Deadly Ties

by Vicki Hinze

  In her case, for life.

  11

  F ive beds circled the center-hub nurses’ station in the Intensive Care Unit. Only one bed was occupied, and only the steady beep of Annie’s heart monitor broke the still silence.

  From her mother’s bedside, Lisa noted Jessie standing at the hub’s edge charting something. Clearly, she was still waiting for lab results and diagnostics.

  Be patient, Lisa. Just be patient.

  Soft light shone down on her mother and reflected off the white sheets, making her look more gaunt, her bruises a deeper purple, the swelling more disfiguring and grotesque. Her poor face was scraped from concrete and knuckled fists, her arms were twice the size they should have been, and she had a wicked bruise in her kidney area. Lisa hoped there wasn’t internal bleeding associated with that, but there had to be serious organ bruising.

  She glanced over at the monitor, checked her mom’s respiration and oxygenation level. The numbers fell well within the normal range. The steady beep reassured her. The pressure on her mom’s brain had been relieved, and there were no signs of excessive fluid. Emotion welled and overcame Lisa. The back of her throat clenched, her eyes burned. Please, don’t take her. Not now. Let me be with her just for a while. Please.

  “She okay, Dr. Harper?”

  Lisa glanced back at Jessie. “Stable. Results back yet?”

  “Not yet.” Jessie returned to her chart.

  Lisa bent low and whispered to her mother, “Mom? Mom, please wake up.” Tears blurred Lisa’s eyes. “If you want to live, you have to fight. Please, fight.” Her voice cracked and she swallowed hard.

  Nothing. No response, no reaction.

  Lisa clasped her mother’s hand and stroked her fingers. “I love you. It’s been so hard being away from you, and I know it’s been hard for you too. We both hated it, but it had to be done.” Careful not to jar the clamp monitoring her oxygenation, Lisa hooked their fingers, pinkie-to-pinkie, as she had when she was little.

  “Mom, please don’t leave me.” She let the tears flow down her cheeks unchecked. “Not when we can finally be together again.” She swallowed a sob. “It—it’s my fault. I should have done something else. Something faster. I shouldn’t have become a doctor. It took so long. I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry I didn’t get you away from him right after high school. If I’d known your agreement then—”

  “Dr. Harper?”

  Startled by a strange and deep male voice, Lisa glared back. Two men in white lab coats stood behind her. She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “Yes?”

  The older one spoke, his balding pate shiny in the light. “I’m Dr. Edmunds and this is Dr. Powell. We’re consulting on your mother’s case.”

  Harvey must have called them. Powell was gray haired, wore glasses, and had two chins. “You’ve gotten the test results?” Lisa cleared her throat.

  “Yes.” He swiveled to Annie, then refocused on Lisa. “We need to speak with you privately.”

  That was never a harbinger of good news. Good news, he would share bedside. Bad news, he didn’t want her mother to hear. Lisa didn’t want to hear it either, but she had no choice. “Okay.” She released her mother’s finger and turned for the door that led back to the waiting room. The private office for family-member consults was right beside it. She braced herself, glad Mark would be close by, and started toward the door.

  “No.” Powell clasped her arm, led her in the opposite direction. “This way.”

  “But that’s a restricted area, just for doctors.”

  Dr. Edmunds smiled. “You have hospital privileges here now, Dr. Harper.”

  Being on staff at Crossroads, she did apply for and get hospital privileges. “Jessie, I’ll be right back. If there’s any change at all, page me.”

  She nodded, casting a quizzical look at the two doctors. One of them must have bathed in cologne. The sickly sweet smell was overpowering.

  “I’ll tell Rose. She’s on her way up,” Jessie said. “I’m done for the day—unless you want me to stay.”

  “No, you go on home.” Jessie had two kids waiting for her, and the administrator already had called her in early. A lot of the staff was out with the flu. Everyone was pulling extra hours and shifts. “Tell Rose, then.”

  Lisa walked out into the hallway. Dr. Edmunds followed her and then Dr. Powell. The door closed and locked.

