I don’t think he’s breathing.
And that line on the monitor . . . I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to be flat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I find the nurse call button. I hit it twice and yell, “We need help in here!”
I grab Daniel’s hand and start tapping it, though I have absolutely no idea what that might accomplish. “Daniel! Daniel! Wake up.”
Two medics arrive within seconds.
“What happened?”
“There was a woman in the room when I got here,” I said. “She had on scrubs like yours. But I don’t think she actually works here. I’ve seen her before. I think she . . . did something.”
“Okay, miss. You need to move aside and let us get to your brother.”
I start to move toward the door, but my sweater catches on the railing of the bed. As I’m untangling it, my hand brushes against Daniel’s arm, and I feel that strange slipping sensation as he comes on board.
“No!” I scream.
“Miss, you need to get out of here.” One of the medics grabs me around the waist and pulls me from the room.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “I was trying to leave, I just . . .”
“It’s okay. Can you tell me what this woman looked like?”
“Blonde, curvy. About my height. Wearing what you’re wearing.”
“And you’re sure she’s not an employee?”
“Yes!”
“Okay. Stay out here. I’m going to see if we can get security.”
He glances back over his shoulder as he walks away, and I can read his expression as clearly as one of Will’s salt messages.
He thinks I’m lying. He thinks I’m crazy. And he thinks I did it.
Anna?
It’s Daniel’s voice, and I don’t want it to be in my head.
Anna, come on. He’s just realized you’re not the sister he saw in here earlier. We need to get the hell out of here before security shows up.
It’s the we that gets my feet moving. I run back toward the elevators. The doors have closed and I’m pushing the button when I hear the medic yell for me to wait.
When the door opens again, I bolt for the waiting room. Everyone else is there.
Don’t tell my family you’ve picked me up. They don’t need to know that right now.
Okay. But Deo needs to know.
That one’s your call.
Deo sees me coming and knows instantly that something is very wrong. Aaron is only a few steps behind.
I grab Deo’s arm. “We have to go now!”
“What happened?” Aaron says.
“You need to stay with your mom. We’ll meet up with you later. Ashley, she was in Daniel’s room . . .” I shake my head. I can’t say it. “They called security and I don’t think they’re going to believe it wasn’t me.”
“Oh, God. No.” Aaron glances over to Taylor and his mom, then takes a shaky breath. “Go! You need to get out of here. Do you have your phone?”
“Yes.”
He looks nervously back at his family, and I know he’s dreading breaking the news to them.
“I’m so sorry, Aaron—”
“It’s okay. Just go back to the Jeep and wait. We’ll call you.”
“Turn it back on for a minute.”
I crank the engine again until the Jeep warms up a bit. It’s been about twenty minutes, but it feels like an hour.
“Why do you think she did it?” Deo asks.
They threatened to leave her sister behind. To let her burn. She had Cregg on the phone, watching the monitor as I flatlined for a full minute. That was the deal. Me for her sister. She didn’t have a choice.
She had a choice.
What if it was Deo? If the deal was me for Deo. Are you telling me you wouldn’t have done the same thing?
I’d have found another way.
But my inner voice doesn’t sound convincing, even to me.
“They had her sister,” I tell Deo. “Which means Cregg made it out of there.”
Deo sighs. “Then she didn’t have a choice.”
“She had a choice.”
He doesn’t argue with me. “I just don’t get why they wanted Daniel dead. Was it to punish us for getting away?”
“Maybe.”
Because I have their data. The list of the kids they have. The ones they’re watching. The results of their tests over the past year. I’d hoped I could get more, but there wasn’t time.
But your mom has that data now. She showed me the flash drive.
She showed you the encrypted flash drive. Ashley knew it was encrypted. She . . . helped me collect the data.
Something about the pause makes me think they were doing more than collecting the data. And I’m apparently not the only one, because Jaden’s voice chimes in.
Well, damn. So it was both. How’d you manage to keep a Fudd hookup from Maria?
I don’t hear the answer to that question because the phone rings. It’s Porter.
“Where are you?”
“Level 4, Penn Street Garage.”
“Daniel’s alive.”
“What?”
WHAT?