He sat inconspicuously in one of the visitors’ chairs lining the wall. He flipped the pages of a magazine and kept his head low. He heard the door close to room 302, the one he’d been eyeing, and cautiously looked that way. A woman walked out and turned left toward the bank of elevators. He listened for the ding and the sound of the doors parting. There it was.
The nurses’ station stood thirty feet away, and several lab coats hung from the coatrack next to the counter. He waited for the right moment and looked down the hall. The officer was still in the men’s room. His eyes followed the only nurse in the area when she rose from her chair, walked away, and entered a patient’s room at the end of the hall. The moment she was out of sight, he sprang from his chair and removed one of the lab coats from the rack. He slipped it on, entered room 302, and made sure to close the door behind him.
The agent lay in bed, his eyes focused on the television. He briefly glanced at the male nurse who had entered his room then went back to watching TV.
The man approached J.T. and moved the roller cart out of the way. He closed in and leaned over the bed.
“How are the ribs today, Agent Harper?”
J.T.’s eyes darted back to the man. The voice alarmed him, and his face was vaguely familiar. “Do I know you?”
The man grinned. “You certainly do.” The crunch of his fist against J.T.’s cheekbone knocked the agent senseless. Carden ripped the pillow out from behind J.T.’s head and covered his face with it.
J.T. thrashed, and his arms flailed wildly as he tried to find the call button. Carden pushed the pillow down harder and held his weight against it as he suffocated the agent.
The door swung open, and the woman’s voice on the other side of the curtain called out.
“I bought you two chocolate milks since I knew one wouldn’t be enough.” She chuckled and pulled the curtain aside. The milk cartons fell to the floor.
Jade was on Carden in two strides and jerked him backward. Carden stumbled and hit the roller cart as he fell to the floor. The hard kick to his midsection knocked the wind out of him and gave Jade just enough time to draw her weapon.
“You make one move and I’ll shoot your head off.” She yelled for help as she reached across the bed and pulled the pillow off J.T.’s face.
The commotion alerted everyone, and within seconds the room was filled with nurses and security personnel.
“Hurry, Agent Harper needs help! This man was smothering him with the pillow.” After she jammed her knee into Carden’s back and secured him, Jade holstered her gun. She held his wrists together and looked over her shoulder at the security guard behind her. “I need some cuffs and the hospital police right away.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jade looked up. Two nurses were tending to J.T. and checking his vitals. “Is he going to be all right?”
“He’s breathing on his own, but we need to get him out of this room so the doctor can examine him. The stitched areas have come apart. He’s bleeding again.”
Jade leaned in against Carden’s ear as he lay on the floor. “You’re going down, asshole, and you’ll never see daylight again. Consider this your lucky day—you lived through it.” When the hospital police entered the room, she turned and looked over her shoulder.
“What’s going on in here?”
“I’m FBI Agent Jade Monroe. This man just tried to kill a federal agent and is already wanted for murder and kidnapping. Get him the hell out of my sight.”
Carden was pulled to his feet and taken away. Jade stood and brushed off her knees.
“J.T., can you hear me?”
He nodded weakly.
“You’re going to be okay, partner. The doctor will make sure of it.” She looked at the nurses who were wheeling J.T.’s bed out of the room. “Where are you taking him?”
Libby, the charge nurse, spoke up. “He’s going back downstairs to the emergency wing, Agent Monroe. Dr. Franklin will give him a thorough examination and secure those broken stitches.”
Jade left the room and took a seat in the hallway. She scrolled to Spelling’s number and hit Call.
“Hey, Jade, what’s the latest?”
“I got him, boss. Carden Vetcher is finally in custody.”