Chapter 4 - Someone Inside the Safe House
“Don’t move.”
The voice belonged to Megan.
Laura turned slowly.
Megan held David’s second handgun.
Emily stared at her.
“Megan?”
“I’m sorry.”
Ranger growled.
Megan’s hands trembled.
“Tell the dog to stay.”
Laura studied her.
“You switched the trays.”
Megan began crying.
“I didn’t.”
“Then who?”
“My brother.”
Silence.
Megan explained that her younger brother, Ryan Price, worked overnight in pharmacy transport.
Two months earlier, Cole had discovered Ryan stealing prescription medication to support an addiction.
Instead of reporting him, Cole blackmailed him.
That morning, Cole ordered Ryan to move Laura’s tray.
“He told Ryan it was just vitamins,” Megan whispered.
“Why did you run into my room?”
“Ryan called me after he saw the replacement label.”
Emily stared.
“He realized what he’d done.”
Megan nodded.
“He panicked.”
Laura looked at the gun.
“Then why are you pointing that at us?”
“Because Cole has Ryan.”
David swore.
Megan held up her phone.
A photograph showed Ryan tied to a chair.
Blood on his face.
Cole stood behind him.
Below it:
BRING THE DRIVE OR YOUR BROTHER DIES.
Laura closed her eyes.
Cole was forcing everyone into impossible choices.
David stepped forward.
“We can get Ryan back.”
“You can’t.”
“We can.”
“You don’t understand Cole.”
David’s voice went cold.
“I understand him better than you think.”
Then Ranger suddenly stopped growling at Megan.
His ears turned toward the rear door.
David noticed.
“Everybody down.”
Glass shattered.
A bullet tore through the kitchen.
Megan screamed.
David returned fire.
Three minutes later, the attackers fled.
One left blood behind.
Laura realized something.
Cole already knew where they were.
Which meant someone had been tracked.
Emily checked their clothes.
Phones.
Bags.
Ranger began sniffing Laura.
Then he scratched at her hospital bracelet.
David cut it off.
Inside was a tiny tracking chip.
Laura stared.
“Hospital security bracelets don’t have GPS.”
Emily shook her head.
“They don’t.”
David crushed it.
Cole had planned this before Laura ever entered Room 614.
They relocated to an abandoned veterinary clinic owned by an old friend of David’s.
There, Laura made a decision.
“We trade the drive.”
David stared.
“No.”
“We make a copy.”
“Michael encrypted it against duplication.”
“Then we give Cole something he thinks is the drive.”
Emily understood.
“A decoy.”
Megan wiped her eyes.
“He’ll kill Ryan anyway.”
Laura looked at her.
“Then we make sure he can’t.”
They contacted Cole.
He answered immediately.
“Laura.”
Hearing her name in his voice made her skin crawl.
“I have the drive.”
“Good.”
“I want Ryan alive.”
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
“Actually, I am. Michael’s files are uploading to three news organizations.”
Bluff.
Cole went silent.
Laura continued.
“If I don’t cancel the upload within two hours, everybody gets them.”
“Where?”
“Union Station parking garage.”
David mouthed, Dangerous.
Laura ignored him.
“Bring Ryan.”
Cole agreed.
At midnight, Laura entered the garage wearing a wire.
David and Emily watched from a van.
Megan waited with police detective Marcus Hale, one of the few officers David trusted.
Cole arrived in a black sedan.
Ryan was in the passenger seat.
Alive.
Cole stepped out.
“Drive.”
Laura held up the USB.
“Ryan first.”
Cole smiled.
“You’re becoming like Michael.”
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t mean it as a compliment.”
“You should have.”
Ryan climbed from the vehicle.
Then another figure appeared from behind a pillar.
Eleanor Voss.
Laura froze.
Eleanor held a gun.
But she wasn’t aiming at Laura.
She aimed at Cole.
“It ends tonight, Nathan.”
Cole laughed.
“Does Laura know?”
Laura looked between them.
“Know what?”
Cole’s smile widened.
“That Michael wasn’t investigating Eleanor when he died.”
Eleanor whispered, “Don’t.”
“He was investigating you.”
Laura felt the ground shift.
Cole pointed at Eleanor.
“Tell her who signed Sophia Bennett’s medication order.”
Eleanor’s face collapsed.
Laura could barely breathe.
“Who?”
May you like
Cole answered.
“Michael Bennett.”
