Page 35 of Hacker Beloved

“Seems like nothing, boss. Gotta admit, that was one wild sequence of events that triggered it,” Paolo stated.

The alarm button was behind glass protection. I wasn’t sure how it was possible for a cart to break that enclosure.

Asher placed it next to the door that led into the back area of the bank. His deep voice came over the comm. “CJ find a way to unlock this door. We can’t wait any longer.”

If I unlocked the door with the bank’s software, the security team would know someone was in their system, and I would lose my connection. “If I do it, I can’t watch your six.”

My heart ached as I lost sight of the man I loved.

“Nobody has Zayla’s six, and I don’t have time to climb through all the red tape to get to the other side.”

I glanced at the camera pointed toward the elevator. My finger hovered over the unlock button when the doors to the elevator opened and Zayla stepped out.

“Fuck, you scared us, Zayla. Get your ass out of there!”

She had her arms wrapped around a stack of papers as she strode down the hall. When she asked what happened, I summarized what we had seen, but the event still didn’t sit well with me. I wouldn’t feel good until she got her ass out of the building.

The shrill of the bank alarm still pierced through my ear, but I could deal with the annoyance as long as I was able to hear Asher and Zayla’s voices. Asher had a protective arm wrapped around Zayla as they headed for the exit. Antonio and Kat were at the doors, waiting to flank Zayla. As they walked out of the building, the plan started to fall into place. Except Zayla let out a low groan and her feet stumbled.

“What’s going on?” I asked, feeling hopeless in the van.

“No,” I whispered, a real-life scene from a horror film unfolding before my eyes. Zayla’s body went limp and Asher caught her, cradling her in his arms. Kat and Antonio had sprinted over and knelt down next to Asher. I shot up from the chair, knocking over a box of surveillance equipment. I didn’t care, the only thing I needed was to be next to Zayla and Asher.

Paolo grabbed my arm pulling me back. “You need to watch the cameras. I’ll go in since everyone is distracted.”

I glanced back to the screen and knew there was no way I’d not go. “Fuck that. You stay and watch the cameras. If something is off, report it through the comms.”

“He’s right, CJ. Stay in the van,” Antonio’s voice echoed in my ear, but I didn’t listen as I bolted out of the van. Paolo’s curses floated through the comms. I weaved in and out of pedestrians on the busy sidewalk. A few people cursed at me as I pushed my way to the bank.

A security guard stepped in front of me. “You can’t come in, sir.”

“My girlfriend just collapsed inside.” I didn’t wait for his response as I pushed by and jogged the last few feet. Asher had Zayla cradled in his arms.

Kat’s fingers were pressed against her wrist. “It’s like she was injected with Propofol.”

“Impossible. Nobody was near her besides me. That shit hits fast. She also didn’t say anything when she was coming toward us.”

“Let’s get her to the hospital. Paolo bring the van to the front.” Antonio paused; his gaze locked on the floor.

My eyes followed. “How is that possible?”

Kat pinched the brow of her nose. “We were distracted. Between this damn alarm and Zayla going down, we didn’t keep our eyes on the files.”

We rushed toward the exit. Before we stepped outside, I glanced over my shoulder and scanned the room. The bank manager had his back on me. His larger body was covering up the person he spoke with, but I couldn’t help noticing the stack of files the unknown subject held. I planned to check the cameras to see who that was.

Paolo drove the van partially up on the curb. Kat had the doors swung open. We all crawled into the small area, and I sat next to Asher. Antonio took the seat across from us and pulled Kat onto his lap since there were no more open seats.

“Get us to Luxe Medical Hospital,” Antonio barked.

I grabbed Zayla’s limp hand and held it. Mine and Asher’s eyes met. His eyes filled with tears, and he blinked rapidly. “This is my fault,” Asher whispered over the blaring of a car horn.

“The fuck it is. Hell, we don’t even know what is wrong,” I pointed out. My thoughts went to Zayla’s neighbor and how the implant in her arm had poisoned her. The killer kept making threats to Zayla’s life. Asher had asked the Raleigh police to exhume a couple of other bodies to see if any of the victims had a device in their bodies. “After they check her vitals and take a blood sample. We need to have her body scanned for any devices. What happened? Asher and I missed the device in her body.”

Asher’s head snapped up. “We checked every inch of her body.”

I nodded. “But we looked for something like the neighbor had. It could be smaller.”

“The hospital knows we are on the way,” Antonio said. “Dr. Paxton Renolds, along with his brothers, are taking Dad’s plane and will be here in about three hours. This hospital has a private helicopter landing pad so they can get from the airport to the hospital without issue.”

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