Secret Life Of Amy Bensen: Forsaken Part 21

Love. I repeat the word in my mind, but it settles in my chest, heavy. Painful. "Love isn't a word I've allowed myself to use with anyone but you in a very long time."

She studies me several beats. "But the possibility is there and won't go away."

"We barely know each other," I argue, though she is right when there's every reason for her to be wrong.

"And yet somehow she feels more right to you than anything has in six years. That's how it was for me with Liam when I met him. It was illogical. It was terrifying because of all the reasons I had to fear strangers. But it wouldn't go away. And I didn't want him to go away no matter how many times I told him I did."

"Yes, well, I'm not you. I don't deserve peace, and Gia doesn't deserve this world any more than you did."

"You deserve peace, Chad. You do. You do."

"I got us into this."

"No. I know more than you think I do. I overheard conversations and I've gathered some information. Dad borrowed money. Sheridan extorted him. Mom slept with Rollin, and I lived with knowing that by convincing myself that it was to protect Dad. And you started working for The Underground and tried to help. Sheridan's the monster, not you."

"I see Jared's been running his mouth."

"I needed answers. I deserve answers."

"I know that, Amy, but I'd prefer to be the one to give them to you. And you're right. Dad borrowed money from Sheridan to fund dig sites. Big sums of money he should have known better than to borrow. But I didn't know Dad was in trouble when I started working for The Underground. I did it for the high and the money I wanted. I even took jobs for Sheridan when Dad told me Sheridan was trouble. But when I tried to pay off Dad's debt, Sheridan insisted I do another job for him. He wanted me to find something for him that seemed innocent enough."

"Until it wasn't."

"Right. And once I knew what I had, I wasn't sure who to give it to and I'm still not. I think they knew, and it's speculation, but I'm fairly certain Rollin threatened Dad to get into Mom's bed and try to find out more about what I was doing. When he pressured me I told him I couldn't find what he wanted. He said someone from The Underground said I did."

"The Underground betrayed you?"

"I never told anyone about that job. Someone lied for the payout. And I promise you, if I knew who, they'd be dead."

Her brow furrows. "I'm confused. Who helped me hide, then?"

"A friend."

"So the tattoo wasn't for The Underground?"

"No. It was just a tattoo we got together one night out partying."

"Where is he now?"

"Dead, Amy. Everyone close to this dies."

"Oh G.o.d. Chad, I don't understand. If Sheridan thought you didn't have it, why kill him and burn down our house?"

"He must have believed I had it, and thought I was selling it to someone else."

"But . . . then he made sure he'd never get it either."

"I know. I've spent six years trying to make sense out of it. There is none."

"I need to know what it is. I need to feel like I have a reason to keep fighting this fight."

I reach up and stroke hair behind her ear. "And you deserve that and so much more. It's a cylinder the size of a pencil eraser that would make enough clean energy to make all other sources of energy unnecessary."

Looking confused, she asks, "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes and no. It would crumble industries and governments. It would make the one person who holds it in their hand capable of demanding anything. Doing anything."

Liam joins us and I give him a hard look. "We need to talk."

He gives me a nod and we move several feet away, but I don't wait to lay into him. "What the f.u.c.k is she doing here? You're a d.a.m.n prodigy architect, which means you're supposed to have brains. What part of 'they were herding us to one spot' do you not get?"

"Herding us, or trying to make us scatter like wild, scared animals? We had Amy cornered in that hallway, the three of us all willing to die for her, and they picked another target. Right now, she's safer right here with us."

"You want to know about 'right now'? Right now, Jared is most likely being tortured for information he doesn't have to give. When they find that out, they'll lash out again. Amy can't be here for that."

"I need to know what's going on."

I am not in the mood to explain anything to this man. "Ask Amy. I just told her the entire story."

"I need Gia Hudson's family!"

I whirl around, rus.h.i.+ng to meet the fiftysomething gray-haired nurse near the double doors Gia disappeared through. "I'm Gia's husband," I announce as Amy steps to my side and asks, "How is she?"

