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I froze, first thinking it was Ashton. He found us! But no. It was Nurse Sloane.
She was standing in full view of Jess’s guard. Her hands went to her hips, and she cocked her head to the side. “What are you doing?”
“Uh . . .”
Pialto jumped out into the hallway and thrust out his arm. “I was thinking this might be cancer. What do you think?” He pointed to one of his moles, and to his credit, it had gotten bigger in the last year. This was not a new conversation or even one in jest. He really was asking her opinion.
She frowned. “What?” She motioned to me. “I’m talking to her. What are you doing here?”
I flattened myself back against the door. “We’re here to look out for Jess.”
“Jess?” Nurse Sloane paled, her face looking haunted for a brief second. “Jess Montell?”
Pialto chanced a look. His shoulders slumped down as he exhaled a deep breath. “He’s not there.”
Oh—what?! I jerked my head out. He wasn’t there, but the other two guards were still outside. Where was this guard?
That churning feeling was back. Something was off. Something was about to happen.
No, no, no.
I started to run toward the oncology clinic.
“Molly! What are you doing?”
“Get back, Nurse Sloane.”
“What?”
I reached for the door, wrenching it open. I could see the other guard who had gone inside with them. He was down the corridor, standing outside a door, and he looked right at me. His eyebrows went up. He reached for his radio.
I looked back. The other two guards were inside. One stayed. The other was coming.
I ignored all reason and raced past the front desk, past the nurses now yelling at me, and sprinted for him. “Your other guy is gone.”
He frowned at me, but his radio was crackling. A voice came out. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but it made him stiffen.
“Go. I knew something bad would happen. Something’s wrong.”
He didn’t go. He opened the office door.
Jess and her mom were inside, a female doctor on the other side of the desk.
Jess saw me. “Molly?”
The guard spoke. “Derek is gone from his post. We need to leave.”
“But—” her mom started to protest.
The doctor’s eyebrows were permanently locked together, her gaze darting between everyone.
Jess’s gaze went to me, but she reached for her mom. “Mom, we need to go.”
“No. He probably went to piss—”
“Mom!”
“Mrs. Montell.” I was having none of this. “In the space of a little over a month, I’ve had four guns pointed at me, one directly against my head. My danger radar has been fine tuned. You need to listen to your daughter. If she says you have to go, trust me: you have to go.”
Jess muttered a curse but pulled her mom up. “We have to go. This is no joke.”
“Jess—”
“Go!” Jess yelled, pointing behind her.
The guard had moved back and motioned in the direction opposite to where I’d come from. “We leave that way.”
Jess’s eyebrows dipped down. “What are you talking about?”
“New protocol. A vehicle will be out there waiting for you.”
Jess spared him a look, her frown swinging my way, but she moved her mother in front of her. They hurried past the doctors and nurses, heading straight for the exit. Their guard was behind them, herding them forward, and that’s when it hit me.
He didn’t care about me.
I was still at their doctor’s office. There’d been no order for me to join them. Nothing like that. He was completely focused on Jess and her mom, and that wouldn’t happen. This guy’s boss was Trace, but Ashton was his partner.
A normal guard would include me.
I knew then. I just did. “Hey!”
This guy shouldn’t have forgotten about me. I was just as important as Jess. If Ashton found out he left me behind? The torture he’d do to that guy? Yeah. Something was very, very wrong here. It was this dude.
The guard stopped, looking at me, his frustration evident on his face.
Jess stopped, too, shifting so she could see me better.
I held a hand up, and understanding dawned on her face at the same time it registered on his face. They both clued in that he had fucked up, only paying attention to the “mark.” He cursed, reaching for his weapon, but Jess made her move first.
I took off, sprinting for them.
He tried pulling his gun free of his holster, but Jess was literally on him. She was fighting to yank the gun away from him, but she looked up and saw me barreling toward them, and instead of struggling for the gun, she let it go and grabbed onto him.
She was holding him in place.
He looked at her, confused, but then I was there, and I launched in the air.
I hit him with everything I had in me. Since Jess had held him in place, he went down. The gun flew down the hallway, but fuck this guy.
