Page 25 of Witness Security Breach

They’d been ambushed on an isolated strip of road where there hadn’t been any CCTV. The two black vans had disappeared. There was an alleged eyewitness accusing Charlie and Aiden of collaboration and murder.

Only two people could clear their names. One was in a coma. The other was alive, but not for much longer.

They had to save Edgar. But first, they needed to get out of the medical center.

“Find the employee locker room and get us something to blend in,” she said to Aiden, her pulse quickening. “Then meet me at the employee entrance.”

No questions asked. No hesitation. He just nodded and took off.

That level of complete trust he had in her, and she in him, she’d never known with another soul, and she cherished it.

She went down a different hall back to the emergency room. When Sharon had been brought in, one of the nurses had run from the treatment room in the direction she was headed in now and returned with medication.

Another squad car with flashing lights pulled up to the ambulance entrance and parked behind the police vehicle they’d left. Officers rushed inside.

The emergency room buzzed with activity.

Staying close to the wall, she looked for the room she needed.

The officers were working their way in her direction, searching the emergency ward, pulling back curtains in the bay area. An infuriated nurse jumped in their path and read them the riot act about patient privacy.

The first room was no good—a janitorial closet. Neither was the second room. Nor the third.

One cop with a beard strode around the nurse and moved in the direction of the treatment rooms, with his head on a swivel.

Her chest tightened. Any second, he’d spot her. As his head turned toward her, his hand on the hilt of his weapon, a large orderly stepped into his line of sight.

Charlie turned the next knob, opening the fourth door, and ducked inside. She breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, it was the one she wanted.

There were two refrigerators. Through the clear doors she saw vials of medication. Moving past the regulated drugs, she hurried to the shelving unit with medical supplies.

She quickly rifled through things and grabbed what she needed. Sterile gloves, gauze, saline solution, antibiotic ointment, topical anesthetic spray and a suture kit. Aiden’s wound still needed stitches. They’d left all their supplies back in the SUV.

Once they had a moment to catch their breath, she’d patch him up properly and make sure it didn’t get infected.

She went to the door and pulled it open.

On the other side stood the bearded cop. He drew his sidearm.

Charlie shuffled back into the room, forcing him to follow her inside.

The officer stepped across the threshold, the gun leveled at her head, and let the door close.

A mistake. On his part.

“Hands in the air!” the cop said.

She dropped the supplies and did as instructed. Her small gesture of compliance emboldened him, made him think her arrest was in the bag.

“Turn around and put your hands on the back of your head,” he said.

She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink.

“Now!” His second mistake was getting close enough to touch her. He put his hand on her shoulder and tried to force her to turn around.

Charlie moved fast.

She snapped her hand up, catching the body of the pistol while shoving the muzzle sideways to keep her head out of the line of fire in case he pulled the trigger. Then she twisted the gun hard, not enough to break his wrist, just the right amount to sprain it badly.