Page 57 of A Lethal Betrayal

Dane grabbed her and pulled her to his chest. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just moved too fast after lying around all day. I’ll be fine.” She took the scrubs and hustled into the bathroom. She leaned against the closed door for a second. Did she really want to do this? It could be the end of her career at CGIS. On the other hand, who could blame her for trusting the team that had kept her alive when members of her own team were dropping like flies?

She got out of her hospital gown and pulled on the green scrubs. She didn’t have shoes but hopefully no one would notice. She glanced at herself in the mirror and squeaked. She looked like shit. Her hair was sticking up in all directions from her ponytail. There were still smudges of dirt on her face, and her skin was nearly transparent.That’s what they mean when they say pale as a ghost.She desperately craved a shower but that would have to wait. She took a towel off the rack and wet a corner under the tap. Thirty seconds later, she’d scrubbed her face clean. She fixed her hair as best she could and then went back out into the room.

“Let’s go,” Dane said.

Cain opened the door and checked the hallway. “Clear.”

The trio exited the room and turned right. They moved swiftly along the hallway until they came to the stairwell. Cain hit the door and then started down. They were halfway down the first flight when a door below them opened.

“She’s on the fourth floor.”

It was Rutledge’s voice. She wiped her slick palms on her scrubs.

Dane grabbed her arm and swung her around and then helped her back up the stairs. They went past the fourth floor and got out on the fifth. They stood in the hallway while Cain kept watch on the heavy fire door.

There was a quiet buzz and then Dane said, “Tac is in place downstairs. Side entry.”

Cain gave a slight nod. He had the door open just a crack. A minute later, he said, “Now,” and they raced down the stairs again.

She went as fast as she could but knew it would have been faster if Dane had just picked her up. They hit the bottom and burst into the hallway. “The emergency room is closer,” Dane said and immediately sent a text to Tac with the change in plans. They moved swiftly past the nurses’ station and out through the doors to the ambulance bay. As they neared the end of the driveway as Tac pulled up. Dane helped her in and followed her into the back seat. Cain was riding shotgun. Tac took off before the doors were even closed.

They were out of the parking lot and on the highway in what seemed like seconds. Tac settled lower in the driver’s seat, trying to look casual, not at all like they were stealing her away to keep her safe.

“Now what do we do?” she asked.

Cain was typing furiously on his cell. “We’re going have to ditch all cell phones. Cass will pick them up and take them back to the hangar before meeting us. She’ll grab a few burner phones on her way to meet us.” He pulled the pillowcase off the pillow. “Turn ’em off and put them in this. We’ll leave it in the stairwell and Cass can get it there.”

Dane did as he was told, and Cain added his own and Tac’s.

“I have no idea where my cell even is,” she said.

“I picked it up. It’s in my SUV,” Dane said.

“ETA is about forty minutes in this traffic,” Tac informed them.

Mac’s head hurt a bit. “Where are we going?”

“The Kahala. It’s a nice hotel. There are dolphins,” Dane supplied.

“Why do we want a hotel with dolphins?” she asked.

Dane smirked. “We don’t care about the dolphins. We care about the families and the lovely family rooms. They have suites with two bedrooms attached to one foyer. The outside door opens to the hallway, but we can open or close the bedroom doors as we need. It gives us space to work that’s not far from downtown but far enough away from Sand Island. We have stuff to figure out. No one is going to look for us at the Kahala.”

She leaned back against the cushiony seat back, overwhelmed by the last ten minutes.Had it only been ten?Her recall of the rush to clear the hospital room strobed like old-school flash bulbs…jarring, jerky and bright. She blinked hard to clear the sensation and focused on the next forty minutes of her life.

It made sense to be where families were. Not that they wanted to bring danger to anyone else, but chances were excellent no one would look for them at a family hotel. She wasn’t even sure why they were running.Rutledge.He just wanted answers, didn’t he? She’d told him about the apartment. He must have seen the stuff she’d confiscated from Owens’ locker. She’d left it on her desk, so it should be fine. She shouldn’t have broken into Candyland, but considering what was going on with Casper, she figured she’d be forgiven for that. And she’d been blown up. Surely, she would get a pass on a ton of shit just for that.

She hadn’t told anyone about Casper and the GPS tracker because…well, in truth, doing so would call a lot of attention to the fact that she broke into Owens’s apartment. She sighed heavily. She was spit-balling, making sure she could cover her ass, which was sad. She should have stayed in the hospital room and waited for Rutledge.

But did she want to answer any questions? Who could she trust? That’s what it came down to. Rutledge was on her team, and shethoughthe was a good guy…but she didn’t trust him completely. No, truth be told, she didn’t trust anyone in CGIS at this point. No one tried to blow Rutledge up, so maybe he was one of them. Maybe he’d been on that boat when Owens was killed. Maybe he’d done the dirty deed. Likely, he wouldn’t know anything about shipping lanes. Then again, he was a scuba diver, so there was that as well.

She ran a hand over her face. Almost anyone fit the bill at the moment. TigerKing. Seriously. Who would— She jerked upright.

“What is it?” Dane asked as he stared at her with narrowed eyes.

“TigerKing.”

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