Page 103 of Breaking Point

I stand, shoving the notes back in my purse. The hallway is surprisingly empty. A phone rings at the vacant nurses’ station, and I walk past it to the elevators. I remember seeing the cafeteria on the second floor, and when I take the elevator to it, I step out. I find the first few corridors empty.

Odd, I think but then I find a sign directing me toward the lunch room.

Neon arrows direct me toward the vending machines, but I stop when I find a man standing in the doorway.

It isn’t Aleks.

With his back turned, it’s hard to make out his face, but his gray suit and slicked back hair are what draw my attention first. His sunglasses gleam as he turns before I feel a twinge of pain in my neck. My skin goes hot, and I see the faint outline of someone’s face before the world falls out from under me.

I collapse, distantly reaching for my neck as someone appears over me holding a needle. The man in the suit faces me now. I hear him order someone to grab me.

No, I think distantly, panic gripping me as I realize they’ve drugged me. My muscles slow, the world hazy.

My vision swims as I reach for my phone, Aleks’ contact a blurry image in front of me. When I feel someone grab me, I muster every last bit of strength inside me to shove them back.They slam into the vending machine, and I hear glass shatter as they grab my hair and shove me to my knees.

“Stop-“ My voice squeaks out, and when another wave of dizziness washes over me, I tap the dial button on my phone over and over.

“Get her out of here,” the man’s voice is distant. “Quietly.”

My consciousness is fading fast. My knees wobble, and I vaguely see the jagged glass on the vending machine.

Do not let them take you, I think, and just as the thought forms, I shove the man back. He stumbles, staggering into the glass with enough force that the exposed edge slices his leg.

“Bitch!” he hisses, and as the world blurs, pain erupts across my skull.

Everything goes black.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Crew

As soon as I step foot in the hospital, I can feel something’s off. Maybe I’m just paranoid about having left in the first place. Yet as soon as I stroll past the nurses station on the first floor, my chest tightens. Two nurses run past the elevator as my phone buzzes in my pocket. I answer as soon as I see Taylor’s name.

“She’s gone.”

Two words are all it takes to make my world stop spinning.

“She was gone for less than a few minutes. I should’ve gone with her. But I figured with Aleks… I should’ve-“

I force myself to move. I don’t bother using the elevator. I burst through the stairwell, taking the steps multiple at a time. “What happened?”

“There’s a few busted vending machines at the end of the cafeteria hall. There’s blood too, and- they left her purse and her phone. Shit- I was so stupid.”

I end the call. I don’t even have to think to recall the path to the hall, and even though there are about a dozen staff and security guards blocking the door leading to the cafeteria hall, I shove through them when I see Taylor.

Then I see it.

Shards of glass are strewn across the tile, and a pool of blood is smeared from the vending machines to the stairwell- as if someone was dragged. My eyes drop to the blue syringe on the ground. Then her purse and bag next to it. I swipe her things, my body seizing when I see the last person she called on her phone was Aleks.

She called for help-

“Crew,” Taylor calls, shaking my shoulder and saying something I don’t hear.

I shake my head as I try to sort through the onslaught of thoughts. “Cameras,” I manage, heart pounding. “There’s cameras. Check the stairwell. I need footage from the last 48 hours.”

“Okay,” he nods. “I’ll get it.”

Think.

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