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The group straightened.
“Head for the door.”
No one moved.
“Why is this so creepy?” Nicola looked down at her clothes. “Why am I dressed like them?” Her voice rose in pitch.
“Hey, Doctor?” Ramon got in front of her. “We need to get these people out. You can freak out after.”
The young woman looked up at Ramon. “Oh, um. Okay. I’m okay.”
“Good.” He glanced around. “Let’s move, people.”
Kenna said, “Everyone, to the door.”
The group started to shuffle toward the men Kenna had killed.
“Maybe not that way.” She winced, going with the group. “But I think the word ‘everyone’ is the trigger.”
Nicola shook her head and shivered with the movement. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be doing this.”
“That’s why we’re leaving,” Kenna said. “Is this the way?”
“Check your map.” Ramon motioned to her phone.
“Maizie.”
She’d just been remembering aloud that the girl was still on the phone, but Maizie asked, “Yes? What do you need?”
“You’re dumping everything on the internet?”
“Working on it,” Maizie said, sounding distracted. “I’m compiling it all, but there’s a whole lot of raw data. I’ve got to make it look like exposé articles. No one is going to read terabytes of raw data without a reason to look at it.”
“And the live feed?”
“It’s catching you in the hallway in three, two?—”
“Hang on, everyone.” The group slowed but didn’t stop moving. “Maizie is there anyone out there?”
“Nope. Hallway is clear.”
Ramon pushed through the group to go ahead.
Nicola followed him, rushing between people to catch up to the tall man. Kenna didn’t really blame her, but she’d rather have Jax here any day.
“I need to find the doctor.” Then she’d have a shot at convincing Nicola the best course of action here was to go back to her family so that Jax would be set free. Not that she would hand over Buzard to the Santinos, if they could even get him past the FBI. That would be condemning him to a slow death by torture at the hands of a crime family when he needed to face the right kind of justice—the kind that gave him a chance to repent and rehabilitate.
“Maizie, where do I find the doctor? These people need a safe way out, and I need to get what I came for.”
Nicola glanced back.
Kenna sent her a reassuring smile she didn’t feel.
“This way,” Nicola said, darting ahead and turning a corner. Ramon snagged her arm and pulled her back, but it was too late.
The shot slammed into her left shoulder before she could get out of the line of fire.
“Everyone, against the wall!”