Page 163 of Girl Between

“And here I thought you knew me?” she teased.

“Alright, brainiac,” he said, swooping her into a dip that filled the air with the cascading sound of her laughter.

The memory flashedthrough Jake’s mind as quickly as the repetitive dot-dot-dot-dash of the light nineteen floors above him.

Jake was done waiting. The flashing light of Morse code was more than enough to prove what he already knew. “It’s Dana. We move, now!”

Tap,signal, clear, move.

Tap, signal, clear, move.

Jake’s Army days were behind him, but this was like riding a bike. Especially with George on his six.

Their team moved efficiently through the dilapidated building. The skeletal structure was reminiscent of the remote war-torn regions where Jake had run countless infill missions. He'd never seen such deplorable conditions stateside. It made him grateful for Creed’s overzealous planning. The night vision and tactical gear he’d procured from SWAT immensely aided in the swiftness with which they moved from floor to floor inside the crumbling building.

“Heat signatures two floors above,” said George when they reached the next stairwell.

Jake referenced the building schematic on the field tablet Creed provided. “That’s eighteen. SOS came from nineteen.”

“What’s the play?” asked George.

“Take the team and secure eighteen,” Jake ordered. “I’ll take nineteen. Rendezvous at rally point.”

“Roger that.” George gave the signal, and the rest of the team moved out, leaving Jake to go the rest of the way alone.

Splitting up during a mission was never Jake’s first choice, but with Dana in danger two floors above him, rolling the dice with his safety didn’t even register. Nothing was going to stop Jake from answering Dana’s distress call.

146

Out of time,Dana rushed to Amelia’s bedside. “Can you stand?”

“Yes, but what’s happening?”

“There’s no time to explain.” Dana grabbed the girl’s frail hand. “I need you to trust me.”

“Okay.”

Dana went to work disconnecting Amelia from the dialysis machine that had mercifully finished cleansing her blood. Thankfully, the technology hadn’t changed much. Recalling her knowledge from years spent helping her grandfather battle his illness, Dana expertly unhooked Amelia.

A solid crack against the door told her she was out of time. Helping Amelia out of the hospital bed, Dana led her to a spot along the interior wall. Placing the girl’s hands against the wall, she said. “Stay right here and don’t make a sound.”

Dana returned to the door, barricading it with anything she could find, which wasn’t much. She piled the bins in front of the room’s only exit and wedged the IV pole under the door handle, hoping it would buy her time.

Every second counted.

Outside the door Monroe raged, his banging growing louder.Stabbing him in the eye with her necklace was a necessity, but Dana feared she’d kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest. Monroe sounded frighteningly frenzied as he attacked the door. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” he bellowed.

Back at the window Dana could see the glow of police lights below. She ran her hands along the rusting frame, leaving smears of blood on the glass. When she’d removed the tarp to flash Morse code, she’d gotten an idea. The windowpane was intact, but the frame and material supporting it was in disrepair. Wielding the blunt end of the reflex hammer she’d found in one of the bins she slammed it into the glass repeatedly until a crack began to spiderweb.

Yes! This will work. It has to.

“There’s nowhere to run,” Monroe taunted from the other side of the door.

“Who said anything about running?” Dana called back.

Unlocking the wheels on the hospital bed, she used all her force and slammed it into the splintered window. The first collision only managed to shatter the glass marginally. Shards fell out of the frame in large, sharp pieces. But her second attempt was a success.

Glass erupted from the window, falling out toward the street. Panting, Dana grabbed the bed sheets and went to work, smashing the rest of the glass from the window. In her haste she snagged her forearm on a shard of glass, adding to her already dangerous blood loss. But the injury was worth it. The sound of the window blowing out drew Monroe’s attention.