Chapter 205
Chapter 205:
She passed a patient dozing in a hallway bed, his phone resting on the tray table beside him. She reached for it, but he stirred. She pulled back. Too risky.
She kept moving. She reached the waiting room. It was crowded.
Near the exit, two men in dark suits stood by the vending machines. They weren’t police. They were private security — scanning photos on their phones, studying the faces of everyone coming and going. English family security. They were watching the exits. They were waiting for her.
Cailin turned and slipped into the women’s restroom.
She locked herself in a stall and leaned against the door, breathing hard. She was trapped. No phone. No money. Injured. Hunted.
Her eyes traveled up to the small window high on the wall — frosted glass, tilted open for ventilation. Ground floor. A dark, narrow service alley on the other side.
It was her only way out.
She climbed onto the toilet. She pushed the window open as far as it would go with her good hand. Cold night air rushed in and struck her face.
She gritted her teeth as a fresh wave of agony radiated from her shoulder. Every muscle screamed in protest. For the children, she thought. The mantra burned through her like a current. She gripped the window frame with her right hand, knuckles white, and used the toilet tank as a foothold to push herself up. The motion sent a bolt of white-hot pain through her left side, and for a moment her vision went black. She bit down on her lip until she tasted blood, letting the sharp sting anchor her against the overwhelming tide of pain.
She didn’t so much climb through as wedge and slide, her hips scraping against the frame. She kicked her legs until her feet found purchase against the brick wall outside.
𝖣𝗂s𝖼𝗼𝘷𝗲𝘳 ոе𝘄 𝘀t𝘰𝗋𝗶𝘦𝘴 𝗼𝗇 𝗴𝘢𝘭𝘯𝗼𝗏е𝗹ѕ.𝗰o𝗺
Then she dropped.
It was only five feet to the alleyway below, but the landing jarred every bone in her body. She stumbled and went down on both knees in a puddle of cold, dirty rainwater. She gasped, clutching her shoulder.
She was out.
Before she could even push herself upright, a black, unmarked van screeched to a stop beside her. The side door slid open with a pneumatic hiss.
A hand — firm, but not rough — reached out and caught her good arm. “Kegan sent us,” a voice said from the darkness inside. “We’ve been on standby. Get in. Now p>
Cailin didn’t hesitate. She let herself be pulled into the van’s dark interior. The door slammed shut behind her, swallowing her in blackness as the vehicle accelerated away — leaving the hospital and all its ghosts behind.
The security office at the Wonder Wheel Amusement Park smelled of stale coffee and ozone. Banks of monitors covered the wall, displaying grainy black-and-white views of the silent, rain-swept park.