"Disoriented, but stable and resting," the nurse reports. "We've started fluids to help with the nausea and to flush her system of any toxins." She hesitates. "We're waiting on your wife's test results, but I need to let you know that the syringe tested positive for a.r.s.enic."

Amy gasps, grabbing my arm as if she needs to be steadied. "a.r.s.enic," I repeat, the word falling from my mouth like lead, impossibly heavy. Impossible to believe. "She was injected with a.r.s.enic?"

"It would seem likely, yes."

"What's the treatment for a.r.s.enic poisoning?" Amy asks.

More importantly, I ask, "What's the survival rate?"

"There are a number of drugs and protocols, depending on the toxicity," the nurse replies. "Right now, her condition suggests limited exposure. Let's hope that proves true." She offers me a clipboard. "We'd like to have you sign for consent. We feel like it's best to start treatment now."

"Without the final tests?" Amy asks. "Is that safe?"

"Time is critical with a toxin," the nurse explains. "We feel this is the smart choice."

Sold on fast action, I sign the doc.u.ments and hand back the clipboard. "Start treatment."

"We'll be out with an update soon," she promises, disappearing behind the doors again.

I grab Amy's hand, keeping her close as I return to where Liam is ending a phone call. "Gia's stable, and the syringe was positive for a.r.s.enic. I need to know if Dr. Murphy can treat her, and I need to know now."

"She can, and she will. I already have Tellar working out the logistics, but she's only in if she feels she can treat successfully and we can get the medication." He motions to Tellar, who's talking on the phone a few feet away.

Amy gapes. "What? Are you crazy, Chad? We can't move Gia now. We don't even have her test results."

"I can hack her results," I a.s.sure her. "I can't bring her back from the dead, which is what she'll be if she stays here."

"What's the word?" Tellar asks, holding the phone away from his mouth.

Liam tells him, and he quickly returns to his call. "a.r.s.enic. Low doses expected. Stable condition." He listens a minute. "Got it. On it." He ends the call. "Make sure they've started the meds before we leave, and take the IV bag with us. She said that should happen within half an hour. The big question is how we get her out of here."

"They've already started treatment," Amy replies, "which says this is dangerous. She needs hospital care."

"She needs to be somewhere safe," I counter. "This isn't it." I glance between Liam and Tellar. "We go big and bold. I pick her up and carry her out of here, only it's not Gia, it's a decoy. Tellar will have Gia and take her to a safe house, where we'll meet her."

"This is insanity," Amy argues.

"And I like it," Tellar adds.

"It's not ideal," Liam replies, "but I don't have a better idea on such short notice. Derek Ethridge, a close friend of mine, is picking up Dr. Murphy. His real-estate holding company has properties in the Hamptons that are vacant in the off-season. We can use one of those. We need to decide who goes with Chad and who goes with Tellar."

Though it kills me to think about Gia being on her own with strangers, I know it's the right choice. "Everyone has to go with me or it'll look suspicious. Even Tellar. He puts her in the car with Dr. Murphy and Derek and then joins us at the front of the building."

"You don't have a decoy," Amy points out.

Tellar grins. "I know a girl named Coco. Don't let the name fool you; she's ex-Special Forces, and she'll do anything just to prove she can do it."

"Okay then," I say. "Try to reach her."

He powers up his phone and punches in a number. "Hey, Coco. I have a dare for you, but you have to be at Mount Sinai Hospital in thirty minutes." He pauses a minute and says, "Wear that under your coat and plan to leave everything behind. We'll make it worth your while. Great. Yes. See ya, honey." He ends the call. "Coco is in, and she has her own hospital gown. There's a story behind it that I'll tell everyone over tequila when we get to the safe house."

"Safe would be telling me those calls are not traceable."

"I'm a sniper, not a Sunday school teacher."

"Killing people and knowing how to stay alive yourself are two different things."

"Things which, I suspect, we both do well."

"Not well enough, or Sheridan and his cronies would be dead already," I reply. "How do you know Dr. Murphy's phone isn't monitored, considering her connection to Sheridan?"

