AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She glances down the hallway. “Maybe thirty minutes. If you’re hungry now, I could—”
Already shaking my head, I take my time sitting up, face passive so I don’t reveal how much it hurts to do it. “No. I was hoping it would be okay if I went on another walk?”
Surprise flashes in her eyes. “Twice in one day? Are you sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard?”
I probably am, but I don’t have time to sit around in bed and wait until I’m fully recovered. At some point tomorrow, those cops will be back with questions for me. Questions that I can’t answer. “No. I can do it.”
She doesn’t look convinced.
I try out a smile that feels a lot more genuine than the one I flashed her before. “Promise. If I get tired, I’ll tell you. I’m not used to spending all this time lying down, so it’s really hard for me.”
If she knew just how much time I spent on my back, and with how many of Rylan’s pack, she wouldn’t be smiling at me the way she is. She wouldn’t be smiling at all. “Okay, five minutes. Rest is just as important as exercise.”
So as we go another lap around the floor, I pick out how many fire exits there are: Three. Figure out what floor I’m on: Eight. How many nurses are gathered around the nurse's station: Six. I don’t know how useful the last information will be when I make my escape. I can duck past six nurses without being seen. Probably. But more than that? I don’t know.
Whatishelpful to know is the nurse's station is several feet from my room and closest to the elevator.
I don’t spot any staff changing rooms, not that I was expecting to find any on this floor. Just patient rooms with a steady flow of people—other patients' families—ducking in and out.
I’m going to have to go down the fire exit left of my room and somehow manage eight flights of stairs with no walker, bruised ribs, and muscle weakness. Difficult but not impossible. And Iammotivated.
Back in my room, I’m out of breath and in serious pain, but working desperately to hide it from Olivia because I plan on making another trip around my floor. If these laps have taught me anything, it’s that I need exercise in a major way. I’m trying not to think about my lack of money, food, or even having a place to stay, but that’s a later problem. Dodging cops comes first.
I’ve barely settled in bed when a voice further down the hall announces the approach of the lunch cart. My stomach rumbles happily. At least I don’t have to think about food or a place to stay today. But tomorrow?
Think about that later, Saige. Later.
* * *
Day is melting into night when I slip out of bed. Over the last five hours, I’ve had plenty of time to weigh up my options. And to listen.
Rylan might think I’m dead now, but there’s no way I can stay in this city and hope never to bump into him or the rest of the pack. If history has taught me anything, it’s I’m just not that lucky.
The almost constant hum of conversation as people pass by my room has eased enough that now is quieter than it has been all day. But it won’t be for long. Soon dinner will be served, which doesn’t leave me long to get away before someone notices I’m missing.
I could wait until tomorrow morning, but I can’t imagine the hospital will be as quiet then as it is now. And cops work twelve-hour shifts too, so who knows how early they might stop by.
Moving tenderly, I make my way over to my door, ready with an excuse if any of the nurses demand to know what I’m doing. If they ask, I’ll just tell them my back hurts from all the sitting so I just wanted to stretch my legs. Butonlyif they ask because otherwise, they’ll wonder why I’m suddenly being chatty.
At the doorway, I stop just inside and angle my head toward the fire exit on my left, then to the nurse's station and elevator on my right. Since most of the patients’ families have gone home, the hallway is empty, or close to it. My eyes track a nurse pushing a patient in a wheelchair with a squeaky wheel toward the elevator.
The nurses’ station is nice and quiet. Just three nurses. One leans over the counter chatting and laughing, while two sit on the other side. Everyone looks nice and distracted by their conversation, which is good.
Go now.
Swallowing hard, I’m stepping out when the elevator ding makes me halt. I eye the distance between me and the fire exit. If I get caught in the middle of the hallway, there’s no explaining that away when I’m so clearly heading for the stairs down, so I ease back into my room. Just enough so I can still see who's about to emerge, but not so much that whoever steps out of the elevator will see me.
My heart pounds just a little harder as I wait for the doors to slide open. I don’t know why, but suddenly my hands are so clammy I have to wipe them against the front of my pale blue hospital gown.
It’s just a nurse, Saige.
I swallow again because there’s no reason to think the worst, but that doesn’t clear the dread crawling up my throat. Something is about to happen. Something bad.
The elevator slides open and a dark-haired man clutching an enormous bouquet of red roses steps out.
There’s no surprise, no horror… no anything. Just acceptance that I knew this was coming. That it was only a matter of time it did.
Nathan.
