Expelling her breath slowly, she nodded. He let her go and moved her aside. Opening the door just a few inches, Coulter checked the corridor.
“It’s clear. Let’s move.”
They didn’t run into anyone else on the way to the lab. Once they reached the door, Coulter gave Marena the signal to stop. He motioned for her to stay put while going inside to check things out.
When he returned, he gave Marena a thumbs-up sign before stepping aside so that she could enter. She searched the room with practiced efficiency. First, she looked through several glass cabinets before finding the drug she needed. Taking two vials, Marena placed them in a shockproof case and slipped them into a compartment in her backpack.
When she opened the door and went cautiously out into the hallway, she found Coulter in a fight with a guard. She set her backpack down and was about to go help when another man rushed onto the scene.”
“Hold it right there,” he told her. “Who are you?”
“I’m not giving my name,” she replied.
“Oh, I think you will, little lady.” He handed her some handcuffs. “Do you want to put these on, or shall I do the honors?” He grinned at her lustfully.
Her lips curled in distaste. Before she could say anything, he grabbed her hand and tried to put them on.
Marena didn’t waste time asking him to let go. She made him.
Winding her arm around, she applied counterpressure to the man’s wrist until he yelped in pain and dropped her hand. He recovered and clutched her by the jacket, but Marena placed her hands on either side of his neck and began applying pressure to choke him out.
She tried to see how Coulter was faring with the other man when she noticed a second approaching.
While she was preoccupied, the man broke free and shoved her to the floor. She hit her head upon impact. Dazed, Marena tried to get her bearings when she saw the man looming above.
“This is going to sting a little.” The man retrieved a Taser from his tactical duty belt and was about to use it. Marena tried to kick him in the shin but missed. He aimed and was about to pull the trigger when Coulter came up behind him and caught him in a chokehold. The guard tried to fight but passed out.
Coulter knelt by her side. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I hit my head when I fell. It’s not serious.”
He took a moment to look it over. “You’re right. There isn’t any skin broken.”
“Told you.”
“Then we should go.” Coulter retrieved the backpack, took her hand, and rushed to the stairwell.
After making it out safely, Coulter asked again if she was alright.
“I’m fine,” she said, catching her breath. “You?”
“Five by five.”
Marena drove to the airport while Coulter sent a message to Liam to check his progress on finding out more about his missing friends. His hand began to shake, but he didn’t say anything.
“I think now is a good time to talk about worst-case scenarios. You know, just in case.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. We’ll be successful, so let’s focus our efforts on healing you, not what happens if things go south.”
“You know that’s not realistic,” he pressed.
“Then we’re going to suspend reality for as long as possible.”
Coulter shook his head. “You always were stubborn.”
She smiled. “And you’re not?”
At the airport, they left the car where they’d picked it up and headed to the plane. Coulter was walking up the stairs and stopped. A few seconds ticked by, and he was still immobile. Marena called his name. He swayed a moment before collapsing. Luckily, he held on to the railing and didn’t fall backward. Marena yelled for help.
The pilot and flight attendant helped get Coulter in a seat while Marena searched for one of the canisters of medicine that Cutty had provided. She found it, injected Coulter with the drug, and waited.
Before the plane took off, she texted Lucas to check their progress.
Please tell me you have it.
Hi to you, too. Met up with Alexa. Not yet, but everything is on track. We leave shortly. Wow, you didn’t tell me that she’s like an Amazon.
Luke, stay focused.
You know I was always good at multitasking. How’s Coulter?
Not good. Our mission went fine, but then he collapsed as we were leaving.
How is he?
I don’t know yet. I gave him one of the vials of medicine that Cutty gave me. I hope that improves his symptoms, but I’m getting worried, Luke. He’s getting worse.
Marena had to wipe the tears from her eyes that dropped onto the cell phone. She tried to remain calm, but she got more emotional as Coulter’s condition deteriorated.
Listen to me, sis. We’re so close. This was the last hurdle. I’ll be back as soon as possible with the final ingredient, and then you can work on creating this antidote. You will save him. I have faith in your abilities, Marena.
She was crying so hard she started hiccupping.
Thank you, Lucas. I love you.
Love you too. Now get some sleep.
Despite the tears, she smiled.
Will do. Safe travels, and see you soon.
Roger that.
Cole rushed up the steps to the front door. He didn’t hesitate as he pressed the doorbell and then banged on the door for good measure. His lips were drawn into a tight line as he impatiently waited.
“Dad?” Sonia was standing behind Alvin when he cautiously opened the door and peered outside, a baseball bat firmly hanging in his left hand. “What’s going on? It’s two o’clock in the morning.” She stopped talking and stared at her father’s grim expression.
