Page 16 of Atone in Darkness
This time she let her temper fly. “A simple beating? Is thatwhat you call it? You should’ve seen the internal damage you and the others did with your batons and your steel-toed boots. After that amount of trauma, it’s no wonder he quit breathing, his heart stopped, and then his body shut down completely. It was that way when you guys left. It was still that way when I did the autopsy.”
It was hard not to laugh at the man’s growing horror. He stared ather. “You cut him open?”
“Yes, of course.”
She glanced toward the cell. “After all, dead is dead, but I figured at least we should learn something from his demise. Now get out of here so I can finish my report.”
When she reached for the keyboard, the guard made a grab for her arm. “Don’t you dare tell them what happened. There’s no telling what they’ll do.”
She’d been expecting something ofthe kind and had her scalpel ready. He howled with pain when she shoved the blade into his palm as far as it would go. Unfortunately, he had two hands and the other one was perfectly functional.He grabbed her hair and jerked hard, sending her sprawling on the floor. She ignored the pain and scrambled to put more distance between them. Where was Chase? Had the remote not worked for some reason?
Meanwhile, Wesley snarled as he wrapped a towel around his bloody hand. “You bitch, you’ll pay for that.”
Her assailant then prowled toward her, laughing when she tried without success to stand up. It was as if fear had turned dissolved her bones so her legs could no longer support her.
He kept coming. “We’d planned on drawing straws to see which one of us would get to break you in for the others.Guess this is my lucky day.”
The sound of the cell door sliding open caught his attention. Wesley spun to face the man who had just stepped out into the room.
“Not so much, you bastard, unless you really think dying is a lucky thing. Personally, I’ve had my fill of it.”
Seeing Chase heading straight for him with death and destruction in his eyes had the guard fumbling to call for reinforcements.Marisol crawled back toward him, this time stabbing him in the leg. The damage wouldn’t disable him, but it was enough of a distraction until Chase could take over.
The fight was short and brutal. It spoke to how off the rails her life had gone that the level of violence between the two men didn’t send her running for cover. Instead of giving in to the panic lapping at her self-control, she raninto the cell and picked up another piece of the chair that Chase had destroyed. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but she wouldn’t stand there cowering while she waited to see which of the two men emerged victorious.
Marisol stepped back out into the lab just as Chase grabbed Wesley by the head and twisted hard and fast. A loud crunch echoed through the room followed by the soft thump of the guard’slimp body slumping to the ground at Chase’s feet.
“Is he—”
She didn’t finish the question, but Chase nodded anyway. At the same time, he knelt by the body and started unbuttoning the guard’s uniform. “Come help me strip off his clothes. It will be easier for me to go unrecognized if I’m dressed like one of them.”
When she remained frozen in position, Chase glared at her. “Come on, Doc, thisisn’t the time to second-guess the plan. I’m telling you straight up—either we go together or I go alone. If you’d rather wait here for another one of Dan’s buddies to show up, fine. Even if they believe that I’m the one who killed this guy, they’re going to know you helped.”
She wanted to deny that but she couldn’t, not when she’d helped Chase escape his prison. There might be time for regretslater, but right now they had to keep moving. She joined her accomplice on the floor and began untying Wesley’s boots while Chase stripped off his sweats.
When she realized he wasn’t wearing anything underneath them, she blushed and averted her eyes, but not before he noticed and grinned at her. Nothing about this was funny. Rather than point that out, she ignored him and concentrated on puttingthe red sweatpants on the body.
“We’ll put him in the cell and use the blanket to cover him up. At first glance, they’ll think it’s you.”
“Good thinking.”
Together they made quick work of dressing the body and arranging it in the cell. When they were done, Chase shut the door and pointed toward the control panel on the wall. “Do they all have the access code?”
“No, as far as I know, just meand the supervisor on each shift.”
“Good.” He pocketed the remote. “No use in making it easy for them to get in there.”
Then he picked up the guard’s Taser and baton. “Gather up whatever else you need, Doc, but hurry.”
She shoved the two bombs she’d made into her computer case along with her laptop. She handed him one of the cheap lighters she used to light her burners in the lab. Then shestuck the last couple of scalpels into her lab coat pockets and divided the syringes filled with the tranquilizer between her and Chase.
“These won’t instantly drop anyone in their tracks, but that quantity of the drug will knock them out for hours.”
“Good to know.”
Chase led the way to the door. “Anyone asks, I’m escorting you back to your quarters. We’ll figure out where to go from there.Either way, we won’t be coming back here.”
Because they’d either make good on their escape or die in the attempt. She drew a deep breath and followed him out into the hall.