  How had they gotten into the unit? She didn’t have a key. As far as she knew, no one had a key to enter through the back hall. Yet to walk up on her unnoticed as they had, they couldn’t have entered through the main door.

  An alarm went off inside Lisa. “This is obviously going to be hard to hear. Let me run get Mark, and we’ll meet you in the consult room across—”

  Edmunds shoved the nose of a handgun into her side. “No, Dr. Harper. No running anywhere to get anyone.”

  Lisa instinctively jerked back, tried to throw her weight to bang against the door. Powell shifted, blocking her. She tried to run.

  Edmunds grabbed her, spun her around. “Stop.”

  The warning in his eyes terrified her. She’d seen it before. In Dutch, the night she’d left home.

  “One way or another, you’re coming with us.” Powell glared at her over the top of his glasses.

  “No, I’m not.” Who were these people, and what made them think she’d go anywhere with them with her mother at death’s door? Where did they want her to go, anyway?

  “Yes, you are.”

  “Edmunds, don’t argue.” Powell stepped forward. “Come with us without incident, and I won’t kill your mother. Fight us and she dies. Make the call, Dr. Harper.”

  Lisa stared at him a long moment. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. And he didn’t waver.

  Frantic, she searched for an alternate solution but slammed into the same dead ends. There was no way to contact Mark for help. No way out of this predicament that would end without her mother being murdered.

  God, please. I don’t understand. I don’t understand.

  But she did understand. Once again, she had been sacrificed. Yet at least this time it was for her mother.

  The worst of it was in not knowing why. Who were these men? Why were they doing this? Did they even know her mother?

  They know enough to be willing to kill her.

  But killing her wasn’t their objective. Getting Lisa to go with them was their objective. Which meant only one person could be behind this.

  Dutch.

  Every muscle in her body tensed. Her nemesis, of course, causing her still more challenges and trials—and this time doing it with hired gunmen. She swallowed hard. “I won’t give you any trouble, provided you leave my mother alone.”

  “Fair enough. I’m glad to see your black belt in karate isn’t choking off your sense.” Powell linked arms with Lisa and they began walking.

  Where were they so eager to take her? She had no idea, but it was away from her mother. That’s what mattered. She’d get an opportunity to defend herself. Mark would discover she was missing and come after her, and his team would help him. Provided these thugs didn’t drive to the nearest patch of woods and shoot her in the head, she had a chance of survival if she got them away from her mother.

  How much of a chance?

  Not knowing, she waited until they took the elevator down. When they stepped out into the hallway, she asked, “So are you planning on killing me or what?”

  Edmunds grunted.

  Powell glanced her way as they moved down the hall toward the outside exit. “That too is your choice.”

  A man came bolting out of the lab pushing a cart of blood vials and zoomed toward them. “Sorry.”

  Red hair, early twenties—Lisa didn’t recognize him. Must be the new guy. What is his name? Dan? Denny? “No problem, Don.” Maybe since she responded, he would remember seeing her later.

  Edmunds spoke softly. “Another word to anyone, and you won’t live to see the far end of the parking lot.”

  Jessie’s strange loo
k at these two flashed through Lisa’s mind, and now it made sense. She had assumed Lisa summoned them. Lisa assumed Harvey brought them in on a consult.

  They both had been wrong.

  Lisa hoped she didn’t have to pay for that mistake with her life. “I know these people. If I don’t acknowledge them, they’re going to think that’s strange.”

  “Far end of the parking lot,” he repeated. “Your choice.”

  “My choice?” She leveled a frown on Powell. “Sorry, but with your gun in my back, I don’t have much of a choice about anything.” She couldn’t let them get her into a car. If she did, odds were astronomical that she’d end up dead.

  “I suppose you don’t.” He shoved a hand into his pocket. “How’s this? Unless you get out of hand, you will live. The plan isn’t to kill you, Lisa.”

  Truth or lie? Powell’s body language said he was telling her the truth, but Harvey and Peggy were better at spotting liars than Lisa. Should she trust her own judgment? “What is the plan?”

