“I just couldn’t figure out what it was.”
She told him about Peter Logan and they realized that up near the hole, Grace was probably alerting to the body. The poor little dog had too many scents to tell them about.
Daniel Tate she delivered to Vance. After listening to his story she realized Colonel Hess hadn’t counted on a survivor. Someone who had been used in the facility’s experiments. He kept talking about a spaceman opening a special suitcase and she wondered how many drugs were still in his system. How much of what he told them was real and how much were hallucinations?
She delivered Creed and Grace safely back to their cot in the gymnasium. By then he didn’t have any fight left in him to argue with her. She knew he was in tremendous pain. She only hoped his injuries weren’t severe. All she could concentrate on was that he was alive. For several minutes on the mountain she thought she had lost him a second time.
She left him with Dr. Avelyn and Jason.
“What are you going to do?” he wanted to know.
“I’ll be back,” she promised. “I just need to check and see if Ross was telling the truth about the lockbox.”
The rain had started again when O’Dell headed back out. She was on her way to the SUV when she stopped in the middle of the street. She could hardly believe her eyes. Benjamin Platt was talking to a rescue crew on the sidewalk. He glanced up. Did a double take when he saw her. He said something to the crew and they looked back at her, too.
“God, I am so glad you’re safe.”
He hugged her so tight he practically crushed her to his chest. And only then did she realize how much her body ached from the water rescue yesterday. Was that only yesterday?
“I left you a bunch of messages.”
“I was a little busy.”
“Have you heard from Logan yet?”
“Logan’s dead.”
“What?”
She told him what had happened, giving him as much detail as she could and ignoring the alarm on his face. She was still angry with him.
“My God, I’m so sorry, Maggie,” he said when she was finished. And almost a little too quickly—ever the scientist and soldier—he added, “I got here as soon as I could. I brought down a team with a hazmat van in case we find the samples.”
She was surprised at how disappointed she was that he sounded like the cold government official, the director of USAMRIID, instead of like her boyfriend. He was more concerned with deadly samples in a lockbox than he was about her. Of course, the samples were more important. And it was silly, but she was surprised how much more she needed the boyfriend than the director right now.
“I might be able to tell you exactly where those samples are.”
She ignored his look of astonishment and led him to the muddy black SUV in the far corner of the parking lot. She raised the lift gate. Then she removed the rubber mat from inside to reveal the trapdoor for the spare tire. When she lifted the hatch, she was almost as surprised as Ben. What looked like a harmless black metal suitcase was exactly where Ross had said it would be.
73.
Creed had listened to Dr. Avelyn lecture him about resting. This time she insisted on a chest X-ray. No perforations. A couple of ribs were definitely fractured. She no longer questioned whether or not he had a concussion. About the only thing she had told him that he was happy about was that she didn’t want him to travel for a few days. Although Hannah wanted him back home where she could fuss over him.
How could he leave now when he knew Benjamin Platt was there?
Creed glanced at the three dogs in the corner next to his table in the cafeteria. Jason had insisted that Creed sit while he waited on him.
The dogs had eaten and were lounging next to each other. Molly already fit in, though it broke Creed’s heart when she looked up at everyone walking by, still looking for her owners. He reached down and petted her.
When he looked back up Maggie had come in the cafeteria door. He took small pleasure in the fact that she was alone. But he hated already wondering whether or not she’d be in the cot next to him tonight or if she’d be with Ben Platt.
She saw him from across the room, and as she walked over her eyes never left his. Even as she sat down, choosing the chair across from him. She scooted close so she could plant elbows on the table. The whole time, she didn’t say a word as her eyes held his. So much emotion between the two of them. In less than forty-eight hours she had saved him twice.
Finally she glanced away, using the dogs as an excuse and smiling when Grace pranced over to her.
“Jake and Harvey would instantly fall in love with you,” she told the little dog while scratching behind her ears. Maggie’s eyes darted back to Creed’s.
“You still can’t have her,” he said, and Maggie laughed.
Then she said something Creed never expected.
“Jake and Harvey would fall in love with you, too.”