Page 104 of Whiskey Run Heroes

Don't engage, I keep telling myself over and over, but the more he talks and the more asinine things he says, the harder it is to keep my mouth shut. "There's nothing between you and me. We don’t have a relationship, and we never will."

"Bullshit," he yells. "We're a team, you and I. We work well together."

I nod. "Yes, as doctor and nurse, we are a team, but there's nothing outside of this hospital that will ever happen between the two of us." He looks almost shocked as my words soak in.

He has one hand in his pocket. And from the imprint, I can tell that it's a gun. I try to keep myself calm, because I know that in situations like this, that's the most important thing to do. I try to keep him talking. "What about your family? You knowyou won’t get away with this. Won’t your parents”—heck, I don’t know anything about him—“or your kids or someone be upset if you go to prison? I’m sure they will."

"No, I don’t have any family. I only have you. I've been searching for you all night in Whiskey Run."

I don't tell him where I was at or that I was with Aiden. I'm sure he already knows that. "So what's your plan here? How do you plan to get out of here?"

He gestures at me, “When we get out of here, we are going to go to my secret house up in the mountains. No one knows about it, and they won’t find us there. I’m going to keep you there and show you just how good we can be together. Trust me, you’ll see.”

I want to shake my head. I want to scream at him, but I know I need to keep calm. My very life may depend on it. I swallow, hard. I don’t want to hear any more of this. I don’t want the details of what he plans to do to me or exactly how he plans to show me we can be good together. “Uh, no, I mean how are you planning on getting out of the hospital?”

"You're going to get me out." He pulls the gun from his pocket, and everything starts to flash before my eyes. There's no way that this can be happening. Everything that happened last night with Aiden. The fact that we confessed our love for one another, it was so perfect. And what? Now this?

I can hear the announcements at the hospital calling for a Code Violet, and at that point, I begin to wonder if I'm going to die. Dr. Lassiter laughs when he hears the code called because he knows it means that there is an intruder that is going to cause harm. He's looking at me smiling, as if he's getting off on my fear, so I try to rein it in. "You won't get out of here," I tell him.

He starts to laugh, and I swear it’s the most sinister thing I’ve ever heard. "You work here. You know about the lack of security at the hospital. There've been budget cuts, and I know that we'reright in the middle of a shift change. And you also know that we only have a few that are on call.” He laughs again. The way he’s acting, he thinks this is a game or something. “What you probably don’t know is that Cary, head of security, is on his way to the hospital, but he had a flat tire and is going to be running late. And the other security guard, surprisingly, had a flat tire this morning also, so that's definitely going to buy me enough time to get out of here."

He walks toward me, and I start to back up. "Don't move," he says, cocking the gun.

He stops in front of me and stares down at me. I try to rein in my fear, but I can feel my lip trembling. He leans down, and I can smell his rancid breath as he puts his lips to mine. I whimper, and he smiles against my lips.Don't cry, I tell myself.Figure out a way to get out of this.

He pulls me to him, and he's excited by the kiss or the fear in my voice. I want to strike him, but I can’t. The gun is still pointed at me, and so I stand as still as I possibly can. My stomach rolls as I feel his erection push into my hip. I force my hips back, trying to get away.

"You're right," he says. "We should be somewhere private for this." He pulls me into his arms and holds the gun up to my head. He has me unlock the door and then pushes me out into the hallway. There are a few nurses out there standing, and they're all looking wide-eyed and scared. My friend from earlier is giving me a pointed look, and I know she's trying to tell me something. All I can tell is that she's trying to give me some kind of reassurance, and it does help settle me some. I know she went for help.

He goes to the stairwell, and we go down the steps into the back of the hospital. I can’t get into a car with him. I know it will be bad if I do, so I start to mentally prepare myself. As soon aswe get outside, I’m going to fight back and fight until I can’t fight anymore.

He pushes me out the door first, and I can see he's not ready for it, because as soon as we get outside, we're surrounded. Not only are the security guards and the police here, but the first person that I see is Aiden. He's standing unarmed with his hands up, and he smiles at me. "Hey, baby," he says calmly.

That pisses Dr. Lassiter off, and he jerks me tighter against him.

I whimper, and Aiden's jaw stiffens. He shakes his head. "I can't let you leave with her."

Dr. Lasseter pushes the gun toward my head. "You can't stop me."

He turns, walking backward toward the parking lot, where I know he parks his car. "Stop," Aiden says, and at least Dr. Lassiter starts to slow down, but he doesn’t stop. Aiden follows us slowly, his hands still up in the air.

It’s like there’s a hush among the crowd around him. I spot my brother, Colt, who has a gun aimed at us. And then I notice Nash and Dylan and Walker and the rest of the guys all around also. It’s like they’ve formed a “u” surrounding us.

Aiden starts to talk, and my eyes go back to him. "You remember my old dog, Jesse. You loved him. I need you to be Jesse," Aiden says.

"Shut up," Dr. Lassiter screams at Aiden, but that doesn't stop him.

He says it again with a pointed look and louder this time. Aiden always keeps his cool, but right now, it’s like he’s losing some of his composure. "Honey, I need you to do this, okay?"

My mind goes crazy, thinking about his old beagle. It was so sad when he died, and I remember how much that devastated Aiden. What is he trying to tell me? I search my mind, trying tofigure it out when Aiden gives me another clue. "It was his best trick," he says, and instantly, I know what he's talking about.

He must see the recognition on my face because he says, "Now, May." And as soon as he does, I put my complete trust in him and let myself fall and play dead. That was Jesse's best trick, and I hope that I'm doing the right thing, because I let my whole body weight pull me to the ground. It must stun Dr. Lassiter because he can't keep his hold on me. As soon as I feel myself hit the ground, I hear the shot. I have my eyes clenched shut, and then I hear the umph of a man falling behind me.

11

AIDEN

As soon as I hear the shot, I take off running toward May. I pick her up in my arms, and the only thought that I have is to get her as far away from that man as possible. I knew that Colt would not miss his shot. I knew that May was going to be safe, but it still hits me worse than I ever would've thought.

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