Chapter 6 - THE BETRAYAL AT NOONBefore Jack could digest the contents of the letter, the clinic’s heavy iron back door rattled.
Jack jammed the thumb drive into his pocket and grabbed a heavy steel wrench from a maintenance tray. "Mom, stay inside the office with the girls! Don't open the door for anyone!"
He crept down the darkened hallway toward the loading dock.
The lock clicked. The door swung open slowly.
Standing in the doorway, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, was Marcus—Jack’s closest friend and senior charge nurse from Saint Matthew’s ER.
"Jack!" Marcus gasped, raising his hands. "Thank God! I traced your car’s GPS from the hospital network!"
Jack lowered the wrench slightly, but kept his guard up. "Marcus? What are you doing here? How did you know I was here?"
"Sterling put an APB out on you!" Marcus said, stepping inside and locking the door behind him. "He claims you kidnapped two pediatric patients from the hospital! The police are scouring the city, Jack! You need to give them up before SWAT tears this place down!"
Jack looked at Marcus. He noticed something wrong.
Marcus was wearing his formal hospital management pin—an accessory he only wore when meeting directly with the executive board. And sitting in the pocket of his coat was a satellite tracking beacon, its red LED light blinking rhythmically every two seconds.
Jack’s eyes narrowed. "You brought him here, didn't you?"
May you like
Marcus’s face changed. The panic vanished, replaced by an expression of cold, desperate regret.
"They offered to pay off my mother's cancer treatments, Jack," Marcus whispered, taking a step back. "Fifty thousand dollars. All I had to do was drop the tracker on your bumper."
