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Jessica rammed the bag under her shirt and jammed her hem into her leggings while Samuel ducked out of the room to peer through the building.
Were those voices?
“We need to go, now,” Samuel said in a low voice. “I think whoever Daar worked with just found us.”
Those words froze Jessica’s mind, but her hands worked on autopilot, zipping up her coat. She and Robin had discussed this. It had always been a risk. But before, Jessica had a plan. There was a panic room in her condo. She had a gun. There was a security system. She could call people.
The medical facility was supposed to be safer in part because there were guards there all the time. What happened to those men? Were they still alive? What about them?
Samuel grabbed her by the front of the jacket, hauling her close to him and whispered, “I will keep you safe. Stay close to me.”
A female shriek ripped through the air.
Jessica whipped her head around and took a step toward the door, but Samuel’s hold was too tight.
“Jess?” he shook her slightly.
She glanced back at him.
Whatever had happened, she couldn’t stop it.
She nodded as her heart began to pound. Samuel took her by the hand and pulled her out into the hall, back to the exit. Water still pooled on the floor where they’d bandied words about.
The rain was coming down so hard she couldn’t see more than a few feet.
“Come on,” Samuel said before they plunged through the wall of water.
Jessica pressed her free hand to her stomach, ensuring the laptop remained in place. Her feet slid and slipped over the slick grass as they headed not toward the path, but for the closest trees.
A rat-a-tat-tat sound tore through the pouring rain.
She’d only heard that sound once in real life. Back when Daar kidnapped her and Robin. There’d been so many bullets.
Fear gave her strength to keep going.
Samuel plunged past the first low branches. Pine needles and limbs pulled at her clothes. A branch whipped her across the face, leaving a long, stinging stripe that merely drove home the fact that this was all so very real.
The ground fell away in a gentle slope for close to thirty feet before becoming rocky and treacherous. Trees jutted out at odd angles creating the canopy overhead.
Samuel pulled her behind a cluster of rocks and a sapling struggling to establish itself. He crouched in a growing puddle and turned to peer at her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“What’s going on, Samuel?”
He rose slowly, peering back the way they’d come. “I don’t know. It doesn’t look like anyone saw us.”
“What about the staff?”
“Maureen was the only one here, remember? Everyone else was going to be in late because of the…”
“Right. The kid’s pageant this morning…”
Jessica said a silent plea for Maureen’s safety. She was an older white woman who’d grown up on the mountain. “What about security?”
Samuel met her gaze. “We need to worry about ourselves right now.”
She cringed. “We didn’t see anything. Can we be sure…?”
