Page 36

In which the world is fire, water, and guns.

Arabella…

The first three people through the emergency exit are wearing white coats. My hand is on the gun, still hidden in my beach bag. I’m standing to the left in the corner, and they’re turning right, so no one notices me until the fourth one, who’s pushing a hysterical old woman in a white gown.

“Where the fuck are the donors!” I yell.

“They’re coming, you know the emergency protocol is to get the clients out first!”

I’m ready to pull my gun until I realize she’s answering me like she thinks I’m one of them. Irritably jerking my head to the right, I snap, “Go on, then!” The next patient’s wheeled out and I’m chanting, “Go, go, go!” like I’m in charge.

The fire suppression system finally kicks in. Goddamnit!

Instantly soaking wet, I shove past the next two people, racing down the clinic’s hallway. The medical staff are busy covering equipment instead of evacuating, now that they know the fire threat is over. Each examination room is empty. Oh, god is she already in the OR?

There. She’s huddled in the corner of a bathroom, wet and shaking. “Carol sweetheart, ye need to come with me now, all right?”

“Who…?” She’s blinking and swaying a bit.

“Did they give ye something? A pill or a shot? Carol it’s me, Arabella.” I rip off my wig and paw at my face, trying to peel the prosthetics off. “See? I’m here. It’s not safe, ye need to come with me, it’s all right.” I’m babbling like an eejit as her expression clears slightly.

“Arabella? Are you in the study, too?”

Nearly sobbing with relief, I grab her hand, pulling her along. “Sure. Aye. Come on now. I’ll take ye somewhere and tell ye all about it.” Her steps are unsteady, those fuckers did give her something. Pulling her arm over my shoulder, I squeeze her waist. “We have to go, please, ye have to hurry.”

“I don’t know what’s going on…” she slurs and we’re limping along like we’re falling behind in a three-legged race and the exit door is right there.

The water’s still streaming from the fire sprinkler heads in the ceiling and getting in my eyes but I dinnae care. We’re through the exit door and no one is shouting, “Hey! Where are you going?”

Dragging her to the closest set of stairs, I shove open the door, the heavy metal thing clanging off the wall and I wince. Aye, I hear that . When I touch the railing, I can feel a vibration. Someone’s running up or running down the stairs. It could be Logan. It could be Dr. Arsehole and his monstrous orderlies.

“Feck feck feck! Up or down?”

Our stateroom is one floor down.

“We’re going down. C’mon Carol, I got ye. We can sit down in a minute, aye? Come on please.”

Someone might have been shouting my name, but my ears are still ringing from the fire alarm and it’s everything I can do to keep Carol from falling on top of me and rolling us down the stairs so I keep going. I shove my hip against the door’s crash bar on the next landing and we tumble out onto the floor.

“Are ye okay, sweetie? It’s gonna be-”

A fist grips my hair and I scream, clawing at their wrist as they haul me up. It’s another of those over-muscled monsters pretending to be orderlies.

“No fussing over your friend. She’ll be fine right there. It’s time for you to shut up and do as you're told.” It’s a woman’s voice. The bastard yanks my head back and there she is.

It’s that blonde. That fecking blonde from Anselm’s compound. She still looks perfect and beautiful, her name? Her name was…

“Astrid. Ye fecking bitch.”

We’re in a lift I’ve not seen before. There’s two lifts for public use on the boat, all encased in glass on the outer walls of the ship to show off the view and I hated using them because they reminded me too much of Anselm’s glass box.

The enormous creep’s hand is still fisted in my hair and he’s got a gun pressed to my neck. There’s another bodyguard on the other side of Astrid, speaking urgently into his headset.

“In a way, I really should thank your husband.” The bitch even politely turns her head so I can watch her lips. “Anselm’s obsession with eugenics was a fine sales pitch, but it was really getting in the way of the volume side of the business.” Her bodyguard whispers in her ear and she nods. “There is always room for the boutique element in any organ harvesting operation, though the MacTavishes have made me rethink that position with this profound waste of time and resources.”

“Ye know he’s already taken control of the boat.” My legs are shaking and I’m pretty sure I’m about to throw up on her expensive gown. She must have been dressing up for dinner, it’s long, reaching to her ankles and very sparkly. “Why don’t ye take your exit plan and move on?” The hand in my hair tightens and I wince. “I mean, every good CEO has a sound exit strategy, aye?”

“Oh, we are,” Astrid says, waiting for her creep to drag me out of the lift before exiting herself. “We both know that your fool of a husband won’t risk your safety, so I’ll be forced to endure your company.”

We’re standing on the top deck of the ship; it’s covered by the helicopter landing pad. There’s an enormous chopper speeding toward the ship from the south, and a smaller one approaching from the west.

Looking over the side, I can see several speed boats pulling up to the ship. Sweet Baby Jesus, that’s a long way down. Vertigo hits me and I sway.

“Don’t shoot her, you idiot!” Astrid scolds at the man holding me. “Jamming the barrel in her neck? Do you want a misfire?”

“Undskyld, frue. Sorry, ma’am.” He moves his gun away from me, more aiming in my general direction and pulls his fingers out of my hair, grabbing my upper arm.

“Give me your headset,” she snaps, yanking it away from him and settling it on her perfect hair. “MacTavish crew, I’m sure one of you is monitoring this line. You have thirty seconds to get Logan MacTavish on this frequency before I start shooting holes into his wife.”

It’s only seconds before she cocks her head and smiles. “There you are,” she says into the headset’s speaker. “Wave off your helicopter. Mine is going to land and I am taking off with your wife. If you attempt to stop me, you’re going to be a widower. Am I clear?”

I wish I could hear his voice, one last time. He has to know she’s going to kill me once we take off. I groan, watching the bigger helicopter slow its approach, hovering in place. The smaller one picks up speed, and the rotors whip up the wind, sending my hair flying into my mouth and my beach bag banging against my thigh and I feel the weight of the gun.

Like I had the arrowhead.

It dinnae seem likely that I’m getting out of this alive.

But neither is she.

My finger’s on the trigger and I lift my beach bag, shooting through it and the bullet hits the wrong goddamn person, her other bodyguard, who falls off the platform with an almost comical look of surprise. A mosquito buzzes past my ear and the man holding me is down with blood spurting from his neck.

Astrid dinnae even try for the gun. She rips my bag away from me and punches me in the side of my head, knocking me over. I’m face down on the landing pad and she’s on top of me, slamming my head into the ground. Once. Twice. The pain is blinding and I’m thrashing violently, finally getting my arm around her neck and ripping her off me, rolling on top of her, clawing at her face.

She’s a lot better at this.But she’s not tougher.

Slamming her forehead into mine, she drags herself up, heading for the helicopter and I get a fistful of her skirt, pulling as hard as I can, screaming, on my knees and swinging her around by her dress and her hips hit the railing. She topples over it. And she’s gone.

There’s people around me, all talking and waving their hands. I watch their mouths move as Logan carefully cleans the blood off me. “I think your nose is broken, love.”

“Uh-huh.”

Losing your hearing completely isn’t silence. It’s an absence. A void where something should be.

I know I said something. My vocal chords vibrated and my lips moved. But there’s nothing else.

He cups my face. “What? What is it? We’re gonna get ye treated and X-rays and get everything-”

“It’s gone.”

His brow furrows. “What’s gone, love?”

“My hearing. It’s gone. All of it.”