Forsaken (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #3)(70)

Joining her inside, I slam the door shut and shout, “Go, Liam!”

He accelerates and calls over his shoulder, “Any trouble?”

“Not on our end.”

“Is she out?” Amy asks, twisting around in the seat. “Is she okay?”

“I don’t know,” I say, already punching in Tellar’s number. “Coco and I were the distraction. We couldn’t tell what was happening with Tellar and Gia.”

Coco pulls some flat shoes out of her coat pocket. “The staff was disorganized,” she observes, “and Tellar’s good at what he does. I have no doubt they got out. The real question is if they got away from whoever they’re trying to escape.”

“Voice mail,” I announce at the sound of the beep I don’t want to hear, already hitting Redial.

“He won’t answer when he’s on the alert,” Coco says. “That’s how he’s trained.”

“How did Gia seem?” Amy asks. “Could she talk?”

“She was weak,” I say, “but more coherent than the last time I saw her.” I punch Redial again.

Coco covers my hand. “You don’t want him to answer to comfort you when he should be focused on protecting your woman.”

My woman. I barely have time to process the rightness of those words, when my phone rings and I answer with, “Tell me she’s okay.”

“We forgot to warn her that the doc isn’t working for Sheridan.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah. She freaked out, and proved she has a whole lot of fight in her, but it took a lot out of her. She’s hurting. Badly.”

Pain. That’s what being ‘my woman’ does for her. “Can the doctor give her something to help?”

“She has, and we’re waiting for it to kick in.”

“You have a black sedan in your lefthand mirror,” Coco warns Liam softly. “I assume that’s what you want—to be followed so the others aren’t.”

“I heard that,” Tellar says over the phone, “and while that was the idea, it’s become a problem.”

“Why?”

“Apparently Gia’s nervous system is reacting to the arsenic at a higher level than expected from her test. Dr. Murphy recommends the blood transfusion she was hoping wasn’t necessary, and she wants to do it now, not later at the safe house. Any of us here would do it, but she’s A positive and hard to match. Liam’s O negative, the universal donor.”

I lower the phone. “Gia needs a blood transfusion.”

“I’ll do it,” Liam says, before I can even ask.

“I heard again,” Tellar says. “The van we’re in is large enough to do it on the road, but that means we need you here with us.”

I curse, and think a moment, then lean forward between the seats to tell Liam, “We’re going in the front door of the JW Marriott Essex House near Central Park and out the back, but try to lose the tail before we do.”

“Got it,” he says, cutting hard to the right, forcing Amy and me to hold on to steady ourselves.

“That’s five blocks from us,” Tellar says, still listening in. “We’re dropping Derek at the corner to grab a cab and get out of this, and then we’ll head straight there. I’ll text when we arrive.”

He ends the call and Liam continues a wicked cycle of lane changes, dodging pedestrians and turns, that has Coco laughing with approval. “A few more radical moves like that one and no one will keep up.”

Digging my phone out of my pocket, I offer it to Coco. “I believe they’re using this to track us. When we get to the hotel, I’ll carry you in to keep up the show that you’re Gia. Once we’re inside, you need to get a nice room. Order food and a movie, whatever floats your boat.” I pull cash from my pocket and hand it to her. “That should allow you to go shopping afterwards.”

She grins. “I do enjoy it when Tellar calls. What do you want me to do if the phone rings?”

“Ignore it.”

“And when I leave?”

“Destroy it. They’ll call Liam if they want me.”

The phone buzzes with a text and she glances down at it. “Tellar’s at the hotel.”

“And so are we in about sixty seconds,” Liam calls out, turning onto the street. “I’m going around to get Amy. Make sure Tellar knows Coco’s the first one exiting on the other side.”

As Liam stops at the hotel door two doormen greet us almost instantly, and I murmur an explanation about my sick wife who I need to carry inside, drawing out the conversation long enough to let Liam get to Amy. The instant he has her out of the vehicle, I scoop up Coco and dash for the door another attendant holds open for me.

“We owe you, Coco,” I say, setting her down. Then I’m on the heels of Liam and Amy, traveling the long expanse of the hotel past shops and elevators, my hand under my jacket, resting on my weapon. Tellar appears in the exit doorway and Liam hands Amy off to him, quickly following behind them. At the exit I hesitate an instant, scanning for trouble I don’t see, and then in several long strides I enter the silver van behind Tellar.

Tellar dashes for the driver’s seat and Liam, who’s sitting in the front row seat with Amy, motions me forward. “I have the door,” Liam says as the van launches into motion. “You go to Gia.”