Chapter 18
“Son of a bitch!” I jumped to my feet, and everyone glared at me.
He’s going to kill Kat.
I ran through the doorway Santhwente had vanished through.
“Hey, you can’t go in there,” a woman yelled behind me.
Panic gnawed at my insides as I sprinted along the corridor, peering into every open doorway.
“Stop! Come back here!” a woman’s shrill voice shrieked at my back as thundering feet echoed behind me.
The hospital ward was a fucking maze of white corridors that reeked of disinfectant. Men and women in white and blue uniforms dodged out of my way as I charged past.
My heart thundered in my ears as my bare feet slapped on the cold floor.
I grabbed a nurse by the arms. “Where’s Katherine Reynolds?”
“Hey! You’re hurting me!” Her eyes flared with sheer terror.
“Katherine Reynolds! Where is she? A man is going to kill her.”
She shook her head.
“Fuck!” Releasing her arms, I raced along the corridor.
Every second took an eternity and dread coiled in my gut.
I dodged into a nurse’s station, and the four women staggered back with their hands up.
“Katherine Reynolds,” I yelled. “Where is she?”
They shook their heads. I scanned the whiteboard behind them, searching for Katherine’s name. I pointed at her name, scrawled in blue pen.
“Where is room W29?” I spun to the nearest woman. “Katherine will be killed if you don’t tell me!”
The woman pointed down the left-hand corridor. I shoved a trolley aside that was blocking my path, and as I ran full tilt into the passageway, instruments clattered to the floor behind me.
Racing along the corridor with my heart pounding, I sprinted past door after door, counting out the room numbers as I passed in a frenzy. W6. W11. W14.
Why did it have to be so far away?
Santhwente had too much of a head start, and my mind screamed at me to run faster.
I’m too late. Too fucking late.
W18. W23.
The lights seemed to dim. Or maybe it was my dread squashing my sanity.
My fear turned to rage as I readied to fight to the death.
W26. W27. W28
Yanking down the door handle, I barged into W29 so hard the door banged against the wall like a cannon shot.
A man in a white coat stood beside the hospital bed. Santhwente! He glared at me over his shoulder. His face contorted with rage.
He had a syringe pierced into the tube feeding into Kat’s arm.
Kat”s lifeless body lay on the bed. A bandage was around her forehead.
“No!” I charged at him.
Santhwente spun back to the syringe.
I charged at him, and we crashed into the equipment beside the bed. As we hit the floor, a clipboard and metal tray tumbled onto my head.
“Stop!” a man yelled from behind me.
“He tried to kill her,” I shouted. “Get the needle out of the IV drip.”
Face down beneath me, Santhwente jerked backward, trying to ram the back of his skull into my face. I grabbed his head and smashed his nose into the floor.
As he howled, I jumped to my feet, desperate to pull the needle out of Kat’s drip.
He kicked my knees, and as I buckled over, I grabbed the thin tube, yanking it out of the IV bag. Liquid gushed onto Kat’s bed and arm.
Santhwente rolled onto his feet, and I lunged forward, ramming my fists into his gut.
He released a deranged roar and charged at me, barging me backward until my back slammed into the wall. I drove my fists into his back.
Crying out, Santhwente staggered sideways and raised his fists. His glare was pure evil.
“Stop!” a woman yelled. “Stop!”
“He tried to kill her.” I pointed toward the bed. “Look at the IV drip!”
“I’m going to kill you.” Santhwente swung quick punches, left then right.
Both fell short.
I kicked the side of his knee. Howling, he stumbled back.
“Get security!” I yelled. “He’s a murderer.”
“I’m a police officer,” Santhwente hollered.
“Bullshit. He’s not a cop anymore.”
“I’m trying to stop this man from killing her,” Santhwente said.
“He’s lying! His fingerprints are all over that syringe.”
I lunged forward and punched his face. His head snapped back, and blood gushed from his nose.
Growling like a rabid dog, he clenched his fists. “I gonna kill you.” Blood spilled over his lip and onto the white lab coat. Roaring, he swung his fists, wild and reckless.
I dodged one punch. Two.
His fist connected with my face. Pain ripped across my temple and speared into my brain.
“Fuck.” Groaning, I shook my head. Ignoring the agony, I kicked Santhwente”s leg, and his kneecap made a sickening crack.
Santhwente roared like a beast and charged at me. I dodged sideways and used his momentum to ram him head-first into the wall. His skull went through the plasterboard, and he slumped to the floor, leaving a soccer-ball-sized dent in the wall.
I dove onto him and wrapped my arm around his neck.
He clawed my skin.
The woman screamed.
I tightened my grip.
He uttered a strangled croak.
