She makes a broken sound. “I let him hide in my office.”
No.
I move for the door on instinct, panic taking over so fast my vision narrows.
The exam room door opens.
A man walks in.
Huge. Broad. Dead-eyed.
He fills the doorway, and terror slams into me so hard I can’t breathe.
I back up immediately.
“Doctor,” I say, hearing the panic in my own voice now. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
She looks at him, then at me, realization finally dawning.
“They said they wouldn’t—”
“They lied.”
Theman smiles.
Slow. Ugly.
My blood turns to ice.
“The decision on the acquisition is out of my hands now,” I say, backing away from him one step at a time. “There’s nothing I can do for you.”
He keeps coming.
Finally, he speaks.
“That’s why this isn’t a kidnapping anymore.”
The meaning hits me like a blade.
No reason to keep me alive.
The doctor grabs a scalpel from the instrument tray on the counter, but he backhands her so hard the crack of it fills the room. She flies sideways into the cabinet and collapses in a heap. Out cold.
The scalpel skids away.
Now it’s just me.
And him.
He stalks toward me, patient now, like he already knows how this ends.
I lunge for the other side of the exam table, putting it between us.
“What do you want from me?”
Hesays nothing.
Just keeps coming.
