Adrian looked away in disgust.
“But everything changed the day you disappeared,” Alma said.
Mara frowned.
“Disappeared?”
“Three weeks after the accident, your room was empty.”
“My father moved me?”
Alma shook her head.
“That is the strange part. Gideon was furious. Nobody knew where you went.”
The room froze.
If Gideon had not taken her…
Then someone else had.
Before anyone could speak, an alarm screamed in the corridor.
Agents shouted.
Doors slammed.
Pike grabbed his radio.
“What’s happening?”
Static crackled.
Then a terrified voice answered.
“Gideon Ashcroft is in the building.”
Mara’s heart stopped.
Gunshots exploded down the hall.
Patients screamed.
Nurses ducked behind desks.
Federal agents drew their weapons.
“Move!” Pike shouted.
Adrian pulled Mara behind him as bullets cracked outside the door.
Milo woke crying.
“Mommy?”
Mara clutched him tight.
Agent Vega shouted into his radio.
“Active shooter, level seven! Lock the elevators now!”
Then a voice came through the hospital intercom.
Cold.
Familiar.
“Isabelle.”
Mara froze.
Her father.
“I know you’re here,” Gideon said. “You need to come with me.”
Adrian’s face turned murderous.
“These people cannot protect you anymore,” Gideon continued.
Mara shook her head.
“What is he doing?”
Then Gideon said, “The people hunting our family are already inside this hospital.”
Silence fell.
“You were never supposed to survive the accident,” he said.
Adrian stiffened.
“But not because of me.”
Mara could not breathe.
“The moment you copied those files, you became a target. I tried to hide you.”
“No,” Mara whispered.
“I erased your identity because it was the only way to keep them from finding you. Especially Damian Cross.”
Detective Pike went still.
“Cross discovered you accessed the offshore accounts,” Gideon said. “He ordered the crash. I covered it up because if he knew you survived, he would have killed you.”
Gunfire burst downstairs.
Agents shouted.
Gideon’s voice cracked.
“Isabelle, listen to me. The people coming for you are not police.”
Footsteps thundered outside.
Agents raised their weapons.
Automatic gunfire tore through the wall.
Milo screamed.
Agent Vega dragged a cabinet against the door.
“We’re breached!”
An explosion shook the floor.
The door blasted inward.
Smoke filled the room.
Through it came armed men in black tactical gear.
No badges.
No names.
One pointed straight at Mara.
“There she is.”
Adrian moved before the man could fire.
He slammed the attacker into the wall as agents opened fire.
Glass shattered.
Machines sparked.
Pike dragged Mara and Milo toward the emergency stairwell.
“Move!”
Another attacker grabbed Adrian from behind.
A second man raised a pistol toward Adrian’s head.
Mara screamed.
“Adrian!”
A shot rang out.
Blood sprayed the wall.
But Adrian did not fall.
The gunman did.
In the smoke-filled doorway stood Gideon Ashcroft.
His expensive suit was soaked with rain and blood.
A gun hung in his hand.
Behind him, three armed men lay dead in the hall.
Gideon lowered the weapon slowly and looked at Adrian.
“Do you understand now?”
Before anyone could answer, another wave of footsteps thundered up the stairwell.
Gideon’s face changed.
For the first time, Mara saw raw terror in her father’s eyes.
Whoever was coming next frightened even him.