Page 104 of Mountain Security

“She’s breathing, and her pulse is steady,” he confirmed.

“She was hit hard on the head,” Alex said. The last meal he’d eaten threatened to come up.

“Sit down, Alex. You look like you’re about to—“

Ry’s mouth was still moving, but Alex could no longer hear him. His eyesight narrowed to tunnel vision.

Maybe you should sit down.

In the next instant, the ground rose up to meet him.

No need to sit down, after all.

He hit the ground hard, but there was no pain.

Just blessed darkness.

34

* * *

Yvette

Yvette’s head was a painful knot sitting on top of her neck.

She opened her eyes gingerly, instinctively knowing the light would make everything worse, but ended up squinting into the semi-darkness of a hospital room.

At least the blinds were half-down. That was good.

“How are you feeling, Yvette?”

Yvette recognized the voice. It was the pretty doctor Alex’s boss had kissed. His fiancée.

Valentina.

Relieved that at least her memory was intact, Yvette tried to nod.

Bad idea.

And then, a movie of everything that had happened began playing behind her eyes. The two crazed men. Alex fighting. Alex’s blood dripping down his arm.

“Alex,” she breathed.

Her eyes filled with tears.

“Where’s Alex?”

Monitors started beeping around her. It took a second for Yvette to connect them to herself, but Valentina was already through the room and beside her.

“It’s okay. Relax, Yvette. Alex is okay.”

Yvette looked up into the woman’s eyes. She’d spent enough time with politicians to know a lie when she heard one. But this woman showed none of the tells. Either she was a world-class liar, or else she was telling the truth.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Valentina laughed. “Now relax, before the nurses come barging in to see what’s going on.”

“He’s … he’s okay?”

“He had surgery on his arm. I stitched him up myself. He’s going to be fine.”

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