Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 53529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
My plan is to enter through the sauna and find the employee locker room. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to grab a uniform or lab coat. Once I have that, I’ll quickly check out each area of the hospital. Any sign of Kyle’s men, I’ll zip out, but I’m hoping to avoid any confrontation.
I slide on my bulletproof vest and take a deep breath. My hands are shaking. My chest is heaving. My heart is pumping, on the edge of a rage. I have to use that anger to fuel me through this. Speed is my only weapon.
Ready, set, go! I zip into the sauna room, expecting to see dudes in towels. Maybe even women. But it’s cold, moldy, and empty. Looks like it hasn’t been used in years. Slowly, I open the door to the adjacent locker room. It looks like this is where some of the employees change, because I see stacks of neatly folded blue scrubs.
Bingo! I grab an XL and slide them on over my bulletproof vest and jeans. Then I grab some guy’s badge just sitting in his unlocked locker. This is actually too easy.
I casually make my way out to the hallway, expecting to see FBI agents mulling around or staff hurrying around, but everything’s quiet. A nurse walks by and jerks her head at me, not even noticing I don’t belong here or that I’m wearing a badge that’s turned around.
I pass by one of the nurse stations and notice a clipboard sitting on the counter. I grab it and scan the sheet. It’s a list of patients, and one says Samuel Moreno, Room #43. Is this the same Sam River mentioned? If yes, he might know where she is.
I take the clipboard to appear more official and use the fire escape route map on one of the doors to locate his room. I scan my badge to get inside and leave the door ajar.
“Sam?” I whisper to the man under the blanket. “Sam?”
He doesn’t move.
I go over and pull down the covers.
Lying there is River, wrapped in some guy’s arms. They’re clothed, but I don’t care.
My rage is instant and uncontrollable. “What the fuck?” I yell.
“Here! He’s here!” some guy yells just outside. I hear shots hit the metal door. One goes right through the glass window and zooms past my head.
Fuck! I grab River’s arm and zip out of there, going to the cabin on the beach.
Disoriented, River screams as I plant her ass on the porch.
“What the hell, Riv!” I yell, my face burning up along with the rest of me. My heart’s pounding. I want to kill someone. I want to tear down everything. Where’s the Eiffel Tower when you need it?
“Huff?” She blinks. “What—how—how did I get here?”
“You fucked that guy?” I point north, like that’s going to mean something.
She shakes her head like she’s trying to wake herself up from a bad dream. “Sam. Ohmygod! Where’s Sam?” She hops to her feet. “You have to get him out of there, Huff.”
“No.” Doesn’t she see what’s happening? I’m going to have to leave her here. I’m seconds away from a blind rage.
“Please, Huff! I had one of the nurses sneak me into his room last night. He’s not doing well. They keep him drugged and—”
“Did you fuck him?” I yell.
“That stopped being your business when you abandoned me,” she snarls. “You let Kyle take me, and I was losing my mind because of you and all the stress I’m under.”
I can’t see straight. “I have to go.”
River’s mouth closes. I see the look in her eyes. She can’t believe I’m leaving her here alone in this place, but I have to.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I need to cool off. I’ll be back.”
Just as I’m about to zip off and punch a few mountains, she yells, “Get Sam! Don’t you fucking come back here without Sam!”
Three hours later, I’ve officially become an environmental terrorist and knocked down a few acres of Amazonian trees. I figured it was better than ripping off people’s heads, specifically River’s. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of her lying there with that guy.
I’m calmer now, back in control, but I’m barely maintaining composure. I left her for a few days, and she hooks up with some other guy?
Then there’s the fact that Luna disappeared. Where did she even go?
This is such a fucking mess.
I consider going back to River, but I’m not ready to face her yet. I’m not ready to face how I failed her again and how she was going crazy after we had sex because I poisoned her. I’m not ready to tell her that in all likelihood, she’ll need another fix, or she’ll die. I’m not ready to hear that she was so traumatized by being taken by Kyle that she felt the need to seek comfort in the arms of another guy.