As much as I wanted to kill him, I couldn’t risk another cop’s death on my hands. Not when everyone could see he was incapacitated.
“You’re going to rot in jail, you fucker.” I unhooked my arm and rammed his face into the ground again.
Two security guards charged into the room and their gaze pinned on me.
I raised my hands, but they dove at me, tackling me to the floor.
“Okay. Okay!” I screamed. “I’m innocent. He tried to kill Katherine.”
My arms were yanked behind my back. “Check the IV drip! There’s a syringe. He tried to kill her. His fingerprints are all over it. He’s a murderer.”
I continued my rant until the woman in the white uniform strode to the IV drip I’d toppled. She lifted the thin tube between two fingers like it was contagious and gasped. A syringe, still embedded into the tube, was half full of clear liquid. “He’s telling the truth,” she said.
“Get the fucking drip out of her arm!” I yelled from the floor. Breathing heavily, I yanked myself out of their grasp and rushed to Kat”s side.
Blood oozed from the back of Kat’s wrist where the nurse had removed the IV drip.
“Get a doctor! Quick. He tried to poison her.”
Another nurse sprinted out of the room.
“Don’t lose that syringe.” I pointed to the woman who held the drip tube containing the needle. My heart hammered in my chest as I gripped Kat’s hand in mine. “I’ve got you, Kat.” She was pale and still, but the beeping heart monitor confirmed she was alive.
Tears welled in my eyes as I stared at her lifeless body. “I’m here, Kat. I’m here.”
A stampede of feet raced down the hallway, and six people ran into the room.
“Stand back,” the guard yelled, aiming a handgun at me.
Releasing Kat’s hand, I stepped aside as hospital staff swarmed around Kat’s bed.
“Is she okay?” I asked. “He tried to poison her.”
“Get him out of here,” the doctor yelled without lifting his attention from Kat.
The security guard grabbed my arm, and I yanked it free.
“I’m not leaving unless you contain him.” I pointed at Santhwente, who had rolled onto his side and was breathing ragged breaths. “He tried to kill her, and he’ll keep trying. We have proof he’s a murderer.”
Santhwente’s bloodshot eyes glared at me. “You have nothing.”
The guard grabbed my arm and yanked it behind my back.
“Hey. I’m innocent,” I roared. My legs wobbled beneath me as I was shoved out the door. “No. Listen. He’ll kill her.” He yanked my arm higher up my back.
I hollered in pain, and my cry echoed along the corridor. “Let me go!”
“Excuse me. What is going on here?” A woman’s voice bounced around the walls.
I raised my gaze to Maria Layda Vizcaino Pineda. Looking as immaculate as usual, she strode to me but glared at the guard. “Let this man go.”
He jerked my arm higher for one last punishment, then released me.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
I marched back into Kat’s room. Santhwente was still on the floor.
When Maria entered the room, I said, “This is Juan Santhwente. He’s a retired cop. He tried to kill Katherine Reynolds by injecting something into her IV drip, and I have proof that he murdered Katherine’s father eight years ago.”
Maria puffed out her cheeks, and her shoulders sagged like I’d just added a huge pile of shit to her already burgeoning plate. Rolling her eyes, she shook her head, then settled her gaze on me. “Hank told me you were in trouble. That’s an understatement.”
I blinked at her. “You’re the friend Hank called?”
“Friend? Hmmm. I’m not sure I’d take it that far. But yes, Hank called me.”
Relief washed through me so fast that my legs nearly buckled.
“What’s your name?” Maria asked the guard.
“Lucero Hernández.”
“Okay, Lucero. I need you to contain that man until the police arrive.” She pointed to Santhwente.
“He used to be a cop,” I said. “So you will need to be?—”
“Let me handle this, Mr. Henderson.”
I bowed my head. “Sorry.”
Maria pointed at the second guard. “I need both of you to watch him.” She pointed at Santhwente again. “If you have handcuffs, I suggest you use them.”
She turned to the nurse. “Do you have a plastic bag you can put that into?”
Maria’s tone was so sweet, I could imagine her playing with her three grandchildren that she was often photographed with.
The nurse put the syringe, still embedded in the clear tube, into a plastic bag and handed it to Maria.
“Thank you.” Maria placed the evidence into the red leather handbag over her wrist. “Now. Mr. Henderson. Walk with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere until?—”
“Colton,” she hissed. “Walk with me.”
Clenching my jaw, I swept my gaze to Kat. The machine at her side beeped, displaying vital signs that were strong and regular. None of the medical staff around her seemed to be panicking, and other than the bandage around Kat’s forehead, she actually looked peaceful.
Maria cupped my shoulder.
