Page 44 of Nowhere to Hide
Annoyed at Milligan’s voice, I slipped inside.
Someone else was in the room.
White coat.
I didn’t see a doctor or nurse go in before.
Black gloved hands—latex like a hospital glove—made me pause, but then the man darted into the bathroom.
“Fuck.” I called out for the guard on the door.
The door opened. I tugged at the locked door.
“Does this have another way in?”
The cop gave me a dead stare. I pushed past him and back out into the hall. I went to the connecting room and burst through the door. A man was on a ventilator, his bathroom open.
“Motherfucker.” I ran over to see it was a connecting bathroom.
I bolted out the door, the cops already in search mode.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I ran down the side hallway. It was a maze between the half dozen rooms that made up a large circle around the nurses station.
And half the staff was worried about the coding patient.
Again.
I pushed past the cop and back into the room.
Cilla was so damn still.
Was I too late?
I rushed the bed, brushing my fingers along her pulse.
It beat steady and true. I gripped the mattress and bent at the waist, the room sparkling with the quick spike of adrenaline. Her hand covered mine. I met hergaze, and she gave me a sleepy, trusting smile.
“You came back,” she said on little more than a breath.
“Yeah.”
She didn’t need to know.
She didn’t need to be scared right now.
I brushed my thumb over her hand. “It’s okay. I’m just going to sit by you if that’s cool.”
She licked her lips. “‘Kay.”
I dragged a chair over, sitting down before I fell the fuck down.
There was no way I was sleeping now. I waited for her to slide back into the heavy sleep of the damn good drugs she was on, then dug my phone out to text Stone.
She was getting on my boat.
Tomorrow.
