Page 50 of Cherished By the Sinners
Graster.
The name hit him like a physical blow.Nika had confirmed the disgraced vice cop used a cloned keycard to give the kidnappers access to the employee-only areas.
But Graster wouldn't have known about their personal interest in Darlene unless he was doing more than just facilitating.He must have been watching them.Watchingher.
The rage he’d been tempering came roaring back to life.That son of a bitch hadn’t just given them a key.He had soldher.
The detective studied him for a couple of long seconds.“So, we need to tread carefully then.”
“I prefer the word discreet.”Magnus bared his teeth.
Davis swallowed hard.
An alarm claxon began to ring through the building.A voice echoed through the hallway, “Fire in basement level, all staff and patients evacuate.”It repeated after four seconds.
Magnus strode to Darlene’s cubicle and yanked the curtain out of the way.
She was already sitting up, putting her shoes back on.“A fire?Now?”she half shouted.
Magnus only nodded, then scooped her up into his arms.When he turned around, Davis was there.“I’ll clear a path,” he said, and proceeded to do exactly that.
People were crowding into the hallway from everywhere.Some were patients or their family members, some were staff, and too many were in wheelchairs.The volume of people trying to get out quickly clogged the way to the nearest exit until they were barely moving at all.
Several staff members, nurses and doctors, tried shouting out instructions on where people should go, but the alarm claxon drowned them all out.
Magnus had an advantage, he was taller than most of the people around him.He could see that a set of double doors ahead, previously propped half-open, had now been thrown wide.
The crowd began to slowly move toward it.
An elderly lady fell just a few feet ahead of them.The press of bodies was so tight, she had no room to get back up.
“Put me down,” Darlene ordered.“She needs your help more than I do.”
He didn’t want to do it, watched Davis try to get the lady on her feet only for her to fall again, but Darlene was looking at him with an expression he’d seen before on Anna’s face.Are you stupid or something?
Magnus carefully set Darlene down on her feet, then managed to elbow his way to the lady who was screaming and crying.
He picked her up, then looked over his shoulder at Darlene.“Stay with me.”
She nodded, flashed him a smile, then grabbed his belt at the back of his pants.
“Good idea.Hang on tight.”He turned and followed Davis and the crowd moving at a snail’s pace toward the doors up ahead.
He kept looking over his shoulder at Darlene and she was always there with another smile or a roll of her eyes.
They reached the choke-point of the doorway.He had to turn sideways to get through, noting Darlene still hanging onto his belt out of the corner of his eye.
A small cluster of people surged forward jostling him and the lady he was holding.He was forced to take a few steps back before he could go forward again.
Once he was through the doorway, the crowd in front of him spread out as people in security uniforms were directing traffic in multiple directions to get out of the building.
Magnus stopped and looked over his shoulder.
Darlene was gone.
He looked around, searching for her among the people around them, but she wasn’t anywhere.
Something tugged his arm.