“She’s in the best hands now,” Maria said. “Now let them do their job.”
“Can you get him away from her, please?” I scowled at Santhwente.
“Lucero, take that man out of here,” Maria said.
“Sí, se?ora.” He hauled Santhwente to his feet, and the bastard howled in agony as the guard yanked his arms behind his back. The second guard removed handcuffs from his belt and Santhwente pierced me with a dagger glare as the metal snapped onto his wrists.
“Move,” Lucero said, shoving Santhwente forward.
After one last glance at Kat, I followed Maria out the door.
As we shadowed the guards and their prisoner along the hallway, medical staff and patients watched us walk by.
At the nurse’s station where I’d made a scene earlier, Maria stopped to talk to one of them.
“I’m sorry,” I said to the nurse I’d yelled at.
Nodding, she wrinkled her nose. “It’s okay.”
“No. It wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done that, and I’m sorry I scared you.”
She scooped her hair behind her ear. “Okay. Thank you.”
“Colton. Come this way.” Maria waved me forward.
We entered an office with a desk, two chairs, and a mountain of paperwork that couldn’t possibly have an order to it.
“Sit.” Maria indicated to a chair and then shut the door.
I flopped down, extremely exhausted.
“Start talking, and don’t leave anything out.”
“I don’t suppose I could have a glass of water first?”
Maria opened the door and made a request in Spanish.
The young nurse appeared with two glasses of water.
As Maria shut the door and sat, I gulped down the first glass of water in one go.
Maria slid her untouched water across the desk to me. “Talk! I don’t have all day.”
“Thanks.” As I sipped the water, I summarized everything that happened, from finding the truck full of poison to Santhwente’s attempted murder of Kat. Maria was an excellent listener and she asked intelligent questions that cemented why she had survived two elections as mayor.
“And that’s when you turned up.” I drained the glass.
“Cyanide.” Maria groaned.
I nodded. “The barrels I saw looked contained, but we didn’t hang around to find out. But you’ll need to get a full hazmat team down there.”
Shaking her head, Maria was a blank canvas. Maybe ten years in politics had made her numb to corruption.
She released a long sigh. “I have known Rodriques Gonzales was involved in illegal activities for many years, but I have never had proof. Finally, I do. I want copies of everything in that journal and all the photos from the camera and phone you found beside the skeleton.”
“You have my word on the journal and the photos . . . if they can be salvaged. And you also have that syringe with Santhwente’s fingerprints, and the bullet they removed from Katherine was fired from Rodriques Gonzales’ gun.”
Blinking like she was slotting that information in place, she nodded. “What a mess.”
“It was already a mess before Kat and I stumbled into it.”
She met my gaze.
“What?”
Her eyes darkened, and I wished I could anticipate her thoughts.
She sat back. “It’s times like this I wish I didn’t give up smoking.”
I chuckled. I liked her.
She fiddled with the large diamond in her lobe, and it twinkled in the lights. “This is likely to open a huge hornet’s nest.”
“I agree.”
“With this proof of Rodriques Gonzales’s corruption and the proof of the illegal toxic waste dumping, there are going to be a lot of very nervous people around.”
“Yes, and that means it’s not safe for Kat and me to stay here.”
She nodded. “I’ll arrange for a police guard.”
“No offense, Maria, but I don’t trust anyone but my team. We all work with Hank.”
She frowned. “Where are they?”
“I’m not sure, but I can call them.” I fished my phone from my swimming trunks.
With Maria watching me, I keyed in Corbin’s pin and rang Walker.
He answered on the third ring. “Colton, you good? How’s Kat?”
“I ran into more trouble.”
“Fucking hell! What now?” Walker groaned.
“It’s a long story, but the problem is contained. Where are you guys?”
“We took your tourists to their hotels to get their things and drove them to Cancun airport. They’re all on board our jet. We were just about to head back to you.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll call you back in a minute.”
I ended the call and relayed the message to Maria.
She nodded. “Okay, Mr. Henderson, here’s the deal. Because I know Hank runs a tight ship, I’ll agree to you leaving Mexico. But on one condition.”
Here we go.“I’m listening.”
“Once we capture those involved, you and Katherine must testify.”
“Absolutely not. I will testify, but you must leave Kat out of it.”
“Done.” Maria grinned and held her hand forward.
Shit. I walked right into that trap.
Groaning, I shook her hand.
Maria stood and tugged down her jacket. “Until you and Kat are safe to leave, I suggest you watch your back.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t I know it.”
Maria marched out the door, and as I followed her, all eyes shifted my way.
It was like standing at the gallows with a noose around my neck.
Until Kat and I got out of here, I couldn’t trust anyone but my team.