t know what he’s allowed to say. Good boy. I answer for him, “That will be great. Thank you.”
A minute later, we’re in the elevator, heading down to the basement parking garage, and I’m terrified no one will ever hear from us again.
21
Ford
I’m about to say goodbye to Nomar when an alarm blares, and the door to his room opens. A man in a white doctor’s coat lurches in, blood streaming from his temple. “Two-four-seven… The American woman said…to come here.”
The American woman? Joey. Fuck.
I spring to my feet and grab the doctor by his arms to keep him upright. “What happened?”
“A man…he had a gun. Made me bring him into the little boy’s room. He took them.” The doctor’s eyes roll back in his head, and he slumps in my grip. Easing him to the floor, I sprint out of the room, and I’m halfway into the hall when I hear Nomar’s groan.
“I’m right…behind you,” he manages.
I don’t have the time to tell him he should keep his ass in bed. Not if Faruk and his men have Joey. Shoving through the door of Mateen’s room, I skid to a stop. Alec and Jackson. Dead. Warm air swirls through the room from two small holes in the window.
Dropping into a crouch, I pull my gun just as there’s a small plink and a bit of plaster flakes off the wall behind me. Fuck. Sniper. I crab-walk to the door just as two guards come racing down the hall. “Stay down and away from the windows,” I shout as I look around wildly. Someone had to have seen them. “Where did the boy in this room go?”
A young woman who looks a lot like Lisette rushes around a corner. “Where are my sister and Mateen?”