  “I have no idea. I only know we’re not to kill you unless you’re uncooperative.”

  “What does that mean? You’re passing me off to someone else?”

  They stepped outside, into the inky black night. A white box truck pulled up to the curb and stopped. The driver jumped out and opened the back end.

  Her heart beat hard and fast. Oh no. No. Three of them? There was no way—and they’d brought the vehicle to her. No chance to lose them in the parking lot.

  Powell grabbed Lisa’s arm, dragged her in that direction.

  “I am not getting in that truck!” God, help me. Please, help me. Don’t leave me in this tunnel. “Let go of me.” She screamed and kept screaming.

  They tussled and Powell grabbed her left arm. She spun and popped him hard in the knee. He doubled over, dropped down. Lisa broke free, turned to run for it—and rushed straight into Edmunds’s flying fist.

  Pain exploded in her jaw, radiated down her neck and up her face to her eye. Reeling, she fought to regain her balance. He slammed the butt of the gun against her skull. Stars floated in white spots before her eyes. She rocked and swayed and went down on one knee.

  All three men attacked full force. Too fast. Too fast. Too many of them. She couldn’t fight them all at once. Her only option was flight. She had to somehow get away.

  Looking for an opening, she saw the glimmer of one and prepared, but Edmunds feinted left and landed a solid punch to her stomach. It took her breath away. All three moved in close. She folded over, head spinning, staggering, totally unable to defend against the constant barrage.

  Edmunds grabbed the back of her dress, jerked her off her feet, and tossed her into the truck.

  She landed with a hard thud against the wooden subfloor.

  Pain pounded through her body; she fought to stay conscious. Don’t black out. If they close that door, your odds of surviving are cut in half.

  In her mind she sang the 4-H song. Bizarre; she’d never been a member of 4-H. But she started singing it when her mom told her that her dad had died, and ever since, when hyperstressed, she went back to it.

  She slid over the plywood truck bed on her stomach, too weak to lift herself. The door was too far away.

  The man who’d jumped out of the truck slapped a metal cuff on her wrist and snapped it shut. “Got her.”

  She collapsed and stared at it. A computer chip? What was that thing? Fear proved stronger than her leaden arms. She shoved and rolled toward the door. The man who had cuffed her jumped out and grabbed the left door.

  Too late. She rolled right, thrust toward the opening. The hinges creaked, and a rush of air whistled past. The door smacked against her shoulder, and she fell onto her back.

  It slammed shut.

  The sound reverberated, echoed inside the truck, inside the chambers of her mind. Darkness and still air settled over her. Lisa stared sightlessly, helpless and hopeless.

  Click.

  A lock slid into place.

  Once again she’d been forgotten in a dark tunnel. And this time, she was as good as dead.

  Across the parking lot, Karl Masson watched the scuffle.

  Lisa Harper couldn’t win, fighting three men at once. But a flicker of admiration lit in him; she had given it her all.

  Fortunately for Karl and his men, her all wasn’t enough.

  He waited until the driver got back into the truck and Powell and Edmunds—not their real names, of course, but NINA friendlies all the same—got into their car. The truck left the lot with the docs following behind. Karl hung back and brought up the rear.

  When the truck turned onto Highway 98 and headed west, he gave the signal to the docs, flashing his lights.

  At the next intersection, they turned right and headed north. He’d pulled them in via New Orleans, but where they were from, he had no idea. NINA friendlies never relayed non-mission-essential information.

  At the edge of the village, the truck disappeared around a curve. It was in the clear. Karl’s breathing slowed. Now he could take a break long enough to attend to a piece of private business.

  He should phone Dutch and let him know that Lisa was on her way to the future he’d bought for her. But he could wait. Going after strangers was one thing, but your own wife and her kid, especially when the kid had left you alone for years? That was just weak. Lisa had showed more strength in fighting off her abductors than Hauk had in anything. Besides that, he’d lied to Karl, and for that, he’d have to pay.

  In due time.

  His phone chirped.

