He replied,
In the waiting room. Where are you?
Then he put his phone in his pocket. “Let’s go intercept Wallace and Maloney. I don’t want them anywhere near my sister.” He wasn’t sure how much he could trust Halstood, given that Carlos had identified Maloney as being on the FBI’s list of possible members of the group. But figured that if he was going to trust anyone, it should probably be his partner.
Halstood said, “What’s going on?”
In the hall, Carlos spotted two staff members in scrubs and an elderly woman in a wheelchair standing in front of the elevators. “Stairs.” He spun around.
“Sure,” Halstood said. “If you tell me why everything is suddenly on fire.”
“I’m not sure about Wallace. Maybe you know the guy pretty well. But I’d have thought both of them were solid.” He pushed open the door into the stairwell, and the sound of him hitting the bar echoed against the concrete. “But Maloney has been identified by the FBI as possibly being part of the Reverence Sisters group. We can’t trust her.”
Carlos started down, moving fast, aware of his partner right behind him.
Two hands shoved his upper back. Before Carlos could grab the rail, his foot stumbled down the next step and he started to fall. The instinct to tuck and roll had him curling in on himself.
His shoulder hit the stair, and he rolled onto the flat part of the landing between floors.
Halstood raced down, his gun now drawn.
Carlos didn’t have his weapon. “You’re one of them?”
Halstood came at him.
Carlos raised his hands in self-defense, swinging his fists. But from a supine position, he didn’t have much strength. Halstood’s pistol slammed into his forehead. Carlos grabbed the guy by the arms and tried to wrestle him down.
Halstood kicked him in the stomach.
He heard a door slam below and cried out, “Help!”
Halstood kicked him again and Carlos heard somebody running up the stairs. A second later, the sound of a gunshot exploded in the enclosed space.
Halstood’s body jerked. His gun fell to the floor, clattering on the concrete, and he slumped in half on the bottom step. His body lying at an awkward angle.
Carlos didn’t wait to see who was coming up the stairs. He scrambled over to the gun, trying to breathe. Wincing against the pain in his abdomen. Scrambling across the floor to the other side of the landing where the steps came up to meet it.
A heavy-footed boot pressed down on his hand.
Carlos hissed through gritted teeth.
The barrel of a gun pressed against his temple. “Remove your hand from that gun…or I put a bullet in your head.”
Carlos didn’t move. “It’ll be hard to explain that one away, huh, Maloney?”
“I think I’ll find a way.” She didn’t remove the gun from his head. “So long as you don’t make things complicated by trying to shoot me, I don’t think we’re going to have a problem. What do you say?”
He wanted to get up, but he didn’t say that. Instead, he was preoccupied trying to figure out if Halstood was connected to the Reverence Sisters or someone else, and why he’d pushedCarlos down the stairs just now when Maloney was the one they suspected.
Unless it was the fact that Carlos had figured it out that made Halstood do that. But then, if they were on the same side, why would Maloney shoot him?
Carlos flexed his fingers. The weight eased off his hand, and he drew it back, spotting Wallace a few steps behind Maloney. Not looking at all surprised by her behavior. “Someone wanna tell me what’s going on?
Wallace was the one who said, “It would be a good idea to have a conversation. Don’t you think, Maloney?”
Carlos didn’t like the glassy look in her eyes.
She said, “You’re coming with us, Officer Ryson.”
