Chapter 18 Vital Signs #2
Lorenzo carries Moira through the atrium. His men swarm around them, creating a protective wall. The front door stands open, engines already running outside.
Dad stands near the stairs, just watching everything unfold. Not moving toward the door. Not heading outside to make sure Moira's car is ready. Not doing anything except standing there like a spectator at someone else's emergency.
Mom's voice cuts through the noise. "Where's Thomas?" She looks around, then spots her driver near the door. "There you are. We're going to the hospital. Now."
Her bodyguard steps up beside her, already moving.
"Yes, Mrs. Quinn."
Then I see that Dad's on his phone, his jaw tight with whatever he's hearing. Not good news.
"I understand." His voice drops low. "Keep everyone there. Nobody moves until I arrive."
He ends the call.
Mom's already heading for the door, following Lorenzo and Moira to the waiting cars. She pauses, turning back to look at me.
"Fee. You coming?"
"Right behind you, Mom."
But Dad's hand lands on Anton's shoulder. A warning.
"We have a problem," Dad says in a hushed tone.
Anton stops. "What kind of problem?"
"The shipment." Dad's eyes cut to the guards still around us, then back to Anton. "It's gone."
The weapons shipment. The one we suspected might be compromised. The one Anton and Yuri have been monitoring for days.
"Gone how?" Anton's voice stays low. I feel the tension radiating through his fingertips against my spine.
"Vanished from the manifest. No record of it clearing customs, no record of it arriving at the warehouse. The entire container just disappeared."
Mom calls from the doorway. "Connor, I'm leaving."
"Fee." Anton turns me to face him, both hands on my shoulders now. His storm-gray eyes lock onto mine. "You go to the hospital and stay with your sister and your mother. Stay at the hospital."
The cars outside roar to life. Doors slam. Tires crunch on gravel.
Mom's waiting for me at the door. "Fee?"
Dad's already moving, phone back to his ear, barking orders in that clipped tone that means someone's about to have a very bad day.
Anton leans down, pressing his forehead to mine for just a moment.
"I'll come to you as soon as this is handled." His voice drops to that gravelly whisper. "Stay with your family. Yuri will take you and keep you safe."
Then he's gone, following Dad out into the afternoon light.
As if he were invoked, Yuri appears in the doorway. He's slightly shorter than Anton, maybe an inch, not as broad, but pure muscle too, and definitely dangerous if need be.
Piercings line both ears, one through his eyebrow. He looks like a soldier, moves like one, too. But he's more than that. Much more. Put him and Anton together, and you've got a bomb with a genius-level IQ and zero moral boundaries.
"Mom." I turn to her. "I'm going with Yuri."
She glances at him, then back at me. Something passes across her face. I see she wants to ask about this driving arrangement, but passes. "I'll see you at the hospital."
I walk toward Yuri. We head to the car in silence. Once we're inside, I turn to him.
"Shouldn't you be helping Anton?"
"Who says I won't be?" He pulls two laptops from a bag in the back seat. One he keeps. The other he hands to me. "All I need is this. I've got yours too, in case you want to keep training. But your sister comes first. I'll work from the hospital."
I take the laptop. "You're tracking him?"
"Always."
One hour later...
The hospital room is quiet except for the steady beep of monitors. Moira's asleep, her face finally relaxed. They managed to lower her blood pressure. The contractions stopped. The baby's heartbeat stays strong and steady on the monitor.
She's safe. They're both safe. For now.
Lorenzo sits in the chair beside her bed, holding her hand. He hasn't moved in an hour. Hasn't let go. His eyes stay fixed on her face as if he looks away for even a second, something terrible will happen.
I've been checking my laptop every few minutes. Yuri's been sending updates. Anton's signal is moving. Still active. Still operational.
"I'm taking a break," I tell Lorenzo quietly.
He nods without looking away from Moira.
I grab my laptop and head to the waiting room. The entire wing is blocked off, Lorenzo's doing. No one else here. No one to see what we're doing.
Yuri sits in the corner, laptop open, a can of Coke in his other hand. I drop into the chair beside him.
"Want one?" He gestures with the can to a vending machine down the hall.
"No."
He takes a sip, then sets it down. His fingers never stop moving across the keyboard. "Anton's moving through the warehouse district right now."
He reaches into his bag, pulls out an earpiece, and hands it to me. "Here. You'll want to hear this."
I take it and fit it into my ear. Static crackles, then voices. Muffled. Hard to make out.
I watch the screen. Green dots moving through a blueprint overlay. Anton's tracker pulses steadily.
Then I hear it.
Gunfire.
My heart stops.
More shots. Rapid. Overlapping. The sound of a firefight crackles through the earpiece.
Then silence.
The green dot that marks Anton's signal flickers.
And disappears.