  Karl answered it. “Hello.”

  “Is my shipment on schedule?”

  Raven. “Yes ma’am.”

  “Excellent.”

  The line went dead.

  Karl closed his phone. Not much spooked him. He’d been in this business too long. But every time he spoke to Raven, he got knots in his stomach and every nerve ending in his body went on alert.

  Of all the people he’d had contact with at NINA, she was hands-down the one you never wanted to disappoint.

  She tolerated no errors. Accepted no excuses. And with her everything held the urgency of a detonating nuke.

  Fail, and you only failed once.

  The Crossroads folks had settled inside the ICU waiting room. Clyde sat listing in a corner chair, dozing, with Nora beside him. Ben and Kelly were on a small sofa, whispering softly, and Peggy sat across from them in a wing chair, nodding off, jerking awake, then nodding off again.

  Everyone had been running full out all day preparing for the party, and now it was nearly midnight. Exhaustion had set in.

  At the door, Mark stared across the hallway past the nurses’ station to the heavy wooden ICU doors.

  Harvey, who had ditched his tie and put on his lab coat, walked over. All the center docs had hospital privileges at Seagrove Village Community. “You okay?”

  “Fine.” Mark didn’t shrink away. “It’s just that she’s been back there a long time.”

  “Lisa hasn’t seen her mother up close since she was sixteen, and she’s terrified she’s going to lose her. She probably won’t surface until Annie’s able to walk out of ICU on her own.”

  “I don’t know, Harvey.” Mark hated to give his fears voice, but this one was pulsing through him like blood courses through veins. “Something feels strange.”

  Harvey clasped Mark’s shoulder. “Being anxious is normal. Annie’s just been the victim of a violent crime.”

  It wasn’t that. It was Lisa. Inside, he felt her screaming. And inside, she probably was. Her mother was clinging to life by a thread; of course she was screaming.

  Rose walked up the hallway, heading toward the unit. “You guys need anything?”

  “We’re fine,” Mark said. “I thought you and Jessie were headed home.”

  “Short-handed. Flu’s sweeping through the village, and the hospital’s been hit hard. Everyone able-bodied has been called in or is staying over.”

  Mark nodded. “How is Annie?
Is Lisa holding up?”

  “I’ve been down in the ER, so I’m not sure. But I’m relieving Jessie now. She’ll be out in a second, and you can ask her.”

  “Thanks, Rose.”

  “Sure.” She smiled and then disappeared behind the doors.

  Minutes later, Jessie came out, dragging her feet, weary and haggard.

  Mark stepped into her path. “How are they?”

  “Annie’s hanging on. No significant change, but that’s good news. The longer she’s stable, the better.”

  “And Lisa?”

  “Sad, crying, scared—everything you’d expect.” Jessie looked next door to the family-member consult room. It was dark and empty, and she frowned. “I thought she’d be here and you’d be with her.”

  “What do you mean?” Mark asked.

  “She went out the back door—”

  “Back door?” Mark’s voice elevated, startling Clyde awake. “You said there was only one door.”

  “There is, for general use. The one in back is ‘doctors only.’ ”

  Great. Just great. “Why did she go out it?”

  “To talk to those doctors she called in to consult.”

  Fear burst in Mark. Ben jumped to his feet. Everyone stood and Harvey shot forward. “No one called in any consults.”

  Jessie seemed baffled. “There were two doctors, Powell and Edmunds. They evaluated Annie, checked her chart, and went over their findings out back. Lisa came in, and a few minutes later, they returned and asked her to step out back to talk. That was the last I saw of them.”

  The Crossroads group gasped and grumbled.

  “When was that?” Mark couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How long ago, Jessie?”

  “About half an hour—maybe a little more. I was about to leave, but Rose got tied up downstairs, so there was a delay. Yeah, probably forty-five minutes or so.”

  Everyone started talking at once.

  “Stop.” Mark raised his voice, turned, and held up his hands. “Peggy, get in touch with my team. Tell them what’s happened.” He rounded on Ben, who was dialing his phone.