Page 218 of On a Fault Line

I put myself here.

So it’s me who will have to get me out.

My fists lash out when the three move in on me.

“You need something mild to help you relax,” Dr. Radinsky says, her voice soothing, as she dodges my flailing arms. “Don’t you want to sleep and have an opportunity to wake up refreshed?”

“No!”

I dart to the side of the room, only to be flanked and restrained by the two men. Rex holds me tight—tootight.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I ask, truly dumbfounded as to why the man I met outside the coffee shop in town almost four months ago is the one who is holding me hostage now.

“I’m just following orders.”

I swallow hard. It’s not the doctor’s orders he’s following though. Dr. Radinsky is just doing what she thinks is best for me. It has to be Mark’s plan that he is executing instead.

“Let me go!”

“Hold her steady,” the other man calls out.

And without warning, I feel the prick of the needle as it punctures through the skin of my arm, then the warmth radiating through the surface at the site of the injection.

I’m fucked.

And I’m going to die at the very place I came to get saved.

43

COLLINS

“It was a setup!” I yell into the phone, as I frantically rush back to my rental car.

I peel off my mask, hoping that I can see better in the fog.

The air is burning my lungs, I’m breathing that hard.

“What does that mean?” Graham asks, his voice going up an octave. He sounds like he’s out of breath too. “Do you need backup? I can go to you now.”

“No. He’s gone.”

“Who? Tanner?”

“Yes. He escaped and put someone who resembles him in the back of the transport vehicle. Both the fake and the driver are dead and I’d assume by his hands.”

“For fuck’s sake!”

I hop into my rental and start the engine. Ripping off my gloves, I toss them into the back seat.

Staying on the line, I send a text to Chris.

Collins: Use GPS to get exact location of transport vehicle. Tell police two dead. Real suspect missing and on loose.

Chris: On it

Collins: Stay in town and start trying to track Tanner.

“I’m going to take the helicopter to Seattle.”

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