Page 19 of Hacker Unknown

“How did this Benson fucker know Vincenzo would want her?”

“Zayla’s sister had put out all that information about Sonali on the dark web when she was trying to find buyers. My guess, Benson easily tapped into the information posted there. The delivery doesn’t make sense though. Why send people to her location? If any of the people who broke into her room and grabbed her. None would have paid him. Benson is up to something, and we need to dig deeper into his background,” Antonio said.

The only way his plan made sense was if he wanted her dead.

I sighed. "After this, we need an even more secure plan than sending her to Houston. Vincenzo knows my brother is in Houston. Maybe you guys need to send someone else to Houston to get the information about the app. But it seems tied in somehow.”

Kat waved her phone in the air. Her ninja was on the screen kicking wood planks. “Not necessarily. This game is an encrypted way to chat and not traceable. So, we think that is why you need to talk with Callie.”

Antonio mumbled, "Hold on," as he took the corner. I reached out to steady Sonali, so she wouldn’t hit the window. The car stopped at the front steps of the white modern facility. Mia was standing outside with her husband waiting.

I quickly unbuckled Sonali’s seat belt and pulled her into my arms. I carried her toward the entrance. Mia swung the door open, and Quinton directed me down a hallway to an open bed in the private clinic. Once I set her down on the bed. Quinton and Paxton fired questions at once.

“We were at dinner and our food was laced with what we think were sleeping pills," I explained.

Quinton slid a needle into her arm and attached the tubing to an IV.

Paxton walked over with a syringe in his hand. “We can take some of her blood to see what she was given.”

He trusted the Renolds brothers, but he didn’t know everyone that worked at the clinic.

“If you take any of her blood you need to run the bare minimum tests and destroy the sample you took. We should probably admit her under the fake ID CJ made for her. Sonali was an experiment,” I explained and sighed.

Even for the greater good. I didn’t understand how her mother thought it was a good idea to create a child who could cure anything. You would be sentencing that person to a life asa blood bank or someone who would need to hide. Some experiments weren’t worth the cost.

Paxton nodded. "Let’s get started. We’ll take some blood and run tests. If it’s just the sleep aid, Quinton can counteract it with another medication."

Kat and Antonio left the room, their hushed voices trailing behind them. I wasn’t about to leave Sonali’s side. I sat watching her still form. My only reassurance was the slow, steady beat of the heart rate monitor.

I hadn’t realized two hours had passed when Quinton returned. "She should be up soon. But since I have you here while we wait, how about we take that scan?" he suggested.

"I'm good," I snapped.

"You realize if you don’t take care of this, you’ll be a walking time bomb. Paxton came over to look at your results. We both think you have lung cancer, but I need to do scans to see if it has spread and determine what treatment we need to start you on." Renolds paused for a moment. “Hell, the treatment might be right here.” He waved toward Sonali’s lifeless body.

Anger washed over me that he would even mention using Sonali as a cure. “She is not the option. Don’t ever fucking mention that shit again.”

"You seem attached to her," Renolds observed.

"I’ve only known her for a few hours, but I’m attached because I nearly got her killed. There’s no reason I should have dragged her into a meeting with Vincenzo. You and I both know my goal is to find who’s after her.”

I couldn’t hold back the cough; it had gotten worse. I grabbed the napkin from my pocket and held it over my mouth. The tang of blood coated my tongue as I continued to cough.

Quinton cursed under his breath. “You’re coughing up blood. This is bad. Your goal of finding who is after her might not be realistic. There is a real possibility you could die sooner than later. We need to get you on a treatment plan immediately.”

I’d done a google search on lung cancer treatments. Cancer was my karma for all the bad things I did over the years, and I would accept my fate. “We can have this conversation after I know she is safe.”

Quinton shook his head. "I swear, I hate dealing with patients like you. There’s medication that could fix you, but you refuse it because of your twisted sense of fate. What about the seven-year-old with leukemia I’m treating? Was getting sick karma for them?"

“No.”

He didn’t stop. “This karma shit about your past is a bunch of bullshit. I bet if I let Antonio or Kat know what was wrong with you. Your ass would be benched and possibly chained to a bed in this clinic. Let me start with the scans and then we can discuss your next options, but if you choose to do nothing, I will tell your bosses.”

A soft moan escaped Sonia’s lips. I rushed to her side and gently held her hand.

“Hey, are you feeling better?” I asked.

Her blue eyes fluttered open. “Where am I?”

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