"She has a disposable," Liam replies. "And so does Derek. Anyone Amy might need on an emergency basis has one."

Amy hugs herself and grimaces. "There's nothing about this plan that feels safe."

"There's nothing about leaving Gia here that's safe," I a.s.sure her.

"We need an exit plan," Tellar says. "I'll scout the building."

"Get me a computer," I say, "and I can hack the hospital floor plan and Gia's test results and treatment plan."

Liam glances around and then walks over to a man on a MacBook, speaks to him for a moment, and then hands him a wad of cash. He returns and hands me the computer. "Hack away."

Power. Money. Liam Stone has them. People who have them, like Sheridan, usually want more. Tuning out Tellar and Amy, I close one of the two steps between myself and Liam and stand toe-to-toe with him. "Circ.u.mstances dictate that I trust you. My sister's love for you dictates I trust you. But hear this, Liam Stone: Don't hurt my sister-or I will choke the life out of you and burn your body to ashes, like I did the hired hand who set our house on fire."

I turn and walk away, cranking up the computer and getting busy.

Liam, Amy, and Tellar are quick to join me, without comment about my confrontation with Liam. In all of three minutes I have hacked the hospital's computer system, and my first order of business is to pull Gia's file and download her test results, which I text to Liam to pa.s.s on to Dr. Murphy.

The reply is almost instant. "The a.r.s.enic levels are low," he reports, "but there's a second drug in Gia's system, a sedative used before surgery that frequently causes people to lose pieces of time."

I glance up from the computer, where I've just pulled up the ER floor plan. "That explains why she doesn't remember what happened to her."

"The good news is it doesn't impact the toxicity of the a.r.s.enic, and there is a plan for treatment. We just need to get Gia out safely."

That's something I'm ready to have happen now, not later, and I start the conversation about how to execute a plan with that result. Ten minutes later, we have plotted our exit strategy. Twenty minutes later, Derek and Dr. Murphy are at the side door by the ER. Liam and Amy are in the SUV that is pulled around to the front, and Coco has arrived. Pet.i.te, brunette, and proper-looking, she is nothing like what her name and her owners.h.i.+p of a hospital gown suggest. Hugging her black trench coat around her, she waits for her moment and follows another visitor through the ER door.

Tellar and I are on her heels, following her down a corridor and slipping behind a curtain. Gia is lying in a bed, her lashes dark half-circles on her pale cheeks, unaware there are three people standing in her room. As Coco shrugs out of her coat and removes her shoes, I go to Gia. Tellar turns off the heart monitor so it won't buzz when I pull the leads off.

"Gia," I whisper softly.

Her lashes lift, eyes gla.s.sy. "Chad? You came."

It kills me to think she believed I'd leave her. "I never left. I found you. I brought you here, and now I'm going to take you someplace safe."

"And leave me?"

"No, but you're going to go with Tellar, the friend who helped save you, and he's going to get you to a doctor. I'll be there soon."

She glances at Tellar, who's leaning over the bed now, and then back at me. "Promise?"

"Yes, sweetheart, I promise. It's going to get scary, though."

She tries to smile. "You need me to make a bomb?"

"Yeah," I say, smiling back at her as I pull out her connections to the machine. "Yeah. To blow up Sheridan's house."

"That would be . . . fun."

How she manages that word despite the kind of pain I see etched in her face, I don't know, but my admiration for her grows every second I'm with her. "We need to take your medication with us," I explain as Tellar hands me two IV bags and I lay them on top of her. "You need to hold onto these tightly. No matter what, hold onto them."

"Yes. Okay. I don't . . . remember what happened."

"Remember me. And us." I lean down and whisper in Gia's ear. "Alone isn't better. You were right." I stand then and look at Tellar. "Let's do this."

He nods, scooping up Gia, and I turn and do the same with Coco, who pulls her coat over her head to hide her ident.i.ty. I inhale and I exit the room in a rush, and a nurse comes after me. "What are you doing? She's not discharged."

"She is now," I say, pus.h.i.+ng through the double doors and entering the lobby. It kills me to know I'm leaving Gia behind.

SEVENTEEN.