The screaming from the doctor stopped, and the bed started squeaking convulsively. The soldier was now holding a second taser gun and had shot Chaunders.
Panicked, Meg picked up the nearest chair and threw it with all the strength she could muster at the nearest window. The windowpane’s shattering glass glistened like wet snowflakes against the night’s sky. She needed to escape, now.
Chapter 37 Out of the Frying Pan
“Wait,” Tall and Lean called to her.
She wanted to jump out of the broken window and run, but a wave of exhaustion caused the room to blacken her peripherals. She weaved on her bare feet trying to focus on the soldier. He’d dropped the tasers and was standing holding his hands up in the universal I’m not going to hurt you sign.
Meg knew she didn’t have much time before reinforcements arrived, and she had no idea what to think of the soldier who had just cleared the room for her. But her body was screaming in defiance at being forced to move when all it wanted to do was collapse. And her mind was playing tricks on her. Nothing would feel better than to close her eyes and sleep somewhere safe.
“You’re feeling the effects of the nearly three and a half months of medically induced coma,” the soldier’s worried eyes watched her sway on her pale feet. “Your muscles have suffered mild to moderate atrophy.”
“Three and a half months? What? Who are you?”
“You don’t remember me? You only saw me once in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I’m Gideon, and I’m not going to hurt you.”
Meg leaned back precariously toward the shattered window, as the white gauze drapes lifted with the cool breeze and played with her long, dark curls. She racked her Novocain numb brain trying to remember him. Instead, all she could do was shiver, feeling icy fingers wrap around her aching body.
Gideon was mesmerized by the girl as she fought valiantly to stay awake. A cold breeze blew into the room causing the gauzy, thin curtains to billow around her ghost-like in the night’s zephyr.
“Why should I believe you?” Meg slurred, desperately fighting to keep her eyes open and reaching out to hold the curtain aside so she could watch his face.
“What choice do you have?” He said logically as he took a few hurried steps toward the girl barely able to stand, teetering toward the three-story drop at her back.
“I—” Meg’s knees buckled. Gideon moved with catlike speed and grace, sweeping her up before she could hit hardwood floor, but in her feeble effort to catch herself, she cut her forearm on a protruding shard of glass.
“Shit,” Gideon grimaced at the blood seeping from her cut. She lay limp in his arms, her head hung back, exposing her graceful, thin neck. He watched by the light of the moon, the pulse in her throat and swallowed sympathetically at the exhaustion and pain she must have been feeling to have passed out just then.
Hurriedly, he turned and started back down the corridor toward the garage, where he already had the keys in a car waiting for him to escape with the girl. He opened the door to the back seat and carefully leaned in to lay her down. Fighting to remain gentle despite the urge to be rough in his anxious efforts to get away, he even paused to cover her with the blanket he’d stashed on the floorboards. He ripped off the sleeve of his hoodie in one stroke to use as a bandage on her arm. He tried to think of everything, but how could he prepare for every possibility when stealing away the most valuable asset two powerful men were fighting over?
He hurried around to the driver’s side and started the car. Careful not to make any more noises than necessary, he backed down the long driveway before turning the car around and exiting the chateau’s privacy gates.
Gideon kept checking the rearview mirror to see if he was followed, but so far, it didn’t seem like anyone realized his actions yet.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and they won’t discover I’ve left with the girl until morning he thought wistfully before remembering the girl’s machines would have been screaming once she detached them. They knew she was gone.
Who am I trying to kid here? They’ll figure this out very soon and Williams himself will be called. He’s going to send an army after us. Gideon pursed his lips together tightly and stepped on the accelerator.
He glanced behind him and saw the girl had tucked both her fists daintily under her chin. She looked so angelic and peaceful.
What am I doing? He took a slow deep breath and reached for the new prepaid cell phone he’d purchased just last night. His fingers didn’t even need to look at the keys for him to type the eleven digits and listen.
“Remove the disguise. Let the Monarch rise.”
Gideon paused to allow the Monarch alter to come forward to talk while the alter known as Gideon continued to focus on driving. “Sir, Sirus here.”
“What is the status of your mission?”
“I have the girl. I’m driving away from the chateau now.”
“How did you get her to come along?”