Page 40

CHAPTER 40

“FASTER, DAMMIT!” POE was shouting from the back seat.

He was cursing himself for letting Virginia take the Hummer. But a high-powered government Tahoe was the next best thing.

An ambulance would have taken forever to get to the lodge, so Edwards had immediately offered up one of his SUVs for transport, with Agent Hubbard to drive. “She’s the best,” he had told Grey. “You’re in good hands.”

Holmes was riding shotgun in the front seat. Poe cradled Grey in the back bench seat. Her skin was clammy and her eyelids were fluttering.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “About last night.”

Poe put his finger on her lips. “Shhh, no. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

Her head flopped to the side. Her eyes closed.

Poe shouted at Hubbard. “Step on it! Please!”

“Copy that!” she replied. The SUV surged forward.

Edwards was right. Hubbard was an expert driver. She made it up to fifty on the curving back roads and eighty on the straightaways, siren wailing and lights flashing. Along the way, she patched through to the hospital on the radio and alerted the ER dispatcher. She glanced at the GPS screen. “Nine minutes out!”

Poe held Grey tight against his chest, close enough to feel her breathing.

Exactly nine minutes later, Hubbard braked the vehicle to a stop in front of the emergency entrance at Cayuga Medical Center. Holmes jumped out and started yelling. “Pregnant woman! Two babies! We need help!”

Within seconds, the sliding doors opened. Four nurses in blue scrubs ran out rolling a gurney. Two males, two females. Hubbard opened the armored rear door as Poe helped pull Grey over.

“We’ve got her, we’ve got her!” said one of the nurses. The four of them made a cradle with their arms and eased Grey onto the gurney. One pulled a blanket over her. Poe and Holmes followed behind as they wheeled the gurney inside. One of the nurses looked back. “Did I hear two babies?”

“Yes! Twins!” shouted Poe. “Thirty-four weeks! Bad cramps! She passed out on the way here!”

“Are you the husband?”

“No! The father!”

As soon as the gurney rolled across the threshold, a young man in black scrubs ran up. He had MD on his ID tag. Poe held on to the back end of the gurney for dear life. One of the nurses called out the facts for the doctor. She pointed at Poe.

“He’s the daddy.”

The MD nodded at him. “What’s her name?”

“Helene!”

The doctor leaned over the head of the gurney as the team pushed it through another set of automatic doors. “Helene! I’m Dr. Baynes! Can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me, Helene?”

No response.

“Room Two!” Baynes called out. The nurses rolled the gurney to a stop in a small curtained cubicle. Poe let go of the rail. Everything was happening in a blur. In Poe’s brain, the sounds became a dull hum. He saw Baynes calling out orders. Nurses were turning on monitors, hanging IV bags, loading syringes. Poe felt Holmes behind him. He was saying something, but Poe heard only loud thrumming inside his head.

Baynes yanked the blanket off Grey’s midsection. Poe glanced down at the fabric pad beneath her hips.

It was smeared with dark red blood.

CHAPTER 41

AGNES MATTS STILL had the black hood over her head as the helicopter circled for a landing. “Take this damn thing off!” she shouted. “I’m getting vertigo!” She stamped her shackled feet on the floor of the cabin.

“Sorry, Agnes,” said the guard on her left. “No can do.” It was the same guard who had shackled her in her cell back in Bedford. Same voice, same attitude. “Not much to see here anyway. I promise.”