Page 31 of Assassin's Mark
Chapter Fifteen
Levi had his phone out and dialing before he reached the computer. I followed, the sound of my heart thumping in my throat blocking out his curses. The screen I’d spent so much time watching yesterday lit up just as Eli answered his cell.
“Yeah.”
“They’ve hacked the records.”
Eli cursed under his breath.
I stepped up behind Levi. “What does that mean?”
“I set a programto watch, make sure no one accessed Remi’s hospital records who wasn’t supposed to,” Levi said grimly, taking a seat at the computer and beginning to type something faster than I could even track.
“And they did?”
“They did.”
But… “How do you know it’s… How do you know it’s Derrick?” Notmy father. If all of this was true and he really was the bastard Levi said he was—and I was running out ofexcuses not to believe him—I no longer owed the man my loyalty. I never had, really. I’d just been too afraid of the consequences of saying no.
Could those consequences really be any worse than being kidnapped? Used? But then, my father had used me all my life, if for nothing else than to further his career. At least Levi gave me something in return. Or maybe I was justifying all of this so Ididn’t go insane.
Levi growled—at the computer or me, I wasn’t sure. “I know it’s Derrick because it is.”
I didn’t think a man like Levi had only one enemy, but right now wasn’t the time to argue. And if my father had discovered Levi’s little trick this morning, he’d likely put the pressure on to get some answers. From what I’d gathered the past couple of days, Remi was his only access to thoseanswers.
Onscreen, Eli rubbed a hand across his spiky hair, his gaze on Remi lying in the bed. “Any idea on timeline?”
“I’m not gonna risk projecting—I want him out of there now.”
Eli’s eyes went wide, frantic. “Fuck no!”
“We don’t have a choice,” Levi barked. “They could already be on their way, probably are. We have to get him out of there.”
Eli waved a hand over his brother’s still form.“How the hell am I supposed to do that? He’s still in a coma, Levi. He can barely breathe on his own.”
“Then find someone who can keep him stable, and bring them with you.”
Kidnap someone else? A protest lodged itself on my tongue, but I looked at that screen and bit it back. Remi was lying there, so still and pale, with wires and tubes and monitors surrounding him, invading him. Completelyhelpless. At the mercy of anyone who came into that room. Someone could be on their way to torture or kill him right now, and he had no defenses, nothing and no one to save him except his brothers.
I looked at him, and something inside me crystallized in that instant. Could I choose between these men and my father?
At that moment, I not only could; I did.
On his central monitor, Levi broughtup a series of camera feeds like Remi’s, only these showed corridors and entries around the hospital. One centered on the nurses’ station, presumably outside Remi’s room. Levi zoomed in on the desk.
“The blonde,” he said into his phone. “Prep him first.”
Onscreen, Eli nodded.
I turned away. I might understand what they were doing, but I’d been on the receiving end. I knew how scared that nursewould be. Deep, slow breaths did nothing to calm the churning in my stomach. “Can’t you just ask for her help?”
Levi grunted. I guessed that was my answer.
This was real. Really real. Pain in my hands alerted me to the fact that, without conscious thought, they had fisted tight, the nails digging into my palms. I pressed them in harder, desperate to ground myself against the panic surging insideme.
When I turned back to the monitors, Eli was shoving his belongings into a backpack. “Where to?”
Levi switched screens. “Here for now. If they’ve blown you, they’ll likely find this place eventually, but we should have a few days to stabilize Remi first. I don’t want to risk an unprepared location in his state. We’ll get things ready here.”