“Oh no, is it Coulter? Is he—” Without warning, Sonia’s legs buckled, and she collapsed on the hardwood floor in a heap.
Alvin threw the bat aside to help his wife.
Letting himself in, Cole rushed over. “No,” he said quickly. “He’s still alive, Sonia, but we have a problem.”
“Sweetheart, let’s get you to the couch.” Alvin ushered his wife to the family room. He sat next to her while Cole sat in a chair opposite them.
Cole rubbed his stubbled jaw. “There’s no easy way to say this. Coulter has been injected with a biological toxin. There’s no cure, and it will kill him in days unless one is created.”
“No!” Sonia screamed, bolting from the sofa. “Where is he? I need to see him.”
Cole got up, too. “It’s complicated,” he said, holding back the tears. “He was in North Carolina. Turns out he went to Marena so that she could help him. That was a few days ago. Now they’re in Sedona, Arizona.”
“Marena?” Sonia cried. “I don’t understand. They broke up years ago. Why did he go to her and not to a hospital? Why didn’t he tell us?”
“This is a specific creation that Marena and her colleagues had prior experience with when she worked at Beecham Pharmaceuticals. If he’d gone anywhere else, they’d have been stumbling around in the dark. The breakthrough serum Marena created helps wounded people heal in a substantially short amount of time. Right now, she’s trying to engineer an antidote for Coulter.” He glanced at them. “I’m not going to lie. It’s a race against time. This toxin is aggressive. Once injected, the person has six days before they’re—dead.”
“Where is he?” Alvin replied. “No matter where it is, we need to be there.”
“They’re at a laboratory that belongs to one of her colleagues. Terry is on his way there now to help. I’ll be honest. Some people don’t want Coulter alive or this bioweapon stopped. So they will do everything in their power to ensure Marena fails.”
Sonia wiped her tears. “He called me the other day. I thought Coulter sounded strange, but I had no idea—” she struggled with the words “—that he was sick. I wish he’d told me what was going on. Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Sonia, I’m sure he didn’t want us worrying,” Alvin replied.
“Our son is dying,” she cried. “Why wouldn’t we want to know that?” Agitated, she started pacing. “Plus, we’re worrying now, so what was the point in keeping us all in the dark?” she said bitterly.
Alvin hugged his wife reassuringly. “I know Marena is doing all she can to save him.”
“How do we know that? We don’t know anything at this point except that our son has mere days to live.”
“Sonia, you know how much Marena cares about Coulter. They were engaged, for goodness’ sake. I know she’ll move mountains to save him,” Alvin replied.
She turned to her father. “Dad, where is he? We need to get there as soon as possible.”
“I’ll call the pilot and arrange to have you both flown there as soon as the jet returns and is ready to go.”
“And you,” Sonia corrected.
Cole shook his head. “I don’t want to complicate anything by being there. It’s better if I just hang back and you two go.”
“No,” she replied. “We don’t know how this is going to turn out. You’re Coulter’s grandfather. You should be there, too, in case—” Sonia couldn’t even complete her sentence.
Cole hesitated.
She went over to him. “I know things haven’t been the best between us over the years, and it’s mostly my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” he corrected.
“Yes, it is. I’m the one that banned you from coming to see us. I’m the one that fractured this family. So, it’s up to me to repair the damage. There have been so many wasted years. We’ll never get those back, but we can move forward. Coulter needs to know who you are, Dad. It’s time.”
Cole stared at his daughter and then at his son-in-law. Alvin nodded.
“Okay.” He struggled to keep his voice from breaking under the weight of renewed optimism. “I’ll go make some calls.”
The blow to Derek’s jaw sent him crashing to the floor. Slowly getting to his knees, he spit out the blood in his mouth.
“You had two jobs to do, and you’ve failed me in both,” Javier Palacios said in disgust while he flexed the fingers on the hand he had used to hit Derek. “I ought to kill you now and be done with it.”
It took him a few moments to clear his head, but eventually, Derek staggered to his feet.
“You could,” he told Javier. “But then you’d have nothing. No Brinkley and no Silent Night.” He allowed himself a smile, the blood still on his gums and teeth. “Only I can deliver them to you because I know where Brinkley is heading, and you don’t.”
“I could just torture it out of you,” Javier said matter-of-factly. “At this point, I’m indifferent either way.”
“You could, but I doubt that’ll yield the results you’re looking for. If you kill me, I’ll go to my grave before I utter one syllable that’ll help you get what you want.”