Chapter 4 - THE STAIRWELL ESCAPE
Sebastian moved faster than I could process.
He grabbed the heavy bedside table and hurled it toward the door.
It smashed into the first gunman’s knees.
The man went down with a muffled groan.
“Olivia! Get the boy!” Sebastian roared.
I didn’t think. I just moved.
I lunged for the hospital bed, scooping the sleeping five-year-old into my arms.
Leo woke up instantly, coughing and crying out in confusion.
I pressed his face into my shoulder, holding him tight.
Anna screamed, dropping the IV pole.
Sebastian grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the adjoining bathroom.
“Move!” he yelled at me.
I sprinted into the bathroom just as a bullet shattered the window behind us.
Sebastian slammed the bathroom door shut and locked it.
It wouldn't hold them for more than ten seconds.
“There’s no way out!” Anna panicked, pressing her hands over her ears.
Sebastian looked up.
The drop ceiling.
He climbed onto the toilet, punched the acoustic tile upward, and pulled himself into the ventilation crawlspace.
He reached down.
“Hand me the boy.”
I lifted Leo.
Sebastian pulled his nephew up gently.
“Come on, Anna, your turn.”
She hesitated, looking at him with pure terror.
“How do I know you won’t kill us?”
“Because you have my mother’s eyes,” Sebastian said, his voice breaking. “And I have spent twenty-nine years looking for them. Now give me your hand.”
She reached up.
He hoisted her into the ceiling just as the bathroom door splintered open.
“Olivia, go!” Sebastian ordered.
I grabbed the edge of the metal frame and pulled myself up.
Sebastian kicked the ceiling tile back into place right as the gunmen burst into the bathroom.
We crawled through the dusty darkness in silence.
Below us, we could hear the men shouting, ripping the room apart.
Leo whimpered.
Anna covered his mouth gently, her own tears falling onto his hair.
We crawled for what felt like hours until we reached a maintenance utility closet.
Sebastian kicked the grate out.
We dropped down into a dark stairwell.
We ran down four flights of stairs and burst out into the rainy Seattle night.
Sebastian’s black SUV was parked in the alley.
We piled inside.
Sebastian slammed his foot on the gas, the tires screeching as we tore into the street.
The car was silent except for Leo’s heavy, wheezing breaths.
Without his oxygen, the boy’s asthma was flaring up.
Anna rocked him in the backseat.
“It’s okay, baby. Mommy’s here.”
Sebastian gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white.
He glanced in the rearview mirror at the sister he had lost.
“Why did Camille pay for his hospital room?” Sebastian asked quietly.
Anna looked away.
“She said it was charity. That she felt bad for me. She told me she was a social worker when she found me at the foster home.”
“How long has she known who you are?”
“Since I was twelve,” Anna whispered.
Sebastian slammed his fist against the steering wheel.
The car swerved slightly.
Camille had known for seventeen years.
Since they were children.
I reached into my coat pocket to hand Anna a tissue for Leo.
My fingers brushed against something hard.
It was the little silver shoe buckle I had picked up from the dining room floor.
I pulled it out.
“Anna,” I said softly. “Why did you send this to Margaret?”
Anna wiped her eyes.
“I didn’t.”
I stopped. “What?”
“I haven’t seen that buckle since I was a little girl,” she said, staring at the silver object. “I lost it in the fire.”
Sebastian slammed on the brakes.
The SUV skidded to a halt under a streetlamp.
He turned around in his seat, his eyes wide.
“What fire?”
Anna looked confused.
“The fire at the orphanage. The night I got my burn.”
She pulled up the sleeve of her denim jacket.
A jagged, faded scar ran up her forearm.
But before she could explain, Leo began choking.
His lips were turning blue.
He dropped his stuffed bear onto the floorboards.
I reached down to grab it for him.
When I lifted the bear, I felt something hard stitched inside its belly.
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A small, blinking red light glowed faintly through the fabric.
A GPS tracker.
